Job board software splits into two jobs that get sold as one. Applicant tracking systems — Workable, Greenhouse, Ashby — manage your own hiring pipeline. Job board platforms — Niceboard, JBoard, SmartJobBoard — run a board where other people post. Confuse the two and you buy an ATS to run a marketplace, or a board to run your hiring. WordPress plugins like WP Job Manager are the cheap route if you already run WordPress. Marketplace builders work when listings are the product. And if what you need is a board with your moderation rules — who can post, what gets checked before it goes live, how expired listings retire — describing that to Greta builds it. Decide which of the two jobs you have first.
The most common mistake in this category costs a year: buying a tool built for the other job.
Two products, one search term
Running your own hiring means an ATS: candidate pipeline, interview scheduling, scorecards, offer management. Running a board for others means listings, employer accounts, payments, moderation and search. They share the word "job" and almost nothing else. If you are here because you want to post your own roles, everything below in the board column is the wrong shelf.
At a glance
| Tool | Which job | Pricing shape | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | ATS, structured hiring | Quoted | Not a public board |
| Workable | ATS with sourcing | Tiered per job/user | Not a public board |
| Ashby | ATS with analytics | Quoted | Not a public board |
| Niceboard | Hosted job board | Monthly tiers | Fixed moderation model |
| SmartJobBoard | Hosted job board | Monthly tiers | Template-bound |
| WP Job Manager | Board on WordPress | Plugin + add-ons | You maintain WordPress |
| Greta | Board with your rules | Free tier; $20/mo ($5 welcome) | You define everything |
Pricing checked September 2026; the ATS vendors quote rather than publish, so treat those as shapes and verify live.
The honest split
For hiring: Greenhouse for structured interviewing at scale, Ashby when you want the analytics to be native rather than bolted on, Workable when sourcing matters as much as tracking. All three are good; the differences are process philosophy, not capability.
For boards: Niceboard and SmartJobBoard are the fastest path to a working, hosted board with employer billing already solved. WP Job Manager is the cheapest if WordPress is already running and someone maintains it. All three constrain the same thing — moderation. You get the approval model the vendor designed.
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When moderation is the whole problem
Niche boards live or die on listing quality, and quality is a moderation workflow. Which employers can post without review, what triggers a manual check (a first-time poster, a salary field left blank, a keyword on the list), how long a listing runs before it retires, what happens to a listing whose employer account lapses. Hosted platforms give you approve/reject and a spam filter; if your rules are more specific than that, you are fighting the tool every week.
Describing your actual rules to Greta builds a board that runs them, with employer accounts and a review queue. The moderation workflow spec is the worksheet for writing the rules down before you build. Free tier is 30 credits a month (5 a day); $20/month after, flat regardless of how many employers post.
The anti-fit is real and worth stating: payment processing, SEO-shaped listing pages, aggregator feeds and email alerts are what mature board platforms have already solved. If your board is generic enough that a hosted product fits, use one — the moderation constraint only matters when your rules are the differentiator.
FAQ
What is the best job board software? For your own hiring, an ATS: Greenhouse, Ashby or Workable. For a board others post to, Niceboard or SmartJobBoard hosted, WP Job Manager on WordPress, or a custom build when moderation rules are specific.
Can I run a job board on WordPress? Yes — WP Job Manager plus add-ons is a well-trodden path. The cost is maintenance: plugin updates, security and the add-on bill, which adds up past the plugin's headline price.
How do niche job boards make money? Employer listing fees, featured placements, subscriptions and candidate-side products. Whichever model you choose, it constrains the moderation workflow, so decide it before you pick a platform.
Do I need an ATS and a job board? Only if you are doing both jobs. Most teams are doing one. Naming which one before you shop prevents the expensive mismatch that defines this category.
