Ashby is a paid, analytics-heavy ATS built for teams who need custom analytics and layered approval workflows. Dover is a free easy-to-use ATS built for startups. Here’s the full breakdown of what each costs, where each is stronger, and how to tell which one makes sense for you.
Key takeaways
- Dover's ATS has a free tier with unlimited jobs and users. The premium tier is $199/mo with no contracts - turn it on when you want more features.
- Ashby's price scales with your headcount, not your hiring volume, from $300-900+/month.
- Ashby has custom reporting; Dover doesn't. Dover gives you standard hiring reports, not a custom report builder.
- Ashby has far more permission levels and approval steps. That control is valuable at enterprise scale and mostly bureaucracy below it - Ashby users request approval for actions like creating a job.
- Dover keeps permissions to two levels - company and job. Use Dover's defaults or build custom permission sets, without working through pages of setup docs.
- Dover posts to more job boards - 100+ with your choice of where to post, against Ashby's 20+ job board integrations.
- Add-ons differ. Ashby sells Advanced Scheduling and its AI Notetaker separately; both are included on Dover's ATS Premium tier.
Pricing
Dover's ATS is available for free with unlimited seats and jobs. Dover's premium tier is no-contract and flexible - so when you need premium features, you can turn it on, and turn it off when you don't need the features or aren't currently hiring. Ashby starts at $300/month for small teams and gets expensive as your company grows, regardless of if you're hiring or not.
Ashby's tiers key off headcount, so the bill climbs as you grow whether or not you're actively hiring. Dover has a free tier, with a premium tier available when you want additional features during a hiring push - no contracts, monthly pricing.
Dover
$0-$199
per month - free tier, or premium with no contract
Free - unlimited users and jobs
- Candidate tracking and CRM
- 100+ job boards
- Gmail, Outlook, Slack integrations
- Careers page and candidate portal
- Reporting and analytics
- Sourcing
- Custom email, scorecards, and interview plans
Premium - $199/mo, everything free, plus
- AI Applicant Scoring
- AI Notetaker
- Advanced scheduling
- Post Basic Jobs to LinkedIn
- Bulk actions for emails and stage updates
- Candidate offer management
- Onboarding and premium support
Source: dover.com/pricing · verified August 2026
Ashby
$300-900+
per month, priced by company size
What you get
- Candidate tracking and CRM
- Custom reporting and report builder
- Granular access roles and approval workflows
- Structured interviewing and scorecards
- 20+ job board integrations
- Sourcing extension
- MCP server
Advanced Scheduling and the AI Notetaker are sold separately as add-ons, on top of your company-size tier.
Source: ashbyhq.com/pricing · verified August 2026
Features
Both products cover the ATS fundamentals - pipelines, job posting, scheduling, candidate records, and a CRM. The differences come down to which features are important to your business and the cost.
| Feature |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and getting started | ||
| Price | Free, or $199/mo premium with no contract | $300-900+/mo, priced by company size |
| Time to first job post | Minutes, self-serve signup | Sales call, then onboarding |
| Core ATS | ||
| Applicant tracking | Full pipeline, unlimited jobs and users | Full pipeline |
| Candidate CRM | Included | Included |
| Interview scheduling | Scheduling links free, advanced scheduling premium | Advanced Scheduling sold as an add-on |
| Permissions and approvals | ||
| Permission model | Company- and job-level permissions. Use defaults or build custom permission sets | Granular access roles across many permission types, provisioned per user |
| Approval workflows | No approval workflows. Set permissions for users | Approval needed for actions like creating a job |
| Sourcing and job boards | ||
| Job boards | 100+ job boards, you choose where to post | 20+ job board integrations |
| Sourcing | Free | Included in paid plans |
| AI, reporting, and data | ||
| AI notetaker | Included in premium | Sold as an add-on |
| Reporting | Standard hiring reports and analytics | Custom reporting and report builder |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
Dover leads on cost, speed to start, free sourcing, and job board reach; Ashby leads on custom reporting and approval workflows. Neither list is a knock on the other product - they're built for different companies. Approvals are the clearest example: layered sign-off is exactly what a large organization needs for control and audit, and exactly what slows a ten-person team down when someone just needs to open a role.
Try Dover's free ATS
Unlimited jobs and users, set up in minutes.
Which ATS fits
Which software makes sense for your company and budget?
Both are solid ATS platforms. The choice usually comes down to cost: whether you're paying for reporting depth and approval controls you'll actually use, or want something your whole team can pick up today for nothing.
Dover fits
Companies that want flexible hiring software
- Free - the ATS is free, with premium features available when you want them
- Easy to get started - self-serve signup and your first job posted in minutes, no implementation
- Flexible - unlimited jobs and users, and premium you can switch on and off as your hiring changes
- Easy to use - hiring managers and interviewers can pick it up without training
- Customizable - build interview plans, scorecards, and email templates around your unique hiring process
- Simple permissions - company- and job-level, with defaults that work on day one
You want to build a custom hiring process without the cost.
Ashby fits
Companies that want all the bells and whistles
- A budget for recruiting software - $300-900+/mo by company size, before add-ons
- Implementation up front - a sales call and onboarding before your first job goes live
- Built for scale - depth that pays off as headcount and hiring volume grow
- Someone to run hiring - an owner to assign permissions, create templates, and be the software expert
- Custom reporting - team members can build their own reporting that matters to them
- Layered approvals - granular access roles and approval steps, for control and audit at scale
You want the full toolkit, and you have the budget for it.
Why teams pick Dover
Dover's ATS is fantastic! It offers everything other ATS's offer but with a more appealing interface.
We use Dover to consolidate applications into one place, automate scheduling, and quickly filter candidates based on ideal characteristics. Hiring processes can be unorganized and frustrating, using Dover’s free ATS has been refreshing!
Dover has been one of the best user experiences in terms of intuitive navigation through the dashboards and display of information. And the support team has been the best I have ever experienced anywhere.
Dover made it super easy to manage all of our recruiting activities and allowed us to find our first engineers effortlessly. Having all of our recruiting functions taken care of in one platform was incredibly helpful and made it a breeze. Dover integrated seamlessly with Slack and made it effortless to get stared. I can’t say enough good things.
Dover's ATS has given us more time back to spend in the lab and the tools we need to build our team
Other Ashby alternatives
If neither fits, these are the platforms teams most often shortlist alongside Ashby.
FAQ
How much does Ashby cost?
Ashby prices by company size: $300/mo for 1-10 employees, $400/mo for 11-25, $500/mo for 26-50, $700/mo for 51-75, and $900/mo for 76-100. Above 100 employees there's no public pricing. Advanced Scheduling and the AI Notetaker are separate add-ons on top of your tier.
Is Ashby the most affordable recruiting software?
No. Ashby starts at $300/mo and rises with headcount, and it has no free plan. Dover's ATS is free with unlimited jobs and users, and premium is $199/mo with no contract - which makes it the cheaper option at any company size, though Ashby's custom reporting and approval workflows are what teams are paying for.
Does Ashby have a free plan?
No. Ashby's lowest tier is $300/mo. If you need an ATS that's free, Dover's free tier includes candidate tracking and CRM, 100+ job boards, custom interview plans, reporting, and sourcing.
Does Dover have custom reporting?
Not today. Dover gives you standard hiring reports and analytics covering your pipeline and funnel. If you need team members building their own custom reports, that's a genuine reason to pay for Ashby.
How do permissions work in Dover compared to Ashby?
Dover has two levels: company permissions and job permissions. You can use Dover's defaults or create custom permission sets and assign people to them. Ashby uses granular access roles that are provisioned per user across many permission types, which gives large organizations finer control but takes real setup before a team can start working.
Does Dover require approvals to create a job?
No. In Dover, anyone with the right permission opens a role directly. Ashby supports request-and-approve workflows for actions like job creation - useful when a large company needs sign-off and audit trails, and usually unnecessary overhead for a small or mid-sized team.
What are Ashby's pros and cons for a startup?
Pros: custom reporting, granular access roles, approval workflows, and strong scheduling for complex loops. Cons: no free plan, pricing that rises with headcount rather than hiring volume, key capabilities sold as add-ons, permission setup before your team can work, and a sales call before you can start.
Start hiring for free today
Unlimited jobs and users, sourcing included, set up in minutes.
Get started free
On accuracy: Pricing, plan tiers, and feature availability change often and without notice. Every figure here was checked against each vendor's public pricing and documentation in August 2026. Feature comparisons reflect generally available functionality, not beta or enterprise-only capability. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.