A recruitment CRM holds the records: candidates, clients, contacts, jobs, pipeline stages and the notes recruiters type in. The conversations that move a search happen somewhere else, in email and on WhatsApp.
An ATS, a recruitment CRM and a shared inbox each do a different job, and a desk usually needs two of them. This article lays out what each layer does, where the mail lives, and seven tools across both layers with prices verified October 2026.
An ATS manages applicants against open jobs. A recruitment CRM manages the relationships with candidates and clients between jobs. A shared inbox manages the conversations themselves: who owns the thread, who owes the next reply and what was promised. Bullhorn, Recruit CRM, Manatal and Loxo are CRMs with an ATS built in. Front, Hiver and Sektra are shared inboxes. A desk needs a CRM for the record and an inbox for the conversation.
What is a recruiting CRM?
A recruiting CRM, also called a recruitment CRM or staffing CRM, is a database of candidates and client contacts with the history of your dealings with each.
Where a sales CRM tracks deals, a recruitment CRM tracks two pipelines at once. The client side has job orders and business development; the candidate side has sourcing, submissions and placements. Bullhorn describes itself as a recruitment ATS and CRM, and Recruit CRM, Manatal and Loxo each sell the two as one product.
What does an ATS do that a CRM does not?
An applicant tracking system is job-centered. It opens a requisition, collects applications, moves candidates through stages for that job and closes it on placement. A CRM is person-centered. It keeps the candidate after the job closes and the client between job orders, so the relationship survives the search. In the staffing market the two have merged into one product, which is why every CRM in the table below also calls itself an ATS.
Where candidate and client email lives
Every CRM in the table syncs email. Recruit CRM lists two-way email and calendar sync on every plan, and Manatal lists Outlook, Office 365 and Gmail integration on every plan. Loxo includes email and calendar sync from Core, and Bullhorn's Core edition lists an email sidebar. What the sync does is log: a copy of the message lands on the candidate or client record.
The conversation itself still happens in the recruiter's Gmail or Outlook, or on their phone in WhatsApp. That is where the client's feedback is four days late, where the candidate's counteroffer arrived, and where the promise to send a shortlist by Wednesday was made. The CRM shows that mail was exchanged. It does not show who owes the next reply or what was promised in paragraph two.
What the shared inbox layer adds
- One inbox per desk, with jobs@ or the recruiter aliases connected, so a submission and the client's feedback sit next to each other for the whole desk.
- Ownership on every thread, so a colleague picks up a stalled search when the owner is in interviews, and a typing indicator when two recruiters open the same reply.
- Who owes the next move: the client with feedback, the candidate with availability, or you with the shortlist. Volume hides this, and it is where searches stall.
- WhatsApp beside email. Candidates reply on WhatsApp, and a desk that leaves those threads on one person's phone loses them when that person leaves.
- A record that survives turnover. Recruiters move on; the desk's relationships should not. The account handoff problem covers what gets lost.
What is the best shared inbox for recruiting agencies?
The shared inbox tools that recruiting desks shortlist are Front, Hiver and Sektra, and they differ on where the mail lives and what they keep. Front moves the desk into its own app with routing rules and omnichannel from Professional. Hiver adds queue controls to Gmail and to Outlook shared mailboxes.
Sektra syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp Business and keeps a record per client and candidate of what was promised. The table below puts all seven tools side by side.
| Tool | Layer | Email handling | Built for | Price range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bullhorn | ATS and CRM | Email sidebar on Core; Marketplace integrations | Staffing agencies from small to enterprise | Starter $99 and Core $165 per user per month; Pro and Max by quote |
| Recruit CRM | ATS and CRM | Two-way email and calendar sync on every plan; 1 mailbox per user on Pro, 2 on Business | Agencies that want sourcing, pipeline and client management in one | $95, $135 and $215 per user per month on monthly billing; up to 17 percent off annual |
| Manatal | ATS and CRM | Outlook, Office 365 and Gmail integration on every plan | Small and mid-size agencies | $15, $35 and $55 per user per month billed annually |
| Loxo | ATS and CRM with sourcing | Email and calendar sync from Core | Executive search and agency recruiting | Core from $149 per user per month billed annually; Professional by demo |
| Front | Shared inbox | Mail moves into Front's app from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 | Routed operations across teams and channels | $25 to $105 per seat per month billed annually |
| Hiver | Shared inbox | Controls added to Gmail and Outlook shared mailboxes | Support-style queues in the existing mail client | $25 to $85 per user per month billed annually, two-seat minimum |
| Sektra | Shared inbox with memory | Two-way sync with Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp Business | Desks whose risk is stalled searches, quiet clients and turnover | See the pricing page |
The seven tools
1. Bullhorn: the ATS and CRM for staffing at scale
Bullhorn describes itself as the AI recruitment ATS and CRM behind more than 10,000 staffing agencies. Starter is $99 per user per month and Core is $165, with Core listing an email sidebar; Pro and Max add the Amplify AI features and are quoted. Middle office, onboarding and the Recruitment Cloud editions are quoted separately, verified October 2026. It is the record for large desks, and the conversation still happens in Outlook or Gmail.
2. Recruit CRM: ATS, CRM and sourcing in one
Recruit CRM sells Pro at $95, Business at $135 and Enterprise at $215 per user per month on monthly billing. Annual billing is labeled save up to 17 percent, and the trial is 30 days.
Two-way email and calendar sync is on every plan, with one mailbox connection per user on Pro and two on Business and Enterprise, verified October 2026. The sync logs mail to the record. Who owes the next reply is still read off the inbox.
3. Manatal: the lower-priced ATS and CRM
Manatal's Professional plan is $15 per user per month billed annually ($19 monthly), Enterprise $35 and Enterprise Plus $55, with a 14-day trial and no card. Outlook, Office 365 and Gmail integration is on every plan, verified October 2026. It is the record at the lowest list price in this group, and the scope is the record.
4. Loxo: ATS and CRM with sourcing for search firms
Loxo's Core plan starts at $149 per user per month billed annually with email and calendar sync and a Chrome extension. Professional is priced by demo and Enterprise by custom agreement, with a seven-day trial of Professional, verified October 2026. It is built for executive search and agency desks that source heavily. The inbox stays the recruiter's own.
5. Front: the shared inbox for a large, routed desk
Front moves the desk into its own app. Starter is $25 per seat per month billed annually, with one channel type and a 10-seat cap. Professional at $65 brings omnichannel, routing rules and SLA policies for up to 50 seats, and Enterprise is $105. Copilot is a $20 per seat add-on below Enterprise, verified October 2026.
Front fits a staffing operation where inbound routes across teams and SLAs are contractual, on the condition that the whole desk moves and someone owns the rules. Its unit is the conversation, and it keeps nothing about a candidate or client after the thread closes.
6. Hiver: queue controls in Gmail and Outlook shared mailboxes
Hiver adds assignment, statuses, notes and SLAs to Gmail and connects Outlook shared mailboxes on Microsoft 365 through its Omni product. Growth is $25 per user per month billed annually and caps at 10 users. Pro at $55 adds SLAs and CSAT, Elite is $85, and every plan starts at two seats, verified October 2026.
Hiver fits a desk whose client mail behaves like a request queue. The long arc of a client across many searches, and the candidate who applied twice in three years, sit outside what it tracks.
7. Sektra: both sides of the desk, remembered
We build Sektra. It runs one shared inbox per desk or per recruiter, synced two-way with Gmail, Outlook (including shared mailboxes), IMAP and WhatsApp Business. Candidate messages sit beside client email, with the same ownership and notes. It assigns by rule, round robin or current workload, and tags each thread by intent so submissions separate from logistics. A typing indicator shows when two recruiters open the same reply.
The memory layer keeps a record for each client and each candidate: what was promised and when, what is still unanswered, and the dated history of every thread. Sektra builds it from the mailbox on connect. The morning digest lists who owes you a reply.
Set a silence watch on a client with the day count you choose and Sektra tells you the day they go quiet. When a recruiter leaves, the record stays with the desk, and the successor can ask the assistant what was promised.
Sektra does not connect to an ATS or recruitment CRM today. The CRM keeps the candidate record; Sektra keeps the conversations and the promises in them. Every AI feature is part of the plan, and plans are on the pricing page. The recruiting page has the desk setup, Sektra vs Hiver the row-by-row view, and the WhatsApp integration the candidate channel.
Which should you pick?
- A CRM is the record. Bullhorn for a large staffing operation, Recruit CRM or Loxo for an agency or search firm that sources heavily, Manatal at the lowest list price. All four log email to the record.
- A shared inbox is the conversation. Front for a large desk that routes across teams and will move into one app. Hiver for a Gmail or Outlook desk running a request queue.
- Sektra for a desk on Gmail or Outlook whose risk is stalled searches, quiet clients and recruiter turnover, next to whichever CRM holds the record.
Run any shortlist against a live search, including the week a client goes quiet on feedback. That week is where a recruiting inbox earns its keep or loses a placement.
