RecruitiFi is an agency management platform - a vendor management system, or VMS, that brings the search firms and staffing agencies you already use onto one contract, one workflow, and one invoice, across permanent hiring, contingent workers, and statement-of-work projects, at no license cost to you. Dover’s Expert Marketplace connects you with senior startup operators who work at their own published rates, hourly or on retainer, inside your own free ATS. Here’s what each costs, where each is stronger, and how to tell which one fits how you hire.
Key takeaways
- RecruitiFi manages agencies; it doesn't replace them. It's a vendor management system (VMS) - a system of record for the search firms and staffing agencies you already use, with a 20,000+ agency marketplace and AI-driven matching layered on.
- RecruitiFi covers three kinds of hiring, not just full-time roles. Direct Placement for permanent hires through agencies, Contingent Workforce Management for contractors and 1099 workers, and Statement of Work for project-based work.
- RecruitiFi's platform is free; the agencies still charge a percentage of salary. There's no license or implementation cost to the employer - RecruitiFi is funded out of the placement fees your agencies earn, and you pay those fees.
- Dover's experts are paid for their time, not a slice of the salary. Engagements are hourly, on retainer, on contingency, or project based - agreed with the expert directly, with no platform markup.
- RecruitiFi solves an enterprise procurement problem. Duplicate submissions, supplier contracts on inconsistent terms, and third-party spend finance can't see are problems you get at hundreds of hires a year.
- Dover solves the startup version of it. One expert, one published rate, one free ATS - no supplier governance layer, because there are no suppliers to govern.
Pricing
Dover is free to access and charges no subscription. Experts set their own rates and publish them on their profiles, along with availability and whether the rate is negotiable. You can book free intro calls with experts to discuss the scope of the work, budget, and decide if you want to partner together. Engagements are hourly, on retainer, on contingency (for recruiting work), or project based for a one-time cost, and there are no contracts to sign - so you and the expert agree to pricing and number of hours, and can adjust as your needs adjust.
RecruitiFi's platform is free to the employer: its site states $0 implementation or usage cost, and RecruitiFi is funded out of the fees the agencies earn rather than billed to you. That's a real difference from a VMS you license outright, but it isn't free hiring. The agencies on the platform still charge their placement fees - a percentage of first-year salary on a hire, or a markup on an hourly rate for contract workers - and that bill is yours. The saving RecruitiFi claims is 14% in the first year, from consolidating suppliers onto standardized terms rather than from a cheaper underlying fee.
Dover
Flexible
hourly, retainer, contingency, or project - no subscription
Dover is free to access
- Browse expert profiles with rates and availability
- Free intro calls before you commit
- Refundable deposit to start
- No subscription and no contracts
You pay the Dover expert directly
- Hourly, retainer, contingency, or project based
- Rates set and published by each expert
- No platform fee added on top
- Adjust hours and scope as your needs change
Source: dover.com/experts · verified September 2026
RecruitiFi
Agency fees
a % of first-year salary per placement - no platform fee
RecruitiFi's platform costs nothing
- No implementation, license, or usage fee for the employer
- Funded out of the placement fees agencies earn
- One consolidated invoice across the whole program
- Live in weeks, first requisition within a day of activation
RecruitiFi's agencies charge their usual fees
- A percentage of first-year salary on each permanent placement
- An hourly markup on contract and 1099 workers
- Rates negotiated per agency, so cost varies by who fills the role
- Standardized contract terms and guarantee periods across suppliers
RecruitiFi publishes "$0 - Program implementation cost" and "No implementation or usage costs", along with a claimed 14% average first-year saving and one consolidated invoice for the whole program. What it does not publish is the fee that actually lands on your invoice: the percentage each agency charges, or the share RecruitiFi takes out of it. Those rates are negotiated per supplier, so the cost of a hire depends on which agency fills it.
Source: recruitifi.com · verified September 2026
Features
These solve problems at opposite ends of the same industry. RecruitiFi is for companies drowning in agency relationships - dozens of suppliers, inconsistent contracts, duplicate submissions, spend no one can account for. Dover is for companies with no recruiting function at all, who need one senior person on the work. The comparison is worth making because both promise a lower cost per hire, by routes that have almost nothing in common.
| Feature |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ||
| How you pay | The Dover expert's rate - hourly, retainer, contingency, or project | Your agencies' placement fees - a percentage of salary per hire |
| Platform fee | None - you pay the expert's rate with nothing added on top | None to the employer - RecruitiFi is funded out of agency fees |
| Published pricing | Every Dover expert's rate is on their profile before you talk to them | RecruitiFi's platform is $0; agency rates are negotiated per supplier |
| Cost on a $150k hire | The hours you used, at the Dover expert's published rate | The placing agency's fee, at whatever percentage it contracted for |
| Cost if you don't hire | You pay the Dover expert for the hours worked | Nothing - agency fees land on placement |
| How it works | ||
| Who does the work | Dover experts you choose yourself | Agency recruiters, matched to the req by RecruitiFi's AI and scoring |
| Choosing who you work with | Browse Dover profiles, rates, and reviews, then book free intro calls | You approve the agencies; RecruitiFi routes the req to a recruiter |
| Types of hiring covered | Permanent and fractional hiring, run by one expert inside your ATS | Direct Placement, Contingent Workforce, and Statement of Work |
| Trying it before you commit | Browse Dover's marketplace and free ATS today | RecruitiFi is demo request only - no self-serve entry point |
| Setup time | Book an intro call with a Dover expert today | Live in weeks; first requisition within a day of activation |
| What you're left with | ||
| Who it's built for | Startups hiring a handful of roles at a time | Enterprises managing many agency suppliers at once |
| Supplier governance | Not needed - you engage one Dover expert directly | RecruitiFi handles vetting, contracting, scoring, and consolidated billing |
| Process you keep | Interview loops, scorecards, and templates stay with your team | You keep RecruitiFi's spend and vendor data, not a hiring process |
| Areas beyond recruiting | Dover experts across HR, legal, marketing, customer success, and operations | RecruitiFi covers permanent, contingent, and SOW labor - all via agencies |
| An ATS to run it in | Dover's free ATS, with unlimited jobs and users | RecruitiFi is a system of record for agency hiring, alongside your ATS |
If you're an enterprise running third-party hiring across departments and regions, RecruitiFi is solving a problem Dover doesn't touch: getting every agency onto one contract, one invoice, and one system of record, at no license cost to you. That's genuinely valuable, and funding it from the agency side rather than charging you a license fee is an honest model. But it's a governance layer on top of agency hiring, not an alternative to it - you still pay a percentage of salary on every placement, and you still don't choose the recruiter doing the work. A startup hiring a handful of roles has no agency sprawl to consolidate. What it has is a budget, and Dover's answer is to pay one expert for their hours instead of an agency for a placement.
Which platform fits
Do you have too many agencies, or no recruiter at all?
This one splits on company size more cleanly than most. Managing a panel of suppliers across departments and regions is an enterprise problem with an enterprise answer. Needing one senior person on two open roles is a startup problem with a very different one.
Dover fits
Startups with no recruiting function to speak of
- Dover bills for time - the expert's published rate, with no percentage of anyone's salary
- You pick your Dover expert - browse profiles and reviews, then book a free intro call before committing
- Nothing to implement with Dover - no program rollout, no supplier onboarding, no procurement cycle
- Dover covers any part of hiring - a full search, or just sourcing, screening, or fixing your interview loop
- The process stays with your team - scorecards, loops, and templates live in your ATS after the engagement ends
- Dover goes beyond recruiting - the same marketplace covers HR, legal, marketing, customer success, and operations
You want senior help at a published hourly rate, and a process you keep afterwards.
RecruitiFi fits
Enterprise companies that want access to many agencies
- RecruitiFi's agencies still bill you - placement fees at each supplier's negotiated rate, on every hire they make
- RecruitiFi's scoring picks the recruiter - reqs route to the agencies most likely to fill them, not to a person you chose
- RecruitiFi is a program to stand up - suppliers onboarded onto standardized terms before the first req goes out
- RecruitiFi spans three hiring types - permanent placements, contingent workers, and statement-of-work projects
- RecruitiFi gives you data, not capability - you end up with spend visibility and agency scores rather than an in-house loop
- RecruitiFi governs third-party hiring - it manages the agencies you use; it doesn't give you a recruiter of your own
You need governance over third-party spend, and RecruitiFi's platform costs you nothing.
Why teams pick Dover
As an A-Round startup, we don't have margin for slow or expensive hiring mistakes. Katheryn understood that from day one. She sourced many strong candidates, we made our 6 hires in record time, and the cost reflected the kind of efficiency you rarely find in recruiting. What impressed me most was how well she listened - she didn't just fill a brief, she understood our business and brought us people who actually fit.
We started working with Lavanya for 1 role, but quickly expanded to all the open positions seeing how effective she is at what she does. What I appreciated the most is that she is not just a great recruiter, but a great system of recruitment. Great communication, planning, process, updates and results.
I've hired over 14 people with Jessica as my recruitment partner, and it's always been a great experience. She's focused on pragmatic and pleasant candidate experience, and is particularly well suited to making engineering candidates comfortable with multi-stage interview processes.
Working with Lavanya has been a great experience. From the start, she invested time in understanding our company culture, business goals, and what success looks like for each role. She helped us shape our hiring strategy and coordinated flawlessly with the sourcing team to bring it to life. What impressed me most was how she built a great relationship, feeling like an extension of our hiring team.
Other RecruitiFi alternatives
If neither fits, these are the platforms teams most often shortlist alongside RecruitiFi.
FAQ
How much does RecruitiFi cost?
RecruitiFi's platform costs nothing to license. It publishes "$0 - Program implementation cost" and no usage fee for the employer, and is funded out of the fees the agencies earn instead. The hiring itself still costs what agency hiring costs: a percentage of first-year salary on each permanent placement, or an hourly markup on contract workers, at rates negotiated per agency and billed to you on one consolidated invoice. RecruitiFi claims a 14% average first-year saving, which comes from consolidating suppliers onto standardized terms rather than from a cheaper fee structure.
What are RecruitiFi's three solutions?
Direct Placement covers permanent hiring through agencies - it gives you access to the agency marketplace, matches each req to recruiters using AI, and manages those relationships and the billing in one platform. Contingent Workforce Management covers sourcing, onboarding, and managing contract and 1099 workers across their lifecycle. Statement of Work covers project-based work, with planning, milestones, and budgets tracked centrally. All three route the actual work through third-party agencies.
How is Dover's Expert Marketplace different from RecruitiFi?
RecruitiFi is a vendor management system: it governs the search firms and staffing agencies you already work with, standardizes their contracts, routes reqs to recruiters by AI matching and performance score, and consolidates the billing. Dover replaces the agency entirely - you browse expert profiles with published rates, book a free intro call, and agree terms with one person directly. One manages how you buy recruiting; the other changes what you're buying.
Which is cheaper, RecruitiFi or Dover?
Dover, on cost per hire, because the underlying unit is different. RecruitiFi's platform is free but the hiring still runs through agencies charging a percentage of first-year salary, so a senior hire carries a full agency fee. A Dover expert is paid for the hours worked at a published rate and can fill several roles in the same engagement. RecruitiFi's 14% saving is measured against what you were already paying agencies, which only helps if you were paying agencies.
Is RecruitiFi a good fit for a startup?
Usually not, and that isn't a criticism of the product. It's built for enterprises that want access to many agencies at once and need to govern them - problems like duplicate submissions, inconsistent guarantee periods, and third-party spend finance can't see. A startup with two open roles has none of those problems, and a program rollout plus agency fees is a heavy answer to "we need help hiring".
Is RecruitiFi an ATS?
No. It's a system of record for third-party hiring - agency submissions, placements, timekeeping, compliance, and spend - designed to sit alongside your ATS rather than replace it. Dover includes a full ATS free, with unlimited jobs and users, so your expert works in the same system your team uses.
Do Dover's experts only do recruiting?
No. Recruiting is the largest category, but the Dover marketplace also covers HR, legal, marketing, customer success, and operations, and you engage those experts the same way. RecruitiFi spans permanent, contingent, and SOW hiring, but all of it is third-party labor sourced through agencies.
What are RecruitiFi's pros and cons for a startup?
Pros: no license or implementation cost, one contract and one invoice across every agency, access to a 20,000+ agency marketplace with AI-driven matching, permanent, contingent, and SOW hiring in one system, standardized guarantee periods, and spend visibility most companies lack. Cons: you still pay agency placement fees on every hire, the platform picks the recruiter, there's no self-serve way to evaluate it, it assumes an agency panel a startup doesn't have, and it isn't an ATS.
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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 September 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.