# Top Echelon

> ATS and recruiting CRM for recruiting agencies and staffing firms

Top Echelon makes TE Recruit, formerly Big Biller, an applicant tracker and client CRM for recruiting agencies, executive search and small staffing firms rather than for a company's own hiring. It keeps candidates, client companies, job orders and placements in one system, and Top Echelon also runs TE Network, a split-placement network where member recruiters share candidates and jobs.

- **Category:** Hiring & Applicant Tracking
- **Made by:** Top Echelon (since 1988)
- **Website:** https://topechelon.com
- **Runs on:** Web, Browser extension
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Top Echelon is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $79 per month, billed annually ($95 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of TE Recruit, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Standard | $79 per month, billed annually ($95 monthly); seat basis not stated | Resume and job parsing, pipelines, hotlists, a careers page, browser extension, job board links, 5,000 emails a month and 10 GB of storage. |
| Professional | $95 per month, billed annually ($115 monthly); seat basis not stated | Adds Smart-TE AI, automations, email sequences, inbound email sync, custom application forms and domain, API access, 10,000 emails and 100 GB. |

Read from https://topechelon.com/pricing/ on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Top Echelon before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Lower price with annual billing** (Annual discount): TE Recruit Standard is $79 a month billed annually against $95 billed monthly, and Professional $95 against $115. Source: https://topechelon.com/pricing/

## Key features

- **ATS and client CRM in one:** Tracks candidates, client companies, job orders, communications and placements together, with hotlists of people, companies or jobs.
- **Resume parsing and search:** Parses resumes and job descriptions, with full-text and advanced search on Standard and natural-language search on Professional.
- **One-click job posting:** Posts openings to several job boards and a custom careers page at once, with boards such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter and Dice linked.
- **Sequences and automations:** Professional adds email sequences, automated workflows, inbound email sync and Smart-TE AI for repetitive recruiting steps.
- **Data enrichment:** A paid add-on that adds missing emails, phone numbers and work history to records, with 100 credits a month for $29 and more at $0.50 each.
- **TE Network split placements:** A separate membership for recruiters based in the US and Canada to share candidates and job orders with each other and split placements.

## Good for

- Independent recruiters and small recruiting agencies
- Executive search firms that track clients and job orders
- Agencies moving off Big Biller or another agency ATS

## Worth knowing

- Built for recruiting agencies placing candidates with clients, not for a company hiring its own staff.
- The pricing page does not say whether prices are per user or per agency; contact Top Echelon to confirm the seat count.
- Data Enrichment costs $29 per agency a month for 100 credits, then $0.50 each; texting and job board posting may need extra subscriptions.
- TE Network is a separate membership: $150 per agency a month with a $350 startup fee, or $135 a month billed annually with the fee waived.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Top Echelon's TE Recruit is a tracker and client CRM for recruiting agencies, keeping candidates, clients, job orders and placements together. There's a 30-day trial with no card. Just know the page never says whether its $79 a month is per recruiter or per agency.

- **Value for money: C.** Graded against the agency tools it's listed beside. Standard is $79 a month on yearly billing ($95 monthly), but the page doesn't say if that's per user or per agency, so a ten-person agency pays $79 or many times that. Data enrichment is $29 a month more.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan, but a 30-day trial of TE Recruit with no card needed. That's longer than most trials in this category.
- **Features: B.** Candidates, client companies, job orders and placements in one system, with resume parsing, hotlists, a careers page and one-click job posting, plus sequences and automations on Professional. The whole agency job, with enrichment as a paid extra.
- **Ease of use: C.** No App Store rating on record, and you'll set up pipelines, a careers page and job board links before it earns its keep.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web and a browser extension, with Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Dice, ZoomInfo, Checkr and RingCentral linked, and an API on Professional. No phone or desktop app on record.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Top Echelon's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among hiring and applicant tracking tools

- Top Echelon's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 9 of the 14 other hiring and applicant tracking tools we grade, and level with 2.
- It stands best on features (B, above 1 of 14) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $79 a month, against a middle price of $89.17 for the category: 3 of the 9 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 Top Echelon 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 costs $948 a year.

- You could make: Applicant tracking 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: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- 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

Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Dice, ZoomInfo, Checkr, RingCentral, SparkHire, SourceWhale

**Tags:** Applicant tracking, Job board posting, AI features, Workflow automation, Reports

## Alternatives

- [Recruit CRM](https://toolgpa.com/tools/recruit-crm): ATS and client CRM for recruitment agencies, with AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/recruit-crm-vs-top-echelon)
- [Manatal](https://toolgpa.com/tools/manatal): Low-cost per-user ATS and recruitment CRM with AI candidate matching. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/manatal-vs-top-echelon)
- [Zoho Recruit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-recruit): Per-recruiter ATS and recruitment CRM with a free one-job plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/top-echelon-vs-zoho-recruit)
- [JazzHR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/jazzhr): Applicant tracking for small businesses at a flat yearly price. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/jazzhr-vs-top-echelon)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://topechelon.com/pricing/
- https://topechelon.com/trial/
- https://topechelon.com/product/te-recruit/
- https://topechelon.com/product/te-recruit/data-enrichment/
- https://topechelon.com/marketplace/
- https://topechelon.com/product/te-network/
- https://topechelon.com/about/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/top-echelon
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).