Service · Software development

Custom recruitment software development.

An ATS that fits your recruitment, not the other way round. We build custom recruitment software for HR teams, recruitment and selection agencies, and RPO providers who are hitting the limits of off-the-shelf packages such as OTYS, Carerix or Recruitee.

Custom ATSMulti-brandAI matchingGDPR-compliant

When a standard ATS no longer fits.

The Dutch recruitment market is well served by packages such as OTYS, Carerix, BulletJobs, Recruitee, Lever, Greenhouse, Workable, AFAS Recruitment and Bullhorn. For general recruitment and selection work, you don't need to consider custom development: those packages do what they promise, and we'll honestly recommend them where they fit.

Custom recruitment software becomes relevant once your workflow departs from the packaged template: sector-specific hiring (executive search, technical contracting, healthcare, legal), multi-brand agencies running several labels under one roof, white-label setups for sister organisations, AI matching on skills and culture fit, or deep integrations with an HRIS that cannot be reached through standard connectors.

We have been building recruitment software since 2015. Not as a replacement for a package that works well, but as an alternative when you hit the limits of standardisation and the operational drag becomes greater than the licence saving.

Our clients are HR departments of medium-sized and large organisations that handle their own recruitment, recruitment agencies working with multiple labels, RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) providers who want to run their own platform for their clients, scale-ups with an intensive recruitment pipeline, and recruitment and selection organisations that deliver white-label solutions to their clients. The common thread is that the recruitment workflow itself is part of their proposition and cannot simply be swapped out.

Three types of custom recruitment software.

The right choice depends on your scale, the number of brands, and how deeply the integrations with your HRIS and job boards need to go. We'll advise which type suits you in the first conversation.

Compact project · fixed sprint budget

Sector-specific ATS

An applicant tracking system with a recruitment and selection workflow tailored to one clear niche, for example executive search, technical staffing or healthcare recruitment. Includes its own career site, candidate database with CV parsing, and vacancy management with publishing to the standard job boards and LinkedIn.

Career siteCV parsingJob board publishingPipeline views
Mid-sized project · fixed sprint budget

Multi-brand recruitment platform

For agencies running several labels or delivering white-label solutions to sister organisations. One underlying platform with multiple brand skins, each with its own career site and separated data layers, a shared candidate database where legally permitted, hiring manager portals, and self-service onboarding for new labels.

White-labelMulti-tenantHiring manager portalPer-brand branding
Larger project · fixed sprint budget

Enterprise recruitment suite

For organisations with an intensive recruitment pipeline and strict compliance requirements. Deep integration with your HRIS and payroll (AFAS, Visma, BambooHR), semantic AI matching on hard and soft skills, anonymisation to reduce bias, an audit log for anti-discrimination and GDPR compliance, and pipeline reporting on time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and source-of-hire.

HRIS integrationAI matchingAnonymisationAudit log

The modules we typically build.

Not every project needs every module: we start with the core (vacancies, candidates, application workflow) and build out modularly. Below are the building blocks that come up on almost every recruitment software project.

Vacancies

Vacancy management and mass publishing

Central job database with automatic publishing to LinkedIn, Indeed, Werk.nl/UWV and industry-specific job boards. A single edit in the ATS flows through to all channels, including your own career site with SEO-friendly vacancy pages.

Candidates

Candidate database with CV parsing

Automatic extraction of work experience, education and skills from submitted CVs. Tagging against your own skills taxonomy, so searches work beyond keyword level, for example "experience with SAP S/4HANA, Dutch-speaking and within 50 km of Utrecht".

Recruitment workflow

From intake to offer in one pipeline

Configurable stages (intake, phone screen, first interview, assessment, second interview, offer, contract), with role-specific actions per stage, automated email and SMS templates, and calendar integration for booking appointments directly.

Evaluation

Assessments and hiring manager feedback

Link to an external assessment provider (TestGorilla, Codility, Harver) or your own evaluation flow. Hiring managers get a short review flow through their own portal: assess the shortlist, complete a scorecard, compare candidates, without having to learn the full ATS.

Communication

Email, SMS and calendar integration

Templates per step with merge fields, bulk mailings for rejections or nurture campaigns, and SMS for time-sensitive updates. Outlook and Google Calendar integration with automatic Teams or Zoom meeting links for every scheduled appointment.

Self-service

Candidate and hiring manager portals

Candidates can see their own status, upload additional documents and update their details. Hiring managers review candidates, give feedback and see their open vacancies, without needing recruiter tooling.

Reporting

Pipeline analytics and KPIs

Time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire, drop-off per stage and hiring manager effectiveness. Dashboards per recruiter, per brand and per client; for multi-brand or RPO engagements, also drillable to client level.

AI layer

Semantic matching and anonymisation

Vacancies and CVs are compared on meaning rather than purely on keywords. Optional anonymisation hides name, age, gender and photo until after the first review, both to reduce bias and to comply with clients who require it.

What you get at the end.

A working recruitment platform, plus everything around it to keep it running in-house or have your IT department manage it.

Whether we are building an industry-specific ATS or an enterprise suite across multiple brands, delivery follows the same approach. No vendor lock-in on our tooling, no surprises afterwards. The codebase lives in your own Git repository and can be taken over by another party at any time, should you ever wish to do so.

We also give honest advice on which components you really want to build custom and which you are better off buying from a specialist, such as assessment tools, video interviewing or payroll integration. Not everything has to be built by a single party.

  • The ATS in productionProduction and staging environments. Runs in your own cloud (GCP, AWS, Azure) or hosted by us, with your own domain for the career site.
  • Complete codebase and documentationSource code in your own Git repository, build instructions, and an architecture overview for your IT department or any subsequent developer.
  • Recruiter and admin guideWritten for your recruiters and hiring managers: publishing vacancies, reviewing candidates, updating statuses, running reports and consulting the audit log.
  • Migration from your existing ATSCandidate database, live vacancies, history and hiring manager accounts from Carerix, OTYS, Recruitee, Bullhorn or a custom database. We export and import while preserving the data structure.
  • Training sessionsTwo sessions for recruiters and key users, plus a short video tutorial for hiring managers who need to leave feedback within the platform themselves.
  • Managed service agreement (optional)Monitoring, backups, security patches, job board API maintenance and further development on your roadmap. Fixed monthly fee with four response-time tiers.
Not yet sure about a large project?

Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day

With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.

Explore OneDayBuild →

When custom recruitment software is the right choice.

Four patterns we typically help clients with. If you recognise one or more of them, we'd be happy to talk further, even if you're not sure whether custom development is the right route.

Sector-specific workflows

Your recruitment deviates from the standard template

Executive search, contract staffing, healthcare recruitment or legal — your intake, screening and offer flow doesn't resemble the defaults of Recruitee or Workable. You're currently working around this with custom fields and manual steps.

Multi-brand

You run multiple brands or sister companies

Three or more recruitment brands under one parent company, or you supply white-label recruitment software to sister agencies. Off-the-shelf ATS packages force you into multiple licences without shared data or brand control.

AI matching

You want to go deeper than keyword search

Semantic skill matching based on CV content, plus soft skills and culture fit, with optional anonymisation to reduce bias during the initial screening. Standard packages offer this not at all or only in limited form — we build it on your own taxonomy.

Compliance

GDPR, anti-discrimination and the right to be forgotten

You work for clients in the public or financial sector who require demonstrable logging of who has viewed what, an enforceable anonymisation step, and automated data retention in line with the GDPR right to erasure.

Scale

Hundreds to thousands of vacancies in parallel

At high volume — think large staffing or contracting agencies — you quickly hit the performance and process limits of standard packages. Bulk actions, shared shortlists, automated source-of-hire reporting and reliable job board throughput then become hard requirements rather than nice-to-haves.

Branding

A career site is more than a job feed

You want the careers site to have a brand experience of its own, not an ATS skin with your logo on top. Custom layouts per job family, employer branding content, video vacancies and testimonial pages that don't fit within the framework of a standard package.

How a recruitment software project runs.

1

Introduction and flow analysis

A conversation in which we establish how your recruitment and selection flow currently works, which packages you have previously considered or used, and which compliance requirements apply. We're honest: if a standard package fits, we'll tell you so.

2

Planning and recruiter workshops

A workshop with your recruiters, hiring managers and — for multi-brand projects — operations. Plus interviews with a few candidates about how they experience your current career site. At the end: a concrete scope, sprint planning and the first screen flows.

3

Building in sprints

A working build every two weeks that your recruiters can test straight away. We start with the vacancy and candidate flow, then job board publishing and HRIS integrations, and only in later sprints AI matching and reporting, so you have a first tier live within a few sprints.

4

Migration and rollout

Phased data migration from your old ATS, parallel running so that live vacancies don't stall, training for recruiters and hiring managers, and ongoing management afterwards for security, job board API maintenance and further development.

5

Further development on your roadmap

Once the ATS is live, we keep a number of sprint days available each month for further development on your own priorities. New job board integrations, a second brand in the multi-tenant model, an extra HRIS integration, or an AI iteration on the matching algorithms: whatever sits at the top of your list. You set the direction, we safeguard the architecture.

Frequently asked questions.

What HR leads, recruitment managers and agency owners typically want to know before we begin.

Will you replace our current Carerix, OTYS or Recruitee?
For small, standard recruitment and selection work: no, those packages are good for their purpose. We only replace them when you run into a sector-specific workflow, multi-brand requirements or deep HRIS integrations that aren't workable in the package. If you're wondering whether you've crossed that line, we'll look at it honestly in a first conversation.
What's the difference between recruitment software and recruitment management software?
In practice we call it the same thing: an ATS (applicant tracking system) that supports vacancies, candidates, the application flow, communication and reporting. Recruitment agencies often also use secondment functionality such as contract management and time registration. If you also need secondment software, we have a separate approach for custom secondment software development.
How do you handle GDPR and anti-discrimination?
A DPIA at the start, encryption in transit and at rest, audit logging as standard, and a GDPR right-to-erasure feature that candidates can trigger themselves. For anti-discrimination, we build optional anonymisation into the first screening step: name, age, photo and gender stay hidden from the hiring manager until after the initial assessment. A penetration test in the final sprint rounds it off.
How reliable is AI matching on skills and culture fit?
Honestly: AI matching is a good first filter, not a replacement for a recruiter's judgement. We build semantic matching on skills (comparing CV text with vacancy text plus your own skills taxonomy) and support culture-fit questionnaires, but the final decision stays with a person. The anonymisation layer specifically counters the bias that purely algorithmic matching can introduce.
Which job boards and integrations do you support?
LinkedIn Recruiter, Indeed API, Werk.nl/UWV, Nationale Vacaturebank, Monsterboard and sector-specific boards such as Nationale Vacaturebank Zorg. On the HRIS side: AFAS, Visma, BambooHR plus payroll administration. For calendars: Outlook and Google Calendar, including automatic Teams or Zoom meeting links. Specific integrations that are not standard, we build through smart API integrations.
Can you build multi-brand or white-label software for sister agencies?
Yes, that's one of the main reasons organisations come to us. One underlying platform, multiple brand skins with their own career sites and domains, data separation where needed and a shared candidate database where the law permits. Onboarding a new brand then becomes a configuration step rather than a new licence.
What determines the cost of custom ATS software?
Three things: the number of roles and workflows you need (recruiter, hiring manager, candidate, admin), the depth of integration with HRIS and job boards, and compliance requirements such as audit logging, anonymisation and data retention. For a first indication and the thinking behind pricing: custom software costs.
Do you work together with our IT department?
Almost always. We deliver into your own Git repository, carry out knowledge transfer in the final sprint, and together draw up a runbook for incidents. For larger organisations, the choice between fully custom enterprise software development and a lighter SME approach is often the first topic of conversation.

Talk to us about your recruitment software.

A no-obligation introductory call of half an hour. We listen to your recruitment workflow, ask about the packages you use now or are considering, and give direction, including when custom development turns out not to be the right answer.

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