What Dover does

Dover (operated by Staya, Inc., founded 2019 in San Francisco) is a recruiting platform targeting early- and growth-stage startups. Its core offering is a 100% free applicant tracking system (ATS) with unlimited users and unlimited jobs, no credit card required, positioned as the top-of-funnel acquisition engine. The Free ATS includes AI-generated careers pages and job descriptions, AI resume scoring, native Gmail/Outlook/Slack integrations, employee referral tracking, an agency portal, and one-click distribution to 100+ job boards (LinkedIn, Indeed, X, ZipRecruiter, and others). A $199/month Premium ATS tier layers on AI Applicant Scoring, AI Note Taking, free unlimited LinkedIn/X job posts, and premium support.

Built on top of the ATS is the Dover Recruiting Marketplace — a curated network of 60+ vetted fractional recruiters offering hourly, retainer, or success-fee engagements with publicly visible cost-per-hire rates (typically $2K-$8K, vs. 20-30% traditional agency fees). Higher-touch managed services include Sourcing Autopilot and Embedded Recruiter, which together have helped 500+ companies hire 2,000+ candidates. A free Chrome Sourcing Extension adds AI-personalized outreach from LinkedIn, and a branded Dover Interviewer product provides AI-powered phone-screen notetaking.

Dover's business model combines freemium ATS (zero direct revenue), $199/month Premium subscription, marketplace transactions (success fees, hourly/retainer fees), a 30% off-platform Hire Fee on customers who hire marketplace recruiters outside Dover within a 12-month Restricted Period, and contractual liquidated damages up to $50K to deter circumvention. The company has raised $22.8M total across a $2.8M seed (August 2019, led by Founders Fund with Y Combinator and others) and a $20M Series A (July 2021, led by Tiger Global Management with Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and Abstract). As of 2026, Dover reports 600+ active customers and 1,200+ lifetime customers, supported by an SEO/content-led go-to-market motion anchored on the #1 Google ranking for 'Free ATS' and extensive comparison pages against named competitors.

Name

Dover

Legal name

Staya, Inc.

Website

https://dover.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Dover (Staya, Inc.) provides a free ATS and curated marketplace of 60+ fractional recruiters for early- and growth-stage startups, monetizing via a $199/month Premium tier, marketplace commissions, and managed Sourcing Autopilot and Embedded Recruiter services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Recruiting Software / Talent Acquisition Platform

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies (561311)

akta.pro primary industry

Talent Acquisition (Recruiting) & Applicant Tracking (ATS) (BPACAPAD)

Keywords

• Applicant tracking system
• Fractional recruiting marketplace
• AI resume scoring
• Candidate sourcing platform
• Startup recruiting software

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Premium ATS subscription: Recurring SaaS subscription at $199/month for the Premium ATS tier, including unlimited free LinkedIn/X job posts, AI Applicant Scoring, AI Note Taking, and premium support. Billed monthly.
2. Marketplace Hire Fee (off-platform conversion): 30% of the Service Provider's annualized compensation charged when a customer hires a marketplace recruiter outside the Dover platform within the 12-month Restricted Period. Non-refundable once invoiced.
3. Success Fees for recruiter placements: Fixed or contingency (% of Referred Candidate's first-year base salary) success fees on hires made via the marketplace. Triggered on offer acceptance, invoiced, and due within 30 days. 3% convenience fee on credit card payments.
4. Hourly and Retainer engagement fees: Hourly billing (charged based on hours reported through the marketplace) and recurring retainer fees billed in advance. Non-refundable once billed, including for early termination.
5. Liquidated damages / Unauthorized Billing: For off-platform engagements that bypass Dover, liquidated damages equal to the greater of the applicable Hire Fee or $50,000, due within 7 days. Functions as an anti-circumvention revenue protection mechanism.
6. Refundable marketplace deposits: Customer deposit (referenced as $800) required to access the marketplace; debited against future fees, refunded on termination net of amounts owed; forfeited after 12 consecutive months of inactivity.
7. Free ATS (freemium lead generation): 100% free ATS used as a funnel to convert free users into Premium subscribers, marketplace recruiter customers, and embedded recruiting engagements. No direct revenue from the free tier itself.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Dover (Staya, Inc.) provides a 100% free, AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for startups, bundled with an integrated marketplace of 60+ vetted fractional recruiters available on hourly, retainer, or success-fee terms. Customers can sign up for free, build an AI-generated careers page, post jobs to 100+ boards, score applicants with AI, and engage fractional or embedded recruiters to run full-cycle hiring at a transparent $2K-$8K per hire.

Product overview

Dover (operated by Staya, Inc.) offers a single unified recruiting platform anchored by its Free ATS for startups, with paid and marketplace layers built on top. The core product, the Free ATS, gives unlimited users and unlimited jobs at no cost, with AI-generated careers pages, AI resume scoring, 100+ job board distribution, Gmail/Outlook email sync, and Slack-based candidate review. The Premium ATS ($199/month) layers on AI Applicant Scoring, AI Note Taking, and free LinkedIn/X job posts. The Dover Recruiting Marketplace adds a vetted network of 60+ fractional startup recruiters available on hourly, retainer, or success-fee engagements, complemented by managed services (Sourcing Autopilot and Embedded Recruiter) and the Sourcing Extension Chrome extension for AI-personalized LinkedIn outreach. Modules such as Employee Referrals and Agency Portal, plus the AI Interviewer notetaker, round out the platform. Together these pieces function as a startup recruiting OS where the free ATS acts as the entry point and the marketplace and managed services activate as hiring needs scale.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Dover Recruiting Partners: A branded service line offering fractional recruiters and recruiting partner engagements through the Dover Marketplace.
• Dover Interviewer
• Dover Autopilot

Products and services

• Dover Free ATS 100% free, all-in-one applicant tracking system for startups with unlimited users and unlimited jobs. Includes AI-generated careers page and job descriptions, AI resume scoring, 100+ job board integrations, Gmail and Outlook integrations, candidate tracking, and Slack-based candidate review. Targeted at founding teams and small businesses.
• Dover Premium ATS Paid ATS subscription tier at $199/month built on top of the Free ATS. Adds unlimited free LinkedIn and X job posts, AI Applicant Scoring, AI Note Taking, onboarding support, and premium support for growing businesses.
• Dover Recruiting Marketplace (Fractional Recruiters) A vetted marketplace of 60+ fractional startup recruiters covering Design, Engineering, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Product, Sales, and Executive Search across B2B, B2C, Healthcare, Fintech, Hardware, Security, AI, and Web3 industries. Recruiters set their own rates, and engagements can be hourly, retainer, or success-fee based with a refundable deposit required.
• Dover Sourcing Extension (Chrome extension) Free Chrome browser extension that finds candidate emails and enables AI-personalized outreach directly from LinkedIn and other sites in two clicks, distributed via the Chrome Web Store.
• Dover Sourcing Autopilot High-touch managed sourcing offering activatable with one click from the free ATS to scale up candidate sourcing during hiring bursts. One of Dover's flagship products, used by 500+ companies to hire more than 2,000 candidates.
• Dover Embedded Recruiter High-touch embedded recruiting offering activated with one click from the free ATS, combining sourcing, screening, scheduling, and full-cycle recruiting. Acts as a fractional Recruiting Partner without requiring a full-time Head of Talent hire.
• Dover Interviewer AI-powered interviewer and notetaker product that automatically generates structured interview notes from phone screens and integrates with ATS scorecards. Customers cite it as saving significant time on initial candidate screens.

Named customers39 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• SlackcoreTechnology or IntegrationSlack is integrated as a native notification and review channel inside Dover's ATS. Hiring managers and founders receive candidate updates and can approve or reject candidates directly from Slack, which Dover highlights as a key ease-of-use differentiator in customer testimonials (e.g., Pixlee, Steady Health, Salsa).
• GmailcoreTechnology or IntegrationNative Gmail integration included in both Free and Premium ATS tiers, enabling email-driven recruiting workflows.
• Outlook (Microsoft 365)coreTechnology or IntegrationNative Outlook integration included in both Free and Premium ATS tiers for email-driven recruiting workflows.
• LinkedIncoreTechnology or IntegrationLinkedIn job posting is included (free unlimited posts) on the Premium ATS tier; Dover also runs a free Chrome Sourcing Extension that surfaces candidate contact data and one-click outreach from LinkedIn profiles.
• 100+ job boards (job board network)coreTechnology or IntegrationFree ATS posts jobs to 100+ job boards with a single click; the Sourcing page references 70+ popular job boards plus a longer-tail network, providing broad distribution for startup job ads.
• TechCrunchminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFeatured media partner: TechCrunch covered Dover's $20M Series A raise in July 2021 ('dover-raises-20m-to-bring-the-concept-of-orchestration-to-recruitment') and is prominently linked from Dover's ATS page as social proof.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Greenhouse: Greenhouse is a leading applicant tracking system for growing and enterprise companies. Dover explicitly publishes comparison pages vs Greenhouse, indicating direct competitive overlap in the ATS market, though Dover targets earlier-stage customers and Greenhouse focuses on mid-market and enterprise.
• Lever: Lever is a talent acquisition suite combining ATS, CRM, and analytics. Dover runs dedicated Dover vs Lever comparison pages, signaling direct ATS competition; Lever serves a similar mid-market segment but lacks Dover's fractional recruiter marketplace.
• Ashby: Ashby is an all-in-one talent platform with ATS, sourcing, scheduling, and analytics built for high-growth startups. Ashby is one of Dover's most direct startup-focused competitors, with comparable target customer and overlapping feature set; Dover differentiates via its fractional recruiter marketplace.
• Paraform: Paraform operates a marketplace connecting companies with vetted freelance recruiters who are paid only on successful hires. This is the closest direct peer to Dover's Recruiting Marketplace in terms of business model and target customer.
• Workable: Workable is a global ATS and recruitment platform targeting SMBs and growing businesses. Dover runs comparison pages vs Workable; both offer ATS functionality but Workable emphasizes traditional paid subscriptions while Dover leads with a free tier plus marketplace.
• JazzHR: JazzHR is an ATS and recruiting software built for SMBs and small business hiring teams. Dover runs comparison pages vs JazzHR; both target SMB hiring with lower-cost ATS offerings, though JazzHR is a paid-only product while Dover offers a free tier.

Broad incumbents

• SmartRecruiters: SmartRecruiters is an enterprise talent acquisition suite with ATS, CRM, and onboarding. Dover runs comparison pages vs SmartRecruiters; it is a broader incumbent that overlaps in ATS functionality but targets larger enterprises rather than early-stage startups.
• Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI is a deep-learning talent intelligence platform with talent acquisition, management, and diversity capabilities. Dover runs comparison pages vs Eightfold; Eightfold is a broad AI incumbent in HR tech, overlapping in AI-driven applicant matching but at much larger enterprise scale.

Emerging players

• Gem: Gem is a talent sourcing and outbound platform with CRM, sequencing, and analytics for recruiting teams. It overlaps with Dover's sourcing capabilities (Chrome extension, outreach, CRM) but does not offer an ATS or fractional recruiter marketplace.

Others

• ZipRecruiter: ZipRecruiter is a job marketplace and hiring platform that connects employers with candidates. Dover has a partnership with ZipRecruiter for job posting distribution; they are thematically related but ZipRecruiter is more of a distribution partner than a direct ATS competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DoverHq
• Facebookfacebook.com/doverhq
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/doverhq

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dover