Manatal

Manatal charges per user, but automations, single sign-on and the Open API sit on its two upper plans. Its AI is switched on for new accounts, and its terms leave every hiring decision with you. Leaving costs money, because a full export with CVs costs $900 and archived candidates cannot be exported. Its own pages give two sets of prices, so get yours in writing.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 4 Nov 2026 Last updated 4 Nov 2026

Manatal charges per user, and its best features cost more

In one line

Manatal is a recruiting system priced per user. Automations, single sign-on and the Open API sit on the upper plans.

Buy it if

You want to pay for each recruiter, not by company size. Your team will check every AI result before a candidate moves. You can accept that a subscription is committed for its billing term.

Do not buy it if

You need a cheap, full export of your data whenever you ask. You want a written promise that the AI is unbiased. You cannot accept Thai law and a liability cap equal to six months of fees.

Price

Professional is $15, Enterprise $35 and Enterprise Plus $55 per user per month in the FAQ, billed annually. The pricing cards give $19, $39 and $59. The AI Interviewer costs extra, from $40 a month for 20 interviews. There is a 14-day free trial.

How Manatal moves a candidate, and where the AI joins in

A recruiting system is where every job, candidate and hiring decision is recorded. Manatal is a cloud system for in-house HR teams and staffing agencies. This section covers the daily work, the AI and the links to your other software. The AI part matters most, because it is on before anyone chooses.

Each job gets its own page with a drag-and-drop pipeline and customisable stages. You can view the pipeline as a board or a list. Candidate Quick-Screen lets a recruiter preview people in the pipeline, then move them on or drop them. That keeps a first pass quick. Manatal offers screening and must-have questions and bulk CV upload. Jobs go out to a network of over 2,500 free and premium job channels. Mailbox and calendar connections work with Outlook, Office 365 and Google.

Hiring managers and clients come in as guests. A guest under a client or department can submit a job requisition. Chosen users then review, approve or reject it. Multi-step approval flows are Enterprise Plus only and are in beta. Manatal sells a branded guest portal as an add-on. A candidate who reaches a set stage appears automatically in the Employee Management System if you enable it. The default stage is Hired.

Automations save the repeat work. They act when a candidate applies to a job or moves to a stage, with no one clicking. One use Manatal offers is an automatic rejection email when a candidate is dropped. Wilhelmsen uses automated emails to tell applicants who were not selected. Automations come with the Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans only.

The AI can shape who a recruiter sees first. Manatal AI is activated by default for new accounts. An AI parsing agent extracts key information from each CV added to a profile. Scoring and matching agents rank candidates by scores from parameters taken from the job description. So the job description you write shapes who comes top. AI Recommendations builds a ranked shortlist from your own candidate database, and Manatal marks it as beta. For each shortlist, it generates up to 10 requirements and sorts them into Required and Preferred.

Two other AI tools touch candidates directly. An enrichment agent scans over 20 social media and public platforms for each new candidate. It displays only accounts that it is at least 70% confident belong to that candidate. So candidates’ social accounts can appear on their profile, which is worth telling candidates about. A Chrome extension called People-Match AI imports candidates from LinkedIn, GitHub, SEEK, Xing and others.

The AI Interviewer changes what candidates and recruiters experience. It is an add-on that Manatal provides on request. It runs a video interview with a candidate at any time, with no recruiter present. For high-volume hiring, Manatal offers a set-up where the link is emailed automatically the moment a candidate applies. So a candidate can be interviewed as soon as they apply. The AI Interviewer can interview hundreds of applicants at once. Every candidate gets the same questions, so answers can be compared. A recruiter can write the questions. The AI can also generate up to 10 from the job description, each with grading criteria. When the candidate finishes, the AI evaluates the transcript against those criteria. The recruiter can open the AI summary, the full transcript and the recording, and the customer keeps the final decision. An interview typically lasts around 30 minutes. The link does not expire. Manatal gives six interview languages in its pricing and twelve in its help article, so ask which list applies.

Manatal also offers AI Copilot, an in-app assistant for recruiters. An AI Notetaker joins candidate and contact meetings to record and summarise them. Both are in beta, and the Notetaker is an add-on on request. Copilot usage is limited by plan. Copilot cannot make hiring decisions. It is not trained on client data and client data is not sent to the AI providers it uses. Copilot can return a candidate’s date of birth, and their gender where it was given.

Manatal leaves the hiring decision and any notices the law requires to you. By taking the interview, a candidate agrees to share the video and transcript with the hiring company. Manatal advises you to tell candidates that an AI asks the questions and that the interview is recorded. Under the AI Addendum, you must give any notices the law requires. That applies where you are responsible for interactions with end users. The addendum bars using AI features for fully automated employment decisions where the law prohibits them. It adds that AI outputs should not be the sole basis for employment decisions.

Manatal connects to the rest of your HR software in three ways. First, it sends candidates to HiBob, BambooHR, Humaans, Melioris, Omni HR and WorkDigital. Second, the Open API can link Manatal to payroll and HR systems such as SAP, Oracle, Kronos and ADP. It is an Enterprise Plus feature. Third, Manatal works with Zapier and n8n. Partner AI interview tools connect as well. HeyMilo and Hireflix both need the Open API. Alpharun emails a candidate an AI interview link when their status reaches a stage.

Manatal also has a connection that lets AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT work with your account data. Connecting other AI tools to it needs Enterprise Plus. The address of that connection is a credential that gives admin-level access. Treat it like a password.

Where Manatal leaves the control with you

These are the places where Manatal gives you a switch, a record or a service. They matter because the AI is on by default and candidate data is personal data. Read them as the controls you can use from day one.

You decide where the AI runs

Manatal AI is switched on by default for new accounts. An admin can enable or disable it. The AI Interviewer can also be turned off inside a single job. That means you can use it for one role and keep it away from another.

Training and outside AI providers are covered in the terms

Manatal does not use customer data to train its AI models. Some AI features rely on third-party AI providers. The providers in its terms are AWS Nova Sonic, Anthropic Claude, Mistral, Llama and OpenAI. Where they are used, customer data is processed only as necessary. Your candidates’ data is personal data, so ask which features use which provider.

Security and privacy basics are in place

Manatal has SOC 2 Type II certification, which gives you an independent audit to ask for. All access to Manatal is logged and audited. You can ask for a report of who accessed your data, so you can see who opened candidate records. Its data processing addendum gives a 72-hour notice of a confirmed security incident. This means you hear about a breach within a set time. You can object to a new subprocessor within seven days. This gives you a set time to raise an objection to a new company handling your data. Under that addendum, you are the data controller and Manatal is the processor. Its terms add that the controller decides how it uses the platform. All customer data is stored in the USA, on infrastructure from Amazon Web Services. If your candidates live elsewhere, weigh that when you read the addendum.

Consent and privacy tools come built in

GDPR tracking reports monthly consent statistics and which candidates have given consent or are still pending. Consent can be gathered when candidates apply on the career page. You can also add a privacy notice to a Manatal-hosted career page. Manatal offers tools to support GDPR, CCPA and PDPA compliance. For US jobs posted to Indeed, the equal opportunity answers stay confidential and recruiters cannot see them. The section on where Manatal stops covers one gap, which is candidates added in bulk.

Manatal can run your move in, on some plans

Manatal offers a self-serve data import and a migration that Manatal carries out. An executed migration needs a plan that includes migration support, so ask which plans those are. Custom migrations are subject to separate conditions. Manatal supports 14 standard systems for migration. Most migrations take 2 to 4 weeks from the day Manatal receives your data. An export from your old system is a snapshot in time, so plan the cut-off date.

Four kinds of team Manatal suits, from global recruiters to a very small team

Use these four examples to find the one closest to your own hiring. Then ask Manatal for a reference from a customer like that. The results below are the customers’ own reports.

A recruiting team spread over many countries

Wilhelmsen has a team of over 20 recruiters working in one system across 15 countries. It pays for 23 users. Because Manatal charges per user, its bill follows the size of the recruiting team.

An in-house team that wants faster, cheaper hiring

True Coffee adopted Manatal in 2021. It reports time-to-hire down by 30% and cost-per-hire down by 20%. These are customer results that Manatal publishes. Ask for references that match your own hiring.

A staffing agency that hires for clients

Manatal is designed for in-house HR teams and staffing agencies. ColorCrew is an agency with 20 in-house professionals and a field force of about 350. It reports 40 hours a month of manual work removed. Guests can be invited into the process for a client or department. Vendor accounts for agencies cost $19 per vendor per month.

A very small team on the Professional plan

Manatal positions Professional for individuals and small teams. It covers up to 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates. Manatal’s pricing FAQ puts it at $15 per user per month, billed annually. Its pricing cards put it at $19. Ask which figure goes in your quote.

The upper plans, the exit cost and the contract

This section covers the points that decide how hard it is to change your mind later. They matter because the lowest seat price buys only the base plan, and leaving has its own price. A vendor’s size and backing matter, because you may rely on it for years. Manatal has offices in Singapore and Bangkok. It has reached over 135 countries. In February 2022 it announced $5.1 million in seed funding from Sequoia India’s Surge with angel investors.

Most of the controls sit on the two upper plans

Automations need Enterprise or higher. Enterprise Plus adds single sign-on, which lets staff log in with their company account. It also adds groups, the Open API, the candidate portal, the advanced report builder and beta features. Below Enterprise Plus, advanced reports display demo data only. That is why a low seat price on Professional buys no automations, single sign-on or Open API.

Archiving does not free space, and archived records stay behind

Archived candidates and jobs still count toward your account totals. This means archiving does not free room under the Professional limits of 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates. Data of archived candidates also cannot be exported from Manatal. If you leave, those records stay behind. Decide before you archive whether you will want them later.

Taking your data out is limited and costs money

Subscribers get one free export a year in CSV or Excel. Exports need an active account with all invoices paid, so take yours before the subscription ends. Extra CSV exports cost $100 per instance per month. A full export with CVs and attachments costs $900 per instance. The self-service export is not enabled by default. Only one data set can be exported at a time.

A subscription is committed for its billing term

Manatal’s terms commit a subscription or add-on for the billing term. It cannot be cancelled, downgraded, refunded or credited. In its product updates, Manatal promotes “Transparent and flexible pricing without lock-in contract”. Ask which one applies to your order. A subscription can be paused, and you end it by revoking the billing agreement inside Manatal. Subscriptions renew for the same duration unless an admin cancels, so note the date. Manatal can change its fees at any time. It gives notice if a change may affect your subscription at renewal. So ask for a cap on the renewal price.

If something goes wrong, the contract limits what you can claim

Liability is capped at the amount paid in the six months before the first incident. That limits what you could recover if something goes wrong. Thai law applies and Thai courts have sole jurisdiction. That means any dispute is heard in Thailand.

The AI marketing and the AI terms differ

Manatal sells the AI Interviewer with “Unbiased AI candidate assessments”. Under its AI Addendum, Manatal does not guarantee that AI outputs are accurate, complete or unbiased. The addendum adds that AI outputs may differ for identical inputs. Manatal does not guarantee that any AI feature stays available. You are solely responsible for decisions made in reliance on AI output, including hiring decisions.

Candidates added in bulk get no consent request

Automatic consent-request emails leave out candidates added by mass import, CSV or JSON import or the LinkedIn extension. This is why you need another way to collect consent from those candidates before you rely on the consent reports.

What you will pay beyond the seat price

The seat price is only part of the bill. Add-ons, AI interviews and leaving all add to it. This section goes through each in the order you will meet them. Manatal has three plans, priced per user per month. Its pricing FAQ gives Professional at $15, Enterprise at $35 and Enterprise Plus at $55, billed annually. Its pricing cards give $19, $39 and $59. The gap is $4 on every plan, so ask which figures go in your order.

Professional covers up to 15 jobs and 10,000 candidates. Enterprise adds unlimited jobs and candidates and automations. Enterprise Plus adds the advanced report builder, AI tool connections, the Open API, the candidate portal and internal mobility. It also adds custom permissions, single sign-on and priority support. Say you have ten users. On Enterprise they cost $350 a month at $35 a seat, or $390 at $39. On Enterprise Plus they cost $550 or $590. Each user fills one seat, including suspended users, so remove people who leave.

The AI Interviewer costs extra. The minimum purchase is 20 interviews. Monthly packages run from $40 for 20 interviews to $360 for 200. Yearly packages run from $360 for 240 interviews to $3,120 for 2,400. That is $2.00 down to $1.80 an interview on a monthly package. A yearly package works out at $1.50 down to $1.30. Manatal counts an interview only when a candidate finishes it, and each retake counts again. Monthly interviews reset each month and do not roll over.

Other add-ons add to the bill. SMS costs $28 per line per month, plus prepaid top-ups of at least $50. Extra mass-email capacity starts at $15 a month for 2,000 emails. Find Contact Details runs from $15 to $165 a month, depending on the package. Enterprise Plus includes Sourcing Hub with 300 searches a month, up to 30,000 candidates. The AI tool connection and the Open API are limited to 100 requests a minute.

Two limits come with conflicting figures. Manatal’s help centre sets a fair-use limit of 30 automations on the trial and Enterprise plans. Its pricing table on the same page gives 100. The same table gives Sourcing Hub 10 searches a month, up to 1,000 candidates. Ask which figures apply to your plan before you rely on either.

The free trial lasts 14 days. Some features are unavailable during it, including AI-generated job descriptions and the GDPR consent request tool. So you cannot test those before you pay. Account verification takes up to three working days after you subscribe. Manatal charges no taxes on fees to customers outside Singapore. It collects GST from Singapore tax residents at the standard rate, currently 9%. Its terms quote fees exclusive of VAT and other taxes, so ask what your invoice will include.

Leaving has its own price. A full export with CVs and attachments costs $900 per instance, and archived candidates cannot be exported at all. Manatal also stores customer data for up to 10 years after termination in case the account is reopened. If you ask for earlier deletion, Manatal acts within 2 months.

You could also run hiring steps with agents built on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Eleven questions to put to Manatal before you sign

Manatal’s own pages disagree on several figures, and the order form is where they get settled. Ask these questions before you sign, and keep the written answers.

Do we pay $15, $35 and $55 per user, or $19, $39 and $59? Which billing term applies? Good answer: A written quote per user per month with the term and our country’s taxes.
Which features on our shortlist sit above the plan we are buying? Good answer: A list that ties each feature to a named plan.
Do hiring managers who only review candidates fill paid seats? Good answer: A written answer for each type of guest and each plan.
What will a full export of our data cost, and how do we get archived candidates out? Good answer: A price in the order form, and a written way to include archived records.
Is the subscription committed for the full billing term, or can we leave sooner? Good answer: One answer in the order form, with the exit steps.
What is our renewal price, and when can we reduce seats? Good answer: A renewal price limit and a date for changing seats, in writing.
Which AI features send candidate data to AWS Nova Sonic, Anthropic Claude, Mistral, Llama or OpenAI? Good answer: A feature-by-feature list of providers and what data each receives.
Does the AI Interviewer run in six languages or twelve? Good answer: The exact language list in our contract.
Is our automation limit 30 or 100, and how many Sourcing Hub searches do we get each month? Good answer: One figure for each, named in the order form.
Can we stop AI Copilot returning a candidate’s date of birth and gender? Good answer: A setting we control, or a written list of the fields it returns.
What does a candidate get if they cannot or will not take an AI interview? Good answer: A named alternative that does not count against them.

Alternatives to Manatal

If Manatal comes off your shortlist, look at Workable, Breezy HR and Zoho Recruit, or decide to buy nothing yet.

Seats and AI switches are the two places to compare first. Manatal counts every user as a seat, including suspended users. Whether reviewing hiring managers count is an open question, so ask it of any alternative too. On AI, Workable lets you switch its agent’s sourcing, outreach, screening, auto-advance and auto-disqualify on or off. You can do that at account, job or candidate level. Auto-disqualify is off by default. Manatal’s AI is on by default and an admin can turn it off.

If cost is the worry, two others have free plans. Breezy HR has a free Bootstrap plan that holds one active job. Its Startup plan is $157 or $189 a month, so ask which is the annual price. Its AI Interview Analysis is a subscription you can add to any paid plan, and Breezy marks it as beta. Zoho Recruit has a Free plan for startups looking to hire their first teams. After its 15-day trial, the account moves to the Free plan with data kept. It also sells a Staffing Agency edition.

Buying nothing yet is also an option. Several of Manatal’s AI tools are in beta, including AI Recommendations, Copilot and the Notetaker. Manatal does not guarantee that any AI feature stays available. If those tools are why you are looking, ask what is planned for them before you sign.