JobAdder organises what your agency already holds in its database, but a role that has run out of names does not get unstuck by moving stages around. When the candidate database has nothing left to give and the day goes on hunting passive profiles and their contact details, the better choice of the two is HeyTalent: it extracts LinkedIn profiles in real time, finds email and phone, automates the first touch and comes with a free ATS to track the process. JobAdder performs better when candidates and clients are already inside and what breaks is following up on processes, clients and reporting. Many agencies end up running both layers, with a clean handover between them.
What JobAdder is and what HeyTalent is
JobAdder is a cloud ATS with a built-in CRM, designed for recruitment agencies and in-house hiring teams: candidates, jobs, stages, clients and the commercial relationship live in a single database. An ATS is defined as the official record of each hiring process: who came in, which stage they are at and what was decided about them; the guide on what an ATS is and what it should solve goes deeper.
HeyTalent is defined as an AI sourcing tool for recruiters: from a brief it searches LinkedIn, pulls up-to-date profiles even outside the recruiter's network, ranks them with AI variables, finds email and phone and schedules LinkedIn invitations, follow-ups and InMails.
HeyTalent vs JobAdder in 2026: comparison by criterion
In 2026, HeyTalent and JobAdder do not sit at the same step of the funnel: HeyTalent finds and contacts talent that is not yet in your system, and JobAdder runs candidates, clients and stages once those profiles are inside.
| Criterion | HeyTalent | JobAdder |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | AI sourcing and first contact | ATS and CRM for candidates, clients and processes |
| Where the candidate comes from | LinkedIn, extracted on the spot and not limited to your network | Its own database, 130+ job boards, and LinkedIn Recruiter or SEEK if the agency holds that licence |
| Email and phone | Lookup per profile | Third-party data enrichment on the Essential and Pro plans, or through integrations such as SourceWhale |
| Outreach | Automated LinkedIn invitations with a note, follow-ups and InMails | Email, SMS and sequences from within the system; campaigns from the Essential plan up |
| Commercial management | No sales CRM or back office | Clients and commercial relationship in the same database |
| ATS | Its own, free; the candidate moves in from the conversation in one click | The core of the product |
| GDPR | Public data under legitimate interest, never resold | Confirm processing and retention terms in the contract |
If the role stalls before the first interview, the HeyTalent column weighs more; if control slips after you have candidates, the JobAdder column does. To place both within the wider map of digital solutions for HR teams, compare function, total cost and data portability, not the number of modules.
The real difference is how each tool reaches LinkedIn and contact data: JobAdder connects to LinkedIn through LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect, which requires a Recruiter licence, and enriches emails and phone numbers through third-party providers on its Essential and Pro plans; HeyTalent extracts LinkedIn profiles and finds email and phone on every plan.
What HeyTalent covers before a candidate enters JobAdder
HeyTalent covers the stretch an ATS with a CRM leaves to the recruiter: taking a role with no names to an open conversation with candidates who fit. You write the brief in plain language and HeyTalent turns it into LinkedIn filters for job title, location, years of experience and company size.
Each profile is extracted when the search runs, so the career history is current, and HeyTalent scores it with AI variables the recruiter writes for that role: languages, industry or the type of company the person comes from.
Once the list has been reviewed, HeyTalent gets emails and phone numbers and launches the LinkedIn sequence. Every reply lands in an inbox shared by the team, filterable by role and by recruiter.
According to HeyTalent, new users work 60% faster during their first month, an improvement the company attributes to short lists filtered with their own variables. The figure is published by the company, covers only that first month and does not mean hiring sooner.
HeyTalent charges for sourcing and leaves its ATS at €0. With it, the agency gets a branded careers page, job posts pushed to Google Jobs and one pipeline per role that the client can view at whichever stages are opened to them.
HeyTalent's limit against JobAdder: it has no sales CRM or back office. If what the agency needs from JobAdder is client and business management, HeyTalent works as the sourcing layer alongside it, not as a replacement.
How the seven stages of a role split between sourcing and ATS
A role goes through seven stages and each needs a single owner. HeyTalent covers the first six; the seventh lives in the ATS, whether JobAdder or HeyTalent's own:
- Define the role. The brief becomes filters for title, location and experience.
- Source. Extract up-to-date profiles, including outside your network.
- Filter. AI variables to prioritise by experience, industry or languages, reviewing a sample before contacting anyone.
- Enrich. Look up emails and phones only for those who pass the filter; enriching before filtering piles up data you later have to justify and delete.
- Contact. Invitation with a note, follow-ups and InMails, with an opening line that cites a real signal from the profile.
- Hand over. The candidate who replies moves to the ATS with role, recruiter, date and source.
- Manage. Stages, feedback, interviews and client reporting.
How to avoid duplicate candidates when combining HeyTalent and JobAdder
The costliest mistake when combining HeyTalent with JobAdder is not picking the wrong feature but holding the same candidate in two systems with different emails, or without knowing which search they came from. Three months later nobody knows who contacted them first or on what legal basis.
The handover rule between HeyTalent and JobAdder has three parts:
- One identifier per candidate, matching on email, phone and profile URL.
- A recorded source date, the earliest valid one.
- A single valid source per role, so two recruiters do not contact the same person.
Which AI filters to use when sourcing candidates and which to avoid
The useful AI filters are the ones tied to the job: title, location, years of experience, company size and stated languages. In HeyTalent those variables order the recruiter's review; they do not decide on their own who deserves an interview.
Proxy variables, such as age estimated from someone's history or an inferred level of English, can screen out qualified people: if they are not needed for the job, they are not used as filters.
According to Hays, 52% of Spanish professionals used generative AI tools in 2025, up from 34% in 2024. The more widespread AI becomes, the more it matters to be able to explain your selection criteria:
- Log the search rules: filters, date and owner, stored with the role.
- Review a sample by hand: profiles included and excluded, before scaling outreach.
- Separate tasks from decisions: automating invitations is admin; deciding who gets an interview is done by a person.
What GDPR requires in Spain when using HeyTalent and JobAdder
In Spain, a profile being public does not authorise any processing you like. The analysis by DPD and the Spanish Association for Quality on data processing sets out the AEPD's position: looking at social profiles must relate to the professional sphere, be necessary, rest on a sufficient legal basis and the person must be informed.
HeyTalent states that it processes public data on the basis of legitimate interest and does not resell data. The agency, even so, answers for every campaign: minimum fields, source and purpose recorded, and a deletion deadline. The guide to assessing a sourcing tool under GDPR turns those obligations into concrete questions.
Before signing with HeyTalent or with JobAdder, ask in writing:
- where each profile comes from and how the team records its source and date;
- which legal basis applies to your processing;
- who can see emails and phone numbers;
- how long data is kept after cancelling and how candidates, notes and activity are exported.
How much HeyTalent costs and how to compare it with JobAdder in 2026
HeyTalent's plans start at €93/month billed annually and are charged per organisation, not per user. This is how they stand on 1 November 2026, according to its pricing page:
| HeyTalent plan | Annual | Quarterly | Candidates per month | For whom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruiter | €93/month | €109/month | Up to 2,000 | Headhunters and independent consultants |
| Agency | €182/month | €214/month | Up to 5,000 | Agencies of up to 4 recruiters |
| Ultra | €509/month | €599/month | Up to 14,000 | Teams of more than 4 recruiters |
Every HeyTalent plan comes with unlimited users, an email and phone finder and unlimited CSV exports. JobAdder does not publish prices: its four plans (Recruiter Lite, Essential, Pro and Business) are quoted on request on an annual contract, according to its pricing page as of 1 November 2026. To compare with JobAdder, ask for the price that fits your team and add integrations, implementation, support and internal admin hours: the subscription on its own is not comparable.
Because HeyTalent charges per organisation and LinkedIn Recruiter per seat, the company puts the saving at up to 5x against LinkedIn Recruiter, a gap that widens with every recruiter you add and narrows for someone working alone.