What Is Wellfound Recruit?
Wellfound is a free job posting site specifically for startups and those looking to work for them. Wellfound Recruit addresses employers’ needs by offering them the following in its free version:
- Free job posting
- Limited sourcing capabilities
- Applicant tracking
Wellfound Recruit is a basic, lightweight version of its more sophisticated Recruit Pro and soon-to-be-released RecruiterCloud products.
Featured Partners
1
BambooHR
Yes
Yes
ATS
2
Pinpoint ATS
Yes
Yes
24/7 customer support, easy-to-use interface, fast and flexible workflows, hundreds of integrations
3
ClearCompany
Yes
Yes
Employee engagement
How Wellfound Recruit Works
We tested Wellfound on a Windows laptop using the Google Chrome browser. Once we set up our Wellfound account manually, rather than seeing a main home screen, we had the option of searching for and sourcing talent directly or posting a free job.
When you initially set up your account, you have the option to start posting jobs or sourcing talent.
Once you publish a job or start sourcing candidates, you see a more typical platform interface that displays a menu on top that includes the dashboard, your jobs, applicants and more. The dashboard provides an overview of applicant and sourcing activities.
Wellfound’s main dashboard screen.
Wellfound Recruit Features
In Wellfound’s free plan, you get free job posts, candidate sourcing, templates, applicant tracking and scheduling.
Job Posting
As an employer, you can post a job in Wellfound to begin tapping into its global network of eight million job seekers. When we set up our account and chose the “Post a Job” option, it was a matter of entering the job title, job description, desired years of experience, location and more.
Candidate Sourcing
You can search Wellfound’s database of talent by applying filters by location, time zone, skills and work experience. Wellfound will even display a candidate’s job search status to help you gauge their interest in finding a new job.
The search function in Wellfound Recruit presents you with its own curated lists of candidates in the following broad categories:
- Full-stack engineer
- Product manager
- Software engineer
- User interface/user experience (UI/UX) designer
Wellfound already provides curated lists in the Sourcing section.
You can select the star icon next to any of these lists to easily return to them later, especially as you save more of your own searches. When conducting a search, it saves it as a new search automatically, which might be a nuisance if you don’t want to save every search you perform in Wellfound’s database.
You can create your own saved searches in Wellfound.
By clicking on any of Wellfound’s curated lists or one of your own saved searches, you see a list of candidates and a preview of their experience, what they’re looking for and more. They’re ranked starting with those who are the best match for your job. Additionally, each list is separated into active candidates—those actively applying for jobs—and passive candidates—who are currently employed but might be open to a new job if the offer is compelling enough.
We like that you can click on any one candidate and their profile expands rather than taking you to a new tab or window. You have the option of clicking “Not interested” or “Request to chat.”
Wellfound’s candidate profiles provide plenty of contextual information to help you decide whether to keep looking or “request to chat” with the candidate.
Templates
Wellfound Recruit enables you to create templates “Accept,” “Reject” and email templates. “Accept” and “Reject” templates, as the names suggest, are for accepting and rejecting inbound applications, respectively. However, the “Accept” template isn’t meant for accepting an application for review. Rather, it’s used to relay to the candidate that you like what you see and that you’ll reach out soon to coordinate the next step of the hiring process.
Wellfound allows you to create your own customizable templates for accepting or rejecting candidates.
In addition, the email template is to communicate with candidates via email throughout the applicant tracking process, whether that’s through Wellfound’s own ATS or via integration with a different ATS.
If you upgrade to Recruit Pro, you have access to creating a pitch template. A pitch template is for reaching out to candidates that you’re interested in who you want to apply for your openings.
It was easy to get to the Templates section of Wellfound because it was displayed prominently on the dashboard. However, you can also access templates by clicking on the gear icon that takes you to your settings.
Applicant Tracking
Wellfound has its own ATS—formerly called Track—that can be found under the ATS tab of the main menu. It enables you to oversee where candidates are at in the hiring process and customize the order and names of stages. You have to first post a job to be able to see how Wellfound’s ATS works. Otherwise, you can integrate Wellfound for free with the Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever or Workable ATSes.
Candidate Messaging
You can message candidates and applicants but it’s unclear how many messages you can send and receive under the free Access plan and the Essentials plan. The Pro plan, for example, includes unlimited messaging.
Scheduling
Wellfound Recruit has a scheduling feature in Beta in which you can connect Wellfound to your Google calendar, select your availability and get a shareable scheduling link to share with candidates.
Wellfound Pricing & Plans
Wellfound Recruit offers three plans: Access, Essentials and Pro.
| Access | Essentials | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Starting Price
|
Free
|
$149 per month
|
$499 per month
|
|
Job Posting
|
Free
|
Free
|
Free
|
|
Templates
|
For emails and accepting/rejecting applications
|
For emails and accepting/rejecting applications
|
Essentials + Pitch templates
|
|
Wellfound ATS
|
Included
|
Included
|
Included
|
|
ATS Integration
|
Included
|
Included
|
Included
|
|
Job Ad Promotion
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Included
|
|
Custom screening questions
|
N/A
|
Included
|
Included
|
|
Search
|
Basic
|
Advanced applicant filters
|
Advanced sourcing
|
|
Candidate Messaging
|
Included
|
Included
|
Unlimited
|
|
Scheduling
|
Included
|
Included
|
Included
|
|
Interviewing Tools
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Included
|
|
Customer Support
|
Knowledge base and email
|
Knowledge base and email
|
Dedicated account manager support and sourcing support
|
|
Mobile App
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Access
Wellfound’s free version enables you to post jobs, search for candidates and track applicants. Access’s limited features might suffice if you’re hiring for only a few key positions that are not very specialized and hard to fill.
Essentials
You won’t see it on Wellfound’s pricing site but it offers a middle-tier plan that fits a more moderate budget than startups who may opt for Pro. We found out about this plan in the app itself where it provides minimal details on what Essential offers compared to the Access plan. Essentials offers a bit more customization by allowing you to create your own application screening questions. It also provides greater applicant search capabilities. We’d like to see more information on what this plan offers before we judge whether this plan provides good value for the money.
Pro
Pro is for rapidly growing startups that need as much assistance with hiring as possible. Pro has more templates, promoted jobs to enhance your jobs’ visibility, advanced sourcing filters, unlimited messaging, one-click scheduling, interview scorecards and dedicated support.
Additional Features Worth Noting
Wellfound offers a Curated add-on and will soon release its RecruiterCloud product.
Curated
The Curated add-on cuts down the amount of time you’re checking for and evaluating candidates by surfacing the best candidates for your openings who are ready to interview and will therefore respond quickly.
Curate also shows you additional candidate profile information, such as their job preferences, envisioned career path, tech stack specializations and cultural cues to ensure values alignment. Curate also grants you access to Wellfound’s sourcing team and a dedicated account manager.
It’s important to note that Curated currently sources the most qualified candidates in the United States (not globally) for the following types of positions:
Product Managers
- Data scientists
- Designers
- Sales representatives
An exception, however, is engineering roles. Curate is able to source talent for engineering roles in the U.S. as well as remote engineers in Latin America, Europe and India.
RecruiterCloud
Wellfound is now offering customers early access to its RecruiterCloud product, which has yet to be launched. It provides end-to-end automation from sourcing to interview scheduling as well as unlimited access to Pro and Curated combined. You tell the software what kind of candidate you’re looking for and it comes back with a list of the most qualified candidates who are interested in the position. It refreshes this list twice weekly. Once you accept or reject candidates, RecruiterCloud automatically books interviews with accepted candidates.
Wellfound Customer Service and Support
Wellfound provides support via knowledge base and email for its Access and Essentials plans. This might not be quick enough for customers having more urgent issues with the site. We contacted customer support by submitting a question in a chat window from within the app. We received a response via email a few hours later that pointed us in the right direction to find Wellfound’s built-in ATS.
Wellfound Alternatives & How They Compare
| Wellfound | Guru | Handshake | Ladders Recruiter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Starting Price
|
Free, then $149 per month
|
Free, 2.9% handling fee*
|
Free, then $309 per job, per month
|
$599 per job post, $299 per month or $239 per month when billed annually
|
|
Free Trial
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Syndicated Job Postings
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
ATS
|
Built-in or via integration, included
|
No
|
Available via integration in Talent Engagement tier
|
Via integration in Full Access and Enterprise plans only
|
|
Candidate Matching
|
Yes, via premium add-on
|
Enterprise
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Candidate Relationship Management
|
In-platform messaging and email
|
In-app messages
|
Text and email
|
Text and phone call
|
|
Customizable Workflows
|
Yes
|
Enterprise
|
No
|
No
|
|
Automations
|
Yes
|
Enterprise
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Scheduling Tools
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Interviewing Tools
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Onboarding
|
No
|
Enterprise
|
Consultation services in Talent Engagement plan
|
No
|
|
Analytics and Reporting
|
No
|
Enterprise
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Templates
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
No
|
|
Third-party Integrations
|
Slack, plus ATS integration included for Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever and Workable
|
Enterprise
|
Greenhouse, iCIMS and Workday in Talent Engagement plan
|
ATS integrations in Full Access and Enterprise plans only
|
|
Customer Support
|
Knowledge base, email
|
Support ticket, phone, email
|
Knowledge base, email and chat
|
Support ticket, phone, email, dedicated Customer Success Contact included, dedicated Customer Success Manager in Enterprise plan
|
|
Mobile App
|
No
|
No
|
iOS and Android, for university and student users only
|
No
|
|
Read Reviews
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|
*Guru reimburses for the invoicing fee if you pay freelancers via e-check or wire transfer.
Wellfound vs. Guru
Both Wellfound and Guru and Wellfound provide a vast network of talent from around the globe. However, Wellfound Recruit is oriented toward startups that are hiring full-time employees. Depending on your hiring needs, you may very well want both systems to complement one another to fill your job vacancies effectively.
Wellfound vs. Handshake
These job posting sites address very different needs. While Wellfound is a site for those looking to hire or work for startups, Handshake is designed to help businesses recruit and hire college students or college graduates for internships and entry-level positions. However, just because they serve different hiring needs and target different demographics doesn’t make these solutions mutually exclusive, especially since they both offer free versions.
Wellfound vs. Ladders Recruiter
Wellfound and Ladders Recruiter also serve different needs. While Wellfound is geared toward startups, Ladders is a more general job posting site to reach all kinds of professionals. For that reason, if you’re a startup looking specifically for job seekers who have experience working at startups and who want to work at a startup, Wellfound is the better choice. However, if you want to broaden your talent search, you can also use Ladders Recruiter. You just might have to sift through more candidates before you find the right ones. Using both doesn’t have to be costly, since both solutions have free versions.
Our Expert Opinion
Setup
It’s easy to get started with Wellfound Recruit. You use a single-sign-on (SSO) method or create a new username and password to create an account. From there, you search for your company’s name to link your account to your company’s website. You then select the types of positions you’re looking to hire for and how much funding your startup has raised so far. Finally, you have to verify your email address that’s associated with your company’s domain name. After you do so, you can add team members if you’d like.
Ease of Use
We found Wellfound’s basic features easy to use on the whole. Of the features we were able to try out, it’s very easy to post jobs and search for talent. We especially like the expandable candidate profiles and the simple “accept” or “reject” button. However, every search you perform in the system is saved and it’s not clear how you can erase the searches you no longer need. The templates were very easy to find and set up, although we wish there was more template variety, for example, for job descriptions. We were not able to find, let alone test out Wellfound’s own ATS, even though it’s supposed to be part of the free Access plan.
Featured Partners
1
BambooHR
Yes
Yes
ATS
2
Pinpoint ATS
Yes
Yes
24/7 customer support, easy-to-use interface, fast and flexible workflows, hundreds of integrations
3
ClearCompany
Yes
Yes
Employee engagement
Bottom Line: Is Wellfound Recruit Right For You?
Wellfound Recruit is Wellfound’s basic, free job posting site, offering free job posting, applicant tracking and assessments. However, it has limited searching and filtering capabilities relative to Pro. Plus, it lacks automations that can streamline the hiring process for a startup.
Wellfound Recruit is best for:
- Startups looking to expand their team
- Startups hiring under a budget constraint
- Startups hiring for a small number of positions
- Startups that want to hire from a global talent pool
- Startups that desire a built-in ATS in their job posting site of choice
- Startups currently using an ATS that integrates with Wellfound
Wellfound Recruit is not recommended for:
- Companies that are not startups
- Startups that are hiring for multiple positions that can make the selection process hard to manage (upgrade to Recruit Pro or RecruiterCloud)
- Startups that need more robust applicant tracking that neither the built-in nor integrated options can provide
- Startups that need more customer support (upgrade to RecruiterCloud)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How does Wellfound work?
Wellfound enables startups and job seekers looking for startup jobs to find one another. Employers can post jobs for free, search for candidates and track applicants.
How much does it cost to post a job to Wellfound?
It’s free to post a job on Wellfound. However, for an additional fee, you can promote your job ad to boost its visibility among job seekers on the platform.
How much does Curated cost?
Curated starts at $250 per seat per month, plus a “success fee” that amounts to 20% of a hired candidate’s base salary.
