What's the best staffing agency software in 2026?

Bullhorn is one of the best-known staffing CRMs, and its small agency plans put a public price on the table. Starter costs $99 per user per month and Core $165. Pro and Max are quoted. Implementation is included on every plan except Max, which matters: on a quote-only competitor, setup is often the line that surprises you.

Bullhorn is built as an ATS plus CRM for staffing firms: candidates, clients, job orders and placements in one place. For a temp desk, that means you can see who is on assignment, who is ending next week and which client needs a replacement.

The catch is what sits outside the base plans. Onboarding (paperwork and e-signatures for new temps) and Middle Office are paid add-ons with no public price. If you run payroll for your temps, Bullhorn alone won't do it: you'll add a back office, Bullhorn's own or a partner's.

Do the math at your size. Five recruiters on Core cost $825 a month before add-ons. On Starter, $495.

Tip: ask for the Onboarding and Middle Office quotes in the same call as the base plan. Compare the total with Recruit CRM, which bundles timesheets and contractor billing.

Recruit CRM is an ATS and CRM for agencies that sells something Bullhorn sells as an add-on: timesheets and contractor billing come with the plan. Each active contractor uses 100 credits a month, and invoicing is included.

Plans run $95, $135 and $215 per user per month, with up to 17% off on annual billing. The 30-day free trial is the longest in this list, which gives you a full pay period to run real timesheets through it.

Its limit is payroll. Recruit CRM tracks hours and bills clients, but it doesn't pay your temps or file payroll taxes. You still need a payroll provider, and the cleanest setup is one that imports approved hours.

Tip: start the trial on the first day of a pay week. Run one client's timesheets end to end, then check the invoice against what you billed last week.

Manatal scores 4.1 in our ATS rankings, and it's here for one reason: price. Professional costs $15 per user per month on annual billing ($19 monthly). Five recruiters cost $75 a month, less than one Bullhorn Core seat.

It ranks third on its general score, but read it as a recruiting tool only, because staffing is more than recruiting. Manatal has no timesheets, no payroll and no temp billing. For a perm desk, that doesn't matter. For a temp desk, you'll rebuild those steps in spreadsheets or another tool.

Watch the Professional cap: 15 jobs. An agency with steady job orders hits it fast, and Enterprise at $35 is the real price.

Tip: use the 14-day trial (no card) to load your live job orders. If you're over 15, price Enterprise from day one.

Avionté is built for the part of staffing most ATS tools skip: getting temps paid and clients billed. Its payroll and billing module runs from time capture through payroll to client invoicing, with multi-jurisdiction tax compliance and year-end reporting. Invoices follow approved time, rates and custom billing rules per client.

Since 2024, Avionté also sells its back office on its own (AviontéBOLD Back Office). Before that, you had to buy the full front and back office suite. If you love your current ATS, that option changes the decision.

The downside is the buying process. There's no public price, and some third-party reviews call the interface dated. Plan for an implementation project, not a weekend setup.

Tip: in the demo, bring a real messy week: an overtime shift, a holiday, a rate change mid-assignment. Watch how the pay and the invoice come out.

TempWorks covers both ends: an ATS and CRM for job orders and recruiting, onboarding, and a back office for time cards, payroll calculation, tax compliance and W-2s. Billing ties to worked hours, so invoices come from the same time records as pay.

For an agency that has outgrown spreadsheets plus a generic payroll provider, that's the pitch: one database, no re-keying of hours. Reviewers on public sites rate it around 4 out of 5, a small sample.

Its limit is the same as Avionté's: quote-only pricing and a real project to go live. Some integrations may need third-party connectors, so list your tools before the demo.

Tip: ask how many weeks a typical agency of your size takes to run its first live payroll, and who on their side owns it.

Zoho Workerly is the only tool here with a free plan: 5 temps and 2 active jobs, with scheduling and timesheets. That's enough to run your first client.

The paid plan is billed per temp, with a minimum of 25. Zoho's own example lands at $200 a month, roughly $2 per temp. It adds unlimited recruiters and jobs, invoicing, iOS and Android apps, a temp portal and one client portal license. Annual billing saves up to 12%.

Its limit is depth. No payroll, and lighter recruiting than a real ATS. Workerly organizes the work; it doesn't run the agency.

Tip: at 25 temps, price Workerly against Recruit CRM for your recruiter count. Per-temp pricing wins with few recruiters and many temps; per-user wins the other way round.