Elly
AI-native ATS and recruiting service for early-stage teams, with AI interviews and sourcing. Platform plan from $5,000/yr.
From $5,000/yr
Bottom line
Elly is an AI-native ATS and recruiting service from New York that pairs AI interviews, AI sourcing and scorecard automation with optional recruiter-run searches. The self-serve Platform plan is $5,000/yr, and a Full Search costs 10% of first-year salary per hire. It suits early-stage companies whose founders still run hiring.
Stands out for: The same account works as software or as a managed search, and everything learned during a Full Search stays in the platform afterward. Its AI candidate matching has been audited for bias by Warden AI on more than 13,000 interview samples, with results published. The AI Interviewer asks real-time follow-up questions instead of recording one-way answers.
Watch out for: The company's messaging has moved toward recruiter-led searches since a September 2026 launch, so buyers who only want software should confirm the product roadmap. No free trial or free plan is listed on the pricing page. Integrations are described only as connections to your ATS, with no named partners.
Overview
Elly is run by Recruit Tech Labs, doing business as Elly, in New York, with Kristen Habacht as CEO. It describes itself as an AI-native recruiting platform with an ATS built for early-stage companies at the core.
The software side covers AI pipeline creation from a plain-language brief, AI application review in a chat view, automatic scorecards from interview conversations, and Ask Elly, which searches past interviews and decisions. AI Sourcer, launched in June 2026, adds chat-based candidate search with enriched contact details and email and LinkedIn outreach sequences.
The AI Interviewer runs asynchronous screening interviews that generate questions from the job description, ask follow-ups, and score each candidate by category and overall. Elly says it can process 1,000 applications and 300 interviews in 72 hours.
Pricing comes in three forms: Platform at $5,000/yr for self-serve teams, Candidates at $10,000 per screened batch, and Full Search at 10% of first-year salary with an optional 90-day guarantee. Most customers start with a Full Search and keep the platform afterward, according to the vendor.
Who it's for
Best for
- Early-stage startups with founder-led hiring
- Teams that want software and recruiter help from one vendor
- Companies filling a few critical roles per year
Not ideal for
- Buyers who want a free trial before paying
- High-volume hourly hiring on a small budget
- Teams that need a named integration list
Key features
AI Interviewer. Candidates take an asynchronous two-way interview that asks follow-up questions when an answer is thin. Each response gets category scores and a composite score so candidates can be ranked.
AI Sourcer. Recruiters describe a role in plain language or upload a job description, and Elly returns ranked profiles with verified contact details. Multi-step email and LinkedIn sequences run from the same screen.
Ask Elly search. A chat assistant searches past interviews, feedback and hiring decisions, so a runner-up from an earlier search can resurface for a new role.
AI pipeline and scorecards. Elly builds a role-specific pipeline with stages and criteria from a plain-language brief, then fills scorecards from interview conversations and notes.
AI features
| What the AI does | Plan |
|---|---|
| AI Interviewer runs async two-way screening interviews with follow-ups, category scores and a composite ranking | Platform |
| AI application review scores and prioritizes every inbound applicant | Platform |
| AI Sourcer finds ranked candidates with verified contact info and runs email and LinkedIn sequences | |
| Ask Elly searches past interviews, feedback and hiring decisions in chat | |
| Automatic scorecards filled from interview conversations and notes |
Only features named in the vendor's own documentation. Anything sold separately is marked as an add-on.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | $5,000/yr | Self-serve ATS with AI application review and scoring on every inbound candidate, plus the AI Interviewer with scoring |
| Candidates | $10,000 | One batch of sourced, screened and scorecarded candidates for a role, no subscription, no AI interviews |
| Full Search | 10% of first-year salary | Expert recruiter plus Elly run the search end to end, paid when the hire starts, platform access continues |
Elly sells three options. Platform costs $5,000/yr and covers AI application review and scoring plus the AI Interviewer for teams that run hiring in-house. Candidates costs $10,000 for one batch of sourced, screened and scorecarded candidates, with no subscription. Full Search costs 10% of first-year salary per hire, paid when the hire starts, with a minimum fee that applies on salaries under $80,000 and an optional 90-day replacement guarantee for an extra 4% of salary. No free trial is listed. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.
Checked 28 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
Is Elly expensive?
Elly starts at $5,000/yr. We list 190 ATS tools in total. 21 have a free tier, and those with a public price typically start around $83 a month.
- 97 quote-based
- 21 free tier
- 76 public price
Worked out automatically from every ATS listing, so it updates as the directory changes.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Published pricing for all three options
- Independent bias audit by Warden AI
- Search history and scorecards carry over to future roles
Cons
- No free trial or free plan listed
- No named integrations
- Focus is shifting toward recruiter-led service
See every recruiting tool that works with Elly, with a source link for each connector.
What's new at Elly
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How Elly compares
See all Elly alternatives, with what each one does differently and a head to head for every pairing.
| Tool | Free tier | From | MCP | API | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elly (this tool) | – | $5,000/yr | – | – | |
| | ✓ | Free ATS, paid sourcing | – | ✓ | Compare |
 Paraform Paraform is a marketplace of independent recruiters paid on placement, while Elly pairs one recruiter with its own AI platform that the company keeps. | – | Sales-quoted | – | – | Compare |
| | – | $400/mo | ✓ | ✓ | Compare |
Free ATS, paid sourcing Free tier API
Dover also combines recruiting software with optional recruiter help for startups, and is a closer fit for teams that want to start without a $5,000 annual commitment.
ParaformSales-quoted
Paraform is a marketplace of independent recruiters paid on placement, while Elly pairs one recruiter with its own AI platform that the company keeps.
$400/mo MCP API
Ashby is a full ATS with deep reporting for scaling companies, suited to teams that want software only and no recruiting service.
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