In 2024, the global Candidate Relationship Management software market grew to $1.4 billion, marking a 9.4% year-over-year increase. The top 10 vendors accounted for 65.1% of the total market. Microsoftled the pack with a 27.7% market share, followed by Bullhorn, Avature, and Phenom.
Through our forecast period, the Candidate Relationship Management applications market size is expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2029, compared with $1.4 billion in 2024 at a CAGR of 6.1%, as shown in the Apps Top 500 Report – Excel Edition [Preview] .
Top 10 Candidate Relationship Management Software Vendors in 2024 and their Market Shares
Source: Apps Run The World, July 2025
Other vendors included in the report are ADP, Agile-1, Avue Technologies, Avionte Staffing Software, AppVault, BambooHR, Beamery, Benify, Calabrio, CareerArc, Cegid, ClearCompany, Criterion HCM, Dayforce, Epicor, Espressive, Fourth Enterprises, Frontier Software, Greenhouse Software, Haufe, hireEZ, HITS Solutions, HireVue, Hireology, iCIMS, Infinite Computer Solutions, Jenzabar, Kahuna Workforce Solutions, Macorva, MBO Partners, milch & zucker, NEOGOV, Oleeo, Oracle, PageUp, Paylocity, PeoplesHR, PowerSchool Group, Quinyx, Randstad Sourceright, SAP, skeeled, TalentCircles, TalentMap, Vizient, WorkJam, Yello, Zellis (ex NGA Human Resources UK & Ireland), and others.
Vendor Snapshot: Candidate Relationship Management Market Leaders
Microsoft
In 2025, LinkedIn introduced advanced AI analytics to Talent Insights, enabling recruiters to access real-time data on talent pools, company trends, and market dynamics. This upgrade leverages over 12 billion data points, allowing for the identification of emerging skill gaps, benchmarking against competitors, and refining sourcing strategies with dynamic, AI-driven recommendations.
Bullhorn
Bullhorn has evolved its ATS/CRM into a comprehensive, AI-powered platform purpose-built for staffing professionals. Through targeted acquisitions in text parsing, executive search, and Salesforce-based solutions, alongside innovations like the Amplify suite and AI Assistant, the company is focused on automating time-intensive tasks, enhancing candidate matching accuracy, and delivering data-driven insights, all aimed at boosting recruiter productivity, accelerating placements, and driving revenue growth for staffing firms.
Avature
The platform integrates transparent, explainable AI for semantic search, talent rediscovery, and skills-based matching, enabling organizations to grow talent pipelines, reduce costs, and boost recruiter productivity. Avature embeds explainable AI into its CRM, with semantic and skills‑based search, talent rediscovery, and model-based matching that surfaces qualified candidates, including past applicants and internal talent, with transparent reasoning behind why a match is recommended.
Phenom
Phenom Talent CRM delivers AI-powered candidate relationship capabilities with fit-scoring, rediscovery, conversational CRM, and automated workflows. Leveraging X+ generative and agentic AI, Phenom streamlines sourcing, screening, scheduling, and engagement, especially for high-volume hiring, while saving tens of thousands of recruiter hours. over 700 organizations have adopted Phenom X+ Generative AI features within Talent CRM, powering more than 120 distinct use cases and saving approximately 45,000 hours of work.
Radancy (formerly TMP Worldwide)
Radancy has significantly expanded its Talent Acquisition Cloud by integrating Agentic AI, announced in July 2025, which powers predictive insights, context-aware workflows, natural‑language search, dynamic role previews, and conversational AI agents to deliver a unified candidate journey from brand outreach to application. The company continues to build its platform through prior acquisitions, including Ascendify (for CRM), Brazen (hiring events), and Firstbird (employee referrals), enhancing recruitment marketing, talent engagement, and pipeline activation across its ecosystem.
Symphony Talent
Symphony Talent has successfully transformed SmashFly into an end‑to‑end Talent Marketing Cloud that merges creative services, career site CMS, CRM, and programmatic advertising. With over 600 enterprise clients leveraging unified workflows and AI‑driven automation, the platform delivers measurable pipeline growth, ROI tracking, and scalable campaign orchestration. Particularly for high-volume hiring environments and strong employer‑brand organizations, SmashFlyX stands out as a vertically optimized, CRM-centric solution praised for its automation, analytics, and employer‑brand integration.
iCIMS
iCIMS embeds AI across its Talent Cloud, from iCIMS Copilot, Digital Assistant, AI Talent Explorer, to the newly introduced iCIMS Agents—a domain-specific, agentic AI framework slated to roll out in Q3 2025. iCIMS Talent Cloud represents a mature, enterprise-grade CRM–first recruitment ecosystem recognized for scale, innovation, and responsible AI. Its Text Engagement module extends candidate interaction into mobile-first, conversational experiences that drive higher response rates and speed up time-to-fill.
Appcast, Inc
In early 2025, the company launched AppcastOne in the UK, a unified talent engagement platform combining programmatic media, strategic guidance, and cross-channel campaign management. In June 2025, it introduced Appcast Brand Ads, expanding AI-driven sourcing into paid brand marketing on social platforms with full-funnel analytics from impressions through hires.
Employ
Jobvite has expanded its Recruitment Marketing Suite through multiple M&A: acquiring Talemetry (recruitment marketing), RolePoint (referrals/internal mobility), Canvas (conversational texting), and more recently analytics vendor Talentegy. It also built an AI and data science core via Predictive Partner acquisition to accelerate product innovation. Recent innovations include Lever’s Talent Fit AI engine, an explainable-matching system that ranks candidates by fit score and surfaces reasons for recommendations, and AI Agents that automate candidate outreach, screening, interview scheduling, feedback synthesis, and workflow compliance while optimizing engagement over time.
Beamery
Beamery stands out as a next-generation skills-first Talent CRM and intelligence platform, built for enterprise customers navigating AI-driven transformation. Its integrated Talent CRM, linked with real-time skills and task insight, aligns sourcing and internal mobility strategies with organizational goals. With explainable, audited AI, task-level workforce visibility, and strategic advisory via Ray, Beamery empowers data-rich, equitable talent decisions.
ARTW Technographics Platform: Candidate Relationship Management customer wins
Since 2010, our research team has been studying the patterns of Candidate Relationship Management software purchases, analyzing customer behavior and vendor performance through continuous win/loss analysis. Updated quarterly, the ARTW Technographics Platform provides deep insights into thousands of Candidate Relationship Management customer wins and losses, helping users monitor competitive shifts, evaluate vendor momentum, and make informed go-to-market decisions.
List of Candidate Relationship Management customers Â
Source: ARTW Buyer Insights Technographic Database
Custom data cuts related to the Candidate Relationship Management Applications market are available:
- Top 90+ Candidate Relationship Management Applications Vendors and Market Forecast 2024-2029
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Vertical Market (21 Industry)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Country (USA + 45 countries)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Region (Americas, EMEA, APAC)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Revenue Type (License, Services, Hardware, Support and Maintenance, Cloud)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Customer Size (revenue, employee count, asset)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Channel (Direct vs Indirect)
- 2024 Candidate Relationship Management Applications Market By Product
Through our forecast period, the HCM applications market is expected to reach $81.1 billion by 2029, compared with $58.7 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7%.
Through our forecast period, the Core HR and Talent Management applications market, which is comprised of nine subsegments, is expected to reach $48.6 billion by 2029, compared with $35.5 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 11.6%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the nine subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Through our forecast period, the Talent Acquisition applications market, which is comprised of six subsegments, is expected to reach $20.3 billion by 2029, compared with $14.5 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the six subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Through our forecast period, the Workforce Management applications market, which is comprised of six subsegments, is expected to reach $12.1 billion by 2029, compared with $8.7 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 12.1%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the six subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Our HCM Top 500 research team also tracks Time Clock Hardware vendors separately by zeroing in on their embedded software as well as their extensive use of OEM and distribution partners.
Exhibit 3: Worldwide HCM Software Market 2024-2029 Forecast, $M
Source: Apps Run The World, July 2025
Exhibit 4 shows our projections for the HCM enterprise applications market by HCM sub-segment, based on the buying preferences and the customer propensity to invest in new software within those industries as they continue to upgrade and replace many legacy industry-specific applications that have been identified and tracked in our Buyer Insight Database.
Methodology
Similar to any of the hundreds of reports that we have published since 2010, HCM Top 500 is a labor of love. Since 2013, our team of researchers have been conducting rigorous research on thousands of HCM vendors, surveying them quarterly, reviewing their products at even shorter intervals because of the compressed Cloud release cycle, and discussing HR vision with their customers to better understand user needs as well as different paths to upgrade and replace their existing systems.
Each year we also attend many industry-wide and vendor-specific user conferences – HR Tech, Dreamforce, SAPPHIRENOW, Oracle Open World, just to name a few, to gauge what customers are looking for.
Throughout this process comes a rich database of more than 2,000 HCM vendors as well as over 50,000 HCM customers that have been touched one form or another through regular surveys, phone and in-person interviews, email exchanges, and social media interactions, etc.
On a proactively basis, we contact the vendors directly to tabulate their latest quarterly and annual revenues by HCM segment, vertical market, revenue type, region, country and customer size.
We supplement their written responses with our own primary research to determine quarterly and yearly growth rates in each of the 22 segments and 21 verticals, in addition to customer wins to ascertain whether these are net new purchases or expansions of existing implementations.
Another dimension of our quantitative research process is through continuous improvement of our customer database, which stores more than one million records on the enterprise software landscape of over 100,000 organizations around the world.
The database provides customer insight and contextual information on what types of HCM, enterprise software systems and other relevant technologies are they running and their propensity to invest further with their current or new suppliers as part of their overall HCM and IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.
The result is a combination of supply-side data and demand-generation customer insight that allows our clients to better position themselves in anticipation of the next wave that will reshape the HCM marketplace for years to come.
HCM Market Taxonomy
Definition of Human Capital Management (HCM) Applications
Core HR and Performance Management
| Core HR and Performance Management | Description |
|---|---|
| Personnel and Organization Management | Core human resource management system, personnel records, HR master file, accruals, organizational development, org chart visualization |
| Payroll | Payroll processing, tax filing, language support, country-level updates, payslip calculations, automatic deductions and other government requirements for proper disbursement of employee compensation. |
| Benefits Administration | Benefits and health administration. Plan and design benefits lifecycle, billing and payment. Carrier solutions are also included for integration purposes. |
| Pension Administration | Pension and retirement fund(401K) administration as well as software that helps manage profit sharing plan, defined benefit plan, or cash balance plan. |
| Compliance | Compliance, regulatory updates and reporting including such laws as Affordable Care Act, Overtime Regulations, Fair Labor Standards Act |
| Performance and Goal Management | HR performance management applications are designed to automate the aggregation and delivery of information pertinent to the linking of job roles and the mission and goals of the organization. More specifically, the system allows users to automate the performance review process by using mechanisms such as training and key performance indicators to continuously track and monitor the progress of an individual employee, work team, and division. Some of the key features include: Assessment of individual career objectives and organizational skills gaps that impede performance and job advancement. Continuous reviews and establishing milestones. 360-degree evaluation and real-time feedback. Performance appraisal automation. Goal setting and tracking. Employee surveys. Alignment of human assets to corporate objectives. Fast tracks for top performers. |
| Learning and Development | Learning management systems refer to applications that automate the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events. Other tools may include courseware and other delivery, management, tracking, or integrated solutions whose focus is on the learning environment, including learning content management systems. Career development tools include apps for coaching, mentoring, employee development planning, and diagnosing of development needs. |
| Succession and Leadership Planning | Identify and address current and potential talent gaps to create succession management reporting. Develop and maintain a continuous supply of internal talent to fill critical job roles. Improve employee engagement through digital tools to advance career path development opportunities. |
| Compensation Management | Compensation management applications are designed to automate the process of providing cash, noncash, variable and nonvariable compensation to employees through advanced modeling, reporting, and built-in interfacing to payroll processing systems. Other key features include seamlessly manage compensation budgets and allocation in a single, shared tool. Streamline pay recommendation workflows and approvals. Support multiple pay and incentive practices. Ensure budget compliance and adherence to compensation guidelines. Quota and territory management. Calculation and distribution of commissions, spiffs, royalties, incentives to employees, and channel and business partners. Compensation analysis using internal and external data for retention risk analysis. Linking salary, commission and incentives — cash and noncash — to business objectives. Payroll and payment engine interfaces. Account payables integration. |
Talent AcquisitionÂ
| Talent Acquisition | Description |
|---|---|
| Applicant Tracking | Applicant tracking software automates such functions as management of resumes, applicant information, scoring, workflow, matching, search, interview scheduling, job descriptions, EEOC reporting, job postings and notifications |
| Recruiting | Recruiting applications are designed to automate the recruitment process of salaried and hourly employees through screening and skills assessment, as well as automated selection processes to improve hiring pipeline by identifying talent inside or outside the organization. Other key features include: Manage skills inventories. Create and manage job requisitions. Coordinate team collaboration within hiring processes. Video Interviewing, team building and digital coaching. |
| Candidate Relationship Management | Applications designed to attract and engage candidates and employees. Other tasks automate functions such as candidate relationship management apps, career site technology, social recruiting, employee referrals, branding, video engagement, campus recruiting and internal hiring |
| Contingent Labor Management | Processing of hiring of contingent labor, search, skills matching, assessment, interview scheduling, negotiation of rates, approvals, project milestone payments, project completion tracking, performance ratings |
| Sourcing | Facilitate resource planning for staffing firms as well as vendor managed system, allowing for front office integration for employment agencies as well as talent acquisition apps designed for staffing firms. |
| Onboarding | Applications designed to deploy workers to appropriate jobs, projects, or teams for accelerated on-boarding. |
Workforce Management
| Workforce Management | Description |
|---|---|
| Absence and Leave Management | Absence management applications offer automated features to support employee leave management, employer authorized leave, Short-Term-Disability/Workers’ Comp coordination, federal and state compliance, customized leave correspondence, medical certification processing, insurance premium payment tracking as well as employee self-service capabilities. Leave Management supports compliance activities related to government regulations such as the Family and Medical Leave Act in the United States and other local leave laws in different countries. |
| Workforce analytics | Workforce analytics are used to analyze compensation, benefits, and other employee variables. These applications can also be used to analyze and optimize labor allocation for particular projects. |
| Fatigue Management | Fatigue Management apps help automate key facets of fatigue risk mitigation, enforcing employee work-hour limits and aligning with fitness for duty best practices. Similar apps may act as electronic work diaries for real-time reporting and compliance with transportation laws. |
| Hardware (Time Clock) | Time capture is the hardware platform that provides authentication features for clock-in and clock-out times, meal and rest breaks, as well as timesheet and payroll reporting and compliance. |
| Scheduling | Products are designed to Increase forecasting accuracy by factoring in a variety of methods and historical patterns. Create optimal schedules to meet customer demands, while reducing costs and maximizing resources |
| Task Management | Task Management offers labor management capabilities such as task-based and project-based activity tracking as well as measurement and reporting functions against performance standards like engineered labor standards, team standards and reflective standards. |
| Time & Attendance | Time and Attendance applications are designed to automate employee time tracking in different locations, help reduce overtime expenses, improve payroll accuracy, eliminate pay errors and adjustments, along with the need to simplify and optimize administrative tasks and complex rate calculations by making available accurate and current labor data and full audit trail of payroll data. |
- Keio University, a Japan based Education organization with 7892 Employees
- Internet Archive, a United States based Non Profit company with 169 Employees
- Komi, a United Kingdom based Media organization with 28 Employees
| Logo | Company | Industry | Employees | Revenue | Country | Evaluated |
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