Comparison
hireEZ alternatives for recruitment agencies
Seven tools for sourcing candidates, compared on match evidence, work email, built-in ATS and free trial. Kretsia is first: it shows the evidence behind every match and finds work emails in one click. Competitor facts come from each vendor's own site, checked on 12 October 2026.
Written by Armin Barimani, co-founder of Kretsia
Compared on 12 October 2026. Last updated
What is the best alternative to hireEZ for a recruitment agency?
For an agency, Kretsia. Describe the role in plain language and an AI judge checks each person against every requirement, marking it met, partial or missing with the evidence from their profile. Find email returns a work email in one click, and the ATS, talent pool, career site and interview scheduling are in the same tool, with a 14-day free trial and no card. hireEZ's Solo plan starts at $494 a month (checked 12 October 2026). The other options below are SeekOut, Gem, LinkedIn Recruiter, Juicebox, Loxo and Eightfold.
hireEZ and six alternatives, side by side
Facts were read on each vendor's own site on 12 October 2026. Kretsia's 84.12 is our own PeopleSearchBench Recruiting run; the Juicebox score is published in the benchmark's repository. Eightfold AI is described below and left out of the table. Prices are in the sections below.
| Tool | Best for | Match evidence and benchmark | Work email | ATS and scheduling | Free trial | EU company / GDPR note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kretsia | Agencies that want evidence behind each match, with ATS and interview scheduling in the same tool | Every requirement met, partial or missing, with a quote from the profile. PeopleSearchBench 84.12 (June 2026) | Find email: one click on any sourced person. If none is found, it offers to reach out on LinkedIn | Built in: pipeline, talent pool, career site and interview scheduling | 14 days, no card needed | Kretsia AB, Gothenburg. DPA for every customer. App and matching in Swedish and English |
| hireEZ The tool you may be replacing | Enterprise talent teams and solo recruiters | No published score | Yes. Its GDPR page lists email among the data it collects | Talent CRM and hiring process management; integrates with your ATS | 7 days (Solo) | California company. Cites the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and SCCs. No EU data residency stated |
| SeekOut | Larger teams | No published score | Yes. Core includes 500 contact credits a month | Integrates with your ATS | 14 days (Core) | US company. GDPR badge, DPA supported. No EU data residency stated |
| Gem | In-house teams that want sourcing, CRM and ATS in one platform | No published score | Yes. Email-finding on the standard seat | Built-in ATS and CRM | None stated | DPA offered. Storage region not stated |
| LinkedIn Recruiter | Teams that recruit mainly from LinkedIn members | No published score | InMail is the route; no email export on its product page | Integrates with your ATS | None stated | Not covered on the product page |
| Juicebox | Solo recruiters and small teams that want a free tier | PeopleSearchBench 65.73 (published in the benchmark repository) | Yes. Credits: 500 a month (Starter), 1,500 per seat (Growth) | Integrates with your ATS (Business plan) | Free plan | US company (San Francisco). EU representative and DPA; no EU hosting stated |
| Loxo | Agencies that want ATS, CRM and sourcing in one system | No published score | Yes. Credits, 2,500 per user a month on Professional | Built-in ATS and CRM | 7 days, no card | US company. States GDPR and SOC 2 compliance; SCCs for transfers |
hireEZ in brief: what it is and why teams look elsewhere
hireEZ (formerly Hiretual) describes itself as end-to-end agentic recruiting for enterprise teams. It is a sourcing and engagement platform with a talent CRM, based in Mountain View, California.
What hireEZ is
- Reach and breadth. It claims 1B+ candidate profiles across 45+ channels, a vendor claim we have not tested. A Talent CRM and hiring process management sit alongside sourcing.
- Contact data. Its GDPR page lists email among the data it collects.
Why teams look for alternatives
These reasons trace to hireEZ's own pages, not review-site complaints.
- A price floor. The pricing page says "Solo recruiters start at $494/mo with a 7-day free trial." A competitor's listing (HeroHunt.ai) reports $494 on annual billing paid upfront and $549 monthly. We could not confirm that on hireEZ's page.
- No list price above Solo. Enterprise pricing is "configured to the stack hireEZ replaces", so you cannot budget before a sales call.
- A short trial. Seven days is short if you want to test searches for several clients.
- Data location. Its security page says backups are kept in AWS us-west and us-east. Its GDPR page cites the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses. No EU data residency is stated.
Source: hireEZ pricing page, checked 12 October 2026. No currency is stated on the page. No free plan.
The seven alternatives, one at a time
Use the vendor links to check everything yourself.
1. Kretsia
Kretsia is a candidate sourcing tool with an applicant tracking system and interview scheduling in the same product. Best for recruitment agencies that want a ranked shortlist with the reason each person fits.
- Sourcing approach. Describe the role in plain language or paste the job ad. Kretsia turns it into editable must-have and nice-to-have requirements and shows how many people match before a search is spent. It searches public professional profiles worldwide, in English or Swedish.
- What comes back. Ranked profiles, 30 per search by default. An AI judge checks each person against every requirement and marks it met, partial or missing, with a short reason and a quote from the profile.
- Work email. Find email: on any sourced person, one click finds their work email. If none is found, Kretsia offers to reach out on LinkedIn. Emails found are reused across your organisation.
- One product. Save people to a talent pool or a job, track them in a pipeline, publish a career site and book interviews. Candidates book in their own time zone, with Google or Outlook calendars.
- Free trial. 14 days, no card needed.
- EU and GDPR. Kretsia AB is based in Gothenburg, the app and matching work in Swedish and English, and every customer can get a data processing agreement. The privacy policy explains transfers outside the EU.
Benchmark. On PeopleSearchBench Recruiting, a public 30-query people-search test, Kretsia scored 84.12 overall in our run on 25 June 2026, with 13.3 of 15 results qualified per query on average. The benchmark's repository publishes Lessie at 68.23, Juicebox at 65.73 and Exa at 64.67. Benchmark details. More on the candidate sourcing page.
2. SeekOut
SeekOut is a sourcing platform for enterprise and mid-market recruiters and talent leaders. Best for larger teams. It claims 1B+ profiles. See also our SeekOut alternatives.
- Free trial. 14 days, Sourcing Core only.
- Pricing. Core is $149 a month on annual billing or $179 billed monthly. Other plans are custom and annual (seekout.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026; currency not stated). Third-party estimate: Vendr reports a median contract of $20,000 a year (February 2026).
3. Gem
Gem combines sourcing, a CRM and an ATS, mainly for in-house talent teams. It has a page for recruiting firms, which we did not assess in depth. Best for in-house teams that want one platform. It claims 800M+ profiles.
- Free trial. None mentioned. Startups under 30 employees can get the all-in-one plan free for six months.
- Pricing. Not public. Custom, based on company headcount (gem.com/pricing, checked 12 October 2026). Third-party estimate: Vendr reports a median of $13,000 a year, range $7,000 to $25,000 (February 2026).
4. LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn's own recruiting product, with a Lite version for individuals. It searches LinkedIn members, which LinkedIn puts at over 1 billion. Best for teams that recruit mainly from LinkedIn.
- Free trial. None mentioned on the product page.
- Pricing. Not public for Recruiter: it depends on company size and seats (LinkedIn, checked 12 October 2026). The page gave no Lite price. Third-party estimate: Dover lists Lite at $170 a month (updated 5 August 2026), billing basis unclear.
5. Juicebox
Juicebox is a people-search tool that claims 800 million profiles. Best for solo recruiters and small teams that want a free tier. See our Juicebox alternatives page.
- Free trial. A free plan at $0.
- Pricing. Starter $99 and Growth $179 per seat a month billed yearly, or $119 and $199 billed monthly. Business is custom and annual (juicebox.ai/pricing, checked 12 October 2026).
- Benchmark. The PeopleSearchBench repository lists Juicebox at 65.73, against Kretsia's 84.12.
6. Loxo
Loxo is an ATS and CRM with built-in sourcing, so it replaces more than a sourcing tool. Best for agencies that want one system of record. Loxo Source draws on a talent graph it puts at 850M+ professionals, a vendor claim.
- Free trial. 7 days, no credit card, of the full Professional platform.
- Pricing. Core starts at $149 per user a month, billed annually. Professional shows $199 per user in one place and "Book a demo" on its plan card. Enterprise is custom (loxo.co/pricing, checked 12 October 2026).
7. Eightfold AI
Eightfold AI is a talent intelligence platform for large enterprises; its site names Salesforce, Citi, HP and HSBC. Best for large enterprise talent teams. Its customer list and positioning point to enterprises, not agencies. No free trial is stated.
- Pricing. Not public; the site asks you to request a demo (eightfold.ai, checked 12 October 2026). It lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 42001 and FedRAMP Moderate, and makes no explicit GDPR claim.
How to choose a hireEZ alternative as an agency
- Price it for your whole team. Count seats, then add what is billed on top: contact credits, agents, extra modules. Compare the published floors ($494 for hireEZ Solo, $149 for SeekOut Core) with what you need, and ask each vendor for a written quote.
- Decide where contact data comes from. Kretsia's Find email gets a work email on any sourced person in one click, and offers to reach out on LinkedIn if none is found. hireEZ, SeekOut, Gem and Juicebox include contact data or credits. LinkedIn Recruiter uses InMail.
- Count the systems you pay for. Kretsia, Gem and Loxo include an ATS in the same product as sourcing. Kretsia also includes a career site and interview scheduling.
- Ask for the reason behind each match. A score does not tell a client why someone is on the shortlist. Look for each requirement marked met, partial or missing, with the evidence.
- Test on your own briefs, and ask about data in writing. Run the same three live briefs in each trial. Ask for the data processing agreement, the sub-processor list and where data is stored and transferred. A GDPR badge is not a contract.
How we compared
We compared the tools on 12 October 2026. Each fact comes from the vendor's own public pages, linked in each section. Vendor statements such as profile counts are attributed as claims and untested. Third-party prices are labeled. Where we found nothing, we write "not public" or "none stated".
We left out star ratings because we could not read G2 and Capterra directly. No vendor paid to be included or reviewed the text. Prices change, so confirm them on the vendor's site. If we got something wrong, tell us through the contact page.
For eleven AI sourcing tools on one page, see the best AI sourcing tools for recruitment agencies.
FAQ
Questions about hireEZ alternatives.
For agencies, we would shortlist Kretsia, SeekOut, Gem, LinkedIn Recruiter, Juicebox and Loxo, then test two or three. Kretsia gives a ranked shortlist with the reason each person fits, a work email in one click with Find email, and a built-in ATS and interview scheduling. It scored 84.12 on PeopleSearchBench in our June 2026 run. Loxo and Gem also combine an ATS with sourcing. Prices were checked on 12 October 2026.
hireEZ's pricing page says Solo recruiters start at $494 a month with a 7-day free trial, checked on 12 October 2026. The page does not state a currency. Enterprise pricing has no list price and is configured to the stack hireEZ replaces. One competitor listing, HeroHunt.ai, reports $494 on annual billing paid upfront and $549 billed monthly. Treat that as unconfirmed.
Juicebox has a free plan at $0 on its pricing page, with paid plans from $99 per seat a month on yearly billing. Kretsia offers a 14-day free trial with no card needed. Loxo offers a 7-day trial with no card. hireEZ has no free plan, only a 7-day trial on its Solo tier. All checked on 12 October 2026.
Yes. Kretsia finds and explains who fits a role: ranked profiles, each requirement marked met, partial or missing, with a quote from the profile. On any sourced person, one click on Find email looks up their work email. If none is found, Kretsia offers to reach out on LinkedIn. Emails found are reused across your organisation.
No tool makes you compliant by itself, so ask each vendor for a data processing agreement, a sub-processor list and the storage region in writing. hireEZ cites the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses and states no EU data residency. SeekOut says a DPA is supported. Gem offers one. Kretsia AB is in Gothenburg, works in Swedish and English, and offers a DPA to every customer.
No. Juicebox acquired Fetcher's assets, and Fetcher's own FAQ gave 16 October 2026 as the date its platform retires (the announcement), so we do not list it as an alternative. Some older hireEZ alternatives lists may still include it.
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Describe the role or paste the job ad, then see who fits and why. 14-day free trial, no card needed.