Firefish alternative for UK recruitment agencies
Firefish is a Scottish-built recruitment CRM with genuine UK market knowledge, a strong BD-led philosophy and a well-regarded support team. It is the closest competitor to us in outlook. The difference is structural: Firefish tiers by which desks you run, so a mixed perm-contract-temp agency has to buy Enterprise, then add modules on top.
The plan you need depends on your desk mix
Firefish runs three plans — Core, Scale and Enterprise. Core covers permanent recruitment. Contract workflow, timesheets, compliance controls and the contract generator start at Scale. The temporary workflow and shift scheduler are Enterprise only. If you run all three desk types, which many UK agencies do, you are buying the top plan.
| ATSpro | Firefish | |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent workflow | Included | Core and above |
| Contract workflow | Included | Scale and above |
| Temporary workflow | Included | Enterprise only |
| Shift scheduler | Working patterns included | Enterprise only |
| Time capture / timesheets | Included | Scale and above |
| Contract generator + e-sign | Included | Scale and above |
| Contracts-out management | Included | Scale and above |
| Compliance controls | Included | Scale and above |
| Retainers & split fees | Included | Scale and above |
| Cross-workflow analytics | Included | Scale and above |
| Dashboards | Unlimited custom | Core 3 · Scale 4 · Ent 5 per site |
| Agency website | Included | Add-on module |
| Candidate onboarding portal | Included | Add-on module |
| Hiring manager portal | Included (LiveList) | Add-on module |
| Jobs plug-in & multi-poster | Included | Add-on module |
| 2-way SMS | Included (Twilio) | Add-on module |
| Enrichment credits | Bring your own Apollo key | Credit-based add-on |
Plan structure, feature allocation and the “from £150 per module” add-on note are taken from firefishsoftware.com/pricing in July 2026. Firefish does not publish per-user prices — their page runs a configurator that emails you a quote. Note also that many third-party sites still quote Firefish’s older Basic/Professional/Enterprise tiers at £80/£90/£105; those tier names no longer appear on Firefish’s own page.
Where we actually differ
One plan versus three, on the axis that matters most to UK agencies
Desk mix is the single most common way a UK agency grows: you start perm, you take on a contract requirement, then a client asks for temp cover. Under Firefish’s structure each of those steps is a plan change. Under ours it is a Tuesday — perm, contract and temp workflows, timesheets, working patterns and compliance are all on the one £49 plan from day one.
This is a legitimate design choice on their part, not a flaw. It means a perm-only agency does not subsidise temp machinery it will never use. It also means the growing agency pays more precisely when it is expanding.
Modules from £150 add up
Firefish lists the agency website, candidate onboarding portal, hiring manager portal, jobs plug-in and multi-poster, and 2-way SMS as add-on modules starting at £150. Those are the four or five things most agencies eventually want. ATSpro includes the careers site, the candidate and client portals, LiveList shortlists and SMS in the base subscription. Price both fully loaded, not on headline seat cost.
Both of us ship AI agents — ours act on the CRM
Credit where due: Firefish’s AI is more substantial than most of this market. Their Skills Agent, Candidate Insight Agent, Matching Agent, Content Agent, Email Agent and Enrichment Agent are real, and Match AI ranking is genuinely useful. This is not a case of us having AI and them not.
The difference is architectural. Firefish’s agents are task-specific: each does one job well. ATSpro’s assistant is a single conversational surface with 170+ tools that reads and writes across the entire CRM — create the job, build the shortlist, send the submission, chase the feedback, produce the report — plus an MCP server so you can drive it from Claude. Different philosophies, and reasonable people prefer either.
When Firefish is the better choice
An honest list — sometimes the answer is not us.
- You are perm-only and expect to stay that way. Core is built precisely for you and you will not pay for contract or temp machinery you never touch.
- You want a bigger company behind the product. Firefish has been going since 2010, has an in-house migration team that has moved agencies off 50+ other CRMs, and has the staff to answer the phone. We are one person, and for some buyers that is a genuine risk.
- BD-led growth is your core motion. Firefish is built around the idea that recruitment is sales, and their lead management, pipeline and email intelligence reflect years of iterating on that thesis.
- You need per-site dashboards across multiple offices — their Enterprise plan handles multi-site reporting in a way we currently do not.
ATSpro suits UK agencies running mixed desks who would rather not tier by workflow, who want portals and websites included rather than modular, and who want a published price they can check without a configurator.
Free migration from Firefish
We migrate candidates, companies, contacts, jobs, placements and documents at no cost, typically within days. Firefish contracts have historically been annual — check your renewal date and notice period first, since that is when you have leverage.
ATSpro vs Firefish — frequently asked
How much does Firefish cost?
Firefish does not publish public pricing. UK agencies typically report roughly £70–120 per user per month, with marketing and AI capabilities tiered and implementation commonly charged. ATSpro is £49 per user per month with every feature — including the AI assistant, 6 AI agents and 29 lifecycle automations, and full UK compliance — included at that price.
How does ATSpro compare to Firefish?
Firefish is a UK recruitment CRM with marketing-led features priced around £60–90 per user per month with basic AI. ATSpro is £49 per user per month with much deeper AI (the AI assistant, 6 AI agents and 29 lifecycle automations), geographic intelligence (map-based candidate search), native sourcing (Apollo, Hunter, X-Ray), and the full UK compliance stack included.
Does Firefish have an AI assistant like ATSpro?
Firefish offers basic AI features but no conversational AI assistant that takes actions in the CRM. The ATSpro AI assistant has 170+ tools — finding candidates, sending emails, creating jobs, chasing feedback, generating reports — all from a single command interface. There is no equivalent in Firefish.
Is ATSpro a good Firefish alternative for UK recruitment agencies?
Yes — particularly for agencies that want stronger AI capabilities, native sourcing tools, geographic candidate search, and the full UK compliance stack at a lower per-seat price. Firefish has stronger built-in marketing automation; ATSpro has stronger BD outreach with multi-channel cadences (email, call, LinkedIn, SMS, WhatsApp).
Can I migrate from Firefish to ATSpro?
Yes — ATSpro provides free data migration covering candidates, companies, contacts, jobs, and placement history. Bulk CSV import with auto-deduplication is available, and migration support is direct from the founder.
Sources & methodology
- Firefish plan structure (Core, Scale, Enterprise), feature matrix and dashboard limits: firefishsoftware.com/pricing, captured 18 July 2026.
- "Add-On Modules (from £150 per module)": Firefish published heading, July 2026.
- Firefish does not publish per-user pricing; the page uses a configurator that emails a quote.
- Third-party sites quoting Basic/Professional/Enterprise at £80/£90/£105 reference a superseded tier structure.
- ATSpro pricing: published at /pricing — £49 per user per month, all features included.