--- title: "CATS Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of CATS. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if CATS is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/recruiting-agency/cats-ats-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Recruiting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/recruiting-software-comparison/) / [CATS](https://www.softwareadvice.com/recruiting-agency/cats-ats-profile/) / CATS Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/recruiting-agency/cats-ats-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/recruiting-agency/cats-ats-profile/alternatives/) # CATS User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.2/5 - Total reviews: 144 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.3/5 - Customer support: 4.3/5 - Value for money: 4.3/5 - Functionality: 4.1/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 65 reviews (45%) - 4 stars: 57 reviews (40%) - 3 stars: 16 reviews (11%) - 2 stars: 5 reviews (3%) - 1 star: 1 reviews (1%) ### Most mentioned cons - Good, easy system, but support lacking and next to zero AI. - It's not a great solution for hiring managers or in-house teams. ## CATS customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 144 (page 1). ### CATS: Easy to Use, But Customer Service Falls Short - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Cara D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I would say my experience has been positive until the last year. We are still using CATS and it has been great but since we are growing we need an ATS company that we can grow with. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like the ease of use, it's easy for my employees to understand and adjust to certain things. I love the buttons and how they function within a workflow, especially how we use them in our company. The videos provided are definitely helpful as well. #### Cons My main issue recently has been the customer service. They responded to most of my questions but there was a big thing I needed answered/help with and I ended up reaching out 3 times and still never received a response. This resulted into searching for a new ATS platform as I need a company that we can grow with. #### Reasons for choosing CATS I was referred to CATS which led me to use their systme. #### Reasons for switching to CATS I was having issues with my emails being received from CATS --- ### Without CATs I'm not sure how we would manage - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Benjamin J. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Excellent, the sales and support staff are always on point. I hate calling tech support in general, but really don't mind with CATs. Always affable and helpful. We have yet to have an issue that wasn't promptly resolved by the CATs tech support. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Ease of in-house communication and interoperability. Each user can easily see the work of their colleagues which cuts down on a huge amount of unnecessary communication. We can seamlessly take over each other's work when colleagues are on leave or otherwise busy. The application portals are very easy to use and the workflow is intuitive and useful. Honestly, I'm not sure how we could manage with such a lean HQ staff without having CATs. #### Cons The only con I can identify with CATs is their search algorithm. The Boolean search functions can be improved. For example, if I'm looking for an "Education in Emergencies Specialist" within my database and search for this phrase using the Boolean quotation marks I will occasionally get results that identify anyone who has the word "in" somewhere in their resume. Yes, I also get "Education in Emergencies Specialists" but also a lot of people with completely irrelevant CVs. Some of this is mitigated by using the tags, lists, and custom fields but sometimes weird results are populated. Again, this is really the only issue I have with CATs and I'm really nit picking here. I don't find this to be a significant impediment to my work, and the pros heavily outweigh this one con. #### Reasons for choosing CATS I wasn't involved with that process. #### Reasons for switching to CATS The previous database solution was no longer supported. --- ### Better than average product, best in class customer service - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Erik B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Better than other ATS I have used. Since this is a recruiting and staffing tool, making it as simple as possible is a best practice since we need quick access to notes for reference more than any other functionality. It provides this quickly and efficiently. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros -Responsive customer service -Idiot-proofed functionality -Mobile experience has 90%+ of the full functionality #### Cons -Latest upgrade to Nala was clumsy and left some very obvious bugs in for release --- ### CATS was a Godsend - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Valonda B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Transportation/ Trucking/ Railroad - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. We appreciate being able to unify our process, helping streamline our process, provide our applicants with a consistent experience, identifying where our good candidates are coming from and unifying our recruiting team and efforts. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I appreciated the support through the set up process and the responsiveness of the team to our beginning processes. There is so much customization for your workflow and we have appreciated all of the improvements to the system over the time we have used it. (over 6 years) #### Cons Honestly - it's really hard find things we don't like about the software. Support has been great about helping us to work around things we thought we wanted. #### Reasons for choosing CATS Simplicity - ease of set up and experience with the sales and support team #### Reasons for switching to CATS We had very little support with the last system and many glitches! --- ### Long time user - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jeff H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Human Resources - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I switched to CATS more than a decade ago when it was a free beta program. It has been a part of my business on an almost daily basis. It's comfortable and hard to imagine switching to something different. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Great interface, comfortable to use. Becomes familiar quickly. Grown with the software. #### Cons No ability to drag and drop related emails or documents into a a candidate or client record. #### Reasons for choosing CATS Familiarity and interface. Like the ability to customize workflow #### Reasons for switching to CATS At the time, it was free and had a better interface. --- ### Excellent ATS Option - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Amber W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We went from using the same ATS for over 17 years when we decided to make the change to CATS. It’s modern, sleek, easy to use and customer support is very easy to understand and knowledgeable. #### Cons I do wish there was a platform versus it being web based. #### Reasons for choosing CATS Cost, functionality and more. #### Reasons for switching to CATS Ready for something better that could support modern recruitment styles. --- ### I love CATS - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Marc B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Human Resources - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It is intuitive and easy to use. It has all the functionality of a large CRM in a great software that is affordable #### Cons Have not found any yet. I would like a couple other calendaring functions but just a minor change would be it. #### Reasons for switching to CATS Gopher is heavy, slow and has no LI interface. Plus it was installed vs cloud based. --- ### CATS has been such a help so far! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alexis P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Accounting - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. We have been using CATS since May 2019 and so far I love it! We are a smaller - midsize company and I had been looking for an ATS that would help to make my recruiting process smoother. As the only recruiter here, I needed something to help streamline my process, hold all the candidates information, generate reports and make it easy to know what steps I am in during the process. So far it's everything we have been looking for! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The SMS Feature Easy job posting Quick Customer service Quickly able to look at the candidates profile Website to host your jobs, makes applying for the candidate easier #### Cons The learning curve, but that comes with any software. #### Reasons for choosing CATS Overall it was due to CATS having every option I was looking for. --- ### CATS - Great value CRM for small businesses - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Dana H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. CATS was always easy to work with. Great customer service. I always got a reply within a day of my inquiry. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 2/5 #### Pros CATS is very cost-effective and easy to use. It was my first CRM for my business and it's was a great starting CRM. #### Cons There were limited CRM features for scheduling and communicating with candidates. I also needed a CRM with a really strong Search function. CRM wasn't as strong there. --- ### Affordable, Simple, Flawed - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Bill B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used unspecified for unspecified - Reviewed: May 2014 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I’m approaching two years with CATS and have reviewed and demoed many other ATS’s including iCIMS, JobVite, The Applicant Manager, AcquireTM and the Monster Talent Management Suite. Bottom line up front: This is a solid choice for new firms on a budget who have low customer service expectations and no need for a reporting capability. The first thing that appealed to me about CATS was that it gave me a free 30-day trial that didn't hold back the bells and whistles. I had access to every feature from the moment I signed up. It was the most intuitive of all the products I demoed. I didn't need a salesperson to walk me through each section (something that I would have been hindered by with the other products). The default customization was nearly perfect and I was able to easily make the few tweaks that my workflow required. I uploaded my stash of resumes, posted my open job orders and started moving candidates through the hiring process. It was simple. Other CATS features - Want to allow candidates apply through LinkedIn or Indeed? Check. Want to push jobs to your company Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page? Check. Mass emails, automatic emails, job sharing with hiring managers, integration with Outlook and Word, a customizable jobs website? Check. CATS is set up for both corporate and agency recruiting. The two main negatives are customer service and reporting. Customer service is about what you’d expect from a budget firm. Some questions I sent through email were ignored and some were returned with one-word answers. The reporting capability is a bit scary for anyone who might need to generate an AAP/EEO report. The detail just isn’t there and CATS is either unwilling or unable to generate a custom report with the necessary data. #### Pros Affordable, Intuitive #### Cons Customer service, reporting --- ### CATS - AS AN HRIS SYSTEM...it's not just for recruiting anymore - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Darlamae S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Human Resources - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have multiple clients and can easily adapt CATS to meet their kooky HR and workforce planning and job posting, ATS needs. It allows me to uniquely tailor my client's portals and documentation and electronic communication needs form job posting to off boarding. No other software program out there does what CATS does...I know I've tried them all including Bamboo HR, Zenefits, HR Direct Apps to name three that don't compare to CATS. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros All the cool customization that I control to meet both me and my clients HR and full cycle recruitment needs. Tech support is awesome and always there to help answer questions and problem solve. #### Cons Perhaps the ability to include I9 and W4 electronic onboarding so I can stop using DocuSign. #### Reasons for choosing CATS I have been using CATS exclusively since 2007 when I needed an ATS system and CATS has made incredible technology advancements over the years that has grown with me and my mobile HR and payroll practice. Thank YOU..CATS development team! --- ### Easy to Use but definitely things to fix still - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Carla P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: December 2017 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros It has a simple step by step use, quick start and easy to load everytime - Anyone with internet/Social media user knowledge can get it in no time #### Cons Big issues with different files formats to view without having to download it - Search bar is not the best, it can be definitely better. Search results for candidates or jobs is definitely as accurate as it could/should be --- ### Consider chat / phone support non-existent. - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Product usage: Used unspecified for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2015 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We have had these company for over 3 years, and same story every time. They will help in how the system works , but if it's broke or start to function or report differently from month to month, they will shrug it off and say its supposed to be like this . Also be aware then what is in reporting isn't quite true for reports. Its a mess. so don't rely on reports from them #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 1/5 #### Pros Its cheap. Works well. Just don't trust reports. And if your ok with defensive limited tech support, then cats is for you. #### Cons Terrible consistency , terrible reports , and defensive tech support reps. --- ### Best candidate tracking software I've ever used! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Renee K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer & Network Security - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Amazing. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love the update, the interface, ease of access, export ability, user management and integration with email and other apps. #### Cons There's nothing I don't like! The one time I had an issue, the help desk team had it fixed within an hour. #### Reasons for choosing CATS N/A --- ### Great Software for Your Talent Team - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Mikey W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Human Resources - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have used a lot of CRM/ATS programs in my recruiting history and this is one of the better ones. I use it all day, everyday and find it pretty easy to maneuver. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It is user-friendly, the display is great, there is a lot of help built into the software, the search features are strong, sending e-campaigns is easy, customer service gets back to you quickly. #### Cons It doesn't have the power to undo some things like recent merges. It also doesn't always tell you when you add an email or phone number to a profile if that matches up to someone else already in there. --- ### Everchanging platform with endless capabilities - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Justin B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: March 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros staff is continually upgrading integrations; database is totally customizable - can search anything - great for a number of users, and autojob posting is great. #### Cons Needs better identification and merging of duplicate contacts. Hard to cleanup - also, needs better Nurture auto-email functions. Text integration would make this a slam dunk product as well. --- ### Excellent product and support - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Derek O. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Health, Wellness and Fitness - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have been very please with the value of CATS. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The customization ability to create my workflow the way I want it. And the fast customer service responses. #### Cons I would like to be able to have more email functionality within the application: forward a message, ability to CC people on emails. #### Reasons for choosing CATS Best value and customization. --- ### It was ok - Overall rating: 2/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Human Resources - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used other for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Easy to manage clients, leads, and resumes. I think that this program is good just for the basics. No advance recruiting. #### Cons It just wasn't a lot of ability to customize compared to its competitors. Good for the price. #### Vendor response Hi there! We appreciate you taking the time to review CATS! We would love more information on what you would like to be able to customize. We believe that customizability is the very foundation of our software! So we'd love to know: What customization would you add to the system to make it the best it could be? Replied August 2019 --- ### Fits like a glove - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tom B. - Industry: Management Consulting - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2017 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. The product is easy to use, cost effective and works for small to mid sized staffing or consulting firms. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Common sense layout - intuitive dashboards - easy to build pipelines. Bulk parsing is excellent as is the email integration. #### Cons Reporting is not at the level I need for my reporting requirements. Some basic reports are not easy (if at all) to create. --- ### Candidates Galore - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Rebecca K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Construction - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros This system really funneled in the candidates - loved the color functions that show you where your candidates were in the recruiting to hire process. #### Cons Did not like how it scrubbed - we missed a few good candidates because it scrubbed too much from resumes. --- ### Great ATS solution for our small company! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Megan C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used unspecified for unspecified - Reviewed: June 2014 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered CATS is clean, modern, easy to use, quick to learn, and has a few quirks (like anything else), but the CATS support staff is helpful at working through those. This is the first browser-based ATS we have used, and we love it. It is nice to be able to access CATS from home, work, phone, and anywhere! The email integration is a plus, and it's nice how CATS seamlessly integrates with social media and job posting services to share your jobs with the public. Being able to customize fields, workflows, and the job portal is the absolute best part of CATS! The pricing is right, and this has been an overall great solution for our small company. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 --- ### CATS is great! Highly recommend - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Barb A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2018 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We use CATS in 2 of our companies. I have used it in other companies too and also tried other ATS vendors. CATS is so easy to use. Open and broadcast jobs, candidate ranking and submission to hiring managers. Easy dashboard to view activity in real time and more. Plus, if I have ever had questions, the support team and my rep are highly responsive. #### Cons N/a - exceptional value and pricing. I find it more efficient and easier to use that other ATS systems I have used. Our businesses do high volume recruiting but I have also used it in a different company and found it great for souring and recruiting for specialized positions. --- ### excellent crm platform for the Value - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Paul O. - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Love the system #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros easy to use and customize I like the most some capabilities of adding the candidates to the system and be able to send email and schedule meeting with several users #### Cons I would like to add text feature to it as well as schedule updates by email , not only on the calensdar --- ### Great Applicant Tracking Program - Overall rating: 4.5/5 - Reviewer: Caren R. - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Product usage: Used unspecified for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2015 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4.5/5 - Customer support: 4.5/5 - Functionality: 4.5/5 #### Pros I have used CATS since before they started to charge for their product. I find it easy to use and the support excellent. As a recruiter, I want to be able to find candidates easily and have resumes parsed into the system effortlessly. #### Cons I would like to have some small additional add ons like being able to add additional colors to the work flow process.. I also would like to be able to send resumes to my clients for review. --- ### Appnovation Technologies - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Emma M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used unspecified for unspecified - Reviewed: May 2014 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Our staff has used many different ATS's but none have impressed us like CATS. The customer service is by far the best in the industry. Its easy to implement, learn and teach. The email integration is a huge bonus too. When I needed something they didn't have, the CATS team customized a solution without a bat of an eye. I highly recommend CATS to any company small-large. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/recruiting-agency/cats-ats-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- CATS Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice