Best Handshake alternatives
Handshake isn't really a CRM, which is why "alternatives" means two different things here. Its campus reach — 18M+ students across 1,400+ partner colleges, with registrar-verified profiles — has no direct substitute, and no general recruitment CRM replaces it. What sends employers looking is the pricing shape: Basic is genuinely free but caps outbound at 10 messages a month, Pro jumps to $450/mo for 200, and anything beyond that is quote-only. The 2025 free-tier cutbacks drew heavy backlash for exactly this reason. If you need access to early-career candidates, compare the campus-native platforms below; if you need somewhere to manage and nurture them once sourced, you're shopping in a different category and should start from the segment guide.
By Ramin Assemi, B2B SaaS marketer and former Head of Content at Close.comPublished
1.Manatal
AI-powered ATS at a budget price
Budget-conscious teams, from solo recruiters to in-house TA
2.Zoho Recruit
Recruitment module of the Zoho suite
Teams already in the Zoho ecosystem, or on a tight budget
3.Avature
Endlessly configurable enterprise TA suite (ATS + CRM)
Global enterprises and RPOs needing bespoke workflows
4.RippleMatch
AI-matched early-career recruiting (Campus OS)
TA teams that want campus hiring driven by skills, not school lists
5.Yello
Enterprise campus recruiting operations and events platform
Enterprises running multi-campus event-driven graduate programs
6.Atlas
AI-native "CRMx" that writes the record from your calls and email
Agency desks — perm, executive search and contract — that want capture and automation instead of CRM data entry
7.Vultus Recruit
Ultra-low-cost ATS for IT staffing
IT staffing firms running high-volume contract desks on a budget
8.Happlicant
Lightweight, transparent ATS/CRM for solo recruiters
Solo recruiters and tiny teams who want zero bloat
9.Recruit CRM
Easy-to-use ATS + CRM for small and mid-size agencies
Small agencies that want fast onboarding and top-rated support
10.Gem
Sourcing-first talent platform with staffing-specific plans
Sourcing-led teams: in-house TA and outbound-heavy search firms
11.iSmartRecruit
Affordable AI recruiting platform with global, multilingual reach
Small global agencies wanting broad AI features at low cost
12.Spott
AI-native recruiting CRM built on LLMs, not legacy databases
Agencies that want contextual AI matching without add-on fees