In this rapidly evolving digital era, hiring top technical talent has become a major challenge, for both startups and enterprises. We explored the top tech recruitment platforms, tools, and software solutions that can help your company source, screen, and eventually hire the best talent in 2024.

Why is Technical Recruitment a Significant Challenge for Many Companies?

Technical recruitment poses a unique challenge for recruiters and employers. Among various processes in the corporate world, tech recruitment introduces one of the toughest tasks to fulfill, especially when there's an abundance of job seekers with more new technologies evolving day by day.

Understanding the Unique Issues for Technical Recruiters

There are several challenges in tech recruitment, including sourcing candidates with the right competency in advanced technologies, understanding specific job requirements like DevOps engineering, translating tech jargon into understandable information for non-tech recruiters, proper technical assessment and testing, and offering competitive salary packages.

Common IT recruitment problems include:

• Difficult and expensive to extend search beyond traditional platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed.
• Deciding how much to spend on subscription packages and platforms.
• Properly assessing candidates' skills.
• Understanding and minimizing the costs of your hiring pipeline.

How Can Tech Recruitment Tools Give a Competitive Edge in Hiring?

Tech recruitment tools equip employers with data-driven insights, automation, and AI-powered features that can significantly enhance their ability to source, screen, interview, and hire top tech talent.

What are the top 10 Tech Recruitment Platforms in 2024?

The best tech tools might vary based on the needs of the company or hiring team, however, we've put together our top picks for recruiting technology and tools for 2024. 

How Did We Choose Our "Top Picks"?

What constitutes the 'best' recruitment tool or platform? Prime factors we considered included user-friendly interfaces, cost-effectiveness, AI-driven candidate matching, advanced candidate sourcing features, and a robust tech stack. Additionally, great customer service, reasonable pricing, and the reviews and reputations of the platforms came into play as well.

Each platform has its pros and cons based on various considerations like the type of tech talent you are sourcing, ease of integration with other tools, and features specific to your needs. However, we felt this guide would be especially helpful as it contains the top picks from technical experts who work with many of these tools and technologies every day.

Without further ado, let's get to the rankings!

Applicant Tracking Systems

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the backbone of any recruitment operation. It serves as a centralized hub for managing candidates and streamlining recruiting activities. In 2024, ATS tools have evolved to not only store candidate data but also enhance productivity by automating various aspects of the hiring process.

SmartRecruiters

• Pros:
  • Offers a wide range of features, including automation, analytics, and customizable job postings.
  • Can streamline the hiring process, saving time and reducing manual effort.
  • Provides powerful analytics for recruitment efforts.
• Cons:
  • Design could have a better user experience with improved navigation.
  • Lacks some customization features that users want.
  • It's missing some common integrations.
• Pricing: The specific pricing information for SmartRecruiters is not available.

Lever

• Pros:
  • Offers features such as interview scheduling, candidate scoring, and analytics.
  • Can simplify the hiring process and save time when used effectively.
• Cons:
  • Customer support can be lacking at times.
  • Setup can take a while, and tools have a bit of a learning curve.
  • Many reviewers mentioned wanting more features.
• Pricing: Pricing for Lever ranges from around $3,500 to $140,000 per year, depending on the number of employees.

iCIMS

• Pros:
  • Offers a wide range of features, including automation, analytics, and customizable job postings.
  • Can streamline the hiring process, saving time and reducing manual effort.
  • Provides powerful analytics for recruitment efforts.
• Cons:
  • The reporting functions can be limited to standard reports, and customization can be challenging
  • Search capabilities could be improved.
  • Interface design could be improved for better user experience.
• Pricing: iCIMS pricing ranges from $6,000 per year for 51 to 100 employees to $140,000 per year for 5,000+ employees. They also charge "connector fees" for 3rd party integration partners.

Our Top Pick: Greenhouse Software

• Pros:
  • Offers a comprehensive set of features for recruitment, including interview scheduling, candidate scoring, and analytics.
  • Provides powerful analytics and customizable job postings.
  • Can simplify the hiring process and save time when used effectively.
• Cons:
  • Automated screening may eliminate good candidates, as the system sticks within set boundaries.
  • May lack desired one-on-one contact with applicants, potentially affecting the candidate experience.
  • Might require a lengthy implementation, which can be a potential disadvantage.
• Pricing: Pricing ranges from around $6,000 to $25,000 per year for a couple of dozen employees to over $100,000 per year for larger enterprises.

Why it's our top pick: Among the ATS, Greenhouse Software emerges as a top contender. With a wide array of features, including interview scheduling, candidate scoring, and robust analytics, Greenhouse offers a comprehensive recruitment solution. Additionally, it provides customizable job postings and has received a great G2 rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, indicating user satisfaction.

CRM Tools

In this section, we explore CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platforms, keeping in mind how well they work for technical recruiters. We've highlighted their pros, cons, and pricing to help you make an informed choice for streamlining your hiring process.

Freshsales

• Pros: Affordable pricing, feature-rich CRM, extensive customization.
• Cons: Limited marketing automation, integration challenges, advanced customization learning curve, limited support for large teams.
• Pricing: Freshsales starts at $15/user/month.

Recruiterflow

• Pros: Highly customizable, responsive customer support, economical for small businesses, user-friendly.
• Cons: Limited marketing automation, integration challenges, and limited customization for large teams.
• Pricing: Recruiterflow ranges from $85/user/month to $96/user per year, with custom enterprise plans available.

Teamtailor (Our Pick for Best Recruitment Software for Startups!)

• Pros: Cost-effective, user-friendly, seamless social media integration.
• Cons: Varied quality in customer support, limited analytics, uneditable connect option.
• Pricing: Teamtailor starts at $200 per month.

Our Top Pick Overall: Zoho

• Pros: Efficient recruitment management, broad candidate engagement, robust sourcing, powerful analytics.
• Cons: Limited career site functionality, lack of full-time support, overwhelming features, limited free version.
• Pricing: Starts at approximately $17 to $52/user/month billed annually for small to mid-sized enterprises.

Why it's our top pick: While opinions may vary depending on individual preferences and specific needs, Zoho's combination of features, pricing, and user satisfaction ratings makes it a solid choice for organizations looking to enhance their recruitment efforts through CRM software. 

AI Screening Tools - Candidate Background Checking Software

If you've ever had to sift through a mountain of CVs, you know how daunting the task can be. Thankfully, candidate screening software has emerged as a powerful tool to streamline the hiring process. These digital solutions leverage AI and automation to save time, verify backgrounds, and identify the best-fit candidates for technical roles. Let's take a closer look at some popular options:

CERTN:

• Pros: Offers comprehensive background checks and verification services.
• Cons: Some users have complained about background checks taking a long time.
• Pricing: Prices for CERTN range greatly, depending on the type of verification check. 

Sterling:

• Pros: Utilizes end-to-end automation for faster criminal background checks, seamless API integration, and a Quick Search tool.
• Cons: Some users have reported concerns about the "consider" status and discrepancies in background checks.
• Pricing: Sterling offers a range of pricing options, with background checks ranging from $3.99 for single reports to $59.95 for the Preferred Check.

Veremark:

• Pros: Offers a wide range of online background checks, convenient data collection through an app, and instant generation of professional reports.
• Cons: Pricing details are not openly shared, and it's primarily geared towards small businesses.
• Pricing: Veremark charges on a per candidate per check basis, pricing beyond this is unknown.

Our Top Pick: Checkr

• Pros: Provides easy candidate verification, efficient management of screenings, and education verification.
• Cons: Some users find pricing to be on the higher side.
• Pricing: Ranges from $29 to $79 per background check.

Why it's our top pick: We prefer Checkr over the others for its fast turnaround times, better user experience, and more pre-built integrations. This is backed up by a 4.5-star rating on G2.

Candidate Sourcing Tools

In the quest to find the perfect candidate, digital tools have become indispensable for sourcing talent. The ideal candidate might not be actively job-hunting, but with the right approach, you can attract their attention. Recruiters now leverage multiple social media platforms to discover potential hires, with an average of 7.8 different sites in use.

Additionally, there are specialized sourcing platforms designed to help Talent Acquisition (TA) teams quickly identify qualified candidates. Here are some of our top picks:

TalentReef: (Our Pick for Best Enterprise Hiring Solution!)

• Pros: Mobile-friendly features, numerous time-saving automations, and is designed for sourcing hourly workers.
  Cons: Pricing details are not transparent and may not be best for hiring salaried workers.
• Pricing: TalentReef pricing information is available only on inquiry.

Entelo:

• Pros: It has a powerful candidate database search engine, with integrated features for candidate communication.
• Cons: Some customers have noticed that it's not highly efficient at pulling profiles from social media. Candidate information may not always be up to date.
  Pricing: Entelo ranges from $149 per month to $499 and beyond for custom pricing.

Our Top Pick: Fetcher

• Pros: It has a candidate curation feature, automated outreach, and excellent candidate search filters.
  Cons: Users don't like the inability to edit contact cards after adding them to searches.
• Pricing: Ranges from $149/user/mo to $549/user/mo depending on company size.

Why it's our top pick: If you prioritize candidate curation and automated outreach, Fetcher is a strong option. It offers robust search filters and automation features. Ultimately, the best candidate sourcing software for your organization should align with your specific requirements and provide the features and pricing that meet your needs.

Note: Don't forget about developer forums and hubs to source talent as well! For example, StackOverflow, Github, various LinkedIn groups, and even dedicated Subreddits, can be great places to get in touch with talented technical workers.

Candidate Technical Prescreening & Coding Interviews

How can a recruiter tell if a candidate has technical knowledge? It's easy to write "coding experience" on a resume if you don't need to back it up with proof. This is why it's essential to use technical prescreening tools and coding tests that provide a gamut of coding tests for various features such as plagiarism checkers, tests for specific languages, and applicant screening.

Most of the platforms we write about in this section use live coding, multiple choice, or short answer tests -- these are great for qualifying junior engineers, but keep in mind they may not be sufficient for advanced IT roles. For Mid to Senior level roles, it's essential to use actual skills assessments, which we will cover in the next section - Best Technical Assessment Platforms.

TestGorilla: Automation for Applicant Screening

• Pros:
  • Good accuracy to screen applicants in bulk.
  • Easy to Use.
  • Ability to customize assessments.
• Cons:
  • Unresponsive customer service.
  • Reviewers desire more integration with other systems.
  • Tests are not practical (mainly theoretical).
• Pricing: Ranges from free trial to $1150 per month.

Imocha: Live Code Platform

• Pros:
  • The Live Coding Interview feature allows tech hiring managers to interact and assess coding skills – in a completely language-agnostic manner.  
  • They offer a free trial.
• Cons:
  • Their pricing is not transparent.
  • Difficult for non-technical employees to understand results.
  • Not the best user-interface
• Pricing:
  •  They offer several plans but do not show the price.

CoderPad: Technical Prescreening and Interview Platform 

• Pros:
  • Provides a technical interview platform that can be used for technical screening.
  • Quick and accurate assessment of candidate skills.
  • Simple to use.
  • Free basic account.
• Cons:
  • The practice environment is not guarded.
  • Reviewers mention the clunky whiteboard feature.
• Pricing:
  • Team accounts start at $300/month.

Coderbyte: Code Challenge Site

• Pros:
  • Interactive audio and video online environment.
  • Plagiarism detection.
  • Easy to set up.
• Cons:
  
  •  They cannot be integrated into most common ATS.
  • Poor user interface UI/UX.
  • Candidate emails often go to spam.
• Pricing: Starts at $199 a month

Our Top Pick: Codility - Whiteboarding Tests

• Pros
  • CodeLive tool lets you see problem-solve in real-time with live whiteboarding interviews.
  • Tools to compare candidates' results.
  • Good user interface.
• Cons
  • Pricing is not transparent.
  • Users say that result reports could be improved and better written in layman's terms.
  • Doesn't test the candidates' use of frameworks or libraries, only math concepts.
• Pricing: Hidden Pricing (according to Select Hub, plans start from $5000).

Why it's our top pick: While pricing is a bit high for this one, when it comes to high quality tests and screening, Codility does a great job. It is rated high for its ease of setup as well as its helpful support. With high ratings from both recruiters and engineers on Capterra and G2, it's a great testing platform to add to your toolkit.

Best Technical Assessment Platforms

For advanced technical roles, such as DevOps, System Engineers, and Senior-level positions, code assessments work well for ensuring candidates have the skills to do their daily work.

Read more: We Transformed Flatworld's DevOps Hiring Process

These skills aren't easily measured through multiple choice tests or basic question-and-answer interviews, instead, live assessments are needed to make sure only genuinely talented engineers make it to the next rounds.

When looking for the best technical assessment platform, double-check with your technical team to make sure the assessments reflect the type of work the candidates will be doing.

HackerRank: Smart Interviews

• Pros:
  • Great tests for basic coding skills, as well as practice for coders to improve.
  • Some assessments can be customized.
  • Large variety of tests and live coding assessments.
• Cons:
  • Tests don't reflect the work that engineers will do, as they are more similar to a coding puzzle.
  • Candidates mention confusing coding interfaces and poorly worded questions that make exams difficult and frustrating.
  • This platform can be polarizing, with many developers saying they don't like Hackerrank tests during the interview process.
• Pricing: Pricing ranges from $100 to $749 per month, depending on the number of users and tests.

CodeSignal: General Coding Assessments

• Pros:
  • Precision, efficiency, and a level playing field to the interview process.
  • Real-time feedback for candidates.
• Cons:
  • Inability to replace human nuances in the interview process.
  • Lack of live interview functionality and small code editors
  • Many candidates report not enjoying tests or feeling it tested on useful, daily skills.
• Pricing: Pricing is not transparent.

DevSkiller: Live Coding Assessments

• Pros:
  • Users compliment the helpful customer support.
  • It has an easy-to-use interface.
  • There are a large number of pre-defined tests that get frequent updates.
    
• Cons:
  
  • The Candidature management doesn't work well when used on a large number of candidates.
  • Some candidates have issues loading the tests and operating the coding challenge console.
  • Parts of the tests aren't fully automated.
• Pricing: Ranges from $300 to $5000 per month (with candidate management). 

Our Top Pick: Brokee - DevOps Assessments

• Pros:
  • AI-generated results that are easy for non-technical professionals to understand.
  • Innovative live, broken environments test skills that are relevant for day-to-day work for system engineers.
  • Easy recording and playback of candidates' test taking.
• Cons:
  • For now, the testing library is limited to DevOps roles, such as DevSecOps, Cloud Engineers, and System Engineers.
  • There is no interview feature, it currently only offers technical assessments.
  • Tests currently can't be customized.
• Pricing: Brokee is priced at $0 to $99 per month.

Why it's our Top Pick: Brokee is the newest assessment company, and while it may not have as many tests as other players on the market, it is our top pick because of the high quality of the assessments. It was created by experienced DevOps, for DevOps who knew they could make better tests than what is currently out there. Because the company is new, they provide personal customer service, free trials, and even demos with the Founder. Try it out for free! 

Read More: DevOps Assessments Streamlined EclecticIQ's Hiring Process

Making the Decision: Choosing the Right Tech Talent Recruiting Platforms

In the vast talent pool, sourcing the best tech talent is like locating a needle in the haystack. The right recruitment software can drive this process with exceptional precision.

Using Tools and Software for Advanced Talent Sourcing

Certain platforms leverage data analytics to vet resumes and process applications quickly and effectively. With these recruitment software solutions, managers can find resourceful profiles in the vast database by filtering multiple attributes related to job postings and candidates.

Screening candidates: AI vs. traditional methods

AI has revolutionized the candidate screening process in tech hiring. Tools powered with AI like Hootsuite, Jasper.ai, or Otter.ai can compare thousands of resumes, eliminating the need for manual shortlisting. They’re cost-effective, efficient, and less prone to human error than traditional methods. 

Integrations with ATS and Other Recruitment Software

Most recruitment platforms can integrate with widely used ATS systems, thus smoothing the recruitment process. Platforms like Regie.ai, SSO, or Nationwide Corp even offer single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to ease user management. Integrations should be a major aspect to keep in mind when it comes to choosing any tool or platform.

Make Technical Recruiting Easier

We hope this guide will be a helpful resource in guiding you toward the best recruiting tools and technologies for your company and team. The decision to implement new technologies can be tough, but with the right tools in your arsenal, you'll be on your way to recruiting and hiring with more ease than ever.