# CATS review (2026): is it worth $89 a month per user? > Applicant tracking and recruiting CRM with a single per-user plan Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. CATS is an applicant tracking system aimed at small hiring teams and professional recruiters. It combines a candidate and client database, customizable workflows, a careers page and job posting, and a recruiting browser extension. The pricing page lists one plan, billed per user, with a free 30-day trial. - **Category:** Hiring & Applicant Tracking - **Made by:** Top Echelon Software, LLC - **Website:** https://catsone.com - **Runs on:** Web, Browser extension - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you have several recruiters, at $89 per user a month with the billing basis not shown. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, CATS is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $89 per user / month (billing period not stated). - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** Free 30-day trial. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Pro | $89 per user / month (billing basis not shown) | Careers page or jobs widget, workflow, meeting scheduler, SMS texting, calendar and email sync. Shown beside a crossed-out $110. | Read from https://catsone.com/pricing/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with CATS before buying. ## Key features - **Custom workflows:** Build the hiring pipeline stages your team uses, with multiple workflows for different teams or job types and automation triggered by status changes. - **Candidate and client CRM:** Keeps contacts, clients and candidates in one database with mass edit, a duplicate checker and custom fields. - **Sourcing extension:** Chrome and Firefox extensions parse candidate data from sites such as LinkedIn, Monster and CareerBuilder into the database. - **Careers pages and posting:** A customizable careers page or an embeddable jobs widget, multiple career portals and auto-publishing of jobs. - **Scheduling and texting:** A meeting scheduler for candidates and clients, 2-way calendar and email sync, and SMS texting in the US and Canada. - **Screening and reporting:** Knockout questions, scorecards, dashboards and reports, plus an API and webhooks for connecting other tools. ## Good for - Small hiring teams that want a lower-cost applicant tracking system - Recruiting and staffing firms that need a client and candidate database - Teams moving from another ATS that want help with data migration ## Worth knowing - The pricing page shows one per-user price and does not say whether it assumes monthly or annual billing. - Data migration from an old system is a separate charge: $500 on an annual plan or $1,000 on a monthly one, per the migration page. - SMS texting is listed for the US and Canada only. - The terms of service name Top Echelon Software, LLC as the provider. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. CATS is an ATS and candidate CRM for recruiters, at $89 per user a month with a 30-day trial. Data migration is an extra charge, texting is US and Canada only, and the page doesn't say what billing term the price assumes. - **Value for money: C.** $89 per user a month against a $95 middle price for hiring tools, inside the middle of the range. The page does not say which billing period it assumes. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A free 30-day trial and no free plan. The page we read does not say whether a card is needed. - **Features: B.** Custom workflows, candidate and client CRM, a sourcing extension, careers pages, scheduling, texting and reporting. No gap in the core job shows on the listing. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. Workflows, careers pages and posting integrations need building before use. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web and a browser extension, with LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder and WordPress. No phone or desktop app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from CATS's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among hiring and applicant tracking tools - CATS's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 88 of the 101 other hiring and applicant tracking tools we grade, and level with 8. - It stands best on features (B, above 75 of 101) and worst on ease of use (C, above 1). - Its paid plans start at $89 a month for each person, against a middle price of $99 for the category: 19 of the 42 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/hiring ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace CATS you would be making jobs posted to dozens of job boards at once, which takes an agreement with each board. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.4 is higher than 88 of the 101 other hiring and applicant tracking tools we grade. It costs $1,068 a year. - You could make: Applicant tracking, sales pipeline and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Jobs posted to dozens of job boards at once, which takes an agreement with each board. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. - You could not: Hooks into the device itself: widgets. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, WordPress **Tags:** Applicant tracking, Job board posting, Sales pipeline, Workflow automation, Reports, Public API ## Alternatives - [Top Echelon](https://toolgpa.com/tools/top-echelon): ATS and recruiting CRM for recruiting agencies and staffing firms. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cats-ats-vs-top-echelon) - [Recruit CRM](https://toolgpa.com/tools/recruit-crm): ATS and client CRM for recruitment agencies, with AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cats-ats-vs-recruit-crm) - [JazzHR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/jazzhr): Applicant tracking for small businesses at a flat yearly price. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cats-ats-vs-jazzhr) - [Bullhorn](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bullhorn): ATS, CRM and AI recruiting software for staffing agencies. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-cats-ats) - [Crelate](https://toolgpa.com/tools/crelate): Applicant tracking and recruiting CRM for staffing and search firms. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cats-ats-vs-crelate) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://catsone.com/pricing/ - https://catsone.com/product/ - https://catsone.com/data-migration/ - https://catsone.com/downloads/ - https://catsone.com/terms-and-conditions/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/cats-ats Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).