# Page 2 | CATS Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 2 - Is CATS the right Recruiting solution for you? Explore 144 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/45814/CATS/reviews --- CATS 4.2 (144) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/45814/CATS/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of CATS ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-50 of 144 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use DH Darryl H. Managinng Director Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Stay far away" September 5, 2025 1.0 Was great - now lousy. Good, easy system, but support lacking and next to zero AI. I've trialled a few more modern ATS'/CRM's and they are leaps and bounds ahead Pros System had been great for years, then they stopped being able to use Chrome, then support dropped. Top Echelon bought Cats and doesn't care about Cats folks. Cons They stopped being able to use Chrome, and support dropped in a big way. Cats was sending out calendar invites to clients on it's own - withh private notes! - and I went up 3 levels and still couldn't get Cats to fix it. Top Echelon bought Cats and doesn't care about Cats folks. Switched from [Bullhorn ATS & CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/140531/Bullhorn-Recruiting-Software/) too old and bad support at the time for a smaller firm Review Source DH Dana H. Founder and Principal Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATS - Great value CRM for small businesses" November 24, 2025 3.0 CATS was always easy to work with. Great customer service. I always got a reply within a day of my inquiry. Pros CATS is very cost-effective and easy to use. It was my first CRM for my business and it's was a great starting CRM. Cons There were limited CRM features for scheduling and communicating with candidates. I also needed a CRM with a really strong Search function. CRM wasn't as strong there. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATSone is better than most for less. Email sync issue, and reports are innacurate" December 14, 2016 4.0 CATSone is a great product and we recommend for anyone needing a applicat tracking system. its customizable to an extent. Fields are linked so you can't mess up data. Its good if you use it for CRM. Reports are odd, and email sync feature works 50% of the time. (adding emails to contacts in CATS with matching records) Pros Easy interface, great application site wizard , and great job site , built in, , customization of fields with restrictions (so you don't mess it up) . Status, and custom status available. Map custom status's to 'mapped' status. No cloud storage fees for resumes, or files that get attached to applicant / candidate records. API is useful but not without faults. Good custom reports per user. Google drive link, and online MS word linked. Live previews of images. Easy to read reports (there are some faults) Reporting is best thought of as a gauge and not an accurate thing. All around a great system. I recommend it to anyone whom has this need. Easy to use with live chat support per user for how to use it. Great training seminars. Etc. Good for when you hire 1 to 1. 1 hired applicant to 1 location. Email sync feature is great when it works. 50% of the time. It may be related to email host. I dunno. Reports are good. There are many. If you need New Applicants per user.. then you have to manually enter. But still many reports. Great price point. Beats many more expensive systems .. its has faults as your gonna read. But don't let that get you down. It's still worth it. Cons Hired applicants are 1 to 1. Hired Applicant can only work in 1 location. It's just not set up for 1 applicant in many locations. Non hired applicants can apply to multiple places, just not work in multiple locations. Its rare you need to hire one person in multiple locations. Via API you could achieve 1 to many locations via API and custom fields. But it's not gonna be easy. NO reports for new applicants per user if you use Live Job Application site. Reports new applicants per user only by manually enter each applicant. Reports can be difficult to understand. There are no white papers on it, and only some customer service reps understand it fully. Email sync feature works maybe 50% of the time. (email sync places copies of your email communication in the contact whom has matching email) Results may vary depending on email provider. Limited API calls per user, per hour. Need more ? They won't sell you more. You have to keep adding users. 500 API calls per hour per user @ $99 per user a month. but at least there are API calls. Really funky though. Be prepared to be confused. but eh , that's API .. Review Source CD Cara D. COO Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATS: Easy to Use, But Customer Service Falls Short" July 21, 2025 3.0 I would say my experience has been positive until the last year. We are still using CATS and it has been great but since we are growing we need an ATS company that we can grow with. Pros I like the ease of use, it's easy for my employees to understand and adjust to certain things. I love the buttons and how they function within a workflow, especially how we use them in our company. The videos provided are definitely helpful as well. Cons My main issue recently has been the customer service. They responded to most of my questions but there was a big thing I needed answered/help with and I ended up reaching out 3 times and still never received a response. This resulted into searching for a new ATS platform as I need a company that we can grow with. Alternatives considered [Tellent Recruitee](https://www.capterra.com/p/140650/Recruitee/) Reason for choosing CATS I was referred to CATS which led me to use their systme. Switched from [GMass](https://www.capterra.com/p/168452/GMass/) I was having issues with my emails being received from CATS Review Source BJ Benjamin J. Roster Officer Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Without CATs I'm not sure how we would manage" August 8, 2019 5.0 Excellent, the sales and support staff are always on point. I hate calling tech support in general, but really don't mind with CATs. Always affable and helpful. We have yet to have an issue that wasn't promptly resolved by the CATs tech support. Pros Ease of in-house communication and interoperability. Each user can easily see the work of their colleagues which cuts down on a huge amount of unnecessary communication. We can seamlessly take over each other's work when colleagues are on leave or otherwise busy. The application portals are very easy to use and the workflow is intuitive and useful. Honestly, I'm not sure how we could manage with such a lean HQ staff without having CATs. Cons The only con I can identify with CATs is their search algorithm. The Boolean search functions can be improved. For example, if I'm looking for an "Education in Emergencies Specialist" within my database and search for this phrase using the Boolean quotation marks I will occasionally get results that identify anyone who has the word "in" somewhere in their resume. Yes, I also get "Education in Emergencies Specialists" but also a lot of people with completely irrelevant CVs. Some of this is mitigated by using the tags, lists, and custom fields but sometimes weird results are populated. Again, this is really the only issue I have with CATs and I'm really nit picking here. I don't find this to be a significant impediment to my work, and the pros heavily outweigh this one con. Reason for choosing CATS I wasn't involved with that process. Switched from [Bullhorn ATS & CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/140531/Bullhorn-Recruiting-Software/) The previous database solution was no longer supported. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Associate Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Overall pretty good. Customer service is outstanding. However, some features are not intuitive." January 2, 2018 4.0 I work at a recruiting firm and we all use CATS daily for our recruiting database. It is the most comprehensive and flexible software that we have found so far (though needs more flexibility in some areas). The flexibility in tagging and sorting candidates and being able to assign tasks to other recruiters has been great. The star feature, status's, adjustable application fields and archiving are fantastic features. We use this product daily and have been very pleased with it for the most part. Pros Customer service. Extensive database of information and flexibility in most aspects of the product to adapt to your needs. Cons Some settings are hidden and it's not intuitive about where certain features are. I don't like that there's not a way to preview the cover page in a job pipeline (like there is for a resume), you can't email multiple people to ask for reviews on multiple candidates (which would be helpful for us as we serve nonprofits and Boards with multiple people are often making the decisions). Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Managing Director Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solid Recruiting Software for Recruiters" July 27, 2018 5.0 Comprehensive CRM database for a recruiting firm. Couldn't live without it. Pros Customized Pipeline management. The database gives you multiple ways of viewing your pipeline. Combined with calendar integration, they make it easy to stay on top of your list of things to do. Loading in candidate resumes to a mailbox makes it easy to update the database. The capture tool makes it easy to load LinkedIn resumes to the database. The jobs integration to your website is easy to set up. Customer service has been great and the Price is very affordable. It's browser based and works on any platform. Cons I don't have have real complaints. They use a voting system to prioritize updates. Sometimes there are a few minor features that I would like to be implemented. But they are adding new features all of the time. Review Source LeQuay M. Talent Sourcing Consultant Paper & Forest Products Used the software for: ### "CATS is a phenomenal tool for Corporate & Agency Recruiters!" June 26, 2014 5.0 Let me start by saying that I have been with CATS for the past few years. My experience has been nothing short of excellent. CATS has far more robust features than the other recruitment systems I've explored and/or used. It can be used to manage candidate flow for existing requisitions or to build strategic candidate pipelines for the needs of the future. CATS is easy to customize the system internally to work within your existing recruitment processes. Most of the other tools I've used has required us to create multiple work around processes forcing and even change our internal processes to meet the requirements of the system. This isn't the case with CATS and it only took us an hour or two to set it up. CATS has made various plug-ins available free of charge to its subscribers. These plug-ins allow you to do everything from edit resumes within the system using a Microsoft Word Plug-in, leverage WordPress, and even send LinkedIn profiles and resumes from job boards directly into the CATS system. You can easily move data from other recruiting systems to CATS. You can either upload large batches of resumes or even upload a CSV document from Excel directly into the system. One of the best features behind CATS is that it is a tool that continues to grow and is always improving. They continue to grow in excellence through the value they place on the feedback from their subscribers. Many of the suggestions recommended by subscribers have been implemented very successfully and relatively quickly. I strongly recommend any organization looking for an extremely robust and customizable recruitment solution to consider CATS. You can even avoid lengthy contracts. Pros Robust Features Customizable Saves time by posting to various boards through CATS Very user-friendly Cost effective Review Source VB Valonda B. Recruiter Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATS was a Godsend" August 9, 2019 5.0 We appreciate being able to unify our process, helping streamline our process, provide our applicants with a consistent experience, identifying where our good candidates are coming from and unifying our recruiting team and efforts. Pros I appreciated the support through the set up process and the responsiveness of the team to our beginning processes. There is so much customization for your workflow and we have appreciated all of the improvements to the system over the time we have used it. (over 6 years) Cons Honestly - it's really hard find things we don't like about the software. Support has been great about helping us to work around things we thought we wanted. Alternatives considered [iCIMS Hire](https://www.capterra.com/p/93248/iCIMS-Recruit/) Reason for choosing CATS Simplicity - ease of set up and experience with the sales and support team Review Source Bill B. Used the software for: ### "Affordable, Simple, Flawed" May 7, 2014 3.0 I’m approaching two years with CATS and have reviewed and demoed many other ATS’s including iCIMS, JobVite, The Applicant Manager, AcquireTM and the Monster Talent Management Suite. Bottom line up front: This is a solid choice for new firms on a budget who have low customer service expectations and no need for a reporting capability. The first thing that appealed to me about CATS was that it gave me a free 30-day trial that didn't hold back the bells and whistles. I had access to every feature from the moment I signed up. It was the most intuitive of all the products I demoed. I didn't need a salesperson to walk me through each section (something that I would have been hindered by with the other products). The default customization was nearly perfect and I was able to easily make the few tweaks that my workflow required. I uploaded my stash of resumes, posted my open job orders and started moving candidates through the hiring process. It was simple. Other CATS features - Want to allow candidates apply through LinkedIn or Indeed? Check. Want to push jobs to your company Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page? Check. Mass emails, automatic emails, job sharing with hiring managers, integration with Outlook and Word, a customizable jobs website? Check. CATS is set up for both corporate and agency recruiting. The two main negatives are customer service and reporting. Customer service is about what you’d expect from a budget firm. Some questions I sent through email were ignored and some were returned with one-word answers. The reporting capability is a bit scary for anyone who might need to generate an AAP/EEO report. The detail just isn’t there and CATS is either unwilling or unable to generate a custom report with the necessary data. Pros Affordable, Intuitive Cons Customer service, reporting Review Source DS Darlamae S. Founder/Chief HR Practitioner Human Resources Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATS - AS AN HRIS SYSTEM...it's not just for recruiting anymore" August 14, 2019 5.0 I have multiple clients and can easily adapt CATS to meet their kooky HR and workforce planning and job posting, ATS needs. It allows me to uniquely tailor my client's portals and documentation and electronic communication needs form job posting to off boarding. No other software program out there does what CATS does...I know I've tried them all including Bamboo HR, Zenefits, HR Direct Apps to name three that don't compare to CATS. Pros All the cool customization that I control to meet both me and my clients HR and full cycle recruitment needs. Tech support is awesome and always there to help answer questions and problem solve. Cons Perhaps the ability to include I9 and W4 electronic onboarding so I can stop using DocuSign. Reason for choosing CATS I have been using CATS exclusively since 2007 when I needed an ATS system and CATS has made incredible technology advancements over the years that has grown with me and my mobile HR and payroll practice. Thank YOU..CATS development team! Review Source Erik B. Account Manager Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Better than average product, best in class customer service" August 8, 2019 4.0 Better than other ATS I have used. Since this is a recruiting and staffing tool, making it as simple as possible is a best practice since we need quick access to notes for reference more than any other functionality. It provides this quickly and efficiently. Pros \-Responsive customer service -Idiot-proofed functionality -Mobile experience has 90%+ of the full functionality Cons \-Latest upgrade to Nala was clumsy and left some very obvious bugs in for release Review Source VR Verified Reviewer President, Managing Director Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cats is very user friendly! " January 5, 2018 5.0 It is our main CRM system. Pros Very easy to adapt the database to fit exactly what you need. Free job postings are the best I have seen. Love that I can download profiles directly from Linkedin Recruiter to the database. Cons Really tiny wish list: I wish they had an app for the smartphone. Wish you could use the chrome extension to download information to the database from any website. Review Source JH Jeff H. Owner Human Resources Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Long time user" August 9, 2019 5.0 I switched to CATS more than a decade ago when it was a free beta program. It has been a part of my business on an almost daily basis. It's comfortable and hard to imagine switching to something different. Pros Great interface, comfortable to use. Becomes familiar quickly. Grown with the software. Cons No ability to drag and drop related emails or documents into a a candidate or client record. Alternatives considered [Zoho Recruit](https://www.capterra.com/p/125768/Zoho-Recruit/)[Top Echelon](https://www.capterra.com/p/84093/Top-Echelon/) Reason for choosing CATS Familiarity and interface. Like the ability to customize workflow Review Source MV Mark V. VP Staffing Operations Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "CATS - Best ATS in the Market" August 14, 2019 5.0 CATS has allowed our team to be more productive. Its continued improvements along with stellar customer support make this product on a different level than competitors. We have seen a dramatic increase in recruiter productivity resulting in increased client placements. Pros Easy of use, functionality ability to be a part of upcoming improvement discussions Cons Nothing at this time comes to mind. We love the product and the results. Switched from [Top Echelon](https://www.capterra.com/p/84093/Top-Echelon/) Easy of use and better support Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Director of Recruiting Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Universally good for companies big & small" September 25, 2018 5.0 Pros The amount of customization when it comes to records and process flow. I've used this tool working for big companies as well as small and the ability to adjust the tool as needed makes it good for companies of all sizes. Cons Perhaps the only thing I would update is the UI - its a little dated but the functionality more than makes up for it. Review Source AW Amber W. Recruiter Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Excellent ATS Option" August 8, 2019 4.0 Pros We went from using the same ATS for over 17 years when we decided to make the change to CATS. It’s modern, sleek, easy to use and customer support is very easy to understand and knowledgeable. Cons I do wish there was a platform versus it being web based. Alternatives considered [Bullhorn ATS & CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/140531/Bullhorn-Recruiting-Software/) Reason for choosing CATS Cost, functionality and more. Switched from [Exelare](https://www.capterra.com/p/17088/Exelare/) Ready for something better that could support modern recruitment styles. Review Source Carla P. Senior Recruiter Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Easy to Use but definitely things to fix still" December 18, 2017 4.0 Pros It has a simple step by step use, quick start and easy to load everytime - Anyone with internet/Social media user knowledge can get it in no time Cons Big issues with different files formats to view without having to download it - Search bar is not the best, it can be definitely better. Search results for candidates or jobs is definitely as accurate as it could/should be Review Source SS Steven S. Managing Director Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Data Migration is made nearly imposible" May 6, 2017 3.0 Data transfer once you would like to switch to another provider is made imposible. The CSV file they provide is not sufficient. Pros Pricing is low which is attractive. depning on how you are funded, this might be the (only) reason for taking on this ATS. Cons We have used it for the first couple of years, but once we required smarter solutions around workflow management and candidate experience, it was very limited. Worst side of ths ATS is that they do not provide an SQL data dump. The SCV dump they provide is scattered across multiple files , some being corrupt. They were not willing to solve this via a SQL dump. (which they can easily do) Review Source MB MAURICIO B. RTA Consumer Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nice tool as a Database" April 3, 2019 5.0 With the previous version it was an amazing experience, right now the only issue that I have is the tool is very slow response. Pros CATS is a very useful tool to keep all the information of customers, candidates, and with the new version is very easy to find the information. Cons Right now is very slow, I don't know the reason but is very slow, I think is because they release a new version and they are testing the tool, but right now is very slow Review Source MB Marc B. Recruiter/Owner Human Resources Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "I love CATS " August 21, 2019 5.0 Pros It is intuitive and easy to use. It has all the functionality of a large CRM in a great software that is affordable Cons Have not found any yet. I would like a couple other calendaring functions but just a minor change would be it. Switched from [Gopher for Recruiters](https://www.capterra.com/p/10276/Gopher/) Gopher is heavy, slow and has no LI interface. Plus it was installed vs cloud based. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer PRESIDENT Staffing and Recruiting Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Training and Customer Support non existent" July 19, 2016 2.0 Not impressed, Much better systems out there for the price. Many resumes are not getting loaded correctly. Set up was a nightmare for transferring resumes. Could not get the pricing right in initial billing, etc. No real support or training at all. Pros There are many systems similar Cons Customer Support Training and loading resume capabilities. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Consider chat / phone support non-existent. " August 28, 2015 3.0 We have had these company for over 3 years, and same story every time. They will help in how the system works , but if it's broke or start to function or report differently from month to month, they will shrug it off and say its supposed to be like this . Also be aware then what is in reporting isn't quite true for reports. Its a mess. so don't rely on reports from them Pros Its cheap. Works well. Just don't trust reports. And if your ok with defensive limited tech support, then cats is for you. Cons Terrible consistency , terrible reports , and defensive tech support reps. Review Source LM LeQuay M. President & Principal Consultant Used the software for: ### "CATS is an excellent recruiting solution for both Corporate and Agency Recruiters" June 27, 2014 5.0 Let me start by saying that I have been with CATS for the past few years. My experience has been nothing short of excellent. CATS has far more robust features than the other recruitment systems I've explored and/or used. It can be used to manage candidate flow for existing requisitions or to build strategic candidate pipelines for the needs of the future. CATS is easy to customize the system internally to work within your existing recruitment processes. Most of the other tools I've used has required us to create multiple work around processes forcing and even change our internal processes to meet the requirements of the system. This isn't the case with CATS and it only took us an hour or two to set it up. CATS has made various plug-ins available free of charge to its subscribers. These plug-ins allow you to do everything from edit resumes within the system using a Microsoft Word Plug-in, leverage WordPress, and even send LinkedIn profiles and resumes from job boards directly into the CATS system. You can easily move data from other recruiting systems to CATS. You can either upload large batches of resumes or even upload a CSV document from Excel directly into the system. One of the best features behind CATS is that it is a tool that continues to grow and is always improving. They continue to grow in excellence through the value they place on the feedback from their subscribers. Many of the suggestions recommended by subscribers have been implemented very successfully and relatively quickly. I strongly recommend any organization looking for an extremely robust and customizable recruitment solution to consider CATS. You can even avoid lengthy contracts. Review Source RK Renee K. Recruiter Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best candidate tracking software I've ever used!" August 14, 2019 5.0 Amazing. Pros I love the update, the interface, ease of access, export ability, user management and integration with email and other apps. Cons There's nothing I don't like! The one time I had an issue, the help desk team had it fixed within an hour. Reason for choosing CATS N/A Review Source Similar Products Featured