Spectacled's Free Plan Caps Jobs and Candidates

Spectacled publishes a Starter plan at $0, free forever, with no card required. The same card caps that plan at one seat, five active jobs, 500 candidates, and 100 AI actions a month. Unlimited jobs, candidates, and AI actions start on Professional at $99 per seat per month billed annually, or $119 month to month. If a peer says Spectacled is "free ATS," they are describing Starter limits, not a boutique desk that already runs fifteen reqs. This review keeps the free forever claim next to the caps.

Primary page: Spectacled pricing, accessed November 2026. The page dates prices in US dollars before tax as of October 17, 2026.

What Starter actually includes

Starter includes the full web app, unlimited match scoring, and the same product surface the paid plans advertise for pipelines, client CRM, portals, and career pages. The Chrome extension is called out as an Agency add. Free forever is real. Unlimited records are not. Five active jobs and 500 candidates are hard ceilings for a desk that already carries a full book.

What Professional changes

Professional removes the job, candidate, and AI-action caps, keeps per-seat pricing, and lets you add seats anytime. Annual billing at $99 saves about two months versus $119 month to month, according to the FAQ on the same page. Agency at $199 annual or $239 monthly is Professional plus vendor-led migration, branding, training, and a named support contact. Portal users are never seats.

How desks misread free forever

The fastest error is treating Starter as a permanent home for a three-person firm. One seat is the first stop. Five active jobs is the second. A desk that keeps ten retained searches open will hit the job ceiling before the credit card conversation starts. Write both ceilings into the CRM note the day you trial.

Free forever without the five-job and 500-candidate caps is a truncated quote.

In our pricing-page walkthrough, the useful correction was separating "full web app on free" from "unlimited desk on free." Spectacled is explicit that Starter is generous on product surface and tight on seats and limits. Believe both halves.

Who this price read is not for

This review does not claim Spectacled beats Bullhorn or Recruit CRM on features. It does not invent a placement-fee comparison the page does not make. It fails if you need Agency migration services on day one and were budgeting Starter. It also fails if your currency or tax treatment differs; the page prices USD before tax.

Desk checklist

1. Copy Starter: $0, 1 seat, 5 active jobs, 500 candidates, 100 AI actions.
2. Copy Professional: $99 annual or $119 monthly, unlimited jobs and candidates.
3. Copy Agency: $199 annual or $239 monthly, setup included.
4. Count your active jobs and candidate records before you call free forever a fit.
5. Refuse any budget line that says "Spectacled = free" without the caps.

Keep a dated PDF of the pricing page. Limits can move. Your renewal argument should cite the page you opened, not a remembered slogan.

If match scoring is the feature you care about, note that Spectacled says match scoring is unlimited and not an AI action on any plan. Metered AI actions are assessments, pitches, and interview analysis. Separate those meters in your note so you do not confuse unlimited scoring with unlimited AI actions on Starter.

For a solo desk testing the product, Starter can be the honest first month. Write the exit trigger: sixth active job, or candidate 501, or AI action 101. Exit triggers turn free forever into a controlled experiment instead of a silent lockout during a busy placement week.

Renewal and upgrade language

When you brief a partner, say Starter is free with five active jobs and five hundred candidates, and that Professional starts at ninety-nine dollars per seat billed annually once those caps bind. Do not say Spectacled is free and then surprise finance with a five-seat Professional invoice. Agency at one hundred ninety-nine dollars annual is a services purchase as much as a software purchase. Migration from Bullhorn, Loxo, or CSV is listed on Agency, not on Starter.

If your desk already stores more than five hundred candidates in a spreadsheet you plan to import, Starter is a tour, not a home. Import math belongs in the first call with the vendor. Spectacled's FAQ states there are no per-candidate or placement fees on paid plans, which matters for boutiques burned by metered enrichment elsewhere. Still copy the Starter caps; unpaid plans can meter by limit instead of by fee.

Keep screenshots of the limits table and the team-size price grid. The grid showing three, five, and ten recruiters on Professional is useful when a founder asks what five desks cost. Multiply seat price by headcount yourself and show annual versus monthly. Two months free on annual billing is the published savings claim; use it as arithmetic, not as a discount negotiation fantasy.