Avionté vs Top Echelon
Two recruitment CRMs compared on pricing, features, and fit, so you can shortlist with confidence.
✓Pricing verified against vendor pagesData reviewed October 5, 2026How we research →
By Ramin Assemi, B2B SaaS marketer and former Head of Content at Close.comPublished Updated
Avionté
Front office, payroll and billing in one staffing platform
Best for: US and Canadian staffing agencies, especially high-volume clerical and light-industrial desks, that want payroll in the same system as recruiting
✓Payroll is built in, not bolted on: onboarding with I-9 and E-Verify, time entry, multi-assignment payroll, invoicing and W-2s run in the same system as the CRM and ATS. Avionté says it processes $15B of payroll and 4.6M W-2s a year (vendor site, Oct 2026)
✓Reviewers praise the back office at volume: one moved 600+ workers onto it after QuickBooks couldn't keep up, and others single out time entry, payroll and invoicing as the part that works best (G2, Aug 2026)
✕Nothing is published: no pricing page, no plan names, no trial. A demo is the only way to a number, and G2 reviewers put implementation at three months on average
✕Two systems in practice: customers still log into the newer AviontéBOLD front office and the "Classic" back office separately, and one reviewer was still cleaning up data carried over from Classic years after moving to BOLD (G2, Sep 2025 and Aug 2026)
Top Echelon
Affordable ATS/CRM with a built-in split-placement network
Best for: Solo recruiters and small perm firms doing split placements
✓Extremely affordable with transparent pricing
✓Automations, Sequences, and Smart-TE AI on the Professional tier
✕Resume parsing into existing candidate records trips reviewers up (Capterra, 2026)
✕Email integration draws more criticism than any other feature in reviews
Our verdict
Choose Avionté if…
- ✓You're in high-volume hiring, a segment Top Echelon doesn't focus on
- ✓You're in contract & temp staffing, a segment Top Echelon doesn't focus on
- ✓You run temp or contract desks and need pay & bill in the platform
- ✓You want workflow automation working out of the box
Choose Top Echelon if…
- ✓You're in executive search firms, a segment Avionté doesn't focus on
- ✓Your team sources through LinkedIn every day
- ✓You want to trial before committing (free trial available)
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Avionté | Top Echelon |
|---|---|---|
| ATS + CRM core | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email/inbox sync | ~ | ✓ |
| LinkedIn / Chrome extension | – | ✓ |
| Multi-job-board posting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in candidate sourcing | ~ | ~ |
| Workflow automation | ✓ | ~ |
| AI matching & assistance | ✓ | ~ |
| Reporting & analytics | ✓ | ~ |
| Temp back-office (pay & bill) | ✓ | – |
| Open API | ✓ | ~ |
| Mobile app | ✓ | ~ |
IncludedPartial or paid add-onNot available
What would it cost your team?
| Est. monthly cost, entry tier | 5 seats | 20 seats | 50 seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avionté (official) | Custom quote | Custom quote | Custom quote |
| Top Echelon (official) | $475/mo | $1,900/mo | $4,750/mo |
Estimated from each vendor's published entry-tier price as of October 5, 2026; real quotes vary with plan tier, add-on modules, and contract terms. See how we label pricing confidence.
Frequently asked questions
How do Avionté and Top Echelon pricing compare?
Avionté uses custom quote-based pricing and does not publish list prices (official, reviewed October 5, 2026). Top Echelon pricing starts at $95/user/mo (official, reviewed September 22, 2026).
What does Avionté cost?
Avionté uses custom quote-based pricing and does not publish list prices (official, reviewed October 5, 2026). No pricing is published: there are no plan names, seat bands or billing terms anywhere on the site, and every route leads to a demo request, so neither a monthly nor an annual rate can be read. G2's reviewer-reported averages are a three-month implementation and a 7% discount off list, which is all the public record holds on cost. Back office, the Avionté 24/7 mobile app, SimpleVMS and the PIXEL AI assistant are marketed as separate products on one platform, so ask which of them a quote includes (vendor site and G2, Oct 2026).
What does Top Echelon cost?
Top Echelon pricing starts at $95/user/mo (official, reviewed September 22, 2026). Monthly billing: TE Recruit Standard $95/user/mo and Professional $115/user/mo. Committing annually drops those to $79 and $95. Automations, Sequences, Smart-TE AI, Natural Language Search, [BETA] AI People Search, inbound email sync, and API access are Professional-tier only. The TE Network split-placement subscription is billed separately: $150/mo per agency plus a $350 startup fee on monthly billing, or $135/mo annually with the startup fee waived (vendor pricing page, Sep 2026).
Which is rated higher, Avionté or Top Echelon?
Top Echelon is rated higher: 4.6/5 on Capterra versus 4.3/5 for Avionté on G2.
Who is Avionté best for, and who is Top Echelon best for?
Avionté: US and Canadian staffing agencies, especially high-volume clerical and light-industrial desks, that want payroll in the same system as recruiting. Top Echelon: Solo recruiters and small perm firms doing split placements.