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Lever vs Ashby
Lever and Ashby on published price, what sets each price, structured interviews, scheduling, interview transcripts, API and MCP access, and moving your data, all taken from the vendors' own pages on November 9, 2026. Yardstick is our product and has one section, as a third option near the end.
How this page works.
- 1Every fact is from the vendor's own page, checked on November 9, 2026.Vendors change pages, so the vendor's own page is the current word.
- 2We do not pick a winner.Ashby publishes a price for companies up to 100 employees and Lever quotes every price, so the cost comparison stops where the published numbers stop. The rest of the page compares what each vendor lists.
- 3Yardstick is our product.It has one section, near the end, as a third option, and the summary at the top points to it. Everything else above that section is about the two of them.
What each one is.
Lever
Lever is an applicant tracking system with a built-in candidate relationship manager, sold as LeverTRM. It is part of Employ Inc., alongside JazzHR and Jobvite. Lever publishes no price. It says pricing is available upon request and tailored to your organization's size and hiring needs.
Lever says every plan includes the core applicant tracking system, CRM, advanced reporting and analytics, and key integrations. Its core platform also lists AI-powered screening, unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries, and AI-powered fraud prevention signals.
Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ, and Onboarding are add-ons, each quoted. The pricing page offers a quote form and a demo, and lists no free plan or trial.
Ashby
Ashby is an applicant tracking system sold as one product across ATS, sourcing, CRM, scheduling, and analytics, in three plans. Foundations, for up to 100 employees, is priced by headcount band from $300 to $900 a month. Plus, described as best for 101 to 1,000 employees, and Enterprise are quoted.
Every plan lists customizable interview plans and structured interviewing, debriefs, direct booking, AI-assisted application review, API access, an MCP server, and Ashby Assistant. SSO is $100 a month on Foundations. The AI Notetaker is a paid add-on, and auto-scheduling is an add-on on Plus and included on Enterprise.
Plans are monthly or annual, with 10% off annual. The pricing page lists no free plan or trial, and says the listed price will not change during the sales process.
Side by side, as published on November 9, 2026.
The table scrolls sideways on a phone.
| Dimension | Lever | Ashby |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | Not published. Lever says pricing is available upon request and tailored to your organization's size and hiring needs. | Ashby Foundations, for up to 100 employees, is $300 a month at 1 to 10 employees, $400 at 11 to 25, $500 at 26 to 50, $700 at 51 to 75, and $900 at 76 to 100. Plus and Enterprise are quoted. |
| What sets the price | Team size and hiring needs, per Lever's pricing FAQ. Three add-ons are each quoted separately: Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ, and Onboarding. | Up to 100 employees, company size at the time of purchase, reassessed every year, not seats. Above 100 people the price is custom, and Plus is priced on company size, usage, and commitment. |
| Billing and term | Not stated on the pricing page. | Monthly or annual. Annual saves 10%. Monthly plans are paid by credit card. |
| Trial | No free plan or trial on the pricing page. It offers a quote form and a demo. | No free plan or trial on the pricing page. Every plan says Get in Touch, and Ashby says the listed price will not change during the sales process. |
| What every plan includes | The core applicant tracking system, candidate relationship management, advanced reporting and analytics, and key integrations, per Lever's FAQ. | One price for ATS, sourcing, CRM, scheduling, and analytics. Ashby does not charge for integrations. |
| Structured interviews and scorecards | Lever's LeverTRM page lists structured scorecards for consistent evaluation. The pricing page does not say which plan includes them. | Customizable interview plans and structured interviewing are on all three plans, along with debriefs. |
| Scheduling | Lever says its core subscription includes panel scheduling, live interviewer availability, and candidate self-book links. | Direct booking and candidate availability links on all three plans. Auto-scheduling and calendar holds are not on Foundations, are an Advanced Scheduling add-on on Plus, and are included on Enterprise. |
| Interview transcripts and notes | Unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries are listed in Lever's core platform. | The AI Notetaker, which records, transcribes, and summarizes interviews, is a paid add-on on every plan. |
| Other AI | AI-powered screening and AI-powered fraud prevention signals are listed in the core platform. | AI-assisted application review on all three plans. AI application review, fraud detection, and talent rediscovery use AI credits, with 1,500 a month on Foundations. Talent rediscovery is not on Foundations and starts on Plus. Ashby's AI credits doc says most of its other AI features are free to use without limitation. |
| SSO and security | Lever says it is SOC 2 Type II certified. SSO is not mentioned on the pricing page. | SSO is $100 a month on Foundations and included on Plus and Enterprise. A user audit log is on all three plans. SCIM and a sandbox start on Plus. |
| API and agent access | The pricing page lists key integrations on every plan and names no API access or MCP server. | API access and an MCP server for AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor are on all three plans, and Ashby's docs label the MCP server Beta. Every plan also lists Ashby Assistant, an agent inside Ashby that asks you to confirm each action before it runs, and custom AI agents. |
| Moving your data | Lever says most customers are fully implemented within weeks, not months. That figure covers the whole implementation, not only moving the data. | Ashby says it imports from Lever and Greenhouse through an API integration, that the data migration takes a day or two, and that other systems come in by CSV. That figure covers the data migration only. |
Where the two actually differ.
You can price Ashby up to 100 employees. Lever needs a quote.
A 20-person company sits in Ashby's 11 to 25 band: $400 a month billed monthly, or $360 a month on an annual plan, which is $4,320 a year. Lever publishes no figure for any team size and says the price depends on your team size and hiring needs. You can put an Ashby number in a budget before you talk to anyone, up to 100 employees. The Lever number arrives with the quote.
Both tie the price to the size of your organization.
Ashby says its startup pricing is based on the size of your organization when you buy, not on seats or the size of the talent team, and that it reassesses the price every year. Its Plus plan is priced on company size, usage, and commitment. Lever says its pricing is tailored to your organization's size and hiring needs, and its pricing page does not mention seats. Neither pricing page says how the price changes as headcount grows.
Interview transcripts and summaries are in Lever's core platform and an add-on at Ashby.
Lever lists unlimited AI interview transcripts and summaries in its core platform. Ashby sells its AI Notetaker as a paid add-on on every plan, with no published price.
Ashby lists an API, an MCP server, and an agent on every plan.
Ashby's plan grid puts API access, an MCP server for AI tools, and Ashby Assistant on Foundations, Plus, and Enterprise. Ashby's docs label the MCP server Beta, and Ashby Assistant is an agent inside Ashby that asks you to confirm each action before it runs. Lever's pricing page lists key integrations on every plan but names no API access or MCP server.
Ashby publishes how it moves Lever customers over.
Ashby's pricing FAQ says it imports Lever data through an API integration and that the migration takes a day or two. Ashby also sells Ashby Analytics, reporting that runs on top of an existing Lever or Greenhouse account for companies of 100 or more, priced on usage. Lever's pricing page says most customers are fully implemented within weeks, not months. Ashby's figure covers the data migration and Lever's covers the whole implementation, so the two are not the same measure.
If neither fits: a third option.
Both Lever and Ashby tie the price mainly to the size of your organization. If you hire a few roles a year and want a published bill that follows the roles you have open, and the interview designed for each role on the free plan, Yardstick is built for that shape.
Yardstick designs the interview guide and scorecard for the role you are hiring, so every candidate has the same important conversation, is scored on the same scale, and the interview produces evidence about who will perform in this job. The AI drafts the guide and the scorecard, and your team edits both. Interviewers open the guide on a magic link, with no paid seats to buy. Structured interviews, scorecards, scheduling, a talent CRM, and the public API are on every account, including the free one.
Yardstick pricing is a monthly plan fee plus each open role. The first three Jobs are free, then Yardstick Core is $49 a month plus $29 per open role, billed monthly, and Yardstick Scale is $149 a month plus $19 per open role. One open role on Yardstick Core is $78 a month, two are $107, and three are $136, at any headcount. A role you close stops billing the next month, and there is no annual commitment. Interviewers and hiring managers are never charged as seats.
The agent path is your own AI agent. You chat with Claude Code or Codex, it runs the yardstick CLI, and the actions that matter wait for your approval. They include publishing a job, advancing or rejecting a candidate, and emailing one outside a sequence you approved. Claude and ChatGPT can connect over MCP on every account, free included.
Yardstick is not built for a thousand-person organization standardizing a global process. SSO, SCIM, and advanced audit logs are on the Enterprise plan.
For each of them against the field, see Lever alternatives and Ashby alternatives, and for Ashby against Greenhouse, see Greenhouse vs Ashby. What Lever publishes about its quote is on Lever pricing. For Yardstick against Ashby directly, see Yardstick vs Ashby. Full Yardstick pricing is on the pricing page, and the import path from Lever is at switch from Lever.
Common questions about Lever vs Ashby.
Is Ashby cheaper than Lever?
Only Ashby publishes a price, and only for companies up to 100 employees, so a direct comparison is not possible from the vendors' pages. Ashby Foundations runs from $300 a month at 1 to 10 employees to $900 a month at 76 to 100, with 10% off on annual plans. Lever says its pricing is available upon request and publishes no figure. All facts are from the vendors' pages, checked on November 9, 2026.
How much does Lever cost?
Lever does not publish a price. Its pricing page, checked on November 9, 2026, says pricing is available upon request, is tailored to your organization's size and hiring needs, and scales with your team size. Every plan includes the core ATS, CRM, advanced reporting and analytics, and key integrations. Candidate Insights, AI Screening by VONQ, and Onboarding are add-ons, each quoted.
How much does Ashby cost for a 20-person company?
Ashby's 11 to 25 employee band is $400 a month billed monthly, or $360 a month on an annual plan, $4,320 a year. SSO is $100 a month extra on Foundations, and the AI Notetaker is a paid add-on with no published price. The band is set by company size when you buy and reassessed every year, per Ashby's pricing page, checked on November 9, 2026.
Can I move from Lever to Ashby?
Ashby's pricing FAQ, checked on November 9, 2026, says it provides an API integration with Lever and Greenhouse instances for data migration, and that the migration takes a day or two. Ashby says baseline onboarding is included for every customer.
Does either one have an MCP server or an API?
Ashby lists API access, an MCP server for AI workflows, and Ashby Assistant, an agent inside Ashby, on all three of its plans, as published on November 9, 2026. Ashby's docs label the MCP server Beta. Lever's pricing page, checked the same day, lists key integrations on every plan and names no API access or MCP server.
What if neither fits?
Yardstick, our product, bills a monthly plan fee plus each open role. The first three Jobs are free, then $49 a month plus $29 per open role, billed monthly with no annual commitment. The AI-designed interview guide and scorecard, the public API, CLI, and MCP are on every account, including free.
Want the interview designed for the role, and a price that follows your open roles?
Start free. The first three Jobs are free, no seats to count, and the public API, CLI, and MCP are on from day one.