ATS software: free and paid applicant tracking options for India (2026)

What is ATS software?

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. ATS software publishes a job, receives the applications, stores each candidate's details and resume, shows where every candidate is on a hiring pipeline, and records interviews, offers and rejections. It is the system of record for hiring in the way payroll software is the system of record for salaries.

The full definition, with what an ATS is not, is on the glossary page for applicant tracking systems.

Do you need an HRMS or just an ATS?

This is the decision that determines everything else, and it is worth being honest about before comparing prices.

An HRMS handles employees you already have: payroll, attendance, leave, statutory compliance such as PF and ESI. An applicant tracking system handles people who do not work for you yet: job postings, applications, screening, interviews and offers.

Indian SMBs often buy a suite because payroll is the urgent problem and hiring comes bundled. That is a reasonable purchase. But if payroll is already handled and hiring is being run out of a spreadsheet and a Gmail inbox, buying a suite to fix hiring means replacing a system that is working to fix one that is not.

You do not need to replace your payroll system to fix your hiring.

What does recruitment software cost in India?

Indian HR suites are typically priced per employee per month, so the bill scales with headcount rather than with hiring activity. A company of 200 people that hires four times a year pays for 200 employees every month.

International applicant tracking systems are usually priced in US dollars and are not adjusted for the Indian market. Workable is priced by total employee headcount band from $299 a month, and BambooHR from $250 a month for companies of 25 employees or fewer. Both figures were checked against the vendors' own pricing pages on 29 August 2026.

ofper is free, and priced in nothing at all. Verification, the public company page and recruiting email through your own mailbox are included.

Which ATS software is best for a small business in India?

A small business hiring a few times a year needs three things from ATS software: no cost that continues while nothing is being hired, no cap on open roles, and a way for candidates to apply without the business building a website. A per-employee HRMS fails the first test, a one-job free plan fails the second, and most standalone tools fail the third unless a careers page is included.

ofper meets all three: it is free whether or not a job is open, has no job cap, and publishes a company page with job listings at ofper.com/c/your-company once the domain is verified, which is also free. The trade-off is scope: no job board posting, no payroll, no AI. A business that hires mainly through Naukri will save more time with a tool that posts there directly.

Which ATS software suits a startup?

Startups hire in bursts, involve founders and engineers in interviews, and change their process often. The features that matter are a shared pipeline everyone can see, interview scheduling that does not depend on a recruiter, and a public careers page that exists before anyone has built one.

ofper gives every team member the same Kanban pipeline, lets candidates pick an interview slot from the team's availability, and publishes the careers page. What a startup will miss: integrations with Slack or an HRIS, an API, and reporting. Those are real gaps and are listed plainly below.

Which ATS software works with Gmail, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

ofper sends all recruiting email, including interview invitations and rejections, from the company's own mailbox rather than from a platform address. Any mailbox that allows SMTP works: Gmail and Google Workspace with an App Password, Microsoft 365 with authenticated SMTP enabled by the administrator, or the company's own mail server. Credentials are stored encrypted.

There is no one-click Google or Microsoft sign-in for the mailbox; the connection is SMTP. The benefit is that candidates see a real address, replies land in the recruiter's inbox, and the company's own sender reputation carries the mail.

How do jobs from ATS software reach Google for Jobs?

Google for Jobs lists job pages that carry valid JobPosting structured data matching the visible content. Every published job on ofper has a public page with that markup generated from the job record itself, so a published job is eligible without any extra work. Google decides what it indexes and shows; eligibility is not a guarantee of placement.

What does ofper include?

ofper is an applicant tracking system and a public job marketplace. The free plan has no cap on jobs, candidates or team members.

• Unlimited job postings with a per-company reference number such as OF-014
• A Kanban pipeline with your own stages and a full audit trail of every move
• Resume upload with the text extracted in the browser, tuned for Indian English-language resumes
• Screening questions with automatic knockouts that flag rather than delete
• Interview scheduling in your timezone, defaulting to Asia/Kolkata, with reminders and calendar invites
• Offer letters with a one-time-code acceptance and a permanent acceptance record
• A public company page at ofper.com/c/your-company once your domain is verified

What ofper does not do

ofper is a recruiting tool only, and the gaps that matter most in the Indian market are worth stating plainly.

• No payroll, no attendance, no leave management and no statutory compliance such as PF, ESI or TDS
• No Naukri or LinkedIn posting integration. Jobs are published on your ofper company page and are visible to search engines, but they are not pushed to Indian job boards.
• No WhatsApp messaging. Candidate communication is by email, sent through your own mailbox.
• No AI screening, no resume database and no candidate search
• No CSV import, so moving an existing candidate list in is manual

Who should choose something else?

If payroll and attendance are the actual problem, an Indian HRMS suite will serve you better than a standalone ATS. If most of your hiring depends on Naukri, a tool that posts there directly will save more time than a free ATS will save money. If you are a recruitment consultancy placing candidates with client companies, you need agency features that ofper does not have.

Questions, answered straight