Greenhouse vs Lever: an honest comparison, and who should pick neither (2026)
Greenhouse and Lever are both quote-only, enterprise-grade applicant tracking systems with no free plan. Where each one wins, what they share, what buyers report paying, and why a company under about fifty people should consider neither.
Last updated 3 September 2026. Competitor pricing and plan limits are re-verified against each vendor’s own pages.
What Greenhouse and Lever have in common
- Quote-only pricing with no dollar figure published anywhere on either site, verified 2 September 2026
- No free plan, no free trial, no self-serve signup; every path ends in a demo request or a quote form
- Pricing that scales with company size: Lever says so on its pricing page, Greenhouse buyers report it
- Built-in AI: Greenhouse's Real Talent suite and Lever's six built-in AI features plus paid add-ons
- Public APIs, large integration marketplaces, EEO and DEI reporting
- Kanban pipelines, screening questions with knockouts, candidate self-scheduling and offer letters
Where Greenhouse wins
- Structured hiring: interview kits, scorecards tied to each stage and approval chains are the most-praised capability in the category and the reason most customers buy
- Compliance: SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO 42001, with built-in EEOC questionnaires
- Integrations: more than 250 partners, a documented Harvest API and a keyless Job Board API
- A separate Onboarding product with task sequencing and HRIS sync
- Native iOS and Android apps for recruiters and hiring managers
- Ranked the number one ATS in G2's Winter, Spring and Summer 2026 reports
Where Lever wins
- ATS and CRM in one: every candidate persists as a contact across requisitions, with nurture campaigns to re-engage them
- Distribution: jobs posted to more than 200 job boards including LinkedIn and Indeed
- A no-code careers site builder with templates and brand controls
- Named implementation specialists, consistently praised in Capterra reviews
- Dynamic dashboards with more than 20 talent-acquisition metrics
What buyers report paying
Neither vendor publishes a price. Vendr, a SaaS purchasing platform, reports that across 873 purchases the median Greenhouse buyer pays $26,587 a year, with recorded contracts from $10,137 to $74,492, and that contracts commonly carry 3 to 7% annual escalation unless negotiated flat. Lever publishes nothing and no comparable third-party dataset was found; its pricing page states that pricing is tailored to organization size and hiring needs. Both sell onboarding and some AI features as separately priced add-ons.
| Greenhouse | Lever | ofper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published price | No, quote only | No, quote only | Free, published |
| Free plan or trial | No | No | Free, unlimited |
| Self-serve signup | No, demo request | No, quote or demo | Yes |
| Priced on company size | Reported by buyers | Yes, per Lever | No |
| Structured interview kits and scorecards | Yes | Partial | No |
| Candidate CRM with nurture campaigns | Yes, on Plus | Yes, core design | No |
| Job board distribution | Via integrations | 200+ boards | No |
| AI features | Real Talent suite | 6 built in, 3 add-ons | None |
| Public API | Harvest and Job Board APIs | REST API and webhooks | No |
| SOC 2 / ISO certifications | Yes | Not published | No |
| Email from the company's own mailbox | No | No | Yes |
| JobPosting structured data on job pages | Customer-built pages | Not mentioned | Built in |
Who should pick Greenhouse
- A funded company or enterprise that needs structured, defensible hiring with scorecards and an audit trail
- A company whose security review requires SOC 2, ISO 27001 or EEOC reporting
- A team that needs a specific HRIS, payroll or assessment integration
Who should pick Lever
- A team that sources candidates outbound and needs a CRM with sequences
- A mid-market or high-growth company with a dedicated talent acquisition team
- A company that wants job board distribution built into the ATS
Who should pick neither
A company under about fifty people that hires a few times a year, has no talent acquisition team and no security questionnaire to satisfy is paying for scale it will not use. For that company, the important questions are whether the tool is free when nothing is being hired, whether it caps open jobs, whether candidates can apply without the company building a site, and whether email goes out from the company's own address.
ofper is free with no job or seat cap, publishes a careers page and job pages with structured data for every verified company, and sends recruiting email from the company's own mailbox. It has none of the things above that make Greenhouse or Lever worth their price: no scorecards, no CRM, no job board distribution, no AI, no API, no certifications. Those are the trade-offs, stated in full on the comparison pages for each.
Questions, answered straight
Is Greenhouse or Lever cheaper?
Neither publishes a price, so it cannot be answered from vendor data. The only third-party figure found is Vendr's median Greenhouse contract of $26,587 a year across 873 purchases. Both scale with company size.
Which is better for a startup?
A funded startup with a recruiting team usually picks Greenhouse for structured hiring or Lever for outbound sourcing. A startup without a recruiting team is the company that should consider neither; a free ATS with no job cap covers the hiring, and the price is zero until the team exists.
Do Greenhouse and Lever have free trials?
No. Neither offers a free plan or a free trial, and neither allows self-serve signup; both begin with a demo request.
Can I migrate from Greenhouse or Lever to ofper?
Yes, with limits. ofper has no CSV import, so active candidates are added by hand with their resumes. The migration guides for each product list what will and will not transfer.