Greenhouse and Ashby Alternatives: A Small-Team Exit Guide

If you need a Greenhouse or Ashby alternative for a small hiring team, test Kit against the work you actually do: publish a role, review candidates, schedule interviews and reach a decision together. Kit’s subscription includes Hiring at $8 per paid teammate per month, or $80 per year, before tax. The practical route is to move active recruiting into Kit, import the CVs you need and preserve older interview history in an accessible archive.

That distinction matters. Kit’s bulk CV import lets you start working with candidates. It does not recreate an entire Greenhouse, Ashby or Lever account. You can switch without rebuilding every old search if you know where the records will live and who can retrieve them.

This guide covers that move: which teams fit, what to request from your current provider, what Kit can receive and how to hand over an open role. Vendor packaging and documentation were checked on 5 November 2026. Your own order and account permissions determine what you can buy and export.

When Kit is worth putting on your shortlist

Kit suits a small group that wants a shared hiring process without buying a large recruiting platform for occasional use. You can bring jobs, candidate communication, structured reviews and interview scheduling into one workspace. Engineering teams can also use repository assignments through an active GitHub connection.

The subscription arithmetic is straightforward. Three paid teammates cost $24 per month or $240 per year; five cost $40 per month or $400 per year, before tax. Those are calculations from the per-teammate rate, not a quote for migration services or external tools. Check the current USD plan before purchasing.

Count everyone who needs account membership, including an engineer who interviews occasionally. Candidates do not count as paid teammates. AI usage, connected services and the separate Outreach add-on can create additional costs, so give the trial the same participants and connections you intend to use afterward.

Founder-led and bootstrapped teams

If the founder, a hiring manager and one colleague run recruitment, the useful question is whether they can keep the next action visible. A candidate should have a clear stage, someone responsible for following up and feedback the team can use. Kit gives that group a place to work together instead of passing a spreadsheet and an inbox between them.

Start with the next real role. Set up its stages, agree how reviewers will record a recommendation and test candidate communication. You can then judge the workflow from a complete hiring task rather than a feature checklist.

Engineering teams with occasional openings

For a technical role, include the assessment in your trial. Confirm that the candidate can reach the assignment, the reviewer can inspect the work and the team can discuss its recommendation. GitHub connectivity supports new repository assignments; it does not automatically import repositories or historical assessment feedback from your old ATS.

Kit’s reviews and feedback workflow supports structured recommendations and independent feedback. Preserve the original evidence behind an older decision, even if you add a short working summary to the new record.

Fractional recruiters working in a client’s account

A sensible arrangement is for each client to own its workspace and recruiting history, invite the recruiter and retain an internal account owner. Agree who maintains the process after the engagement and remove the recruiter’s access at handoff.

This setup keeps the client’s hiring work with the client. If your business needs a shared cross-client candidate pool, agency sales CRM or placement accounting, evaluate those requirements separately. A client-owned Kit workspace does not provide that agency system.

Compare the package you use in Greenhouse, Ashby or Lever

The relevant comparison is your required workflow against your actual bill. Greenhouse and Lever publish package descriptions without a universal list price; Ashby’s pricing depends on the applicable plan and buying model. Copying a starting figure from a comparison article can give you the wrong baseline.

Ashby’s seat-pricing documentation also describes paid access on applicable accounts. Do not treat every Ashby contract as company-size pricing, or every participant as a paid seat.

There are good reasons to keep a larger platform. If you depend on Ashby’s custom reporting or CRM, a particular HR integration, complex interview-loop booking or procurement attestations, prove an acceptable replacement before switching. Kit is worth choosing for the work it supports today.

For a broader price and contract comparison, use our ATS renewal guide. Here, the next step is to establish what you can carry out of your existing account.

Get the right export from your current ATS

Ask for a sample export while your current account is active. Name the records and files you need, check who has permission to retrieve them and confirm whether assisted extraction has a charge. An export button and a complete migration package can produce very different results.

Leaving Greenhouse

Greenhouse’s public subscription agreement provides for API-based data export during the term and distinguishes it from an assisted export. Read your executed agreement and applicable addenda before scheduling cancellation. For customers within scope, its EU Data Act addendum can override conflicting standard switching terms.

Request candidates and applications separately in your inventory. One person may have applied for several jobs, with different stages, notes and assessments. Preserve those relationships so an old rejection for one role does not become the apparent outcome of another.

Treat files as files. Greenhouse’s attachment API documentation says download links expire after seven days. Download the documents, open a sample and retain their application associations. A spreadsheet of temporary URLs is not a durable archive.

Leaving Ashby

Ashby’s candidate-export documentation describes different routes: custom-list CSV exports on the listed Plus and Enterprise plans, individual candidate PDFs that can include notes, emails and feedback, and support assistance for bulk resumes. Confirm the routes available to your account and the turnaround for a complete request. A plan restriction on one route does not establish that your data cannot be exported.

Be explicit about history. Ask for applications, feedback, messages, offers and original documents, together with their relationships. Also ask how to retain source information, privacy notices and applicable retention dates.

Even a dedicated API migration can have gaps. Ashby’s own Greenhouse-to-Ashby migration guide says user permissions and candidate consent dates do not transfer; retention dates need separate handling. That describes Ashby’s inbound migration, not a Kit importer. It shows why you must check the destination as carefully as the export.

Leaving Lever

Lever’s published terms describe API access during the term and a requested all-data retrieval before expiry, subject to the agreement’s conditions. Arrange the request before access ends and confirm how original files and history will be delivered under your order.

For any provider, name an owner for each export task. The recruiter may own candidate selection while an administrator owns credentials and the data owner approves archive access. Get a usable sample before committing to a handover date.

What can actually move into Kit?

Kit supports bulk CV import from PDF and DOCX files. It extracts candidate details for human review, lets you choose the destination job and stage, and supports duplicate resolution. Use the bulk CV import guide to test that route with your own documents.

Kit’s CV importer does not accept Hiring CSV files or provide a direct Greenhouse, Ashby or Lever migration. Assign each part of your old system a destination:

An archive needs an owner, controlled access and a retrieval method someone can use. Search a sample candidate’s name, find the correct application and open the relevant documents. Keep records according to your applicable retention policy rather than copying everything indefinitely.

Kit requires a source and lawful-basis attestation for import. Importing does not create prior consent, send a privacy notice or reset a retention deadline. It also does not email candidates or trigger normal advancement actions. Plan necessary notices and communication deliberately.

Check Kit’s own exit before choosing it, too. Its account data export redacts encrypted fields from structured JSON; original files are handled separately and may be withheld where required. Candidate contact details and email bodies are encrypted. Do not assume you will get a lossless round trip of every field simply because an export exists.

Prove the handover with one difficult candidate

Choose an authorized sample that represents your actual work: someone with more than one application, an assessment, several reviewers and an open conversation. Use test data where possible. A clean CV alone cannot show whether your handover works.

Run the whole task with the people who will own it:

1. Identify the person. Import the CV, correct the details and check duplicates.
2. Recover the context. Open the archived application, assessment and feedback. Confirm the job and outcome agree.
3. Resume the work. Set the right current stage and record who owns the next action.
4. Check participation. Have the intended interviewer submit feedback and test the access allowed to each role.
5. Check communication and scheduling. Review the candidate-facing message and try the booking flow with the required calendar or meeting connections.

Pass the trial when a colleague can continue the process without asking you where the evidence went. If a crucial record cannot be found, fix that gap before moving the rest of the role.

Cut over open roles without losing the next action

Pick one system to own each live process after the handover. Record where new applications arrive, where replies are handled and which tool owns existing interview bookings. Replacing the ATS does not by itself update your careers links, email routing or calendar invitations.

Before switching traffic, reconcile the active candidates by job and stage. A matching total is useful, but inspect individuals as well. A duplicate profile can hide a missing person, and a correctly imported CV can still be attached to the wrong role.

Keep a short handover list: candidate, current role, next action, owner and date. Resolve pending replies and invitations against it. Then check careers links and application forms, turn off superseded automation and explain the new workflow to hiring managers.

Close the old account only after the archive can be retrieved independently and the live process works. If few roles are active and the historical cleanup is substantial, move new hiring first and agree a separate archive plan. The right transition can be smaller than the database you leave behind.

Test Kit before you cancel

Kit gives a small team a concrete alternative to evaluate: shared candidate communication, structured review, scheduling and technical assignments at a clear per-teammate subscription. Bring one live workflow into the trial, count its participants and decide whether the team can complete the next hiring task comfortably.

The migration map should be equally clear: CVs you import, processes you rebuild and original history you can still retrieve. When those pieces work together, you have a practical basis for moving.

Start a Kit trial and test one role before committing the rest. The trial lasts 30 days and requires a card; cancel before it ends to avoid a subscription charge.