Manatal Review: AI-Powered Recruiting That Actually Uses Social Media

Every ATS claims to have "AI-powered" features now, which usually means they added basic keyword matching and called it artificial intelligence. Manatal actually does something interesting with AI - it automatically enriches candidate profiles by pulling data from social media and uses machine learning for candidate recommendations. Whether that's useful or creepy depends on your perspective.

What The AI Actually Does

Manatal is a cloud-based ATS that launched in 2018 targeting recruiters and staffing agencies. According to G2 reviews, it's scoring 4.6/5 stars with the social media enrichment feature getting the most attention.

Here's how it works: When a candidate applies or you add them to your database, Manatal automatically scrapes their LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub profiles to build a more complete candidate picture. You get work history, skills, projects, and social presence without manually researching each person. For high-volume recruiters, this is a massive time-saver.

The AI recommendation engine analyzes your successful hires and suggests similar candidates from your pipeline. Capterra reviewers report mixed results - some say the recommendations are spot-on, others say it's glorified keyword matching. Probably depends on how much historical data you have.

The Features Nobody Tells You About

Beyond the AI stuff, Manatal has solid core ATS functionality - job posting to multiple boards, candidate pipeline management, interview scheduling, collaborative hiring workflows. The interface is modern and doesn't look like enterprise software from 2005.

What's actually interesting: The built-in career page builder is surprisingly decent (similar to Teamtailor but not as extensive), and the Chrome extension lets you add candidates directly from LinkedIn without copy-pasting. According to G2 user feedback, the Chrome extension is one of the most-used features.

The reporting is adequate but not spectacular. You get standard metrics - time-to-hire, source effectiveness, pipeline analytics. If you need custom reports or deep analytics, this ain't it. But for most recruiting teams, the standard reports cover 90% of what you actually need.

The Honest Drawbacks

Here's what user reviews DON'T like: The social media enrichment only works if candidates have public profiles. If their LinkedIn is locked down or they don't have social media presence, you get nothing. Capterra feedback indicates this is frustrating for industries where candidates tend to have minimal online presence.

The AI recommendations improve over time, which means they're kind of useless when you first start. You need to hire at least 10-15 people through the system before the machine learning has enough data to be helpful. Multiple G2 reviews mention this learning curve frustration.

Integration with HRIS systems is limited compared to enterprise ATS options. If you need deep integration with Workday or SAP, this isn't your solution. The integrations that exist (Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Zapier) work fine, but the ecosystem is smaller than Greenhouse or Lever.

Pricing Actually Makes Sense

Shockingly, Manatal publishes their pricing: Professional plan starts at $19/user/month, Enterprise at $49/user/month, and Custom pricing for larger organizations. According to public pricing on their website, this makes them significantly cheaper than most mid-market ATS options.

The catch is the pricing is per active user, and features are gated by tier. The $19 plan is pretty limited - you need the $49 tier to get API access, custom workflows, and advanced reporting. Still cheaper than competitors, but factor in the actual tier you'll need.

Should You Actually Use It?

Buy Manatal if: You're a recruiter or staffing agency hiring high volumes, candidates in your industry have strong social media presence, you want AI features without enterprise pricing, and you need social media enrichment to save research time.

Skip it if: Your candidates don't use social media, you need deep HRIS integration, you're hiring less than 10 people per year, or you need enterprise-level compliance and security features.

The real competition is Zoho Recruit for similar pricing, or Greenhouse/Lever if you want more robust features and have bigger budget. Manatal sits in an interesting niche - more AI-focused than budget options, cheaper than enterprise platforms.

According to TrustRadius, users rate it 8.4/10 on average. The AI features are genuinely useful for the right use case, but they're not magic. If you're recruiting for roles where social media presence matters (tech, marketing, creative), the enrichment saves real time. For industries where candidates aren't online, it's expensive keyword matching.

The Chrome extension alone might be worth the entry-level pricing if you're sourcing heavily from LinkedIn. Everything else is bonus.