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OpenCATS
GPL-3.0OpenCATS is a self-hosted ATS and recruitment CRM replacing Bullhorn with full candidate and client management on a PHP stack without per-seat fees.
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Overview
OpenCATS is a self-hosted applicant tracking system and recruitment customer relationship manager designed for hiring teams and staffing agencies. It runs on a standard PHP and MariaDB stack, giving organizations complete data custody of candidate records and job orders without per-seat licensing fees. Internal recruiters and agency sourcers track candidates through customizable hiring stages while keeping resume archives permanently under their control.
Why OpenCATS instead of Bullhorn
Bullhorn charges steep per-seat monthly subscription fees and long-term contracts that penalize small staffing agencies; a firm with several recruiters spends thousands of dollars annually simply to retain candidate resumes and client notes. OpenCATS provides the dual agency workflow without recurring seat tolls. Recruiters manage client company accounts, track hiring manager contacts, assign job orders, and log candidate submissions directly against a shared relational database hosted on private infrastructure.
Bullhorn holds an advantage in turnkey cloud convenience, offering automated candidate sourcing, integrated LinkedIn messaging, and one-click syndication to major commercial job boards. With OpenCATS, external job board distribution is not automated, applicant sourcing remains manual, and operations leads must administer their own web server, database backups, and security hardening. For technical teams willing to handle basic LAMP or Docker administration, that operational commitment trades recurring software overhead for perpetual ownership of recruiting data.
What it does well
- Dual staffing workflow organizing client companies, contacts, and job openings alongside applicant records in a unified system.
- Configurable pipeline stages guiding applicants from screening and phone interviews through to client submission and placement.
- Built-in public career portal that lists open vacancies and accepts applicant resumes directly into the database.
- Tag-based candidate inventory and keyword search for filtering qualified applicants from past recruitment campaigns.
- Activity logs and shared calendar for recording calls, scheduling interviews, and sharing hiring notes across recruiters.
- Lightweight deployment footprint operating on standard PHP and MariaDB environments or Docker containers.