The best VIVAHR alternatives are CareerPlug, isolved Talent Acquisition, Breezy HR, JazzHR, Zoho Recruit, JuggleHire, Reqcore, and Manatal.
**One thing to know before you compare anything: VIVAHR rebranded to AvaHR in April 2025.**¹ Same company, same product, new name — if you're seeing "AvaHR" on review sites and wondering if it's a different tool, it isn't. This article uses both names since most people still search "VIVAHR alternatives."
Short on time? Top VIVAHR (AvaHR) alternatives:
- CareerPlug or isolved Talent Acquisition — for franchise and multi-location small businesses that want a similar audience-fit tool with a longer free trial.
- Breezy HR or Zoho Recruit — for a genuine free tier instead of AvaHR's 7-day trial.
- JazzHR — for a flat, predictable small-business price with no per-location math.
- JuggleHire — for the cheapest flat-team-price option, built specifically to undercut AvaHR.
- Reqcore or Manatal — for AI screening included from the entry plan, instead of gated behind AvaHR's $332/month Premium tier.
This article discloses upfront: it is written by Joachim Kolle, the person behind Reqcore, which is included below. Reqcore is not ranked first by default — it is placed where it genuinely fits, and the article says plainly where a competitor is the better choice.
AvaHR is a solid, well-reviewed ATS for very small teams that mainly need to post jobs to multiple boards and manage a pipeline in one place — Capterra and G2 both put it around 4.8–4.9 out of 5.² But three specific things send AvaHR shoppers looking elsewhere: the name change causing confusion about whether the product is even still supported, AI candidate scoring being locked to the $332/month Premium plan, and a 7-day trial that's short for testing a full hiring cycle.
Comparison table
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (as of July 2026) | Free plan or trial | Job/user limits shown? | AI screening included? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIVAHR / AvaHR | Simple multi-board job posting for small teams | $99/mo (Lite) | 7-day trial, no free plan | Lite: 3 jobs, 1 user, 1 location | Premium tier ($332/mo) only |
| CareerPlug | Franchise & multi-location small business hiring | ~$50/location/mo est., quote required | Demo only, no self-serve trial | Not published | Limited, add-on/plan-dependent |
| isolved Talent Acquisition | SMB/mid-market with payroll/HRIS ties | Quote-based, often <$200/mo | 30-day free trial, no card, no contract | Not published | Via higher packages |
| Breezy HR | Simple visual SMB pipeline | Free (1 job) to ~$157/mo (Startup) | Free Bootstrap plan | 1 job free; paid tiers by job volume | Paid add-on (Breezy Intelligence) |
| JazzHR | Flat-fee small-business ATS | ~$75/mo (Hero) to $299/mo (Pro) | No free plan | Hero capped at 3 jobs | No |
| Zoho Recruit | Budget teams, especially existing Zoho users | Free (1 job) to ~$25/user/mo | Free plan for 1 job/1 user | Free tier explicitly 1 job | Paid tiers only |
| JuggleHire | Cheapest flat-team-price option | $79/mo (Light, 5 members) | 14-day trial, card required | 5 members / 5,000-candidate database on Light | Yes, AI ranking on both plans |
| Reqcore | High applicant volume, EU data ownership | Free to start | Free until your first shortlist, no card required | No job cap; scales with applicant volume | Yes, on every plan |
| Manatal | Lean teams and recruiting agencies | $15/user/mo (Professional, annual) | No free tier | 15 jobs / 10,000 candidates on Professional | Yes, from entry tier |
Sources for pricing are linked next to each claim in the sections below. CareerPlug and isolved Talent Acquisition do not publish list prices; those figures are third-party estimates, dated, and should be confirmed directly with the vendor before you buy.
Why look for a VIVAHR (AvaHR) alternative?
AvaHR is genuinely liked by the small businesses it's built for — reviewers consistently praise the ease of use, the ability to blast a job to 50+ boards in one click, and responsive support.² The reasons people go shopping are specific:
- The rebrand itself creates doubt. Searches for "VIVAHR" still outnumber "AvaHR," and enough buyers land on old VIVAHR references that some assume the product was discontinued or acquired. It wasn't — it's the same team, same platform, new name.¹
- AI candidate scoring is gated behind the top tier. AvaHR's AI job scoring, AI candidate scoring, and AI job-description generator are Premium-only features, starting at $332/month.³ A team with a genuine applicant-volume problem — the reason most people want AI screening in the first place — has to jump two tiers up from the $99 Lite plan to get it.
- Constant upsell prompts. A recurring theme in G2 reviews is that the product nudges users to upgrade frequently during normal use, which some find intrusive rather than helpful.²
- No mobile app, and no fillable PDF application forms. For teams hiring on the go or that want a real fillable application (not just a link to a generic form), these are recurring, specific gaps in reviews.²
- Candidate volume from job-board distribution can be inconsistent. Some reviewers report getting noticeably fewer applicants through AvaHR's multi-posting than they got manually posting directly on a board like Indeed — worth testing during your trial rather than assuming reach automatically improves.²
- The 7-day trial is short. That's barely enough time to post a role, collect applications, and run one interview round before you have to decide whether to pay.
Close swaps: SMB job-board and hiring ATS
These tools serve the same buyer as AvaHR — a small business or franchise operator who mainly needs to post jobs everywhere at once and manage a simple pipeline, not a full recruiting suite.
1. CareerPlug
CareerPlug targets almost exactly AvaHR's audience — small businesses and multi-location franchises (staffing, retail, home services) that hire on a recurring basis.
Best for: Multi-location or franchise small businesses that want per-location hiring performance data, not just a shared inbox.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Built specifically for multi-location hiring, with per-location reporting | No public pricing at all — quote-based, typically with a 12-month commitment |
| Strong applicant-tracking basics with a simple hiring-manager view | No self-serve free trial, demo only |
| Good fit for franchise brands standardizing hiring across locations | AI screening is limited or plan-dependent |
Pricing: CareerPlug does not publish list prices; third-party estimates put per-location costs around $50/month, rising with users and features. Confirm directly with CareerPlug's sales team before budgeting.
2. isolved Talent Acquisition (formerly ApplicantPro)
isolved Talent Acquisition (the product most people still know as ApplicantPro) is a similar SMB-focused ATS, now part of the isolved HR/payroll ecosystem.
Best for: Small businesses that may eventually want the ATS tied into payroll and HRIS, or that want a longer trial before committing.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 30-day free trial, full-featured, no card and no contract required — four times AvaHR's 7-day trial | Pricing is entirely quote-based; no published tiers |
| Ties cleanly into isolved's broader payroll/HR suite if you use it | Heavier product than a single-location small business may need |
| Reported average spend under $200/month for smaller clients | AI features are part of higher packages, not the base plan |
Pricing: isolved Talent Acquisition uses custom, employee-count-based quotes; industry estimates put typical small-business spend under $200/month. Confirm current terms with isolved before you buy.
3. Breezy HR
Breezy HR trades AvaHR's per-location, per-tier job caps for a simpler visual Kanban pipeline and a real free entry tier.
Best for: Small teams that want AvaHR's basic shape — post a job, manage a pipeline — but need to start for free.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free Bootstrap plan for one active job, no time limit | AI screening (Breezy Intelligence) is a separate, credit-based add-on, similar to AvaHR gating AI |
| 100+ job-board integrations | Less multi-location/franchise reporting depth than CareerPlug |
| GDPR-ready compliance tooling | Paid tiers scale by job volume, so cost climbs as you hire for more roles at once |
Pricing: Breezy HR's free Bootstrap plan covers one active job; paid plans start around $157/month (Startup, billed annually) and scale with job volume. See the full Breezy HR alternatives guide for more detail on this comparison.
4. JazzHR
JazzHR strips things back to a conventional flat-fee small-business ATS — no per-location pricing, no franchise reporting layer, just job posting, pipelines, and reporting.
Best for: Small businesses that want one predictable flat price instead of AvaHR's per-tier job and location caps.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Flat account pricing — unlimited users, not per-seat or per-location | Hero plan's 3-job cap matches AvaHR's Lite plan almost exactly |
| Straightforward, familiar ATS workflow | No AI screening at any tier |
| Lower entry price than AvaHR's Plus tier | No franchise/multi-location reporting like CareerPlug |
Pricing: JazzHR lists Hero at roughly $75/month, rising to Pro at $299/month, billed annually.
Budget-first alternatives
Pick from this group if AvaHR's pricing — or the fact that AI screening only shows up at $332/month — is the actual trigger for shopping around.
5. Zoho Recruit
Zoho Recruit is the true free option in this list, with an ongoing free plan rather than a trial that expires after 7 days.
Best for: Cost-conscious teams, especially ones already using other Zoho products.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan for 1 active job and 1 user, no time limit — AvaHR has no free plan at all | Free tier has no resume parsing or integrations |
| Paid tiers start around $25/user/month | Full AI candidate matching is limited to higher tiers, echoing AvaHR's own AI gating |
| Deep integration across the wider Zoho ecosystem | Less job-board reach out of the box than AvaHR's 50+ board network |
Pricing: Zoho Recruit is free for one active job; paid annual plans start around $25 per user per month.
6. JuggleHire
JuggleHire is built and marketed explicitly as a cheaper AvaHR alternative, with flat per-team pricing instead of per-seat costs.⁴
Best for: Small teams that want the lowest total monthly cost and don't need AvaHR's job-board breadth.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Flat price covers the whole team — adding a recruiter doesn't raise the bill | Trial requires a credit card upfront, unlike some competitors' no-card trials |
| AI candidate ranking included on both plans, unlike AvaHR's Premium-only gating | Newer, smaller vendor with a thinner integration marketplace than AvaHR or Zoho Recruit |
| Light plan at $79/month undercuts AvaHR's $99 Lite plan while including AI ranking | 5,000-candidate database cap on the Light plan |
Pricing: JuggleHire lists Light at $79/month (5 team members, 5,000-candidate database) and Pro at $149/month (unlimited members and database, automation, GDPR tooling).
AI screening for high-volume applicant review
Pick from this group when the real bottleneck isn't posting jobs — it's reviewing more applications than your team can read by hand, without paying AvaHR's Premium-tier price to get AI help with that.
7. Reqcore
Reqcore is a cloud ATS built for teams that receive more applications than they can realistically review manually. It parses every incoming resume, ranks candidates against the role, and shows the reasoning behind each score — AI screening is a core feature on every plan, not a $332/month unlock.
Best for: Teams whose real AvaHR complaint is that AI scoring is locked behind Premium, or that want AI included without the multi-location/franchise features AvaHR and CareerPlug focus on.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| AI screening and per-criterion reasoning included on every plan, including free | No multi-board job-posting network as wide as AvaHR's 50+ boards |
| Free to start, no card required, priced by applicant volume rather than job/location tiers | Younger product, smaller integration marketplace than AvaHR or Zoho Recruit |
| Open-source core with a self-hosted deployment option, relevant for data-residency requirements | Not built as a franchise/multi-location hiring tool |
Honest fit: Don't choose Reqcore to replace AvaHR's job-board distribution reach or CareerPlug's franchise reporting — those are genuinely stronger there. Reqcore fits the slice of AvaHR's audience whose actual pain is a large applicant pool to review, without paying for AvaHR's top tier just to get AI scoring. Self-hosting is a real option, not the headline pitch, for teams that specifically need it.
Pricing: Free until your first shortlist, no card required; paid usage scales with applicant volume rather than job or location tiers. Read more on self-hosted versus cloud ATS and why data ownership matters in recruiting.
8. Manatal
Manatal combines an ATS, AI candidate scoring, and a lightweight recruiting CRM, priced per user rather than by job-slot or location tier.
Best for: Lean in-house teams or small agencies that want AI scoring included from the entry tier, without AvaHR's location-based pricing structure.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| AI scoring included from the Professional tier, not gated to a $332/mo top plan | No free tier, unlike Zoho Recruit or Reqcore |
| $15/user/month (Professional, annual) is well under AvaHR's Premium price for AI features | Professional tier caps at 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates |
| Agency/staffing CRM features AvaHR doesn't target | Cost still rises with recruiter headcount, unlike JazzHR's flat pricing |
Pricing: Manatal lists Professional at $15/user/month, Enterprise at $35/user/month, and Enterprise Plus at $55/user/month, all billed annually. Checked July 2026.
What to consider before switching
- If your complaint is that AI screening costs $332/month on AvaHR — Reqcore, Manatal, and JuggleHire all include AI candidate ranking well below that price, some from a free or $79/month starting point.
- If you specifically hire across multiple locations or franchise units — CareerPlug is the closest like-for-like swap with per-location reporting AvaHR doesn't offer.
- If price predictability matters more than anything else — JazzHR's flat account pricing and JuggleHire's flat team pricing both remove the per-seat, per-location math AvaHR and CareerPlug use.
- If you want a real free tier to test with, not a 7-day clock — Zoho Recruit and Breezy HR both have ongoing free plans; isolved Talent Acquisition's 30-day trial is the longest no-card option here.
- If you found this article because you thought VIVAHR shut down — it didn't. It's AvaHR now, same product, same team.¹ That alone isn't a reason to switch.
Choose VIVAHR (AvaHR) if...
Choose AvaHR if you're a small, single- or few-location business that mainly needs to post jobs to many boards at once and manage a simple pipeline, your hiring volume fits within the Lite or Plus job caps, and you're comfortable paying extra for AI scoring only once you're ready to commit to the $332/month Premium tier.
Choose another tool if...
- Choose CareerPlug or isolved Talent Acquisition for the closest multi-location or franchise-hiring match.
- Choose Breezy HR or Zoho Recruit when you want to start on a genuinely free plan instead of a 7-day trial.
- Choose JazzHR or JuggleHire when flat, predictable pricing matters more than job-board breadth.
- Choose Reqcore or Manatal when AI screening for a large applicant pool is the actual problem, not job-posting reach.
FAQ
Is VIVAHR still around, or did it shut down?
It's still around — it rebranded to AvaHR in April 2025.¹ Same company, same platform, new name. If you see "AvaHR" on Capterra or G2, that's the current name for the product formerly called VIVAHR.
What is the best free VIVAHR/AvaHR alternative?
Zoho Recruit has a genuine free plan for one active job and one user. Reqcore is free until your first shortlist, with no card required, and doesn't cap you at a single job. Breezy HR also has a free Bootstrap plan for one active job.
What is the best open-source alternative to VIVAHR/AvaHR?
Reqcore is the only tool in this comparison with an open-source core and a self-hosted deployment option.
Which VIVAHR/AvaHR alternative is best for franchises or multi-location hiring?
CareerPlug is purpose-built for multi-location and franchise hiring, with per-location reporting AvaHR doesn't offer. isolved Talent Acquisition is a close second if you also want payroll/HRIS ties.
Does AvaHR include AI candidate screening?
Only on its Premium plan, starting at $332/month — AI job scoring, AI candidate scoring, and an AI job-description generator are not available on the Lite or Plus tiers.³ Reqcore, Manatal, and JuggleHire all include some form of AI ranking at a lower price point.
Does AvaHR offer a free trial?
Yes — a 7-day free trial, but no ongoing free plan. That's shorter than isolved Talent Acquisition's 30-day trial or the always-free tiers on Zoho Recruit and Breezy HR. Confirm current trial length directly with AvaHR since terms change without notice.
¹ AvaHR's own rebrand announcement: avahr.com/vivahr-is-now-avahr, dated April 2025. ² Based on aggregated review data for AvaHR (formerly VIVAHR) on Capterra and G2, checked July 2026. ³ AvaHR's pricing page lists AI job scoring, AI candidate scoring, and an AI job-description generator as Premium-tier features; Lite and Plus do not include them. Checked July 2026 — confirm current tier features directly with AvaHR before buying. ⁴ JuggleHire's VivaHR comparison page positions the product directly against VIVAHR/AvaHR on price.