The best screening software for a solo recruiter
Most screening software roundups assume you have a team behind you. Here's what actually works when it's just you, a pile of resumes, and a card you can put a small monthly charge on.
AI summary
- Most 'best screening software' lists are priced and packaged for a hiring team: multiple seats, annual contracts, job caps that assume you're not reading the pile alone.
- The real test for a solo recruiter isn't features. It's whether you can set the tool up, run it, and get a ranked shortlist without adding a second user or signing a year-long contract.
- Truffle is a candidate screening platform that combines resume screening, one-way video interviews, and talent assessments, priced by the credit and built to run on a single seat.
Search “best screening software” and every list assumes the same buyer: a company with a hiring team, a budget owner, and someone to hand the pile to when it gets too big. Run the desk alone and half those recommendations are wrong for you before you’ve even opened a features page.
That’s the gap this guide fills. Not “best screening software,” but best for one person doing it by themselves, whether that’s an owner-operator who inherited hiring on top of running the business or a solo agency recruiter working a client book with no one to delegate to.
The tools below are the same ones you’ll find on every other candidate screening software list: resume screening, one-way video interviews, assessments, the full evaluation layer that turns a flooded inbox into a shortlist. What changes is the lens. We priced and tested each one against a single question: can you run this completely alone, without a second seat and without a year-long contract, starting this week?
The best screening software for a solo recruiter, at a glance
- Truffle: resume screening, one-way video interviews, and assessments in one credit-based plan built for a single seat, from $49/month
- Manatal: an affordable ATS with AI resume matching baked in, priced per user starting at $15/month
- Hireflix: one-way video interviews with unlimited seats and responses at a flat monthly rate, from $75/month
- Willo: a dedicated one-way interview platform built for teams, entry plan supports up to 4 users
- TestGorilla: skills assessments with a genuine free tier, paid plans require an annual commitment
- Spark Hire: video interviews and behavioral assessments sold separately, monthly plan caps at 5 jobs and 5 users
- HireVue: enterprise video interviewing and assessments, no public self-serve pricing
What “built for one person” actually tests for
Every tool above claims to help you screen candidates faster. The question that actually separates them for a solo desk is narrower: does the pricing model assume you’re the only one who’ll ever log in, or does it assume a team you don’t have?
Seats you’ll never fill
Willo’s entry plan, Growth, supports up to four users. That’s not a criticism of Willo. It’s built well for a small hiring team running interviews together, and you can read our full Willo breakdown for more detail. But if you’re one person, you’re paying into a seat structure designed for four, and the price reflects that scope even though you’ll only ever use one login.
Contracts before you know if it fits
TestGorilla’s free plan is genuinely useful (10 credits a month, five tests, one seat) but the moment you need more than that, the paid tier requires an annual commitment. Spark Hire’s Recruit ATS works the same way: every plan is sold as an annual contract.
Neither company is wrong to sell this way. Teams with predictable volume plan a year out. A solo recruiter screening in bursts, three roles this quarter and none the next, can’t always predict that far ahead.
Caps sized for a workload you don’t have
Spark Hire’s video interview plan caps the monthly option at five jobs and five users before pushing you to the $249-a-month annual tier. Five users is generous for a desk of one. But it tells you what the pricing was built around, and it’s not you.
None of this makes these tools bad. It means the packaging was designed around a buyer who isn’t you, and the price you pay reflects that mismatch whether you use the extra seats or not.
The 7 tools compared
| Tool | Best for | Seats on entry plan | Starting price | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truffle | Resume, video, and assessments in one, run solo | Unlimited (built for 1+) | $49/mo | Month to month |
| Manatal | A cheap ATS with AI resume matching | Priced per user | $15/user/mo (annual) | Monthly or annual |
| Hireflix | One-way video only, flat and simple | Unlimited | $75/mo (annual) | Monthly or annual |
| Willo | One-way video for a small hiring team | Up to 4 users | $209/mo (annual) | Monthly, annual, multi-year |
| TestGorilla | Skills assessments, has a real free tier | 1 seat (free) / 2 seats (paid) | Free, or $142/mo | Paid tier is annual only |
| Spark Hire | Video plus behavioral assessment, sold apart | Up to 5 users | $249/mo (annual) | Annual (ATS); monthly available for video |
| HireVue | Enterprise video interviewing at scale | Custom | ~$35,000+/yr (est.) | Multi-year, custom |
Prices reflect each vendor’s published self-serve rate as of this writing. HireVue’s pricing is not published. The figure above is a commonly cited estimate for its entry-level Essentials package, not a quoted price, so treat it as directional. Contact each vendor for current figures before you buy.
The tools, one at a time
Truffle
Truffle combines resume screening, one-way video interviews, and talent assessments in one credit-based plan. Every plan includes every feature. You’re not paying extra to get assessments or video once you’re on a paid tier. A resume review costs 1 credit, an assessed candidate costs 2, and a completed one-way interview costs 5, all drawn from one shared monthly pool.
Starter runs $49/month for 200 credits, roughly 1 to 3 roles a month depending on how you screen. There’s no per-seat charge and no annual minimum. The 7-day free trial comes with 30 credits and doesn’t ask for a card. See the full breakdown on the pricing page.
Manatal
Manatal is a lightweight ATS with AI candidate matching built in. At $15/user/month billed annually (up to 15 jobs, 10,000 candidates), it’s one of the cheapest ways to get resume ranking without a bare spreadsheet.
What it isn’t is a dedicated screening layer: there’s no one-way video interview or assessment product inside it. If your bottleneck is reading resumes, Manatal helps. If it’s watching interviews or evaluating judgment, it doesn’t touch that.
Hireflix
Hireflix does one thing: one-way video interviews, at a flat $75/month (Small plan, billed annually, under 50 employees) with unlimited seats and unlimited responses. No per-candidate fees, no job caps. It’s a genuinely solo-friendly price.
The tradeoff is scope: no resume screening, no assessments, no AI ranking of who to watch first. You’re still the one deciding who gets an interview invite and reading every response yourself. Our Spark Hire vs. Hireflix comparison has more on how the two video-only tools stack up.
Willo
Willo is a capable one-way interview platform, and its Growth plan runs $209/month billed annually with two assessments and up to four users included. That’s a fair price for a small hiring team. For one person, you’re carrying capacity you’ll never use, and the platform sits closer to $300/month once you need the Scale tier’s ten assessments.
TestGorilla
TestGorilla’s free tier (10 credits a month, five tests, one seat) is one of the only genuinely usable free options on this list for occasional, low-volume screening. Once you need more test variety or candidate volume, Core jumps to $142/month, but only as an annual commitment starting at $1,704/year. That’s a real cost to plan around before you know your hiring volume for the next twelve months. If assessments are your main gap, our guide to the best hiring assessments covers more options.
Spark Hire
Spark Hire sells video interviews and behavioral assessments as separate products, each starting at $299/month monthly or $249/month on an annual plan, with the monthly option capped at five jobs and five users. Its Recruit ATS is a different product entirely, priced from $335/month and sold only on annual contracts. Read our full Spark Hire review for the details. For a solo recruiter who wants pipeline tracking, video, and assessment in one place, that’s three separate purchase decisions instead of one.
HireVue
HireVue publishes no self-serve pricing. Third-party estimates put its entry-level Essentials package at roughly $35,000 a year, with Enterprise and Premium tiers running $50,000 to $145,000-plus, on top of implementation fees. It’s built for large hiring teams running high-volume AI recruiting software programs, not a desk of one. Include it here mainly so you know what you’re not comparing yourself against.
How to choose if you’re screening alone
Start with your actual volume, not the tool with the most features. The average time to fill a role in the US is 33.28 days, according to SHRM’s Human Capital Benchmarking research. If you’re filling one or two roles a quarter, month-to-month pricing and a real free tier matter more than a platform built for continuous, year-round hiring. If you’re running a steadier stream of roles, a credit or per-seat model that scales with volume beats a flat annual fee you’re locked into either way.
Then ask what’s actually eating your evenings. If it’s reading resumes, a matching-first tool like Manatal solves the immediate pain cheaply, and our resume parser software roundup covers more options in that lane. If it’s the back-and-forth of scheduling calls with people who turn out not to be a fit, a one-way interview tool like Hireflix or Willo replaces that step. If it’s all of it, resumes, interviews, and judgment on temperament or work style, a single combined platform avoids stitching three subscriptions and three logins together to answer one question: who’s actually worth your time this week.
This is the gap Truffle was built to close, and it’s why we built screening software for small businesses instead of another team-first ATS. You choose which combination fits each role (resume screening alone, resume plus a one-way interview, all three) and everything runs against one pool of credits on one seat. There’s no team plan to grow into and no assessment add-on to buy later.
What actually changes when you’re not screening alone
The staffing industry runs on small operations more than the “agency” label suggests. The American Staffing Association counts around 27,000 staffing and recruiting companies in the US operating close to 54,000 offices combined, which works out to roughly two offices per company on average. Most of this industry isn’t a floor of recruiters. It’s small setups, often one or two people, doing real placement volume without the headcount the tools assume.
Software that prices around seats you’ll never fill isn’t just a bad deal. It’s a signal you’re the wrong customer for that product, whatever the features page promises. The better question to bring to any “best of” list isn’t which tool has the most integrations. It’s whether the pricing model was built for someone doing this job the way you actually do it: alone, on a card, one role at a time.
Frequently asked questions about screening software for solo recruiters
Do I need an ATS or a screening tool if I’m hiring alone?
They solve different problems. An ATS like Manatal or JazzHR tracks candidates through pipeline stages. A screening tool evaluates them: reading resumes, running interviews, scoring against your criteria. At low volume, a screening tool alone often covers what you need, since you’re the only one who needs to see where a candidate stands.
What’s the cheapest way to screen candidates as a solo recruiter?
TestGorilla’s free tier and Truffle’s $49/month Starter plan are the two lowest-commitment options on this list, both without an annual contract. Which one fits depends on your bottleneck. TestGorilla covers skills testing only. Truffle covers resume review, one-way interviews, and assessments in the same plan.
Can I get real screening software without signing an annual contract?
Yes, though the options narrow. Truffle, Manatal, and Hireflix all publish month-to-month pricing. TestGorilla’s paid tier and Spark Hire’s ATS require an annual commitment. Only their free and video-only tiers offer flexibility without one.
Is one-way video interviewing worth it if I’m hiring alone?
It earns its place on roles that pull a large, loosely qualified pool, since a short recorded answer replaces a scheduling back-and-forth for people who don’t end up being a fit. For a role with a thin candidate pool where you want to talk to nearly everyone anyway, you can skip video and screen on resumes and an assessment instead.
Every plan on this list is month-to-month or has a free tier except where noted. If you’re screening alone, start a free Truffle trial with 30 credits and no card required, and see whether resumes, one-way interviews, or both actually clear your evenings faster.
