Hilancer vs Kruiters: Web ATS or Desktop ATS?

Hilancer and Kruiters target the same audience — the freelance recruiter — from two opposite philosophies. Kruiters is a Windows desktop application with locally stored data and one of the lowest prices on the market. Hilancer is a cloud ATS + CRM with AI, a job portal and a strong focus on candidate experience. Neither approach is "the right one" in the abstract: it depends on how you work. This honest comparison will help you decide.

What Kruiters Offers

Kruiters (kruiters.com) is a desktop ATS exclusively for Windows 10/11: there is no Mac, web or mobile version, and data is stored locally on your device. It is built for freelance recruiters who work alone. It includes statistics, customizable workflow phases, boolean search, color coding per client, manual export and backup, light and dark themes, offline operation, an interface in Spanish, English and French, and commission tracking. Its prices are very low according to its official website (August 2026): €2.99 per month (was €6.99), €14.99 per year (was €59.99), or a lifetime license for €23.99 (was €79.99); these are promotional prices that may change. It offers a 30-day trial.

What Hilancer Offers

Hilancer is a fully web-based ATS + recruitment CRM, accessible from any device with a browser. It includes a visual pipeline with customizable stages, screening with automatic knockout, per-candidate notes, a Chrome extension to import candidates from LinkedIn in one click, and metrics for funnel, stage conversion, time-to-fill, offer acceptance and NPS. It adds applied AI: CV parsing, a per-position compatibility summary, semantic search, pipeline recommendations, and job description generation. And its differentiator: candidate experience, with automatic email feedback at every stage, a branded public job portal with a drop-your-CV page, an automatic NPS survey, WhatsApp interview notifications on team plans, and Google Calendar + Meet sync. The Lite plan is free forever (30 AI credits per month); Pro costs US$15 per month — currently 30% off at US$9.99 — with a 14-day trial. A Teams plan is coming soon.

Comparison Table

Local Desktop vs Cloud: The Underlying Decision

The structural difference is where your data lives. With Kruiters, everything stays on your computer: it works offline, does not depend on the internet, and some recruiters genuinely value that local control as a privacy advantage. The flip side: Windows only, a single device, and backups are your responsibility (manual export and backup); sharing information with someone else means passing files around by hand. With Hilancer, your data lives in the cloud: you log in from your laptop, your phone or a coworking computer without installing anything; in exchange, you need an internet connection. Neither option is objectively better — it is a way-of-working preference.

Pricing: Both Are Affordable, With Different Models

Kruiters is probably one of the cheapest ATS out there: from €2.99 per month or a €23.99 lifetime license under its current promotion, per its official website (August 2026). That is a strong argument and it would be dishonest to downplay it. That said, Hilancer Lite is simply free forever, with 30 monthly AI credits included, and Pro costs US$15 (currently US$9.99). In this comparison, price is not the deciding factor: both fit a freelancer's budget. The real difference is what you get for the money.

AI, Job Portal and Candidate Experience

Here the paths diverge. Kruiters announces no AI features, offers no public job portal, and has no cloud integrations: it is a personal record-keeping and organization tool, and it plays that role with a simple approach. Hilancer bets on the ATS also working outward: AI reads CVs and suggests candidates per pipeline, the branded portal publishes your openings and receives spontaneous CVs, and the candidate gets automatic feedback at every stage plus an NPS survey at the end. If your brand in front of candidates and clients is part of your value proposition, that layer weighs more than any internal feature.

Collaboration and Room to Grow

Kruiters has no real team collaboration: data lives on each device, and sharing it means exporting and importing backups by hand. If you will always work alone, that is not a problem. If there is any chance you will bring in a colleague or grow into a small firm, it is a concrete ceiling. Hilancer, being cloud-based, has no such structural barrier, and its multi-recruiter Teams plan with a consolidated dashboard is coming soon.

When Kruiters Is the Better Fit

Kruiters is a reasonable and very inexpensive option if you work alone, use Windows, want the lowest possible spend (even a lifetime license), prefer your data local and offline, and do not need a job portal, AI or collaboration. Its commission tracking is a concrete plus for freelancers, and the 30-day trial lets you verify it at no cost.

When Hilancer Is the Better Fit

Hilancer is the better fit if you use a Mac or multiple devices, want your openings on a branded public portal, value candidates receiving automatic feedback (and measuring it with NPS), want AI to read CVs and surface profiles from your base, or see yourself growing beyond working solo. You can also start with Lite, free forever, so trying it costs nothing.

Which One Should You Choose?

• Solo, on Windows, minimal budget, local and offline data: Kruiters delivers, at a price that is hard to match.
• Mac, mobile or multiple machines: Hilancer, being web-based, is the only one of the two that works there.
• Your edge is candidate experience and your brand: Hilancer, for the portal, automatic feedback and NPS.
• You want AI in your workflow: Hilancer; Kruiters announces no AI features.
• Possible growth into a team: Hilancer, for the cloud and the upcoming Teams plan.

Both can be tried for free (30 days for Kruiters; Lite free forever plus a 14-day Pro trial for Hilancer). Run a real process through each and decide from your own experience.