Lever
Lever puts applicant tracking and a tool for keeping in touch with candidates in one system. Lever sells by custom quote, so the quote and the contract are the first things to compare. Fees are billed yearly and are non-cancellable, except as the terms expressly state. Under Lever’s terms the legal risk of your hiring decisions sits with you. So does the duty to tell candidates when Talent Fit scores them. Lever publishes fairness figures for that score for one day only, so ask for more before you rely on them.
Lever is priced by quote and billed yearly, so compare the contract first
Lever tracks candidates and keeps a talent pool in one product. Lever promises that a recruiter has the final say. Your price depends on organisation size and hiring needs, and comes only from a quote.
You hire steadily and want tracking and candidate follow-up in one system. You are happy to ask for a quote before you compare prices.
You need a price before you speak to a seller. You cannot accept fees that are non-cancellable and non-refundable except as the terms expressly state. You will not agree to indemnify Lever against claims about your hiring.
You hire in languages other than English. Lever’s help article reports that it is not optimised for them. Its February 2026 blog mentions multilingual support. Ask which languages work today.
Lever prices by custom quote, tailored to organisation size and hiring needs. Lever puts custom-quoted platforms like itself and Greenhouse at roughly $5,000 to $70,000 or more a year. The range depends on team size.
What the quote buys: tracking and keeping in touch in one system
Lever sells LeverTRM, one platform that combines an applicant tracking system with a tool for keeping in touch with candidates. Every plan includes both, plus advanced reporting and key integrations, so the quote buys the pair. Your hiring team works tasks tied to open requisitions, which are approved jobs to fill. It sees each candidate’s latest status in the same place, in a recruiting pipeline you shape to your own stages. Employ Inc. announced on 5 August 2022 that it had acquired Lever, which continues under its own brand. Employ also owns JazzHR and Jobvite, so two of the alternatives below share Lever’s owner.
The tools in every plan cover four jobs for the hiring team. Lever’s career page, referrals and internal candidates help you find people. Nurture is included alongside the CRM for keeping in touch with them. Scheduling, interview kits and reporting help you run interviews. Lever syncs email and calendars both ways with Google, Office365 and Microsoft Exchange. It also adds Zoom links to interviews you schedule in Lever. EEO data collection, GDPR tools and CSV export cover records and control. Lever also has an API and webhooks, which are automatic alerts to another system.
The AI sits inside the same product, and Talent Fit is the part that scores candidates. It gives each candidate a percentage score for how closely their skills match the job description. It also gives a yes or no fit decision with an explanation. Lever anonymises the resume first and then compares it to the job description using a large language model. Talent Fit uses only the job description and the resume, so that is what you would tell candidates it uses. Employ does not train models on hiring outcomes. You can sort and filter the candidate list by score. Interview transcripts and summaries are different. They capture and summarise every recorded interview and save it into Lever automatically. AI Screening by VONQ is an add-on. It starts when a candidate applies and runs chat and voice conversations, and the recruiting team reviews and decides.
Most of Lever’s links to HR systems are one-way syncs, so ask which way each one runs. Lever offers one-way syncs to 11 HR systems. They are ADP, BambooHR, Bob, Gusto, Humaans, Namely, Oracle, Paylocity, SAP, Ultimate Kronos Group and Zenefits. New hire details have their own route. A separate HRIS Data Exchange syncs them with integration partners. Onboarding links are a different set. They cover Clickboarding, Enboarder, Rippling, Sapling, UltiPro Onboarding and Workday. Lever and Workday are also brought together for automated processes. For logging in, the integrations cover GSuite, Okta and OneLogin.
Our guide to applicant tracking systems covers how the rest of this market handles the same decisions.
The fairness figures Lever publishes, and what to ask for next
An AI score that ranks candidates can treat groups unequally. So the numbers behind the score matter to you before you switch it on. Employ runs a daily bias test on 1,000 sampled resumes. One day’s result gave the same recommendation 91 percent of the time with and without identifying words. That means about 9 in 100 recommendations changed when the identifying words were present. Employ’s target for Talent Fit is an impact ratio above 0.9. An impact ratio compares how often different groups get a favourable result. IBM watsonx.governance measures it.
The VONQ add-on has its own figures. Warden Assured, a third-party AI governance platform, audited AI Screening by VONQ across 15 protected categories. The audit covered more than 64,000 candidate evaluations and detected zero bias.
One day is a small sample, and a single result cannot show a trend. Ask for results over many months, for the roles you hire. Ask who ran each test, and ask for the full audit report on the VONQ add-on. Employ conducts independent bias audits in real time, so ask to see those results too.
Lever promises a recruiter the final say, and the basics are in place
Lever promises that a recruiter keeps the final say
An AI score is only safe if a person reads it, so this promise is the one to test. Lever promises that recruiters always have the final say. It also promises that Fraud Signals, which flags patterns that may indicate risk, never rejects anyone automatically. Lever argues in its blog that AI should never make the final call. AI Screening by VONQ is designed to screen candidates in, not out. But Lever also sells Automation Hub, which handles archiving, tagging, emailing and advancing candidates, and which can auto-screen. So ask which rules can move a candidate without a recruiter.
The security basics are in place
Lever backs its security with outside proof, so you start from evidence and not from a promise. Schellman issued Lever by Employ a SOC 2 Type 2 report and Employ an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate. Lever runs on AWS in the US-West2 and EU-Central1 regions. It commits to tell you about a security incident that affects your data within 48 hours of detection. You can set data retention by geographic region, and Employ gives written certification of deletion on request.
The equal opportunity and privacy tools are built in
You do not need a separate tool to collect diversity data or handle privacy requests. Lever’s EEO survey collects diversity information from applicants, sourced candidates and referrals. Lever automates the request for self-identification for OFCCP compliance. You can export survey results for a chosen period, anonymised or not. The GDPR tools cover privacy policy links, consent links and steps for data subject requests. Salary range fields on job postings are optional by default, so whoever creates a posting decides whether the pay appears. Agree a rule with your recruiters before you post.
Scheduling is partly done for the recruiter
Lever takes over the back-and-forth of booking interviews, and the recruiter still sends the email. Assisted Scheduling recommends interviewers, checks availability and holds up to three slots for 72 hours. It drafts the candidate email, and the recruiter reviews and sends it. Easybook lets candidates book their own interview. Lever also posts a job to 200 or more boards in one click. Candidates can apply from supported boards such as LinkedIn and Indeed without being redirected.
Lever’s customer stories range from about 100 employees to large enterprises
Customer stories show who Lever works for, so compare your own hiring volume with theirs. The figures below are the customers’ own results as Lever reports them.
Aircall grew from 100 employees to over 600, and Lucidworks has about 220
Aircall grew from 100 to 200 employees shortly after adopting LeverTRM, then to over 600. By 2021 it had made 268 hires in six months. Lucidworks has about 220 employees worldwide. It uses Lever to move candidates through the stages of its hiring process. Its built-in candidate questions identify applicants who do not meet key requirements.
Royal Ambulance hired 14% more after linking Lever to UKG
Royal Ambulance is a healthcare organisation with nearly 700 employees. By making Lever and UKG work together, it reports 14% more hires and 40% more completed interviews. It also reports a more organised, reusable talent pipeline. UKG onboarding data flowed automatically into its employee records.
Mitek and Mastery Charter report faster, fuller hiring
Treat these two results as a benchmark to ask Lever about for your own hiring volume. Mitek Systems’ talent acquisition manager reports two results for the past year. Applications rose 40 percent, and offer acceptance was 96 percent. Mitek also reports 32.5 hours saved on onboarding admin per year. Mastery Charter Schools serves over 14,500 students and hires 500 employees per year. It reports a 29 percent cut in time to hire on LeverTRM for Enterprise.
Lever sells to small, growing and large companies
Lever sells to small, growing and enterprise buyers, so headcount alone will not rule it in or out. Lever reports more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Small-business customers include Siete Family Foods and Girls Who Code. Growing-business customers include e.l.f. cosmetics and Whoop. Enterprise customers include Spotify, Getty Images and Planned Parenthood. A Texas Attorney General division chief reports that the office implemented Lever as its ATS. Lever’s small-business offer includes every essential feature, so a team does not choose between plans. Lever calls itself built for mid-market and scaling companies.
The AI duties land on you, and the remedies are narrow
Before you sign, you should know where Lever stops and where its contract puts the weight on you. Most of this falls on your side. You switch Talent Fit on, you tell candidates and you carry the legal risk of your hiring decisions. The cards below take each limit in turn.
Talent Fit is yours to switch on, and so is telling candidates
Turning Talent Fit on is your consent to using AI, so telling candidates is your job. Customers must turn it on, and only Super Admins can enable it for the account. Each job posting then has its own switch. Customers are responsible for telling candidates that AI is used to evaluate applications. Employ chooses which AI model providers it uses and does not notify customers when it switches provider. So the model behind a score can change while your notice to candidates stays the same.
Interview transcripts and summaries were set to start on by default
Lever planned to turn on interview transcripts and summaries in every account on 14 October 2025. So someone on your side must decide which jobs keep them. Your admins and recruiters hold the switches. Admins can switch the feature off for the whole account. Recruiters can switch it on or off for single jobs. Because an account can choose which jobs have transcripts and summaries, it can turn them on only for non-EU roles. Candidates meet the feature in two places. The scheduling email for all scheduled interviews gives them an option to opt out of AI recording. Admins can also show an AI-use disclosure on the job posting and career site.
Lever disagrees with itself on languages other than English
If you hire in more than one language, ask before you sign, because Lever’s own pages point two ways. Lever’s help article reports that Lever is not optimised for languages other than English, and its navigation is in English. Lever’s February 2026 blog mentions multilingual support. Transcription happens in the language spoken, but summaries are written in English. Ask Lever which languages candidates and recruiters can use today.
The uptime promise pays in service credits, and only in some cases
Lever’s uptime promise gives you a small remedy, so do not treat it as insurance. Lever commits to 99.9% uptime for all customers. It pays only if the value of the impact is more than ten dollars. Then the service credits equal 10 times the fee for the downtime period. They are capped at 30 days of paid service and are the sole remedy. Pilot, alpha, beta and similar features are excluded from downtime.
Claims are limited in size, time and place
If something goes wrong, Lever limits what you can recover, how long you have and where you argue. Lever caps its liability at the amount you paid in the 12 months before the first incident. Claims must be filed within one year. Disputes go to binding arbitration in San Francisco. Lever may assign or transfer the agreement freely, so the other party to your contract can change. Under Lever’s terms, your subscription does not depend on any future feature being delivered. So do not buy a feature that is not live yet.
The legal risk of your hiring decisions sits with you
Under Lever’s terms, the legal risk of your hiring sits with you. Lever warrants that its services are provided in compliance with applicable federal, state and local laws. But you have an independent duty to comply with all laws that apply to you. So its warranty does not replace your own duty. You also indemnify Lever, which means you cover its losses from a claim. That covers any claim that you violated applicable law or the rights of any employee or candidate. Lever is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness or legality of data a user posts. Candidates send correction or deletion requests to you, and you must act on them.
Some features come only with the Enterprise edition or an add-on
A feature you assume is included may sit in the top edition or an add-on. So match each one to your quote. The Enterprise edition adds posting approvals, headcount restrictions, offer approvals and requisition management. It also adds Automation Hub with auto-screening, confidential postings, custom requisition fields, Slackbot, e-signature integrations and company login integrations. The Advanced Automation add-on includes Automation Hub, Slackbot, e-signature integrations, candidate experience surveys and knockout questions.
Lever’s pricing page puts unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries in its core platform. Its help article puts core usage at a limited number each month. Unlimited use comes with the full AI Interview Companion. Ask which one applies to your quote.
No price list, yearly billing and a 30-day notice window
Lever sells by custom quote, so the quote and the contract are what you compare. Pricing is tailored to organisation size and hiring needs. Lever offers custom pricing for each customer, scaled to team size and feature needs. It promises no hidden fees or forced add-ons. Under Lever’s terms, the agreement and all order forms, including pricing, are Lever’s confidential information. Check what that allows before you ask a peer what they paid.
Size is one driver, and the service is tied to an Employee Limit. That is the number of employees you have on the order form’s effective date. In a multi-year term, Lever may assess your employee volume at each anniversary. It can then apply a prorated increase for use above the Employee Limit. Some add-ons are priced by seat instead. Advanced Analytics comes with two named user logins. Candidate Texting comes with one named user login and unlimited texts per user.
The yearly fee is the commitment to weigh, because it is hard to undo. Fees are invoiced annually from the order form’s effective date. All fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable except as expressly stated. One stated exception is a refund of unused fees to the extent Lever’s material breach caused the termination. The agreement renews for one-year periods unless either side gives written notice at least 30 days before the term ends. Put that date in your calendar. If undisputed fees stay unpaid beyond the stated days, all remaining fees for the term become due. Lever may suspend access 14 calendar days after a non-payment notice if the amount is unpaid.
Renewal price rises are capped, but the cap is not the whole story. The cap is the change in US consumer prices (CPI-U) over the last 12 months plus 5 percent, with exceptions. Lever may change a renewal price if you reduce units, volume, term or products. It may also change it with six months’ notice. So the cap does not fix your renewal price. That is why the third question below asks for it in writing. No price increase applies during a service term unless you exceed your licensing limits or both sides agree.
If you are moving from another system, plan for what comes across. Most customers are implemented within weeks, not months. A Data Migration Tier 2 service has a Lever specialist process data from one old system. The result is a format Lever can import. Lever warns it may not be able to move all information from the old system.
Leaving is the other half of the price, because your hiring records sit in Lever until you take them out. Lever gives tools to pull your data by API at any time. Once before the term ends, it makes all your data available on request, if undisputed fees are paid. The format is commercially reasonable. LeverTRM also includes CSV export. The API can list and download resume files. After expiry, your data is no longer accessible and is promptly deleted under Lever’s retention policy.
Lever gives different timings for deleting your data. Its security page puts the start of deletion of production data at 90 days after the contract ends. It also gives 45 days after the end as the day the data is deleted. Lever’s data retention policy puts deletion of a former customer’s data at no more than 90 days after the term. It completes a written request to delete your data within 30 days. Backups are deleted by 150 days after termination unless you direct otherwise. Employ gives written certification of deletion on request. Ask which timeline is written into your contract.
You could also run hiring steps with agents built on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map
Ten questions for the sales call
- What is the price for our employee count, with every edition and add-on written on the order form? Good answer: One price per line, and nothing left to a later quote.
- What happens to our fee if our headcount rises during a multi-year term? Good answer: A written rate per extra employee, agreed now.
- What cap applies at renewal, and does it still hold if we drop an add-on? Good answer: A cap in the order form that holds either way.
- Which AI features and how many interview transcripts does our edition include each month? Good answer: A named list and a number, both in the order form.
- Which languages can candidates and recruiters use today? Good answer: A named list that matches the countries we hire in.
- Who gets notice before you change the AI model provider that scores our candidates? Good answer: A named admin, told in writing before the change.
- Will you show bias test results over many months for our own roles, and who ran them? Good answer: A dated series from an outside party, not one day.
- In which direction does each HR system sync run, from Lever or into it? Good answer: A named list marking in, out or both for each system.
- Do you delete our data 45 days or 90 days after the contract ends, and when do backups go? Good answer: One written timeline and a signed deletion certificate.
- Will you raise the liability cap or lengthen the one-year claims period for us? Good answer: A figure and a period we have agreed in writing.
Alternatives to Lever
Each alternative suits a reader who is put off by one Lever trait. If you want a price before a sales call, look at Workable or JazzHR. If you want a quote but a different plan structure, look at Greenhouse, Ashby or Jobvite.
Workable charges $299 a month for its Standard plan for 1 to 20 employees. JazzHR gives two prices for its Hero plan. Its pricing page puts Hero at $1,000 a year billed annually. Its comparison with Greenhouse puts Hero at $110 a month. Ask JazzHR which applies to you. JazzHR’s standard pricing does not apply to organisations with over 250 employees, agencies, franchises or multi-location businesses.
Ashby’s Foundations plan, for up to 100 employees, carries a total of $400 a month on its pricing card. Ashby also sells a Plus plan for 101 to 1,000 employees and an Enterprise plan for 1,000 or more. It offers 10% off for an annual commitment. Greenhouse sells three plans named Core, Plus and Pro, and a customer can upgrade plans at any time. Plan, hiring volume, organisational complexity and required features drive its cost. Jobvite sells the core system first and adds Onboarding, AI Companion and recruitment marketing as add-ons.
JazzHR and Jobvite belong to Employ, the same owner as Lever. Employ’s terms for Jobvite also assess employee volume at each anniversary of a multi-year term. Buying one of them does not move you to a different owner. Buying nothing is the last option. A small hiring load may not justify a yearly fee that is non-cancellable, except as Lever’s terms expressly state. Compare the quote with what hiring costs you now. Our market guide covers how the rest of this field compares.
https://www.lever.co/lever-trm · LeverTRM, the platform · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/applicant-tracking-system · Lever applicant tracking system · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/recruiting-software-for-small-business · Lever for small business recruiting · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/pricing · Lever pricing · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/ai-features · Lever AI features · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/innovation-hub · Lever innovation hub · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/vonq-ai-screening · AI Screening by VONQ · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/security · Lever security · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/security-exhibit · Lever security exhibit · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/legal/terms-of-service · Lever terms of service · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/agreements/sla · Lever service level agreement · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/marketplace · Lever marketplace · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/enterprise · Lever for enterprise · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/smb · Lever for small business · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/growing-businesses · Lever for growing businesses · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/solutions/high-volume-hiring · Lever for high-volume hiring · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/solutions/dei · Lever for equal opportunity and diversity · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/onboarding · Lever Onboarding · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/less-busywork-better-hiring-what-s-new-in-lever · Lever blog, less busywork and better hiring · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/lever-launches-core-ai-features · Lever blog, core AI features · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/ai-candidate-screening · Lever blog, AI candidate screening · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/from-chaos-to-clarity-to-connection-how-lever-s-spring-2026-release-puts-the-human-back-in-hiring · Lever blog, spring 2026 release · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/ai-you-can-trust-insights-you-can-use-levers-latest-innovations-built-for-confident-hiring · Lever blog, latest innovations built for confident hiring · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.employinc.com/responsible-ai/ · Employ responsible AI · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/blog/how-lever-is-raising-the-bar-for-recruiting-technology-results-from-the-hackett-group-r-2026-talent-acquisition-vendor-assessment · Lever blog, Hackett Group vendor assessment · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/insights/best-remote-hiring-software · Lever article, best remote hiring software · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/alternative/lever-vs-greenhouse · Lever comparison with Greenhouse · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/case-studies/lucidworks · Lucidworks case study · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/case-studies/aircall · Aircall case study · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/case-studies/royal-ambulance · Royal Ambulance case study · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/case-studies/mitek-systems · Mitek Systems case study · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.lever.co/case-studies/mastery-charter-schools · Mastery Charter Schools case study · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.employinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Product-Description-Addendum-04.21.25.pdf · Employ product description for Lever · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.employinc.com/sub-processors/ · Employ sub-processors · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.employinc.com/terms-of-service/ · Employ terms of service · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.jobvite.com/news_item/lever-joins-employ-to-accelerate-growth/ · Employ announcement of the Lever acquisition, 5 Aug 2022 · read 2 Nov 2026
https://hire.lever.co/developer/documentation · Lever API documentation · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20250708055908id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/28081525270685-Talent-Fit-AI-Brief · Lever help, Talent Fit AI Brief (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20251015083316id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/30598385842205-Talent-Fit-Bias-Assessment · Lever help, Talent Fit Bias Assessment (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20250519055220id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/26828963215645-Talent-Fit-in-Lever · Lever help, Talent Fit in Lever (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20251010021448id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/28234792927901-Interview-AI-Summary-Complementary-AI-Interview-Companion · Lever help, interview summaries (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20240716005226id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/20087302553117-How-Lever-supports-OFCCP-compliance-efforts · Lever help, OFCCP compliance (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20240713121109id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/20087258838429-Configuring-salary-range-on-job-postings · Lever help, salary range on job postings (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20240722205250id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/20087349584285-Does-Lever-support-languages-other-than-English · Lever help, languages other than English (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://web.archive.org/web/20240715184431id_/https://help.lever.co/hc/en-us/articles/20087301095581-Data-Retention-and-Destruction-Policy · Lever help, data retention and destruction policy (archived copy) · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.greenhouse.com/pricing · Greenhouse pricing · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.ashbyhq.com/pricing · Ashby pricing · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.workable.com/pricing · Workable pricing · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.jazzhr.com/pricing · JazzHR pricing · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.jazzhr.com/alternative/jazzhr-vs-greenhouse · JazzHR comparison with Greenhouse · read 2 Nov 2026
https://www.jobvite.com/pricing/ · Jobvite pricing · read 2 Nov 2026