You’re running a desk, not a call centre
CloudTalk sells per-seat plans with the conversation intelligence as an add-on. Recruitly gives you a phone that reads the candidate before you dial and writes the note after — because it is the CRM.
Built to optimise a call floor
Excellent if you run a support floor. Beside the point if your week is measured in shortlists sent, interviews booked and placements made.
The metric is the placement
Not average handling time. Your phone should know the difference.
Call centre metrics answer the wrong question
Nobody in your Monday meeting asks about average handling time. They ask whether the client got the shortlist, whether the candidate is still warm, and what is closing this month.
What gets measured
Wait times, queue depth, talk ratio
A call centre platform
CVs sent, interviews booked, placements made
Recruitly
What the AI produces
A generic call recap
A call centre platform
A briefing from your pipeline, and a note on the candidate and job
Recruitly
What happens next
The call ends
A call centre platform
The promise you made is queued as tomorrow's callback
Recruitly
Based on CloudTalk’s published plans and add-ons, checked 21 August 2026. Pricing changes — check their site.
Intelligence that comes with the phone
Intelligence isn't an add-on
The briefing before the call and the summary after it are part of the phone, charged by use at three cents, not bolted on as a separate product per seat.
Measured on placements
Call reporting sits beside jobs, shortlists, submissions and billings — so the phone shows up in the numbers your directors actually care about.
Numbers, not seats
Licence the numbers you hold. Everyone on the desk calls, including the consultant who only picks up the phone twice a week.
The rest of the desk
Jobs, candidates, placements, billings, campaigns, WhatsApp and the CRM itself, in the same subscription as the phone.
One industry, one product
A platform sold to every industry has to stay generic. We only have one industry, so the phone knows what a shortlist, a submission and a fee stage are.
That is why the briefing is useful rather than decorative: it is built from your live pipeline, not from the transcript of the last call. And it is why the summary lands as a note on the candidate and the job instead of a row in a telephony portal.
Vertical integration is not a slogan here. It is the reason the AI has anything intelligent to say, and the reason it costs cents instead of a licence.
Recruitly vs CloudTalk
One is a call centre platform for any industry. One is a recruitment CRM with a phone system inside it.
| Conversation intelligence | Part of the phone, 3¢ a call | Separate add-on |
| What you licence | Numbers | Seats, with minimums on higher tiers |
| AI briefing before the call | Included, 100 per user monthly | — |
| Summary written onto the candidate and the job | Native | Via integration into your CRM |
| Callback queue filled by the AI | Included | — |
| Designed for | Recruitment agencies | Sales and support call centres |
| Reporting alongside placements and billings | Included | — |
| Applicant tracking system | Included | — |
| Recruitment CRM | Included | — |
| Job distribution to 50+ boards | Included | — |
| Candidate shortlisting and CV formatting | Included | — |
Capability comparison against CloudTalk’s published plans, checked 21 August 2026.
Questions before you move
What does CloudTalk cost once conversation intelligence is on?
At the time of writing their plans publish around $25 to $49 per user per month on annual billing, higher month to month, with a three-licence minimum on the top tier, and AI conversation intelligence is a separate add-on. So the intelligence — the part that saves your consultants time — is an extra line rather than part of the phone. Check their site for today's numbers; the structure is what to plan around.
CloudTalk is a serious call centre platform. Isn't that better?
It is better at being a call centre. Queues, wait times, IVR trees and talk-ratio dashboards are what it is built to optimise, and if you run a support floor it is a reasonable choice. A recruitment desk is a different shape: a small number of relationships worked over years, where the question is not how many calls were made but whether the client got the shortlist you promised on Tuesday. That is what our phone system is built to answer.
Do I still get proper call reporting?
Yes, and in the place it means something. Call logs with duration, outcome, recording, transcript and sentiment; agent and manager views over the team's calling; and the same activity feeding the leaderboards on the office TVs alongside CVs sent, interviews booked and placements made. The phone stops being a separate dashboard nobody opens.
Can I keep our existing numbers?
Yes. Porting is built into Recruitly — raise the order, upload the paperwork the losing carrier needs, and track it to the switchover date. Start it early, because porting runs on the carriers' timetable, and the rest of Recruitly can go live while it is in progress.
Can we migrate gradually?
Yes. Recruitly logs calls from the common recruitment dialers into the same Call Logs, so you can move desk by desk with one view of the team's calling throughout, and port the numbers when it suits your contract.
What am I getting besides a phone system?
Jobs, candidates, applications, contacts, companies, deals, placements, billings, interviews, campaigns, WhatsApp, e-signature, leaderboards for the office TVs, an AI hub for matching and CV formatting, and a Chrome extension that scores LinkedIn profiles against your live jobs. CloudTalk is a phone platform for any industry. This is your agency's software, with a phone system in it.
A phone built for recruiters beats a phone built for everyone.
Best Value & Best Ease of Use · Capterra 2026