Price by type of build
The biggest driver of cost is how much of your work the build covers: one AI tool on top of the system you have, or the whole CRM.
| Build | Price | Ready to use in | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| One AI tool on its own | From $5K | 2 to 4 weeks | One tool, such as AI sourcing or candidate matching, connected to the CRM or ATS you use today. |
| Full custom CRM | Most land between $25K and $55K | 1 to 2 months, with a first working version in about two weeks | Candidate and client database, job pipelines, your email connected, reporting, plus the parts you pick. |
A full CRM is priced part by part. The base ($3,000 to $5,000) covers the candidate and client database, job pipelines, notes and a history of every contact, Gmail and Outlook connected, logins with different levels of access, and basic reporting. You add only what your desks use.
Price your own build in 2 minutes
What each part costs
These are the ranges for the parts agencies ask for most. The price calculator lists all of them and adds them up as you tick.
| Part | Price range |
|---|---|
| AI sourcing: finds and shortlists candidates for a job | $4,000 to $5,500 |
| Candidate matching: ranks the people you already know against a job | $3,500 to $5,000 |
| Email and LinkedIn outreach sequences | $3,000 to $4,000 |
| Call recording with notes written to the record | $2,000 to $3,000 |
| Client portal for shortlists and feedback | $3,000 to $4,000 |
| Placements, invoicing, and commissions | $2,000 to $3,000 |
| Timesheets with client approval | $3,000 to $4,000 |
| VMS job order intake | $3,000 to $4,000 |
| Lead search, with alerts when a company starts hiring | $10,000 to $12,000 |
| Moving your data over | $500 to $1,000 for under 10,000 records, up to $3,000 to $5,000 for over 100,000 |
These prices apply when the part is built into a full CRM. On its own, any single part starts at $5K. That is our minimum for a standalone project, and it includes connecting the tool to the CRM you use today.
What makes it cost more or less
- Contract and temp desks. The back office is the largest add-on. Timesheets, pay and bill rates, VMS intake, a contractor portal, and redeployment alerts together add $12,000 to $16,500.
- How much data you bring. Moving your data over is priced by the number of records, and it is planned at the start of the project.
- Team size. For 40 or more recruiters, the extra controls over who can see what add 10%.
- Speed. Asking for delivery faster than the standard timeline adds 20%.
The number of recruiters does not change the price below 40. That is the main difference from a per-seat CRM, where every hire raises the bill.
If you are switching from a CRM you pay for today, 10% comes off the total.
What you pay after launch
- No licence and no per-recruiter fees. You own the software outright. It runs on an Amazon Web Services account in your firm's name. We set that up, so you don't need an IT person.
- Hosting. The hosting and the database for a CRM typically come to under $10 a month, paid to Amazon directly.
- AI usage. The AI runs on an account with an AI provider, which many firms already pay for. You pay for what you use.
- Data you choose to buy. Tools that pull in outside data, such as sourcing or contact enrichment, are pay-as-you-go. You see what each one costs, and you pay the data provider directly.
- Fixes. Two months of fixes are included in every build. If something we agreed to build does not work, we fix it at no charge.
- Support and new features. Optional, monthly, and cancellable. You only pay for it if you keep us on.
The cheapest sensible way to start
Start with one AI tool that fixes your most expensive bottleneck, connect it to the CRM you already pay for, and expand once it has earned its keep. On its own, a tool that finds candidates or ranks them against a job starts at $5K.
Before you spend anything, check five things:
- Name the one task that costs your desks the most hours each week.
- Confirm the tool will work inside your current CRM and save its results there.
- Get the price, the list of what gets built, and what counts as finished in writing before work starts.
- Make sure the software and the data end up in an account your firm owns.
- Keep recruiters approving every message and every hiring decision.
How the price stays fixed
A fixed price only holds when the list of what gets built is agreed before any work starts. This is how a project runs:
- Price it yourself. Answer a few questions in the price calculator and tick the features you need. You see a range in about two minutes.
- First call. 30 minutes on your desks, your current tools, and your data.
- Fixed proposal. What gets built, the price, and the delivery date, agreed before work starts. Payment terms are agreed here too, and they depend on the build.
- Discovery week. One-hour conversations with the people who run your desks. This is where most of your team's time goes.
- Build. A meeting once or twice a week, where you see working software and check it is heading the right way.
- Launch and handover. Your data moves over, your team starts working in it, and the software transfers to your firm's own account. Two months of fixes are included.
How that compares with renting a CRM
Ten recruiters on Loxo at $149 a seat pay $53,640 over three years. Twenty-five pay $134,100. A build costs the same at either size.
Renting still wins for a small desk on a low-cost tool. The build vs buy guide has the full table and shows where each side wins.