Ashby vs Nova Recruiter (2026)

Ashby

by Ashby

Nova Recruiter

by Nova Talent

Pros

• ✓Analytics is native to every workflow rather than a bolt-on reporting layer, covering hiring funnel, source ROI, hiring manager performance and cohort analysis without leaving the ATS.
• ✓Ashby publishes its own MCP server in beta, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can query the pipeline and take actions inside Ashby directly, which very few ATS vendors currently offer.
• ✓Entry pricing is genuinely public at $300 per month for teams of 1 to 10, which is a materially better evaluation experience than Greenhouse, Lever or Workable, all of which gate pricing behind sales.

Limitations

• ⚠Anything past 100 employees moves to the quote-only Plus or Enterprise plan, so the growth stage most typical of Ashby customers cannot estimate budget without a sales conversation.
• ⚠The pricing calculator loads on the 11 to 25 employee band rather than the minimum, so the first figure a buyer sees is $400 per month rather than the $300 entry price.
• ⚠Only SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 1 Type 2 are badged on the trust center: GDPR and CCPA appear in the privacy policy as processor-role descriptions rather than certifications, and no AI training policy is published.

Pros

• ✓Nova Recruiter publishes its own MCP server, so searches, shortlists, and outreach campaigns run directly from Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Cursor without opening the platform interface.
• ✓Integrates with 60+ ATS platforms bidirectionally, surfacing candidates already in the pipeline during a search and pushing new ones across automatically on a positive reply.
• ✓A dedicated privacy policy section rules out model training on customer, candidate, and message data, and Nova's contracts with its AI sub-processors require zero-retention, no-training terms.

Limitations

• ⚠No third-party security certifications of its own: the ISO 27001 and SOC 2 cited in the privacy policy belong to hosting provider Amazon Web Services, and Nova's own ISO 27001 is still in progress.
• ⚠Credit-based pricing meters contacts rather than searches: one credit equals one candidate contacted or exported, so the EUR 49 Starter tier covers 50 candidates a month before overage at EUR 1 per extra credit.
• ⚠Prices exclusively in euros with no USD option and lists both paid tiers exclusive of VAT, and data residency is EU-only, which adds friction for North American buyers.