How it's different
A real recruiting tool, not a toy.
LightningHire Recruit is not an enterprise ATS. It is not trying to replace Greenhouse or Lever. It is built for solo recruiters, boutique agencies, and startup hiring managers who move fast and need AI that actually helps — without paying for a system that takes six weeks to configure.
This page is the scope-honest version of our pitch. Read it before you sign up. If we're the right fit, you'll know immediately. If we're not, we'll tell you that too.
What LightningHire does well
AI-scored candidate pipeline
Your pipeline is scored by AI, not spreadsheets. Every candidate can receive a 1–100 fit score comparing their resume against the job description and enriched role metadata. The score comes with specific strengths, specific gaps, and a plain-English summary — not a generic percentage.
Structured scorecards
Every interviewer submits a scorecard: overall rating, hire/no-hire recommendation, per-competency scores, and free-text notes. Decisions are documented. Panel feedback does not live in someone's inbox.
Requisition enrichment
Paste a job description. LightningHire extracts seniority level, required tech stack, benefits signals, and estimated salary range automatically. No manual data entry on role metadata.
Visual kanban pipeline
Drag-and-drop pipeline board per requisition. Full stage history on every candidate. Filter by source, stage, and days-in-stage. This is the view recruiters spend their day in.
Candidate profiles
Resume upload and parsing, LinkedIn and GitHub links, contact information, notes, and a full activity timeline — all on one page. No toggling between a spreadsheet and a PDF viewer.
Recruiter dashboard
Open requisitions, pipeline health summary, recent activity, and stale roles flagged automatically. The state of your whole search in one view when you log in.
Free tier: what you actually get
The free tier is real. No 14-day trial. No feature walls on day one.
| Limit | Free |
|---|---|
| Active requisitions | 3 |
| Candidates per requisition | 25 |
| AI actions per day | 10 (fit scoring, outreach generation) |
| Users | 1 |
| Scorecards | Unlimited |
| Pipeline stages | Default set (Sourced, Screen, Interview, Offer, Hired) |
A solo recruiter running two active searches with 20 candidates each will hit meaningful product value well before the limits become binding. If you hit them within your first week, that is a signal the product is working.
Pro tier is available for recruiters who need more. Contact us — Pro is currently sales-assisted and priced at $99/user/month as a starting point. We do not yet have a self-serve upgrade flow.
What LightningHire does not do yet
Being scope-honest means saying this clearly.
No public application form. Candidates cannot apply to your requisitions through a LightningHire-hosted page. You source candidates and add them yourself, or they come in via bulk import. A public application portal is on the roadmap for after the initial validation period.
No interview scheduling. LightningHire does not book calendar slots or send interview invites. Calendar integration is planned but not shipped.
No multi-user team sharing. The free tier is single-user. Team accounts and shared pipelines are not available yet. If your team needs two recruiters in the same pipeline simultaneously, this is not the right tool today.
No custom pipeline stages. The default stage set (Sourced → Screen → Interview → Offer → Hired) is fixed. Custom stage configurations are a Tier 2 feature.
No email outreach from within the app. You cannot send candidate emails from LightningHire today. Outreach generation produces draft copy; sending happens in your own email client.
No ATS integrations. LightningHire does not connect to Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, or any other ATS. It is a standalone tool.
No offer management or e-signature. The pipeline ends at Hired. Offer letters, e-signature, and onboarding are out of scope.
No analytics dashboards beyond the recruiter summary. Time-to-hire, source attribution, and pipeline velocity reporting are not available. The dashboard gives you a state-of-the-world summary, not a BI tool.
Who it's for
Solo recruiters, boutique agencies, startup hiring managers. If you move fast and want AI that actually helps, this is for you.
If you need an enterprise compliance layer, a full ATS replacement, multi-user permissions at scale, or calendar and scheduling built in — we are not there yet and we will not pretend otherwise.
Next steps
- Getting started — set up your first requisition in under 10 minutes
- Requisitions — role creation, enrichment, and lifecycle
- Fit scores — how AI scoring works and what it considers