Manatal Pricing vs Hire Forge AI for Small Teams (2026)

Manatal's official pricing lists Professional at $15 per user/month, Enterprise at $35 per user/month, and Enterprise Plus at $55 per user/month when billed annually. Manatal is the broader applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruitment CRM; Hire Forge AI is a specialist CV-screening layer with plans from £25/month.

A quick transparency note: this post is written by the Hire Forge AI team. We've done our best to give Manatal a fair assessment and to name the scenarios where it's genuinely the better choice. Where that's true, we say so plainly. Apply the usual scepticism.

For a broader look at the full landscape of AI recruitment tools, start with our best AI recruitment software guide for SMBs.

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What's the Real Difference Between Hire Forge AI and Manatal?

Organisations with dedicated recruiters reported a median of 20 requisitions managed per recruiter annually in SHRM's 2025 Recruiting Benchmarking data. The median rose sharply with organisation size. That workload creates two distinct problems: pipeline management and screening quality. Hire Forge AI solves the second. Manatal solves the first, with AI features added on top.

Hire Forge AI is a standalone AI screener. It scores and ranks CVs against your job criteria. It doesn't post jobs, manage candidate pipelines, send offer letters, or track interviews. If you already have a workflow, even a shared inbox and a spreadsheet, Hire Forge AI slots in as a dedicated screening layer.

Manatal is a full applicant tracking system. It combines job and candidate pipelines, recruitment CRM functions, candidate communication, profile enrichment, and AI-assisted candidate recommendations. The AI is one part of the wider ATS, not the whole product.

This distinction matters more than any feature comparison. Neither tool is "better" in the abstract. They serve different stages of different hiring workflows. A team with no ATS who's drowning in pipeline chaos will not solve their problem with Hire Forge AI alone. A team with a working ATS that can't efficiently screen 200 applications per role doesn't need to migrate to a new ATS, they need better screening.

Not sure whether you need a full ATS or a dedicated screener? See our ATS vs dedicated AI screener guide for SMBs.

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How Does the Pricing Really Compare?

Among organisations experimenting with or actively integrating generative AI in hiring, talent professionals report saving an average of 20% of their work week (LinkedIn Future of Recruiting, 2025). But the cost of getting there varies wildly depending on which tool you choose and how your team is structured.

Hire Forge AI Pricing

Pricing is in GBP and is published on the Hire Forge AI pricing page. One credit covers one CV screened. There is no per-user charge, so a 3-person HR team pays the same subscription price as a solo recruiter at the same credit tier.

Manatal Pricing

Source note: Prices and plan boundaries were checked against Manatal's official pricing and automation documentation on 12 August 2026.

The important boundary is workflow automation. Manatal's automation documentation says the feature is available only on Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. It supports event-triggered email actions at job or pipeline level and is subject to fair-usage limits. Professional still provides the core ATS, but buyers who need those automations should cost Enterprise from the start.

Our finding: For three users on annual billing, Manatal costs $45/month on Professional, $105/month on Enterprise, or $165/month on Enterprise Plus. Hire Forge AI remains £25/month on Starter or £50/month on Professional because its plans are not priced per user. These are different currencies and different product scopes, so compare them without an exchange-rate estimate and include any ATS migration or integration work in the decision.

For a full pricing breakdown across eight AI recruitment platforms, see AI recruitment software pricing 2026: what SMBs actually pay.

Native-Currency Cost Comparison

This table deliberately keeps each product in its published currency. It is a subscription-cost comparison, not a like-for-like feature comparison: Manatal provides a broader ATS and CRM, while Hire Forge AI provides the focused screening layer.

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What Features Do You Get with Each Tool?

The most useful comparison starts with scope, because feature counts otherwise reward the larger product even when a team needs only one part of it.

Manatal is the broader product. Hire Forge AI is narrower by design. That is a scope trade-off, not evidence that either product produces a better shortlist.

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How Should You Compare AI Screening Quality?

Published feature lists cannot tell you which product will rank your real applicants more usefully. Manatal says its AI recommendations score and rank candidates using parameters extracted from the job description. Hire Forge AI also scores CV evidence against job criteria. Test the outputs rather than assuming one approach is superior.

Use one representative job description and one identical, consented CV batch for both products. Before reviewing either result, ask the hiring team to create a reference shortlist and name any candidates who must not be missed. Then assess the following criteria:

Keep the job description, CV files, reviewer group, and decision threshold fixed. Run the test again after any configuration change and record what changed. This produces evidence about your workflow without making unsupported claims about universal screening performance.

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Who Should Choose Hire Forge AI?

AI adoption among small businesses with 10–99 employees reached 31% in 2025, up from just 8% in 2022, a 288% increase in three years (Second Talent, 2025). Most of that growth isn't teams replacing their entire recruitment stack. It's teams adding a focused AI layer to an existing process.

Hire Forge AI fits best in three situations.

You already have a workflow and want better screening. If you're using a free ATS, a job board's built-in tracker, or even email and spreadsheets, Hire Forge AI adds CV scoring without requiring a system migration. You keep what works and upgrade the screening step specifically.

You want a plan based on CV volume rather than recruiter seats. Hire Forge AI's monthly tiers include a fixed number of screening credits without adding a charge for each user. Compare your expected CV volume with the published credit allowance before choosing a tier.

You want to test a focused screening layer without replacing the ATS. The Professional plan includes 1,000 screening credits per month. If screening is the bottleneck, test Hire Forge AI inside the existing process and measure the shortlist using the framework above.

For a complete walkthrough of how AI CV screening works in practice, see our complete guide to AI resume screening for SMBs.

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Who Should Choose Manatal?

The average cost-per-hire for non-executive roles was $5,475 in SHRM's 2025 benchmark (SHRM, 2025). When costs at that level apply to your business, having a proper ATS that tracks every candidate, every stage, and every communication isn't a nice-to-have. It's the infrastructure that makes repeatable hiring possible.

Choose Manatal in these situations.

You have no ATS and need one now. If you're tracking candidates in a spreadsheet and losing track of where people are in the process, Manatal Professional costs $45/month for three users on annual billing and provides the wider ATS workflow.

You consistently manage 10–15 active roles. Manatal's Professional plan caps the account at 15 jobs. If you're near that cap regularly, the limit fits your volume. Teams that need more open jobs should cost Enterprise.

You want a broader system of record. Manatal combines candidate records, jobs, pipelines, CRM functions, and AI recommendations. That breadth is useful when the current problem extends beyond screening.

You want a 14-day trial before committing. Manatal advertises a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Its pricing page also lists some features that are excluded from the trial, so test the exact workflow you expect to buy.

One important warning on automations: Do not sign up for Manatal Professional expecting workflow automation. The official documentation limits it to Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, so budget from $35 per user/month on annual billing if that feature is required.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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The Verdict

These two tools solve different problems. The right choice comes down to which problem you actually have.

Choose Hire Forge AI if:

• You already have a recruitment workflow and want to improve screening quality
• Your hiring volume varies month to month (credit pricing fits)
• You want a flat fee regardless of how many team members need access
• You want to test a focused screening layer without migrating to a new ATS
• You are prepared to validate ranking quality and false negatives with your own CV batch

Choose Manatal if:

• You have no ATS and need one from scratch
• You consistently manage 10–15 active roles and need structured pipeline tracking
• You need a broader ATS and recruitment CRM rather than screening alone
• You want a 14-day trial before committing any budget
• You're prepared to budget for Enterprise at $35 per user/month on annual billing if workflow automation is part of your plan

Neither tool does everything. Knowing which problem is yours is the decision.

If a full ATS remains under consideration, compare the same screening-first approach in Hire Forge AI versus Workable.

For a side-by-side comparison of eight AI recruitment tools across features, pricing, and use case fit, see our best AI recruitment software guide for SMBs.