Dover Review: I Tested this Free ATS

Dover

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Dover is an AI-powered Applicant Tracking System for startups, helping high-growth organizations with their hiring processes. Founded in 2019, Dover is headquartered in New York, USA. Besides providing a complete suite of recruiting automation, it functions like a recruitment marketplace with a Recruiting Partners solution that connects you with fractional recruiters.

The trend of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) adoption is seen in the current hiring trends. A Jobscan study shows that 98.4% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS for hiring their team. Not only that, but the use of AI has seen a growing interest in recent years. 86.1% of recruiters who used AI expressed satisfaction with the accelerated hiring process.

These statistics highlight an inclination towards leveraging technology, particularly AI and ATS, to overcome hiring complexities in a competitive landscape. This trend aligns closely with the features offered by Dover. In this Dover Review, I will describe its features and my experience of using this free ATS.

Features

• AI-powered applicant sorting and automatic rescoring.
• Drag-and-drop careers page builder.
• Free sourcing suite with LinkedIn sourcing extension.
• Job board integration with 70+ global platforms.
• Tools for communication, referral, and agency management.

Pros

• 100% free ATS for unlimited users.
• GDPR-compliant platform with complete data security.
• Free data import from other solutions.

Cons

• Only supports English resume parsing.
• Does not sync with Microsoft 365 calendar.

2 Main Dover Product Offerings

These are the two major products offered by Dover.

1. Free ATS

The prime product of Dover is its 100% free ATS system tailored for startups and small teams, with no hidden costs. It allows unlimited jobs and users, and helps manage the talent acquisition process efficiently from day one. When I started to set up this solution for my organization, it only took a few minutes, and I was ready to start attracting top talent.

Its AI resume sorting automatically promotes the most qualified candidates, saving hours of manual screening. 

My favorite feature is automatic rescoring — whenever I update the required qualification for the role, it instantly rescores the applicants. It offers a drag-and-drop no-code careers page builder that took me only a few clicks to set up.

Dover provides collaboration tools like feedback forms, scorecards, and scheduling templates. Apart from these, the Dover ATS is capable of reviewing applicants, helping you send rejection notes, or tracking candidates through every hiring stage. You can communicate with your teammates using collaborative notes and mentions.

What’s more, candidate pipeline management becomes easier with Dover, thanks to its Kanban view. It allows you to schedule interviews or reject an applicant using its email templates. It even generates hiring analytics that help understand job market trends and develop better recruitment strategies.

2. Free Sourcing

Dover also offers a free sourcing suite for startups that has LinkedIn Sourcing Extension at its core. It simplifies job promotion through integrations with 70+ job boards, including one-click automated job posting to LinkedIn, Indeed, and X. I could easily share my job openings on other job boards without manually entering the same details again.

You can access all applicant data from one centralized dashboard. Dover makes referrals effortless for early-stage startups leaning on their networks. I just had to enter the email addresses of my teammates, investors, and friends, and they received the links to refer potential candidates using its employee referral system. Later, I could track them without any complicated setup. 

I like how its agency portal makes working with external recruiters transparent. You’ll see exactly which recruiters are delivering results, so you can manage third-party hiring with confidence.

4 Dover Use Cases

Here are 4 common use cases of Dover’s ATS and hiring solutions.

1. Tech Startups Hiring Software Engineers

For tech startups, hiring engineers can feel like an uphill battle. You’re moving fast and trying to find top talent in a super competitive market. Moreover, there is limited time and people to handle recruiting. All these problems can be resolved using Dover.

It handles the hiring process by automating candidate sourcing, sending outreach messages, and interview scheduling. That means solopreneurs or small HR teams can focus on finding the right fit. Dover connects you with coding assessments and highlights candidates who will thrive in fast-paced and evolving environments.

2. Scaling E-commerce Companies

Growing e-commerce companies, too, have to go through a hiring struggle to fill vacancies in roles across operations, marketing, logistics, and support. By using Dover ATS, they can get rid of issues like sorting endless resumes, chasing candidates for interviews, and dealing with a disorganized process.

Smart filters and automation help your teams book top candidates faster, while smooth coordination keeps interviews on track. Additionally, candidates get a consistent, professional experience, which is essential in a competitive job market.

3. Healthcare Recruiting

When it comes to healthcare, the traditional hiring system fails to cope up with the constant shortage of talent and tons of compliance rules to follow. Dover helps healthcare teams move quickly with hiring by automating outreach and scheduling. 

Thus, you can connect with qualified nurses, technicians, and admin staff without any delay while keeping the background check and documentation consistent. Dover gives HR teams more time to create a better candidate experience and improve retention in a field where burnout and turnover are very common.

4. Finance & Fintech Hiring

If you are recruiting in finance and fintech industries, you need a delicate balance between technical expertise, regulatory awareness, and culture fit. Add a rigorous screening process to these, and you get a long time-to-hire. 

Dover ATS tactfully handles these bottlenecks with automated pre-screening, customizable workflows, and structured feedback collection. Hence, the candidates move efficiently through each stage. Its scheduling features and real-time collaboration tools align stakeholders quickly. 

Dover Pricing

Dover ATS is available for free for unlimited users and candidates, forever. However, Dover additionally connects you with Recruiting Partners who will offer paid services to you for providing recruitment assistance.

Is Dover Free ATS Worth It?

If you are a startup or small business, or have a limited budget for hiring resources for your organization, the free ATS software by Dover is definitely worth it. It enables you to hire an unlimited number of talents for open roles and quickly share job vacancies in all popular job portals.

Dover Alternatives

In case you want to compare Dover with similar platforms, here is a comparison table between Dover and its alternatives.

Who Should Use Dover?

Whether you’re making your first hire or recruiting in bulk, Dover equips you with tools crucial to running a professional hiring process without draining your budget.

Startups needing a free ATS with job board automation: Early-stage startups often need a free, user-friendly ATS with built-in job board automation. Dover offers them maximum reach without extra effort or cost.

Scaling startups looking for cost-effective recruiting solutions: If you are a growing company seeking a cost-effective startup hiring platform for sourcing, scheduling, and collaboration, Dover will help you hire faster without expanding your HR headcount.

Who Shouldn’t Use Dover?

Despite being a powerful candidate sourcing tool for startups and growing teams, Dover may not be the best fit for:

Enterprises requiring deep HR system integrations: Dover is not suitable for large organizations relying on robust HR ecosystems like SAP SuccessFactors or Workday. Since Dover lacks deep integration capabilities, these companies need a more complex, customizable ATS or hiring software that smoothly syncs with enterprise-grade, payroll, compliance, and performance management tools.

Businesses with highly complex and global hiring workflows: Companies operating across multiple countries or legal frameworks have to watch out for localization, compliance, and support for decentralized teams. Dover doesn’t offer the granular customization or region-based compliances (e.g., GDPR, local labor laws) necessary for such global enterprises.

Companies needing high-volume agency hiring solutions: If you have to manage a high volume of roles simultaneously or need to work closely with external recruiting agencies, Dover’s native capabilities may not be sufficient for you. It’s built for in-house hiring automation, not complex vendor management or functioning as an ATS for staffing agencies, which typically require advanced client tracking, billing, and candidate ownership features.

Dover Verdict

Dover is an AI-powered ATS specifically designed for startups that want to hire top talent without incurring significant hiring costs. The biggest advantage of using Dover is its pricing. Since it is free forever, you don’t have to spend time looking for cost-per-hire transparency and instead, focus on finding the right people. For this reason, Dover received the Geekflare Value Award. 

While it may not offer integrations for complex HR applications, it’s not designed for that audience either. Hence, I would recommend it for startups and growing companies seeking a flexible and affordable hiring solution.