Truffle vs Elly, screening software or a search partner
Truffle vs Elly turns on how much help you want. Choose Truffle if applications are not your problem and you want software that ranks them while you make the calls. Choose Elly if you need people found as well as screened, or want an expert recruiter to run a critical search with its AI platform.
First, what Elly actually is
Elly An AI recruiting platform for early-stage teams that is also a service. Asked whether it is a tool or a service, its FAQ says "both": an ATS, AI sourcing, AI interviewing and an assistant, with a human recruiter assigned to new customers.
An Elly recruiter runs your first hire on the platform, so it learns from your data. Once that seat is filled, you keep the scorecards, workflows and remembered candidates.
Truffle and Elly, line by line
Drawn from hiretruffle.com and elly.ai, both read on 5 October 2026.
| Truffle | Elly | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small teams doing high-volume hiring: owners, recruiters, ops people | Early-stage companies hiring for roles that matter |
| Where candidates come from | Your applicants: a shared link, Indeed, an ATS or uploaded resumes | Your applicants plus its own candidate database and outbound sourcing |
| AI interview | One-way recorded video or audio, scored afterwards from the transcript | A structured two-way conversation that can probe a vague answer, done whenever the candidate chooses |
| Other screening | Resume match scores and aptitude, personality and role skills tests | AI application review that scores every inbound candidate |
| A human recruiter | None. You review and decide | Included on a Full Search, and with the first hire at setup |
| ATS | Works alone or beside Ashby, Breezy HR, Workable and others | Has its own ATS for early-stage teams and says it connects to yours |
| Bias audit | An independent audit is in progress; a summary is promised once complete | Warden AI audits its candidate matching and publishes the results |
Elly does not say whether its AI interview runs on video, voice or text, so this table does not either.
One sorts applicants, the other also finds them
Truffle starts from a pile that already exists. Someone applied through your link or through Indeed, and Truffle reads the resume, collects a recorded interview and a test if you asked for one, then ranks the lot with the evidence attached. If nobody applies, it has nothing to do.
Elly starts a step earlier, before anyone has applied. You explain the role on a call, it drafts criteria and queries a candidate database it owns, and by its own account a list of 20 people is ready that day. Screening, interviews and scheduling follow. That is a bigger job than Truffle's, and Elly charges for it accordingly.
Choose Truffle if, choose Elly if
Five hiring moments, matched to the product whose own description fits them better.
A franchise or support team gets hundreds of applicants a week for the same few roles.
Truffle. It is built to rank a large inbound pile cheaply, and one person can clear the queue with clips and keystrokes.
Pick a plan by monthly volume, since every resume, test and interview draws on one credit pool.
A seed-stage startup needs its first head of sales and has nobody who has recruited before.
Elly. A Full Search puts an expert recruiter on the role with sourcing, AI interviews and scheduling included.
You pay when the hire starts; ask whether the optional 90-day guarantee is worth adding.
A firm runs one campus intake a year and needs to screen students quickly.
Either. Truffle lists early career hiring as a use case; Elly says its interviewer suits early-career and internship hiring.
Truffle's credits roll over on Core and above, which helps a seasonal intake.
A role has been open for 6 weeks and the few applicants are not right.
Elly, because it brings candidates. Truffle only screens people who reach your link.
A bought batch arrives screened and scorecarded but without AI interviews, which Elly keeps for its other two routes.
You want to test the product this afternoon without a sales call.
Truffle. Its trial is self-serve with a small credit allowance and no card.
Elly's site offers a 3-minute sample AI interview you can take yourself.
Inside an Elly search, from brief to the next role
The four stages below follow the order on Elly's homepage.
- Describe the role on a call You talk to your Elly recruiter. Elly writes the criteria during the call and searches its candidate database.
- Get a ranked list Candidates are scored on experience, credibility and fit, so the recruiter begins with a shortlist the same day.
- Meet only the finalists Elly runs structured screening interviews, books the finalists automatically and briefs the recruiter before each call.
- Keep what was learned Scorecards and workflows stay in the platform, and Elly remembers every candidate so a runner-up can surface for a later role.
Truffle vs Elly pricing, compared by model
Both companies print their prices. This page compares the shape of the bill and leaves the figures on their sites.
| Truffle | Elly | |
|---|---|---|
| Main unit | A monthly subscription that buys a pool of screening credits | Three routes: an annual platform fee, a per-batch candidate purchase, or a Full Search |
| Pay on hire? | No | Full Search only: a share of first-year salary, paid when the person starts, with a minimum |
| Commitment | Monthly or annual, no contract; switch plans at any time | Annual for the platform; no subscription needed for a candidate batch |
| Free route | A 7-day trial with credits and no card | The first hire is included with setup |
Read both pricing pages on the day you buy; Elly's FAQ explains how its minimum and guarantee interact.
Worth knowing
Truffle's candidate trust page says it scores only the transcript: no face analysis, no voice tone or accent, and interviews are not used to train AI models. Candidates can decline AI scoring and ask for a human review.
Finding people and interviewing them, without the service fee
One sentence about the hire turns into filters you can edit before any search runs.
Some teams want Elly's reach but Truffle's do-it-yourself model. The Cognitive covers that ground: write the brief in plain English, look across ~900M public profiles, unlock verified emails and phone numbers, and send the people you like a 10 or 20 minute live AI video interview, rated 1 to 5 per criterion with written feedback overall.
Truffle vs Elly in four lines
- Truffle screens the applicants you already have; Elly also finds new ones
- Truffle's interview is recorded; Elly's is two-way with follow-ups
- Truffle is pure software; Elly can add an expert recruiter to the search
- Truffle bills by usage each month; Elly by year, by batch or on hire
More on Truffle and Elly
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Frequently asked questions
Is Truffle better than Elly?
They are built for different problems. Truffle is the better fit when you have many applicants and want to rank them yourself at a predictable monthly cost. Elly is the better fit when you also need candidates found, or want an experienced recruiter to run a search for a critical role with AI doing the screening.
Is Elly a recruiting agency or software?
Both, by its own description. Elly is an AI platform with an ATS, sourcing, AI interviews and an assistant, and new customers get a forward deployed recruiter for their first search. You can also buy the platform alone and run hiring yourself, or buy a batch of sourced, screened candidates.
Truffle vs Elly pricing: what is the difference?
Truffle charges a monthly subscription for a pool of credits spent on resumes, assessments and recorded interviews, and publishes every plan. Elly offers three routes: a yearly platform fee, a one-off batch of candidates, or a Full Search that costs a percentage of the new hire's first-year pay, due on their start date. Elly publishes its figures too.
Does Truffle source candidates?
No sourcing is described on Truffle's pages. Candidates reach it through a Position Link you share, through Indeed applications, through your ATS, or by uploading resumes in bulk. If your problem is too few applicants rather than too many, Truffle does not solve it on its own.
Is Elly's AI interview a video interview?
Elly does not say. Its AI Interviewer page calls it a structured, two-way conversation that generates questions from the job description, asks follow-ups in real time and produces category scores and a composite score. Candidates complete it on their own time. A 3-minute sample interview on the site shows the format.
Can I use Truffle or Elly with my ATS?
Truffle runs on its own or connects natively to Ashby, Breezy HR and Indeed, writes scores back to Workable, and reaches other systems through Zapier. Elly includes an ATS built for early-stage companies and says it connects to your ATS and hiring tools, without naming them. Ask Elly about your specific system.
Which one has a published bias audit?
Elly does. Warden AI evaluated its AI candidate matching on over 13,000 interview samples, and the live results are public. Truffle says it commissions an independent bias audit every year and will publish the summary once the current one is complete.
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