You’re looking for a WordPress plugin to manage your job listings and receive applications. Two names come up regularly: Simple Job Board, a staple of the WordPress.org repository, and WP ATS Jobs Manager, a French-developed solution that is both newer and more feature-complete. Which one fits your situation? This comparison, written after testing both plugins, gives you a clear answer.
Want to understand first why you should manage your job listings from WordPress rather than going through a paid job board? Read the article on the WordPress alternative to job boards for the full context.
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The two plugins at a glance
Simple Job Board is developed by PressTigers. The core plugin is free, available on WordPress.org, with over 10,000 active installations and a rating of 4.7/5 across 130 reviews. It follows a freemium model: the core is lightweight, and paid add-ons ranging from €10 to €35 fill in the missing functionality.
WP ATS Jobs Manager is a premium French-developed plugin, distributed as a one-time purchase on Yes We Blog. It comes with a complete ATS system out of the box: an application pipeline, a front-end recruiter dashboard, editable automated emails, CSV export, a job map, and automatic schema.org JobPosting markup.
Core features included: the real comparison
This is where the difference is most striking. Simple Job Board in its free version lets you display job listings and receive applications by email. That’s perfectly fine for a basic careers page. But as soon as you need to handle applications seriously, add-ons start piling up.
| Feature | Simple Job Board (free) | WP ATS Jobs Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Job listing display | ✅ included | ✅ included |
| Application form | ✅ included | ✅ included |
| AJAX filters (no page reload) | ❌ add-on €15 | ✅ included |
| Front-end recruiter dashboard | ❌ add-on €35 | ✅ included |
| ATS pipeline with application statuses | ❌ add-on €15 | ✅ 7 statuses included |
| Application status change history | ❌ not available | ✅ included |
| Editable candidate emails | ⚠️ partial | ✅ included |
| CSV export of applications | ❌ add-on €15 | ✅ included |
| Schema.org JobPosting (Google Jobs) | ❌ add-on €20 | ✅ automatic on every listing |
| Salary range (min/max/period) | ❌ not available | ✅ included |
| Job map (OpenStreetMap) | ❌ not available | ✅ included |
| French-language support | ❌ English-only support | ✅ French support included |
The real cost of Simple Job Board
The core is free, but the moment you need a functional application pipeline, the cost adds up quickly. Here is what you need to purchase on the Simple Job Board side to match the features included by default in WP ATS Jobs Manager:
- AJAX filters: €15
- Recruiter dashboard / Frontend Job Posting: €35
- Custom application statuses: €15
- CSV export: €15
- Schema.org Google Jobs: €20
That’s €100 in add-ons, for a solution that is still less integrated than a plugin designed from the ground up as an ATS. WP ATS Jobs Manager is available at €79 as a one-time purchase, all features included.
Where Simple Job Board does better
Let’s be honest. Simple Job Board has genuine strengths that WP ATS Jobs Manager does not yet have.
It is available on WordPress.org, which means one-click installation from the dashboard, automatic updates, and visibility to millions of users. It has a mobile app for iOS and Android for managing the job board from your phone. Its add-on ecosystem is more extensive, particularly for Elementor, Divi, and WPBakery integrations. And its community of 10,000 active users is a sign of maturity.
For a business website with two or three job postings per year where the recruiter simply wants to receive CVs by email, the free version of Simple Job Board is a perfectly adequate solution.
Who is WP ATS Jobs Manager for?
WP ATS Jobs Manager was built for organisations that hire regularly and want to manage the entire recruitment process from WordPress, without an external SaaS subscription.
It is particularly well-suited for:
- Recruitment agencies managing multiple open positions simultaneously and needing a candidate tracking pipeline
- SMEs and startups wanting to centralise their hiring on their own website without paying €100 to €200 per month for tools like Workable or Recruitee
- WordPress agencies deploying job board solutions for their clients and needing a clean, maintainable plugin with structured code
- Staffing agencies, headhunting firms, in-house HR teams…
Simple Job Board or WP ATS Jobs Manager: how to choose?
Choose Simple Job Board if your need is a simple careers page, you post fewer than five listings per year, and application tracking is not a priority. The free version will be enough.
Choose WP ATS Jobs Manager if you need a genuine recruitment pipeline built into WordPress, want to avoid SaaS subscriptions, and are looking for a solution developed in France with French-language support. At a one-time price of €79, it pays for itself within the first month if you are replacing an online HR tool.
In summary
Simple Job Board is an excellent free plugin for basic needs. It remains the reference on WordPress.org for simple use cases. But as soon as you need to manage applications seriously, tracking statuses, sending automated emails, running a recruiter pipeline, the add-ons accumulate and the total cost exceeds that of a solution built from the start as an ATS.
👉 Discover WP ATS Jobs Manager
FAQ: WP ATS Jobs Manager vs Simple Job Board
The core plugin is free and available on WordPress.org. However, to get essential features such as AJAX filters, a front-end recruiter dashboard, application statuses, or CSV export, you need to purchase add-ons separately. Budget between €50 and €100 in add-ons for complete professional use.
