Workable vs. Greenhouse: Which ATS software is best?

In this guide, we’ll compare Workable vs. Greenhouse, give an overview of each software, and then dive deep into their feature sets so you can decide which is the better choice for you.

From sifting through applicants to keeping track of resumes to communicating with candidates, the hiring process can be a lot to manage.

Especially if you’re a small business navigating all of this for the first time. To keep yourself sane throughout the process, you need an applicant tracking system (ATS).

There are tons of different ATS solutions available, but some are more suited to beginners than others.

Workable and Greenhouse are two in particular that are well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses, but they differ in a few ways and each have their own strengths.

Workable vs. Greenhouse at a glance

Feature	Workable	Greenhouse	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	8.2/10	7.2/10	Workable
Job Posting & Candidate Sourcing	✅	✅	Greenhouse
Universal Search & Candidate Database	✅	✅	Workable
Applicant Tracking	✅	✅	Greenhouse
Candidate Evaluation & Assessment	Scorecard evaluation mode	Scorecards and home tests	Greenhouse
Reporting & Analytics	Simple and easy to use	Data can be messy and hard to organize	Workable
UX and UI	High user-friendliness	Medium user-friendliness	Workable
Integration & API Capabilities	200+ integrations	400+ integrations	Greenhouse
Supported Platforms	Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari web browsers	Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari web browsers	Tie
Customer Support	Live phone support 2:30 am – 5:30 pm ET Monday – Friday	Chat and email support 24/7 Monday – Friday	Workable
Pricing	Starts at $149/month	Custom pricing	Workable
Scalability	Small to mid-sized companies with 500 employees or less	Can scale as your company grows	Greenhouse
Reviews	Read our Workable review	Read our Greenhouse review

How we evaluate and test softwares

When testing softwares/apps, SMB Guide employs a dual approach based on free trial availability and demos. For platforms offering free trials, we test their functionalities, usability, navigation, and ease of use. In the case of tools lacking a free version or trial, we rely on in-depth research and user testimonials through software review platforms like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, Software Advice, and GetApp to gauge their performance and capabilities. Learn more about our ratings criteria for applicant tracking systems here.

Workable: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Workable is a cloud-based applicant tracking system primarily for small to mid-sized companies.

Because of its easy-to-learn interface, it’s often recommended to beginners who may have never used an ATS software before.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Workable offers three plans, plus different tiers of pricing under each plan depending on how many employees your company has.

For example, a company with 20 employees will pay less than a company with 100 employees, even if both companies are on the same plan.

Here’s a quick breakdown of Workable’s pricing structure as of August 2023:

• Starter: Starts at $149/month
• Standard: Starts at $360/month or $3588/year
• Premier: Starts at $599/month or $7188/year

Greenhouse: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Greenhouse Recruiting is an applicant tracking system for businesses who want to optimize their hiring processes while making sure to keep DEI at the forefront.

Since it’s a solution meant to scale with you as you grow, it’s ideal for companies of all sizes.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Greenhouse offers three different plan options, but as mentioned above, the cost of each of these tiers isn’t listed outright.

That said, according to market data, you can most likely expect to pay between $6500 and $24500 per year for Greenhouse.

Here’s a quick breakdown Greenhouse’s different plans as of August 2023:

• Essential: Best for small to medium-sized businesses
• Advanced: Best for medium to large-sized businesses
• Expert: Best for large to enterprise-grade businesses

Job Posting & Candidate Sourcing

Job posting in Workable is intuitive and easy to use. They also provide tips as you move through the process, helping you better understand the purpose of each form field and how you should fill it out.

Once you’ve published your job posting, you can share it on a number of different job boards as well as social media.

Greenhouse’s job posting functionality is also relatively simple to use. One cool thing about it, though, is that it gives you the ability to “configure” the required steps for posting a job.

This can be helpful if you’re posting several similar positions in a short time frame or you have a very specific workflow.

✅ Winner: Greenhouse

Both platforms have intuitive job posting functionality, but Greenhouse allows you to customize your workflow for new jobs, saving you time in the long run.

Universal Search & Candidate Database

One of the cool things about using an ATS is that many will allow you to search for potential candidates outside of your direct applicant pool.

This way, you can source talent that may not ever have the chance to come across your job posting. Workable’s People Search function allows you to do this after you’ve published your first job.

Greenhouse offers a similar function called Sourcing Automation, but this feature is an add-on and it’s unclear how much it costs.

Greenhouse also allows you to search directly within your candidate database using Boolean queries and keyword phrases.

✅ Winner: Workable

Workable’s universal search feature is included on all its plans, unlike Greenhouse, which charges extra for this functionality.

Applicant Tracking and Candidate Management

Keeping track of applicants is easy in Workable and Greenhouse, but their candidate dashboards are set up a bit differently.

Workable lists out all of the candidates for a given job grouped depending on whether they’re qualified or disqualified.

At the top of the page, you can get a quick overview of how many applicants you have at each stage of your hiring pipeline.

Greenhouse makes it even easier to visualize your hiring pipeline with a Kanban-style board as seen below.

Candidates are color-coded depending on the next action that needs to be taken, so you can see at a glance what you have to do.

✅ Winner: Greenhouse

The Kanban-style candidate management dashboard makes it a breeze to keep track of your hiring pipeline from start to finish.

Candidate Evaluation & Assessment

Workable takes a pretty simplified approach to candidate evaluation. In “basic” mode, candidates can be evaluated with either a thumbs up, thumbs down, or star.

“Scorecard” mode allows you to rate the candidate on specific skills and questions you’ve asked them.

Greenhouse’s candidate evaluation is a bit more robust. They offer 4 different ways to assess candidates: forms, scorecards, take home tests, and the interview kit.

✅ Winner: Greenhouse

Sometimes less is more, but overall the candidate evaluation features in Workable are a bit lackluster.

Reporting & Analytics

Workable provides a variety of different reporting options. Check out how their Report Center is organized to make it easy to find the insights you need.

Greenhouse’s reporting leaves a lot to be desired. While the reports they do provide are helpful, they’re not necessarily easy to use. According to a customer review from G2:

“It’s true that GH provides you with tons of useful and detailed reports but sometimes data is messy and hard to organise.”

✅ Winner: Workable

Workable’s Report Center is simple and organized, while many Greenhouse users report that their reporting feature is unintuitive.

User Experience and User Interface

Workable’s interface consists of a neutral color scheme that’s easy to look at, while Greenhouse’s design is more vibrant and eye-catching.

As far as aesthetics, it really comes down to your personal preference. When it comes to user-friendliness, Workable is really easy to navigate.

Greenhouse, on the other hand, has some mixed reviews from customers about the user experience.

Some people have complained that it lacks intuitiveness compared to other ATS solutions.

✅ Winner: Workable

Workable’s neutral color scheme and simple and intuitive interface mean it’s easy to use for the majority of people.

Integration & API Capabilities

Workable integrates with more than 200 third-party applications like Gmail, Zapier, and more. You can find a full list of their supported integrations here.

Greenhouse integrates with over 400 third-party applications like Calendly, BambooHR, and more. They have their full list of partners here.

✅ Winner: Greenhouse

Greenhouse has double the amount of integrations that Workable has for all of your hiring tech stack needs.

Supported Platforms

Both Workable and Greenhouse support multiple web browsers, including Chrome, FireFox, Edge, and Safari.

The only browser that Workable does not support is Internet Explorer. Greenhouse still provides partial support for Explorer.

They also both have mobile apps for iOS and Android, though Workable’s mobile app is more highly rated on both stores.

✅ Winner: Workable

Both softwares support multiple browsers and have iOS and Android mobile apps, but Workable’s apps have higher user ratings overall.

Customer Support

Workable offers live phone support Monday through Friday, 2:30 am to 5:30 pm ET, not including holidays.

They also have a support chatbot on their website as well as a Help Center with additional resources.

Greenhouse’s Technical Support team is available 24/7 Monday through Friday via live chat or email.

They unfortunately don’t have a customer support phone number listed on their website.

For general queries, you can visit their support center which uses AI technology to help answer your questions even when live support isn’t available.

✅ Winner: Workable

While Workable only offers phone support during certain weekday hours, Greenhouse doesn’t offer phone support at all – only live chat and email.

Pricing

Workable uses a tiered pricing model that’s based on the features you want and how many employees you have. Plans start as low as $149 per month and can go up to $1949+ per month.

Greenhouse’s pricing model isn’t immediately clear. It’s based on the size of your business and your hiring needs, but they don’t publish exact pricing numbers on their website.

To get an idea of how much Greenhouse will cost you, you’ll need to contact their sales team and get a custom quote.

✅ Winner: Workable

Workable is reasonably priced and much more transparent about their plan options than Greenhouse.

Scalability

Workable works best for small to mid-sized companies with 500 employees or less. Once you reach the 500+ employee mark, you’ll need to move to a custom pricing model.

Workable also lacks any HRIS capabilities, so it may make more sense to move to a different ATS platform as you grow.

Greenhouse was created specifically with scalability in mind. They’re an ATS that will grow with you as your company size increases and your hiring needs change.

Greenhouse also offers a separate software with onboarding features.

✅ Winner: Greenhouse

Greenhouse works for small to enterprise-grade companies and will scale with you as you grow, while Workable is better suited for SMBs.

Stand-Out Features of Workable

AI Recruitment Technology

AI has been all the rage this year, and Workable uses it to their advantage. AI Recruiter reads your job descriptions and then searches for the best existing candidates.

This way, you’ll be ahead of the game with a list of potential leads even before you hit “publish” on your posting.

Stand-Out Features of Greenhouse

Focus on Diversity

Nowadays many ATS are placing more emphasis on diversity, but Greenhouse takes it to another level.

DEI – diversity, equity, inclusion – is at the very forefront of their structured hiring philosophy.

They have DEI tools built directly into their software to mitigate unconscious bias and improve diversity in companies.

Workable vs. Greenhouse: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re a small business, both Workable and Greenhouse are solid choices for an ATS.

With transparent pricing, a simple feature set, and an easy-to-use interface, Workable is better suited to companies who may be just jumping into hiring.

Greenhouse, on the other hand, is a software I would recommend for SMBs who are seeing really healthy growth.

At the end of the day after exploring each software in-depth, I think Workable is overall the better choice for most SMBs.

If you want to try it out, you can start your free 15-day trial today. If you think Greenhouse is actually the better fit for you, get in touch with their sales team to schedule a demo.