Manatal vs Workable Pricing: Workable vs Manatal Cost per User for Recruiting Agencies

Manatal charges per user: $15, $35 or $55 a month on annual billing. Workable charges per company: $299, $599 or $719 a month for an organization with 1 to 20 employees, however many of them log in. So the cheaper option depends on how many people use the system. For a recruiting agency with more than 15 open jobs, the fair matchup is Manatal Enterprise at $35 per user against Workable Standard at $299, and Manatal is cheaper up to eight users and more expensive from nine. The other two differences that move the decision are the client CRM, which Manatal includes on every plan and Workable does not list, and the API, which Workable includes on every plan and Manatal gates to its $55 tier.

Both pricing pages were read at source: Manatal at manatal.com/pricing and its plan grid on September 26, 2026, and Workable at workable.com/pricing on September 27, 2026, including the full price table the page loads for every company size band. Every figure below is from those pages or is arithmetic on them.

Manatal vs Workable pricing, side by side

Both vendors are unusually transparent. Manatal prices three of its four plans, and Workable prices all three of its plans in eight headcount bands up to 1,000 employees. Across the twelve vendors on our recruiting software pricing hub, 22 of 48 plans carry a price, so this is one of the few matchups where you can do the whole comparison without a sales call.

Is Manatal cheaper than Workable?

For a small team, yes. For a team where nearly everyone recruits, not always. The two meters cross over at a specific headcount, and it is worth knowing yours before you look at anything else.

Manatal's $15 Professional plan looks like the obvious winner, but it caps the whole account at 15 jobs. Manatal's FAQ is explicit that the limit is per account, not per user. A contingency desk or staffing agency carrying more open orders than that needs Enterprise at $35, which is the plan to compare. Against Workable Standard at $299 a month for up to 20 employees, Manatal Enterprise costs $280 at eight users and $315 at nine. Enterprise Plus at $55, the tier with the API, crosses at six users: $275 at five, $330 at six. Professional crosses at twenty users, where it costs $300 against $299, if you can live with 15 jobs.

How much do Manatal and Workable cost for five and ten recruiters?

On annual billing, assuming a company of 20 employees or fewer:

• 5 users: Manatal $900 a year on Professional, $2,100 on Enterprise, $3,300 on Enterprise Plus. Workable $3,588 on Standard, $7,188 on Premier, $8,628 on Enterprise.
• 10 users: Manatal $1,800, $4,200 and $6,600. Workable unchanged at $3,588, $7,188 and $8,628, because the headcount band is the same.
• 20 users: Manatal $3,600, $8,400 and $13,200. Workable still $3,588, $7,188 and $8,628.

That last row is the case for Workable in an agency: a twenty-person desk where everyone recruits pays $14.95 a person on Workable Standard, less than half of Manatal Enterprise. It is also where the headcount meter starts to bite. At 21 employees Workable Standard steps to $419 a month, Premier to $829 and Enterprise to $989, a jump of 38 to 40 percent on the same billing period. A pricing summary on page one puts that jump at about 67 percent, which only happens if you set the $299 annual rate against the $500 monthly rate of the next band.

Who counts as an employee on Workable?

This is the question a staffing firm has to ask before it signs. Workable's company size menu says employees, and the pricing page does not say whether contractors or temporary workers on your own payroll count. An agency with 12 internal staff and 250 W-2 temps on assignment is either a 1 to 20 customer at $299 a month on Standard or a 201 to 400 customer at $1,299, and that is a $12,000 a year difference on the same plan. Get the definition in writing, and keep it with the order form in whatever contract management system tracks your renewals, because headcount clauses tend to be read again at renewal time.

Manatal has no equivalent question. Every login is a user, hiring managers are free and unlimited on every plan, and the people you place never enter the count.

Which one has a client CRM?

Manatal lists customer relationship management on all three priced plans, with sales reports, revenue tracking and client-specific reports. A two-person search firm can run its business development pipeline on the $15 plan.

Workable is built for companies hiring for themselves. Its pricing page lists a talent CRM database for candidates, but no client records, job orders, placement fees or sales pipeline, and its industry pages are written for employers rather than agencies. An agency can post jobs and track candidates in Workable, but it will keep clients somewhere else. If you sell to clients as well as recruit, that is usually the deciding difference in this matchup, more than the price.

Which one lets you connect other software?

Workable, on every plan. API access and data export are listed among the features available in all plans, so Standard at $299 is already integration-capable. Manatal puts its Open API, the Zapier and n8n integration and the MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude on Enterprise Plus only, at $55 per user. At five users that is $3,300 a year on Manatal against $3,588 on Workable Standard for an API-capable system, close to parity. At ten users it is $6,600 against $3,588, and Workable wins clearly.

If what you need to connect is an outreach tool, you may not need either API. Both vendors export data, and a tool that imports a CSV skips the integration project entirely.

Monthly billing, trials and add-ons

Manatal adds a flat $4 per user per month for monthly billing on every plan: $19, $39 and $59. Because the premium is flat, the annual saving is 21 percent on Professional and under 7 percent on Enterprise Plus. Workable sells only Standard month to month, at $360 against $299, so monthly is 20 percent above annual and paying annually saves about 17 percent. Premier and Enterprise are annual only.

Manatal's trial is 14 days and excludes mass emailing, email automations and job board posting until you have paid and your account is verified. Workable's is 15 days on the Standard feature set, no card required, and excludes the Workable Agent. So on Manatal you cannot test candidate email before paying, and on Workable you cannot test the higher tiers.

Workable's add-ons have prices on the page. On Standard in the smallest band, texting is $89 a month, video interviews $109 and assessments $59, all included from Premier. Its AI agent runs on credits: 2 credits to source a passive candidate and credits from $0.12 down to $0.095 each, so 19 to 24 cents per sourced candidate. Manatal names its add-ons, the AI Interviewer and Guest Portal branding among them, but sends you to sales for the price.

Can Manatal or Workable send candidate sequences?

Neither lists one. Manatal has mass emailing, templates and SMS on every plan and workflow automations from Enterprise. Workable has a talent CRM, candidate resurfacing, automated actions, texting as an add-on and an AI agent that chats with candidates. Neither pricing page describes a series of follow-up emails that runs on a schedule and stops when the person replies.

For an agency, that is where the ATS decision and the outreach decision separate. Choose the system of record on meter, CRM and API, then add outreach that researches each candidate or hiring manager, writes the opener and follow-ups, and pauses the thread the moment someone answers. ColdOutreach does that from $39 a month on annual billing for the whole workspace, not per seat, and it takes a CSV from either system with every address validated on import. Try it on a real prospect in the composer above. For the agency setups, see the staffing agency outreach tool and recruitment outreach software beside your ATS.

Which should a US agency choose?

• Search firm or small agency, under nine users, with clients to manage: Manatal Enterprise at $35 per user. Cheaper than Workable Standard, CRM included, unlimited jobs.
• Boutique desk with fewer than 15 open jobs: Manatal Professional at $15 per user.
• Agency of 9 to 20 people where everyone recruits, and clients live elsewhere: Workable Standard at $299 flat, with the API included.
• Staffing firm with temps on its own payroll: confirm Workable's headcount definition first. If temps count, Manatal is almost certainly cheaper.
• Employer hiring for itself: Workable is designed for you, and its video, assessment and texting tools are priced openly.

For the single-vendor detail, see Workable pricing, with all nine headcount bands, and Manatal pricing. The other Manatal matchups read at source are Manatal vs Zoho Recruit pricing, Manatal vs Bullhorn pricing and Manatal vs Loxo pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Is Workable more expensive than Manatal?

For small teams, yes. Workable Standard is $299 a month for a company of up to 20 employees, while Manatal Enterprise is $35 per user, so Manatal is cheaper up to eight users. From nine users on the same headcount band, Workable Standard is cheaper. Read at source on September 26 and 27, 2026.

Does Workable charge per user like Manatal?

No. Manatal charges per user per month. Workable charges by company size, the total number of employees, in bands from 1 to 20 up to 801 to 1,000, with no user limit printed on the pricing page. Hiring managers are free on Manatal.

Is Workable good for recruiting agencies?

Workable is built for employers hiring for themselves, and its pricing page lists no client CRM, job orders or placement fees. Agencies can use it for candidates and job posting, but most keep client development in a separate system. Manatal includes a client CRM on every plan.

Which has a better free trial, Manatal or Workable?

Workable's 15-day trial covers the Standard feature set with no card and excludes only the AI agent. Manatal's 14-day trial also needs no card, but excludes mass emailing, email automations and job board posting until after your first payment, which matters if outreach is what you want to test.