Search for "free ATS" and half the tools on the first page are no longer free. Freshteam has shut down, Breezy dropped its free plan, Loxo's free tier is gone, and SmartRecruiters' SmartStart is reported discontinued — yet most "best free ATS" lists still recommend them. We checked every vendor's own pricing page on November 10, 2026. Here are the applicant tracking systems that are actually free today, what each one limits, and the ones you should stop considering.
Quick Picks: Free Applicant Tracking Systems That Are Still Free
| Tool | What's free | Main limit | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MindHunt AI Free (our product) | Job page, application form with screening questions, AI screening, pipeline, plus candidate search | 1 open position, 2 users, 50 AI screenings a month | Small teams and solo recruiters who also need to find candidates |
| Zoho Recruit Forever Free | Candidate management, email, interview scheduling | 1 active job per recruiter licence; no job boards, careers site, reports or integrations | Tracking applicants for a single role |
| Dover Free ATS | ATS with a basic careers page and candidate review | No knockout questions, bulk actions, offers, AI resume review, API or data export | US startups |
| Wellfound | Job posting and applicant tracking for startups | Applicants come from Wellfound's own marketplace | Startups hiring through Wellfound |
| OpenCATS | Open-source ATS and recruiting CRM, self-hosted | You run the server, security and backups | Teams with technical help who want no subscription |
Free Plan, Free Trial, Open Source: Know What You're Getting
- Free plan (free forever): a permanent tier with limits — usually on open jobs, users or features. You can run real hiring on it indefinitely.
- Free trial: full or partial access for 7–30 days, then you pay or lose access. Most "free ATS" articles mix these in with free plans.
- Open source: the software is free; the hosting, updates, security and backups are your job and your cost.
Only the first and third kinds are free in any lasting sense. The rest of this article keeps them apart.
The 5 Free Applicant Tracking Systems
1. MindHunt AI Free
Full disclosure: MindHunt AI is our product. Every account starts with a 14-day trial with full access; after that it moves to a permanent Free plan rather than locking you out. On Free you keep:
- 1 open position and 2 users.
- A public job page on jobs.mindhuntai.com that you can list on Google for Jobs and Jooble, with an application form and screening questions (right to work, notice period, salary expectations, experience — with knockout answers).
- An apply-by-email address for the position: forward any job board's application e-mails to it and each CV lands in the pipeline, deduplicated.
- AI screening of applications against the job description — 50 AI credits a month, one per application.
- A Kanban pipeline from Applications to Hired.
- Candidate search on top: 30 searches a month and up to 10 contact reveals, for the roles where you need to go out and find people.
Limits: one open position at a time, and up to 200 sourced candidates saved (job applicants don't count toward that limit). Paid plans start at $29 per seat a month.
2. Zoho Recruit Forever Free
Zoho Recruit's "Forever Free" plan is the best-known genuinely free ATS. It covers candidate management, email and interview scheduling for one active job per recruiter licence. Everything that makes an ATS save time is outside the free plan: sourcing, job board posting, a careers site, reports, integrations and AI features. It suits a small company tracking applicants for one role at a time; it won't publish the job for you.
3. Dover Free ATS
Dover offers a free ATS with a basic careers page and candidate review, and a Premium plan at $199 a month. The free tier keeps only recent history and analytics and caps tags, templates and feedback forms; knockout questions, bulk actions, offers and e-signature, AI resume review, the scheduling tool, the API and data export are all paid. Dover also sells recruiting services.
4. Wellfound
Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent) lets startups post jobs and track applicants for free, with paid products on top. It works because the candidates are already on Wellfound's marketplace; it doesn't distribute your job to other boards.
5. OpenCATS
OpenCATS is a free, community-maintained, open-source ATS and recruiting CRM. It covers candidates, resumes, jobs, companies, contacts and submissions — enough for a small agency. The cost is everything around it: a server, PHP updates, security patches and backups. If nobody on the team wants that job, a hosted free plan is cheaper in practice.
No Longer Free: Remove These From Your Shortlist
| Tool | What changed | What it offers now |
|---|---|---|
| Freshteam | Freshworks is shutting it down; per its sunset FAQ, free accounts closed in March 2026 and paid renewals ended in June 2026 | Nothing — export your data |
| Breezy HR | The pricing FAQ now says: "Breezy doesn't have a free plan" | 14-day trial; paid from $157/month billed annually (breezy.hr/pricing) |
| Loxo | The free one-user plan is no longer listed | 7-day trial; Core from $149/user/month billed annually (our Loxo review) |
| SmartRecruiters | 2026 reviews report the free SmartStart plan was discontinued after SAP acquired the company | Sales-led plans |
| Recooty | Some lists still show a free plan; the vendor's page shows a trial | 15-day trial; paid plans from $79/month billed annually |
Free Trials Worth Knowing About
If you can pay a little after a test period, these trials are long enough to run one real hire:
- Manatal — 14 days, then $15 per user a month on annual billing (our Manatal review).
- Workable — 15 days, then Standard at $299 a month for companies with up to 20 employees.
- Recruit CRM — 30 days, then from $95 per user a month; built for agencies.
What Free ATS Plans Usually Limit
- Open jobs: one or a few at a time is the most common cap.
- Users: one or two seats, sometimes unlimited hiring managers.
- Distribution: posting to job boards and a careers site are often paid.
- Automation and AI: screening, bulk actions and email automation are usually the first paid features.
- Data: exports, API access and older history are frequently locked — check how you get your data out before you put it in.
Do You Need an ATS at All?
For one or two hires a year, a shared spreadsheet and a dedicated inbox can work. An ATS starts paying for itself when applications arrive from more than one place, more than one person reviews them, or you need to answer "where did our hires come from?" Large employers decided long ago: Jobscan found an applicant tracking system on the career sites of 487 of the Fortune 500 (97.4%) in 2026. For a small business, a free plan is the cheapest way to get the same structure. Our ATS buyer's guide covers how to choose once you outgrow free.
Which Free ATS Should You Choose?
- You hire one role at a time and want applicants screened for you: MindHunt AI Free — job page, screening questions and AI scoring, plus search when nobody good applies.
- You only need to track applicants you already receive: Zoho Recruit Forever Free.
- You're a US startup and may buy recruiting services later: Dover.
- Your candidates are on Wellfound: Wellfound.
- You have a developer and want full control: OpenCATS.
Related Resources
- ATS Buyer's Guide 2026
- Free Job Posting Sites
- How to Post a Job on Google for Jobs
- Inbound Recruiting: Every Application in One Pipeline
- Best Recruiting Software 2026
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