Best Staffing Agency Software in 2026: ATS vs Shift Filling
Compare staffing agency software in 2026. See which tools are full ATS suites, which fill open shifts, and which fit a small agency budget.
Search "software for staffing agencies" and Google mixes two products that do not replace each other.
One is an ATS / pay-and-bill suite (Bullhorn, Avionté, TempWorks): candidate pipeline, CRM, timesheets, payroll, VMS. The other is shift-filling software: get tonight's open shifts covered by SMS and email, with a record of who actually shows up.
Buy the first one if you are running a recruiting desk. Buy the second if coordinators still fill orders in a group chat. Most roundups pretend they are the same category. They are not.
This page is the split, with public pricing where it exists. Review counts are from G2/Capterra as of mid-2026. Where a number is not public, it is marked unknown.
Quick comparison
| Software | Best for | Starting price (public) | Shift filling | Full ATS / pay-bill | Reviews (mid-2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FillYourShift | Staffing agencies filling hourly/event shifts | $99/mo, or $83/mo billed annually (1 seat, 500 employees) | Yes (core) | No | No G2 or Capterra listing yet |
| Liveforce | Temp and event agencies | $100–$275/mo | Yes | Partial (timesheets) | G2 1 review; Capterra 8 |
| Teambridge | Frontline ops / open-shift recovery | Quote | Yes | No | Capterra 4.8 / 18 |
| When I Work | Internal employee scheduling | $2.50–$8/user/mo | Yes | No | G2 4.4 / 381; Capterra ~4.5 / 1,250 |
| Deputy | Multi-location employee scheduling | $5–$9/user/mo ($30/mo min) | Yes | No | G2 ~4.5 / 495+; Capterra ~4.6 / 770–870 |
| Connecteam | Deskless teams + comms | Free ≤10 users; hubs from ~$29/mo | Yes | No | G2 4.6 / 3,501; Capterra ~4.6 / 5,000 |
| Crelate | Small recruiting agencies | ~$69–$119/user/mo (not re-verified on Crelate's site) | No | ATS/CRM | Listed on 2026 roundups; exact counts not independently confirmed |
| Bullhorn | Mid-market / enterprise staffing firms | $99/user/mo Starter | Not the job | Yes | G2 4.2 / 975; Capterra ~4.0 / 1,022 |
| Avionté | High-volume staffing with payroll | Quote (third-party $15k–$60k+/yr estimates, unverified) | Not the job | Yes | G2 4.3 / 383; Capterra 3.9 / 168 |
| TempWorks | Light industrial pay-and-bill | Quote (unverified) | Not the job | Yes | G2 4.1 / 52 |
| Homebase | Restaurants / retail, not agencies | Free ≤10 staff; paid $24–$120/location/mo | Yes | No | G2 4.5 / 448; Capterra ~1,140 |
GBP URLs were not locatable for these SaaS products. Do not treat that as "zero Google reviews everywhere."
Which type of software do you actually need?
Buy an ATS suite if your pain is sourcing, pipeline, client CRM, and paying/billing contractors. Bullhorn, Avionté, TempWorks, and Crelate live here. Shift filling is an afterthought, if it exists.
Buy shift-filling software if your pain is "we have 40 bodies to place by 6am and we are texting the roster one by one." FillYourShift, Liveforce, Teambridge, When I Work, Deputy, and Connecteam live here. They will not replace Bullhorn.
Stay on a spreadsheet if you have a handful of people and a couple of shifts a week. Software overhead is not worth it yet.
A common expensive mistake: buying Bullhorn because every "best staffing agency software" list leads with it, then still filling shifts in WhatsApp.
Shift-filling software (the job FillYourShift is built for)
FillYourShift
FillYourShift is staffing-agency software for filling open shifts. Coordinators filter the roster, send bulk personalized SMS/email invites, and invite reliable people first using a 0–100 score based on acceptance and attendance. Documents and certifications sit on the employee record. It is not an ATS and it does not run payroll; it exports.
- Starter: $99/mo monthly, or $990/yr ($83/mo billed annually), 1 seat, 500 employees
- Growth: $2,990/yr, 3 seats, unlimited employees
- Scale: $5,990/yr, 10 seats
- Extra seats $79. 14-day trial, no card.
Who it fits: agencies filling recurring hourly work (events, hospitality, warehouse, security, healthcare support) that have outgrown spreadsheets and do not want to pay per employee. Who it does not fit: firms that need a legal-grade ATS, VMS, or native payroll.
Related: Shift filling software guide and how a reliability score reduces no-shows.
Liveforce
Closest like-for-like on price. Temp and event staffing, shift scheduling, some ATS and timesheet coverage. Starter $100/mo. Small review graph, but it has an indexed blog and shows up on "software for staffing agencies" queries FillYourShift currently does not.
Teambridge
Workforce platform with a dedicated shift-filling agent (Relay): ping qualified workers, manage replies, lock the first valid claim. Pricing is sales-led. Stronger solution/compare pages than a brochure site. Worth a look if you already have a frontline ops stack and want automation on call-outs.
When I Work, Deputy, Connecteam, Homebase
These win the "fill open shifts / employee scheduling" SERPs coordinators actually type. They are built for a business scheduling its own staff, not an agency filling client orders across tenants.
- When I Work: clean open-shift claiming, $2.50–$8/user/mo, large review graph.
- Deputy: shift swap, compliance, 2008-era domain, $5–$9/user/mo.
- Connecteam: huge review graph and a 2026 "best staffing agency software" article that currently ranks. Free plan up to 10 users.
- Homebase: free plan, massive SMB content. Built for restaurants and retail locations, not multi-client agencies.
If you are an agency, test tenant isolation before you buy any of these. Client A's roster should never be visible to Client B.
Staffing agency ATS / pay-bill software
Bullhorn
The default answer when someone Googles "software for staffing agencies." 10,000+ firms, 26 years, Starter at $99/user/mo. G2 4.2 from 975 reviews. If you run a recruiting desk and need CRM + ATS, start here. If your problem is tonight's unfilled shifts, this is the wrong tool.
Avionté
End-to-end: recruiting through payroll. Named on every 2026 staffing-software roundup. Pricing is quote-only. Implementation is a project, not an afternoon. Right for high-volume firms that need one system of record. Wrong for a solo coordinator replacing a spreadsheet.
TempWorks
Pay-and-bill specialist for light industrial and high-volume temp. Quote-only. Fewer G2 reviews than Bullhorn (52), still a default shortlist name because agencies already know it.
Crelate
Small-agency ATS/CRM in a similar price band to FillYourShift's seat cost, but for recruiting, not shift filling. Public prices cited around $69–$119/user/mo; confirm on Crelate's site before you budget.
What to look for (skip the 50-item RFP)
- Is this for agencies or for employers? Agency tools need multi-client isolation. Employer schedulers usually do not.
- How do invites go out? Bulk SMS/email with merge tags, or one-to-one chat?
- Does reliability data sit on the invite screen? A report you open later will not get used at 5am.
- What are you actually billed on? Per employee punishes roster growth. Per seat or per location does not.
- What does it refuse to do? FillYourShift does not process payroll or run an ATS. Bullhorn does not replace a shift-fill war room. Buy the gap, not the logo.
Pricing in plain numbers
FillYourShift Starter is $99/month for one coordinator and up to 500 employees ($990/year if you pay annually). That is the point of per-seat pricing: adding 200 contractors does not change the bill. See pricing.
Bullhorn Starter is $99 per user per month. Three recruiters is $297/mo before add-ons.
When I Work at $5/user/mo on 80 employees is $400/mo. Fine for one workplace. Painful if you treat every contractor as a "user."
Avionté and TempWorks do not publish list prices. Third-party 2026 estimates run tens of thousands per year plus implementation. Treat those as unverified.
How to migrate off a spreadsheet
Export the roster as CSV, or upload the PDF/Word file a client sent. Map name, email, phone, position. Recreate the next two weeks of shifts from templates. Run one invite wave in parallel with the old WhatsApp group so you can compare fill time. Kill the group when the second wave works.
The hard part is not the import. It is stopping coordinators from inviting the same ten people from memory. Two invite cycles is usually enough to trust a reliability sort. See the bulk upload guide for staffing.
Who should pick what
| If this is you | Start here | Skip |
|---|---|---|
| Solo / small agency, hourly shifts, spreadsheet + group chat | FillYourShift or Liveforce | Bullhorn, Avionté |
| Event / temp agency needing timesheets too | Liveforce, then FillYourShift if you only need fill | Homebase |
| Internal restaurant / retail staff | Homebase or When I Work | Agency ATS |
| Recruiting desk, perm and contract, client CRM | Crelate or Bullhorn | Shift-only tools |
| High-volume industrial with payroll | Avionté or TempWorks | Per-seat shift tools as your only system |
Try FillYourShift
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FAQ
What is staffing agency software?
Software a staffing firm uses to place workers on client jobs. That can mean ATS/CRM, shift filling, time capture, payroll, or all of it. Ask which of those jobs the product actually does.
What is the best software for staffing agencies in 2026?
There is not one. Bullhorn is the category default for ATS. FillYourShift is built for filling open shifts at agencies that have outgrown spreadsheets. Avionté is the end-to-end payroll bet. Pick the job, then the vendor.
What is shift filling software?
A tool that notifies the right workers, collects yes/no, and assigns the shift. Bulk invites, SMS, eligibility, and attendance history matter more than a pretty calendar.
How much does staffing agency software cost?
Public list prices range from free plans for small teams to $99 per user per month for Bullhorn Starter, plus quote-only enterprise suites. FillYourShift starts at $99 per month per coordinator seat.
Does FillYourShift replace Bullhorn?
No. FillYourShift fills shifts. Bullhorn runs the recruiting firm. Some agencies will use both. Most small agencies need only one, and it should match the daily pain.