Firefish

Firefish is a recruitment CRM for agencies placing permanent, contract and temporary staff. It suits firms that want candidate search, business development and delivery workflows together rather than separate point tools. The strongest case is its coverage of mixed recruitment operations; the trade-off is that agencies must obtain a tailored quote before they can assess total cost.

Overview

Firefish brings agency recruitment activity into a cloud product from a Glasgow-based company founded in 2010. Its scope runs from sourcing and matching through client development, communications, contracts and temporary shift work. That makes it a natural candidate for agencies with several service lines, while a team needing only a lightweight applicant tracker may find the wider CRM approach unnecessary.

Key features

Search supports Boolean, postcode, skill, certification, profile and keyword queries. Saved searches and talent pools help recruiters preserve reusable shortlists, and AI candidate matching adds another way to surface people for a brief. CV skills extraction and AI-generated candidate profiles can reduce manual record preparation, particularly for agencies processing varied CV formats.

Automation extends into content generation, personalised email drafts and automated email sequences. These tools can take repetitive writing and follow-up off a consultant's workload, but agencies should set governance around generated messages before relying on sequences at scale.

Permanent recruitment is complemented by contract features for generating contracts, electronic signing, contract-out management, and configuring rates and time clocks. Temporary recruitment adds shift scheduling. The combination is useful for agencies moving candidates through different engagement types; it is less compelling if an organisation never handles contract or temporary placements.

For winning clients, Firefish provides lead pipelines, email engagement tracking, online terms signing, terms management and lead reporting. Communication tools include two-way SMS, WhatsApp chat logging, in-platform VOIP calling, task management and meeting scheduling. Connections to candidate-attraction, communication, sourcing, back-office and reporting products include email services, job boards, calendars, websites, portals and back-office systems.

A sourcing extension can add candidate and contact profiles from websites, and an API is documented for integrations. Security measures include Microsoft Azure hosting, Cyber Essentials accreditation, annual external security scanning and penetration audits, plus multi-factor authentication. Live data, backups and replicas are held in European Azure data centres; traffic uses HTTPS/TLS and stored data uses Azure AES-GCM 256-bit encryption. Support includes training and learning resources, with an in-house migration team that has moved agencies from more than 50 recruitment CRMs.

Pricing

Firefish uses paid, custom pricing. Agency size, workflows, chosen modules and onboarding requirements affect the quote, and the pricing process directs buyers to book a demo. Add-on modules start from £150 per module, so agencies should identify optional capabilities before comparing proposals.

Core

Core includes permanent workflow, Search & Match, AI & Automation and reporting. It is the logical entry point for agencies focused on permanent placements that still want matching and automated work, but its price is not published.

Scale

Scale adds contract workflow and cross-workflow analytics to everything in Core. Choose it when contract placements and performance across workflows matter; permanent-only teams may not benefit enough to justify the additional scope. Price is custom.

Enterprise

Enterprise includes everything in Scale, plus temporary workflow, advanced automations and account management. It targets larger or more operationally complex agencies running all three recruitment types. Price is custom, and the demo is required for an accurate quote.

Platforms

Firefish is offered through the web, an API and a browser extension. It also provides a career site, resume parsing, interview scheduling, job-board distribution and workflow automation, giving agencies channels for both candidate attraction and internal processing.

Who it's for

Firefish is best for recruitment agencies combining permanent, contract and temporary work, especially those that need CRM-based business development alongside delivery. Its search depth, communication channels and workflow-specific tools suit teams with established processes and enough volume to benefit from automation. Smaller firms should weigh the custom quote and module costs against their narrower requirements.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Permanent, contract and temporary workflows sit in one system, reducing the need to join separate operational tools.
• Pro: Boolean and specialist search, saved pools and AI matching support complex sourcing briefs.
• Pro: SMS, WhatsApp logging, VOIP, scheduling and email automation cover day-to-day consultant communication.
• Pro: European Azure data storage, encryption, multi-factor authentication and recurring security audits provide defined security controls.
• Con: No base subscription price is published; agency size, modules and onboarding change the quote.
• Con: Add-ons start from £150 per module, which can increase the cost of a configuration built around several specialist needs.

Alternatives

Consider Findem if a free plan, free trial and API/web access are priorities; its Findem Studio plan is free, with credits and subscription terms applying. Choose Avature or iCIMS when Android and iOS access alongside API and web platforms is important. Beamery suits buyers comfortable with enterprise pricing tied to contacts, email sends, users, products and extra features. Pick CleverConnect Candidate Relationship Management for an extension-and-web product with a personalised demo. Eightfold Candidate Relationship Management is worth considering when it can be obtained as part of Eightfold Talent Acquisition without an additional technology purchase. Jobylon is an option for teams wanting a tailored quote based on team size and modules. Loxo is the clearer choice when a freemium product, free trial and a published Core price of $149 a month billed annually per user are decisive. Agencies comparing categories can also review Candidate Relationship Management Software, Recruitment Agency Software, Recruiting CRM Software and Applicant Tracking Systems.

Verdict

Choose Firefish when your agency needs one CRM for broad sourcing, client development and permanent, contract and temporary workflows, with communications and automation built in. Look elsewhere if a transparent published subscription, a free tier or a narrowly focused applicant-tracking system matters more than this breadth.