Avionte vs Bullhorn Pricing and AI Screening

Short answer: Bullhorn is the only one of the two with a price you can read before a sales call, $99 per user a month on Starter and $165 on Core. Avionte publishes no price at all and sells AviontéBOLD as one system that runs from the job order through W-2 payroll and client invoices. Both now rank candidates with AI, but neither prints what that costs on its own: Avionte names no price for its AI Matching Agent, and Bullhorn puts agentic screening on its quote-only Max plan.

Both products are systems of record for a US staffing agency, which is why they end up on the same shortlist, usually for a light industrial, clerical or multi-branch agency deciding whether to run payroll in the same database as recruiting. The figures and feature claims below were read from avionte.com and bullhorn.com/pricing, checked October 8, 2026. Where a number comes from a third-party listing, the text says so and does not present it as the vendor's price.

Avionte vs Bullhorn at a glance

Avionte vs Bullhorn pricing

Bullhorn prints two plans. Starter is $99 per user a month and Core is $165, with Pro and Max quoted. Bullhorn's pricing page says implementation is free on Starter, Core and Pro. Its larger editions for bigger agencies, Front Office Growth and Enterprise and the all-in-one Bullhorn One, are quote-only, and so are add-ons such as Search and Match and Recruitment Automation. Our Bullhorn pricing breakdown goes through each plan.

Avionte does not say. Checked October 8, 2026, avionte.com has no pricing page and lists no editions, no per-user rate and no trial. Software Advice shows pricing available upon request and Vendr's marketplace has no contract data. One comparison site, ITQlick, prints Avionte at a starting price of $750 a month on its pricing page and at $75 per user a month in a comparison table on the same site, a tenfold gap with no source on either side. Those are estimates, not Avionte figures. Our Avionte pricing page grades every number in circulation and lists what to ask sales.

Is Avionte cheaper than Bullhorn?

On the seat alone nobody outside a sales call can say, because only one of the two prints a rate. The honest comparison is scope. A Bullhorn Starter or Core seat is front office only. An Avionte quote usually carries payroll, billing and onboarding as well, so a 10-recruiter agency comparing $11,880 a year for Bullhorn Starter against an Avionte proposal is comparing an ATS with an ATS plus a payroll system.

To make the numbers meet, price the same job on both sides. Ask Bullhorn for Bullhorn One or for Starter or Core plus the back office product or partner you would use, and ask Avionte for the front office alone and then with payroll. If you run W-2 payroll today through a separate provider, add that provider's yearly cost to the Bullhorn column before you decide which is cheaper.

Avionte vs Bullhorn for payroll and back office

This is where the two products really differ. Avionte's platform page describes front-office sales, recruiting and workforce management in the same database as payroll and billing, with time approved once and flowing into paychecks and client invoices. It says it is built for high-volume staffing, and Software Advice's listing says Avionte processes over $15 billion in payroll. For a light industrial agency running thousands of checks a week, removing the hand-off between the ATS and payroll is the main reason to buy it.

Bullhorn's entry plans stop at the front office. Agencies on Starter or Core run payroll elsewhere, either through Bullhorn's own back office products or a partner, and connect the two. That costs more integration work but leaves the agency free to keep a payroll provider it already trusts. Whichever you choose, payroll still lands in a bank account that has to tie out to the general ledger, and neither platform claims to do that part, so plan for matching the payroll bank account to your books each month as its own task.

Does Avionte or Bullhorn use AI to screen candidates?

Both do, inside their own platforms, and neither prints the price. Avionte's AI page describes an AI Matching Agent that ranks your strongest candidates as soon as a recruiter opens a job, shows a match reason for each, and lets the recruiter change the weight on skills, location and pay before nominating candidates in bulk. It also lists an AI job description generator, talent rediscovery and an interview script and summary generator. Avionte says its AI is native to AviontéBOLD, so you get it by moving onto the platform.

Bullhorn sells its AI as Amplify, which starts on the quote-only Pro plan, and keeps agentic screening for Max, also quote-only. Neither Starter nor Core includes AI screening. Our article on Bullhorn AI resume screening covers what Amplify does and which plan you need.

Which should a staffing agency choose?

Pick Avionte if your agency places hourly W-2 workers at volume, runs payroll every week and is tired of reconciling the ATS against a separate payroll system. The case for it is one database from the job order to the paycheck, and it is worth paying for if the hand-off is costing you hours and errors today. Expect a long implementation, because you are moving payroll as well as recruiting.

Pick Bullhorn if you want a price you can read on day one, if most of your placements are direct hire or contract roles paid through a provider you already like, or if you rely on its marketplace and customization. Starter and Core get a small agency running for $99 or $165 a seat, with the caveat that AI screening and back office both cost more than the printed line.

What if the problem is the applicant pile?

Many agencies shortlist a new system of record because recruiters cannot keep up with inbound applications, and a migration is a slow and expensive way to fix that. Prescreener reads every resume and application as it arrives, applies your knockout rules such as work authorization, shift availability or a forklift certification, scores role-fit with the written evidence behind each score and ranks the pile. A recruiter makes every decision and nobody is rejected automatically.

It runs beside Avionte, Bullhorn or whatever you use today, so payroll and billing stay where they are. Plans are published at $199, $499 and $1,290 a month, or half that billed yearly, with no seat fee. Starter covers up to 1,000 applicants a month, which costs $1,188 a year on annual billing, less than one Bullhorn Core seat. See how it works for agencies on the staffing agency resume screening page, or compare more systems in our JobDiva vs Bullhorn breakdown.

Avionte vs Bullhorn frequently asked questions

Is Avionte cheaper than Bullhorn?

Not on any figure you can verify, because Avionte publishes no price. Bullhorn prints $99 per user a month for Starter and $165 for Core. An Avionte quote usually includes payroll and billing that those Bullhorn plans leave out, so compare the yearly totals for the same seats and the same back office scope, in writing.

Does Avionte have payroll built in?

Yes. Avionte's platform puts payroll and billing in the same system of record as recruiting, so approved time becomes paychecks and client invoices without re-entry. That is its main difference from Bullhorn Starter and Core, which cover the front office and leave payroll to a separate product or partner.

Does Bullhorn include AI screening?

Not on its printed plans. Bullhorn's Amplify AI starts on the Pro plan and agentic screening is on Max, and both plans are quote-only. Starter at $99 and Core at $165 per user a month do not include AI screening, so an agency that wants AI ranking from Bullhorn is buying a quoted tier.

Can I switch from Bullhorn to Avionte?

Yes, agencies do, but plan for a real project. Moving to Avionte means migrating candidate, client and placement records and usually cutting payroll over too, since its AI and reporting depend on one shared database. Ask Avionte what migration and implementation cost, how long the cutover takes, and which Bullhorn data maps cleanly.

Is there a cheaper way to rank applicants without switching?

Yes. A screening layer such as Prescreener ranks every inbound applicant beside the ATS you already run, at a published price of $199 a month or $99 a month billed yearly for up to 1,000 applicants. Your recruiters review the ranked shortlist, and your system of record, payroll and billing stay where they are.