What build and buy mean for an agency
Buying means renting a recruitment CRM, often called an ATS, priced per recruiter, per month. Building means paying once for a system designed around how your desks work, and owning it outright.
There is a third option between the two: keep the CRM you rent and add one piece you own, such as an AI tool that finds candidates or ranks them against a job. It is covered further down.
Three-year cost at 5, 10 and 25 recruiters
Per-seat pricing grows with your headcount. A fixed-price build costs the same whether 5 or 25 recruiters use it.
| Three-year cost | 5 recruiters | 10 recruiters | 25 recruiters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manatal ($35 a seat) | $6,300 | $12,600 | $31,500 |
| Recruiterflow ($119 a seat) | $21,420 | $42,840 | $107,100 |
| Recruit CRM ($135 a seat) | $24,300 | $48,600 | $121,500 |
| Loxo ($149 a seat) | $26,820 | $53,640 | $134,100 |
| Bullhorn ($165 a seat) | $29,700 | $59,400 | $148,500 |
| Jellie custom CRM (one-time) | $25K to $55K | $25K to $55K | $25K to $55K |
Seat prices are each vendor's published price per recruiter per month, read from its own pricing page in November 2026: Manatal Enterprise, billed annually; Recruit CRM Business, billed annually; Recruiterflow Platform, billed annually; Loxo Core, billed annually; Bullhorn Core.
At 5 recruiters, renting is cheaper or close to even. At 10, an agency CRM costs about as much as a build at the top of our range, and more than a smaller one. At 25, three years of rent comes to roughly two to six times the price of a build. At $35 a seat, renting is cheaper than all but the smallest build at every size in the table.
Neither side of the table is the full bill. Seat prices leave out the email outreach tool, the call note-taker, and the pay-as-you-go AI charges most agencies add on top. The build's running cost is small: hosting and the database typically come to under $10 a month, so under $360 over three years. AI usage and any outside data you choose to buy, such as sourcing, are pay-as-you-go on both sides.
When buying is the right call
- You have a handful of recruiters and a standard perm process.
- A low-cost tool covers what you do. At $35 a seat, 25 recruiters pay $31,500 over three years, and a build will rarely beat that on cost.
- You need something running this week.
- Nobody on your team wants to decide how the software should work. A build goes well when someone owns those decisions.
When building is the right call
- Your seat bill has passed the price of a build, or it will after your next few hires.
- You pay for several tools to cover the gaps in your CRM.
- Your desks work in a way the tool resists: split desks, contract margins, niche screening.
- You want AI that works from your own placement history, with the data held on an account in your firm's name.
- You want to own the system, so a vendor's price rise or plan change is not your problem.
The middle path: keep your CRM and own one piece
Most agencies that are not ready to leave their CRM start here. Your CRM stays the place your data lives, and one tool you own sits on top of it: AI sourcing, candidate matching, or call notes written back to the record. On its own, a tool like that starts at $5K and is usually ready in two to four weeks.
| Rent a per-seat CRM | Add one AI tool you own | Build your own CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Per recruiter, every month | From $5K, one time | Most land between $25K and $55K, one time |
| When you hire | The bill goes up | No change | No change |
| AI | The vendor's, often on a higher plan | Built around your data and your desks | Built around your data and your desks |
| Who owns it | The vendor | You own the tool | You own all of it |
| Ready to use in | Days to weeks | 2 to 4 weeks | 1 to 2 months |
| Main trade-off | You work the vendor's way | Two systems to run | You have to decide up front what gets built |
Six questions to ask before you build
The first three tell you whether building makes sense for your firm. If the answer to all three is yes, the last three tell you whether a particular builder is safe to hire.
- Does the seat math work? Multiply your seat price by your recruiters by 36 months, and compare it with the price of a build.
- Does your current tool fight how you work? Workarounds, spreadsheets on the side, and extra tools are the signs.
- Is your process settled? Software built on a messy process gives you the same mess, faster. If your desks all work differently, fix that first.
- Will you own the software and the data outright? Avoid any build that leaves them with the developer.
- Is the price fixed against a written list of what gets built? Open-ended hourly billing is how custom projects run over.
- Can a recruiter see why the AI ranked a candidate? Your team has to be able to check a match and overrule it.
What a build takes
A full CRM build with us is usually finished in one to two months. A first working version, with your data moved over, is ready in about two weeks.
It does not take much of your team's time. The first week is discovery: one-hour conversations with the people who run your desks. After that there is a meeting once or twice a week, where you see working software and check it is heading the right way. You don't need an IT person. We set up the hosting account in your firm's name and everything that runs on it.
The price is fixed before work starts. The cost guide has the ranges part by part, and the price calculator prices your own build in about two minutes.