Manatal combines an applicant tracking system with a recruitment CRM and applies AI to sourcing, screening, and candidate enrichment, built for HR teams, agencies, and headhunters with small teams.
- Primary Features: Applicant tracking and recruitment CRM, candidate sourcing across job boards, Manatal AI, team collaboration, and reporting and analytics.
- Starting Price: From $15 per user per month (billed annually) for the Professional plan, up to $55 for Enterprise Plus, with a custom-quoted plan above that.
- Best For: Small recruitment agencies and lean HR teams, roughly 50 or fewer employees, that want an affordable, quick-to-configure ATS without a long implementation cycle.
- Not Ideal For: Teams hiring for highly specialized or senior-level roles that need precise AI matching, agencies that need saved and shareable search filters, or companies that require a dedicated native mobile app.
- Integrations: Users connect Skima AI to their Manatal account to get explainable candidate screening, remove search and archive friction from talent rediscovery, and score every match with clear reasoning.
Manatal entered the ATS market in 2019 with a $15 per-user entry price, positioning itself as the low-cost alternative to platforms that require a sales call before a team can test the product.
That pricing and fast setup earned it traction with small agencies and lean HR teams, but the tradeoff becomes clear once hiring complexity increases. AI match accuracy weakens on specialized and senior roles, search filters can't be saved, and archived candidates disappear from results until manually restored.
Our research team invested over 70 hours evaluating Manatal's features and AI capabilities. We also reviewed verified user feedback and cross-checked every claim against the platform's current product. We also identified where Manatal excels and where teams face genuine challenges and may need integrations to fill gaps.
What Is Manatal?
Manatal combines an applicant tracking system with a recruitment CRM, aimed at HR teams and agencies that want to source, screen, and hire from one login instead of switching between separate tools.
Jeremy Fichet co-founded the company in Bangkok with CTO Yassine Bel Mamoun in 2019. He had spent years observing companies manage hiring using spreadsheets.
Manatal Features Review
Manatal covers four areas: the core ATS and CRM, candidate sourcing, the AI layer, and collaboration with reporting. Below is an honest, feature-by-feature review of what each module delivers well and where it falls short:
Applicant Tracking System & Recruitment CRM
A recruiter sets up a drag-and-drop pipeline that combines candidate records, job stages, and client accounts. This setup is tailored to the team's actual hiring process instead of a fixed template. A Kanban board displays the status of every candidate across all open roles from a single screen.
Agencies and headhunters receive a recruitment CRM integrated into the same system. This includes client accounts, commercial activity, and placement revenue alongside the candidate pipeline, so a firm doesn't need a separate tool for its client side.
Clients can log in as free collaborators to review candidates directly, eliminating a round of relayed emails. Onboarding milestones, such as start dates and probation periods, track a placement beyond just the hire itself.
Candidate Sourcing
A single job posting reaches over 2,500 boards, both free and premium, including LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter, along with regional and industry-specific sites. The Chrome extension allows one-click importing of a candidate's LinkedIn profile into Manatal, checking for duplicates first.
No coding is needed for career pages; companies can connect their domain and collect applications directly. Additionally, a referral program lets staff serve as a sourcing channel at no extra cost. However, design options for the career page are limited to just three templates, which teams often find restrictive for brand presentation.
Manatal AI
Manatal AI covers three connected capabilities using the same candidate database. First, AI Recommendations evaluates candidates based on specific job requirements. Next, AI Candidate Enrichment gathers data from LinkedIn and over 20 other sources to enhance profiles beyond resumes.
Lastly, AI Interviewer facilitates asynchronous video screenings, enabling teams to assess a large applicant pool without scheduling individual calls. Additionally, an MCP connection links a Manatal account directly to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot Studio.
This allows recruiters to ask plain-language questions and receive answers from live account data. However, match accuracy for AI Recommendations declines with more complex or specialized roles.
Collaboration & Reporting
User roles and permissions determine visibility for hiring team members. Hiring managers can provide feedback without needing a full paid seat. Calendar and mailbox synchronization ensures scheduling and candidate emails are accessible to the entire team, rather than being confined to one recruiter's inbox. A dashboard automatically tracks KPIs like time-to-fill and source effectiveness.
Additionally, the Advanced Report Builder for custom reports is available with Enterprise Plus and higher. However, recruiter-level performance data, comparing individual output to the team, is not included in standard reports and requires separate development outside the platform.
Manatal Pricing Review: Is It Worth the Investment?
The starting Professional plan costs $15 per user monthly on annual billing ($19 monthly), allowing up to 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates with unlimited hiring managers. The Enterprise plan, at $35 per user monthly annually ($39 monthly), eliminates these caps and includes workflow automation.
Meanwhile, Enterprise Plus, priced at $55 per user monthly ($59 monthly), adds features like the Advanced Report Builder, ChatGPT integration, and custom permissions. A Custom plan offers dedicated account management and tailored integrations.
A 14-day trial needs no credit card, though job board posting and outbound email are disabled during that window, so the trial doesn't reflect the full product before a purchase. Tier jumps are transparent: no hidden per-feature charges layer on top of the published rate.
The Open API and deeper LLM connections are restricted to the $55 tier specifically, a detail to confirm against internal plans before assuming custom integrations come standard.
Manatal Marketplace
Manatal marketplace connects to over 2,500 job boards and has native integrations for LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, Zapier, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams, along with hundreds more for assessments, HRIS systems, and document signing. Those on Enterprise Plus and above receive the Manatal Open API, allowing them to build connections beyond that list.
For agencies and HR teams already using email, calendar, or assessment tools elsewhere, this marketplace is typically where the rollout begins, rather than as a separate project.
Manatal Security and Compliance
Manatal holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification and displays GDPR and CCPA compliance badges on its site. A Data Processing Addendum is available for customers who need a formal agreement for their compliance obligations.
Built-in controls manage data retention and consent according to GDPR, CCPA, and Thailand's PDPA. This is important for agencies operating across multiple regulatory regions. The compliance tools focus specifically on candidate data privacy, not on broader employment law.
Therefore, companies with specific labor requirements beyond data handling should confirm coverage directly with Manatal before considering it a complete compliance solution.
Manatal Reviews: Pros & Cons
Based on our research and verified user reviews from trusted review platforms like G2 and Capterra, here are the standout pros of Manatal:
- Ease of Use and Fast Setup: New users reported importing a candidate database and posting a first job within hours, with no formal training required.
- Affordable, Transparent Pricing: Cost compared to competitors comes up constantly as the reason people picked Manatal, with no hidden per-feature charges stacked on top of the tier price.
- Responsive Customer Support: Live chat and email support draw consistent praise for fast turnaround, backed by detailed training material and video walkthroughs.
- Flexible, Customizable Pipelines: Recruiters point to building a pipeline that matches their own process instead of working around a fixed template.
- Useful AI-Generated Candidate Summaries: AI-generated candidate overviews and enrichment data praised as a time-saver during first-pass screening.
Despite these strengths, the same user reviews reported several cons of Manatal that you should be aware of:
- AI Match Score Accuracy Declines on Complex Roles: Users reported match percentages are dependable for basic or junior roles. However, these match scores drop in accuracy for specialized or senior positions, where manual review is needed.
- Search and Filtering Create Rediscovery Friction: Filters can't be saved or shared, and archived candidates need restoring before they show up in a search, both of which slow down resurfacing a specific past applicant.
- Career Page Customization Is Limited: Design options stop at three templates, and broader language support beyond English and Spanish comes up as a recurring ask.
- Recruiter-Level Performance Reporting Is Thin: Tracking one recruiter's output against the team's means exporting data and building that metric outside the platform.
- No Dedicated Mobile App: Mobile access works through a browser rather than a native app, which shows up as a real gap for recruiters working mostly from a phone.
How Integrating Skima AI Can Handle Manatal's Limitations?
Manatal's AI scores candidates based on a job's requirements. However, match accuracy reportedly drops for specialized or senior-level roles. If you want to resurface a specific past candidate, you'll need to rebuild a search filter from scratch. This is because saved searches aren't supported, and you must restore archived profiles first.
To address these issues, most Manatal users integrate Skima AI for automated talent rediscovery, evidence-based screening and ranking. Here's what the integration provides:
- AI Screening for New Applicants: As candidates apply to a job synced from Manatal, Skima AI evaluates each resume against the role's actual requirements and returns a score built from cited evidence, resume excerpts, LinkedIn cross-references, and verified certifications, adding depth beyond a single match percentage for specialized and senior-level roles.
- Talent Rediscovery for Past Candidates: Skima AI scans a company's complete Manatal candidate database, including archived profiles, for people who fit a newly opened role, without a recruiter needing to restore records or rebuild a search filter each time.
- Explainable Match Scoring Behind Both: Every score comes with a written reason drawn from specific skills, years of experience, and certifications, rather than a single percentage, so a recruiter can see exactly why a candidate ranked where they did.
Executive placement agencies like Upgrade Resources have used this integration to keep Manatal's low-cost ATS setup while adding the deeper screening and full-database search that specialized hiring requires.
Who Is Manatal Best For?
Manatal is best for small recruitment agencies and lean HR teams, typically with fewer than 50 employees. The Professional plan's job and candidate limits align with what a small agency needs at launch.
The pricing is low enough to allow for a trial before finalizing a headcount plan. Mid-market companies transitioning from spreadsheets also fit here, often moving to the Enterprise plan once their candidate and job volume exceeds the Professional plan's limits.
Who Should Avoid Manatal?
Manatal's AI matching struggles with complex or senior-level hiring. This results in more manual reviews for recruiters, which the AI was meant to reduce. Agencies conducting various searches daily will find the lack of a saved-filter feature challenging.
Each search starts from scratch, and archived candidates must be restored before they can be accessed. A dedicated mobile app is essential for teams that primarily recruit from phones, and Manatal's browser-based mobile experience does not fully meet that need.
Final Verdict: Should You Buy Manatal?
Yes, if you're a small recruitment agency or lean HR team, you get a fully functional ATS and CRM at a lower price than most competitors, backed by a support team that resolves issues quickly.
However, Manatal lacks deeper AI screening for hard-to-fill roles and the ability to rediscover candidates without rebuilding searches each time. Integrating a Manatal account with Skima AI can fill this gap without needing to switch ATS platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is Manatal legit?
Yes, Manatal is a legitimate company serving more than thousands of recruitment teams across multiple countries, with SOC 2 Type 2 certification and a 14-day free trial.
2. What is Manatal used for?
HR teams and recruitment agencies use Manatal to post jobs across thousands of job boards, screen and score candidates with AI, manage client relationships, and track the full hiring process from sourcing to placement.
3. How much does Manatal cost?
Manatal costs $15 per user per month for the starting Professional plan (billed annually) and reaches $55 for Enterprise Plus, with a Custom plan available above that for dedicated integrations and support.
4. Does Manatal have AI features?
Yes, AI Recommendations scores and ranks candidates against job requirements, AI Candidate Enrichment builds profiles from social data, and the AI Interviewer conducts automated video screenings, though matching accuracy declines for complex or senior roles.
5. Does Manatal have a mobile app?
No. Instead, Manatal offers a browser-based mobile experience rather than a dedicated iOS or Android app, which covers reviewing pipelines and candidates on the go but falls short of the desktop version's full functionality.
6. How Skima AI handles the limitations of Manatal?
Skima AI adds explainable scoring, bias-aware shortlists, automated role-fit rules, audit trails, and analytics dashboards. Recruiters get faster screening, traceable decisions, and richer insights without replacing Manatal’s core ATS or workflows.
7. What AI-powered applicant tracking features does Manatal offer for recruitment teams and agencies?
Manatal applies AI at three points: AI Recommendations scores and ranks candidates against a job's requirements, AI Candidate Enrichment adds data from LinkedIn and 20-plus social and public platforms to each profile, and the AI Interviewer conducts automated video screenings for high-volume applicant pools.
8. How does Manatal use AI recommendations and LinkedIn sourcing for candidate screening?
AI Recommendations scores database candidates against a job's criteria, and a Chrome extension sources profiles from LinkedIn in one click. Match accuracy drops in specialized roles, which is why most users integrate Skima AI as a second screening layer, with cited evidence behind every score.
9. Does Manatal have Vietnamese language support?
Manatal's interface supports over 20 languages, but Vietnamese availability should be confirmed directly with Manatal's team before committing, since language coverage varies between the platform interface and the candidate-facing career page.
