Crelate Pricing 2026: Plans, Extras and the Renewal Clause

By Sparsh Goyal, Founder at The Cognitive. Published 2026-11-10 · Last updated 2026-11-12

• Crelate Essentials costs $85 per user a month, paid annually, and Business costs $119 per user a month, billed annually or monthly, while Business Plus and Platform are custom quotes.
• Contact enrichment is an add-on on every plan, and text messaging, eSignature and email campaigns carry an additional fee; the Data Sync Service is priced on volume and frequency and Crelate Hire per hire.
• Crelate's standard terms renew automatically each year and add the greater of 7% or the US CPI increase at every renewal, with no refunds for early cancellation.

Crelate publishes two prices. Essentials costs $85 per user a month, paid annually, and Business costs $119 per user a month, billed annually or monthly. Business Plus and Platform are custom quotes through sales. A free trial starts without a card or a sales call.

The pricing model is per user, with extras priced on their own. Contact enrichment, text messaging, eSignature and email campaigns carry an additional fee, and the Data Sync Service and Crelate Hire have their own pricing. Crelate's standard terms also renew each year and add the greater of 7% or the US CPI increase at every renewal. That clause matters more to a three-year budget than the plan you pick.

How much does Crelate cost?

Crelate's pricing page shows four plans: two priced and two "Custom." Every plan card carries a "Contact sales" button, even the priced ones, while the page itself offers "Start free trial" and "Get your demo."

What is Crelate's ATS pricing model?

Crelate sells seats. Its pricing page says to "Add users, usage, and modules as you scale": you pay per user for a plan, then add usage and modules on top. Platform is the exception: it can be priced per user or as a site licence.

Billing depends on the plan. Essentials and Business Plus are paid annually. Business is the one plan the page offers on monthly billing. Crelate's standard terms bill the year up front "unless otherwise stipulated in the Purchase Form," so if you want Business monthly, make sure the order form says so.

Essentials has a hard ceiling. It covers up to 2 users and 20,000 contacts. A desk that hires a third recruiter moves to Business, and every seat moves with it, from $85 to $119.

What does each Crelate plan include?

Crelate calls itself "The AI Recruiting Platform." Its pricing FAQ says it is "AI-native on every plan, not AI as an upsell." In practice the AI grows with the tier. Essentials ships with AI sourcing and AI support. The AI Assistant arrives on Business, the Advanced AI Assistant on Business Plus, and the Insights and Data Quality Agents through Platform pricing.

Essentials

Essentials is the full core product for a two-person shop: applicant tracking, a recruiting CRM, a job portal, resume parsing, sourcing, self-service and AI support, and unlimited jobs and companies. Crelate's Discover Agent, which it says searches "more than a billion profiles," is listed on every plan. Contact details for those profiles are a separate enrichment add-on.

Business

Business is the plan most agencies will price first. Crelate marks it "Most popular." It adds the AI Assistant, client and team portals, the Resume Toolbox, reports and analytics, email connections, technical support and access to Crelate's professional services.

Business Plus

Business Plus is where automation lives. It adds automation and sequences, business development workflows, the full API and integrations, access to Marketplace partners, higher customization limits and more data storage. If your desk runs on automated follow-ups or connects Crelate to other systems, you are buying at a quoted price.

Platform

Platform is built from options. À la carte, it adds the Insights Agents, Data Quality Agents, priority support and the MCP server. Its enterprise options add premium support, higher API limits, advanced auditing and IP filters, and ISO and SOC 2 reports. Crelate says it holds a SOC 2 Type II examination and ISO 27001:2022 certification, and is GDPR and CCPA compliant, with reports available on Enterprise.

Where the tiers differ

Below the plan cards, Crelate's feature table compares Business, Business Plus and Enterprise. It says only 24 of its 58 lines change between plans. These are the ones buyers ask about most:

Some rows are flat across plans: bulk email is capped at 2,500 a month and free job board distribution at 50 per user. Custom dashboards, the Chrome extension and live-chat support are marked limited or extra on Business. Crelate's own footnote tells buyers to confirm limits and inclusions with sales for their configuration.

What does Crelate charge on top of the plan?

The plan price is the floor. Several items an agency uses every day are priced separately.

Enrichment is the one to watch. Sourcing is on every plan, but turning a profile into a phone number or email is an add-on. Email campaigns and texting carry their own fees too, so agencies that run outreach from Crelate should price those lines before comparing totals.

The Data Sync Service connects Crelate to the rest of the business, from back-office systems such as People 2.0 and Sense to HubSpot, Monday, Salesforce, Dynamics and ServiceNow. Its price depends on how much data moves and how often.

Crelate Hire is priced per hire. It adds onboarding checklists, state and local tax forms, a WOTC integration, templates per client, job or location, and an employee portal. For a contract staffing desk, that cost scales with placements, not seats.

Migration is quoted. Crelate says typical migrations "take just 1 to 4 weeks" and that it has moved more than 1,000 recruiting firms from nearly 60 systems, including Bullhorn, Loxo, CATSone and PCRecruiter. Its terms put professional services on a time-and-materials or fixed-fee basis, as set in the statement of work. Ask for the migration quote at the same time as the subscription quote.

Which contract terms change Crelate's real cost?

Crelate's terms of service sit at crelate.com/legal/terms-of-service. These clauses decide what the contract costs over time.

The renewal increase

Section 7.3 reads: "On the start of any Renewal Term, an annual innovation price enhancement shall be applied; the annual innovation price enhancement shall be the greater of: (i) 7%; or (ii) the percentage increase in the prevailing US Client Price Index (CPI) over the previous twelve-month period."

The same section adds: "Any discounts, co-investments, or similar reductions in the original price, are one-time and do not renew." So a first-year discount disappears at renewal, and the 7% floor applies on top.

The arithmetic on Business shows the effect. At list price, $119 per user a month becomes at least $127.33 in year two and at least $136.24 in year three. A 10-user Business team at list price pays $14,280 in year one and at least $15,279.60 in year two, before any add-on. If CPI runs above 7%, the increase is larger. The same section also lets Crelate move any plan to its then-current list price at renewal.

Automatic renewal

Section 7.1 of Crelate's terms says the term "will automatically renew for additional, successive twelve-month periods" unless either side gives written notice "at least thirty (30) days prior to expiration." Put the notice date in your calendar the day you sign.

No refunds, and early exit costs the full term

Section 7.1 also says: "No credit or refunds are provided for early cancellation or reduction of usage of the Service." Section 6.1 adds that fees are "billed in advance and are non-refundable." If a customer ends the contract early, "all remaining fees for the remaining contract term shall accelerate and become immediately due."

Upgrades now, downgrades later

Under section 7.2 of Crelate's terms, upgrades are billed immediately and prorated. A downgrade "will be removed at the end of a Subscription Term." Adding seats mid-year is easy. Removing them waits for renewal, so buy for today's headcount.

One more line is worth reading if you negotiate hard. Section 7.5 says that on discounted purchase forms, Crelate may "reduce, throttle, limit, or disable capabilities." Ask which capabilities a discount touches before you accept it.

What drives a custom Crelate quote?

Business Plus and Platform are priced per deal. Crelate says custom pricing is "available for unique scenarios and use cases." Its packaging shows what a quote has to settle:

• Users or a site licence. Platform can be priced either way. Ask for both if your headcount moves a lot.
• Agents. The Insights and Data Quality Agents are à la carte. Each one you add is a line on the quote.
• Usage. Section 7.4 of the terms covers additional usage fees. They are "calculated based on published pricing and/or applicable unit price set forth in the Purchase Form." Ask what counts as usage and what each unit costs.
• Integrations and API. The full API and webhooks are on Business Plus, the MCP server is à la carte, and the Data Sync Service is priced on volume and frequency.
• Nonprofit status. Qualifying 501(c)(3) nonprofits get discounted pricing on Business, Business Plus and Enterprise, and on professional services, implementations and select add-ons. Third-party services such as job board postings are not discounted.

Ask for every add-on as its own line, the renewal clause as it will apply to your contract, and the three-year total.

How does Crelate pricing compare with Bullhorn, Loxo and Recruit CRM?

Crelate is one of the more open agency platforms on price: it prints two plan prices and offers a trial anyone can start. The last row is The Cognitive, which is not an ATS and works beside one. The Cognitive publishes this page and appears in it.

A published price is only half the comparison. Crelate's 7% renewal floor, Loxo's annual plans paid up front and JobAdder's standard annual contracts all shape the three-year number more than the first invoice does. For the wider picture of how applicant tracking systems charge, see the guide to ATS pricing.

Is Crelate worth the price?

Crelate is worth pricing for a recruiting firm that wants its ATS, recruiting CRM and client portals in one product, and wants to try it before talking to sales. Direct hire, executive search and staffing desks fit that description, and Crelate Hire and the back-office sync are aimed at staffing desks in particular.

The case is strongest for two-recruiter firms that fit Essentials and agencies that want client portals on Business, both at printed prices. It is a weaker fit in three cases:

• Solo or small desks that need automation. Automation and sequences sit on Business Plus, which is custom and paid annually.
• Buyers who need monthly terms on the entry plan. Essentials is paid annually, and the standard terms auto-renew.
• Teams on a fixed multi-year budget. The 7% floor compounds every year.

The question underneath is where recruiter time goes. Gem's 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report puts recruiters at 13.4 open roles each, handling 93% more applications than in 2021. A system of record keeps that work organised. It does not, by itself, find new people or run the first screen.

Other options, and where The Cognitive fits

If Crelate's plan price or terms do not fit, Bullhorn, Loxo and Recruit CRM are the direct substitutes. If the system is fine but the desk is short of people to call and time to screen them, the fix is a layer beside it.

The Cognitive comes first below on one checkable difference. It interviews the people it finds in a live two-way AI video call, inside a self-serve account with published monthly prices. Crelate's Co-Pilot covers screening and interview prep. The video interview and assessment tools in its marketplace, such as Jobma, SparkHire and Duck-n-Owl, are partners rather than a built-in AI interviewer. Bullhorn's AI screening sits on its quote-only plans. Recruit CRM lists its Screening Agent as coming soon, and Loxo's pricing page lists interview notes and scheduling rather than an AI interviewer. JobAdder prints no prices at all. Bullhorn, Loxo and Recruit CRM come after it, in alphabetical order.

1. The Cognitive: best for finding and first-round interviewing beside Crelate

The Cognitive is not a Crelate replacement. It has no ATS, client CRM, client portal, job posting, onboarding or back office. It covers two jobs: finding people outside your Crelate database and running a recorded first-round interview before anyone is submitted.

Search starts from a role written in plain English. The Cognitive's AI sourcing looks across about 900M public profiles and gives a one-line reason why each person came back. Pricing is per action. Each person shown costs 1 credit. A personal email reveal is 4, and a phone number is 12 on Sourcing Pro, Max, Business and Enterprise, charged only when a value is found.

Outreach comes with the Sourcing Team plan and with every Sourcing plan from Pro up. It sends personal email from your own mailbox and stops following up once a candidate replies.

Candidates worth screening receive an invitation to a two-way AI video interview held live, 10 or 20 minutes long, in any of 9 languages. Every candidate is held to the same rubric, the follow-up questions change with each answer, and the recruiter reads a scorecard backed by the recording and transcript.

AI Sourcing and AI Interviews are sold as separate plans on the pricing page, monthly or yearly with 17% off the yearly price. Plans start at $99 a month. A 7-day trial shows up to 100 people from search, with no card. Higher plans add a connection to 100+ ATS.

Best for: agency desks that run Crelate as their system of record and need a wider candidate pool and first-round interviews on record.
Watch out for: The Cognitive is not an ATS or CRM. ATS sync sits on higher plans, so check that your ATS is on the list before you pick a plan. Crelate claims a larger profile pool for its Discover Agent.
Pricing model: monthly or yearly plans for each product, credits per person shown and per contact revealed, Enterprise custom.

2. Bullhorn: best for printed prices on its small-agency plans

Bullhorn lists a per-user monthly price on two plans, Starter and Core. Pro and Max say "Talk to us," and its plans for larger agencies are quote only. The plan figures are in the Bullhorn pricing guide.

Pricing model: per user a month for small-agency plans; quotes above.

3. Loxo: best for a free start on an AI-native ATS and CRM

Loxo describes its Core plan as "The complete AI-native ATS + CRM of record for firms that run the work themselves." Core shows a starting price per user, billed annually, and annual plans are paid up front. Professional is sold through a demo and Enterprise on custom annual agreements. More in the Loxo review and Loxo alternatives.

Pricing model: per user, billed annually; upper plans through sales.

4. Recruit CRM: best for monthly billing with every price printed

Recruit CRM says it is "Built for agencies of every size." It prints per-user prices, with a monthly or annual toggle that saves up to 17% on annual, and a free trial. The Recruit CRM review covers the product in more depth.

Pricing model: per user a month, monthly or annual.

For the wider field, see recruitment software for agencies.

When to skip The Cognitive

Leave it out when the gap is the system itself: an agency system of record, client records and portals, onboarding placements or the back-office sync. The Cognitive is not built for that. It adds little when desks fill most roles from their own Crelate database and inbound applicants. And when every first round has to be a human conversation, an AI interview is an extra step.

How to start

Start the Crelate trial and price your real seat count on Business, with enrichment, campaigns and the renewal clause written into the quote. In the same week, take one open role your database is not filling, describe it in The Cognitive, and compare who comes back with your last search. If the list is worth working, interview the strongest few and compare their scorecards before the first submittal.

Start free with The Cognitive.

Sources

• Gem, "Key takeaways from the 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report". gem.com
• Crelate, Terms of Service, last updated 2 September 2026, sections 6.1 and 7.1 to 7.5 (crelate.com/legal/terms-of-service).
• Vendor pages: Crelate pricing, AI, Discover Agent, implementation, marketplace and free trial pages (crelate.com, join.crelate.com); Bullhorn pricing (bullhorn.com); Loxo pricing (loxo.co); Recruit CRM pricing (recruitcrm.io); JobAdder pricing (jobadder.com); The Cognitive pricing (thecognitive.io).

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