AI-native applicant tracking system for startups, with an MCP server for AI clients
Primary sources checkedCurriculo
Curriculo is an applicant tracking system for startups that scores candidates on what they have built rather than on keywords, and exposes the whole ATS to Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients through twenty-five tools behind read and write scopes — while the product itself is still in beta.
The short answer
- Best for
- A founder-led team that already works inside Claude or Cursor and wants the ATS to be a tool their assistant can query and act in, not another tab
- Not ideal for
- Teams that need a settled system of record: the product is in beta and its own pages disagree about what the free tier allows
- Price
- Starter free; Pro USD 100/month, currently USD 50 early-bird; Enterprise custom. No per-seat fees
- Closest alternative
- AshbyA better fit when a startup needs an established ATS with a proven track record at the same 5-200 stage, rather than a beta product with an MCP surface.
At a glance
- Recruitment fitStrong
- Ease of useUnknown
- ImplementationStrong
- Price transparencyFair
- Value for moneyUnknown
- ScalabilityFair
Why these assessments
- Recruitment fitStrong
- Everything is drawn around filling a role: résumé screening, fit scoring with written reasoning, a candidate inbox sorted by that score, pipelines, scheduling and a careers portal. The MCP tools act on ATS objects, not on generic records.
- Ease of useUnknown
- The vendor claims a fifteen-minute setup and a Gmail-style inbox, which is a low-friction shape on paper. SourcrLab has not run a hiring round through it, and no independent review base exists, so the claim stands unverified.
- ImplementationStrong
- A free tier with no card, no per-seat fee, and published migration guidance from Greenhouse, Lever and Workable mean a team can stand the product up and move data without a procurement cycle. The MCP connector is added from inside the AI client rather than through an integration project.
- Price transparencyFair
- The ladder itself is unambiguous and unusually simple: free, USD 100 a month, custom, with no per-seat charge anywhere. What is not consistent is what the free tier allows — the vendor's own pages state both a five-active-job limit and unlimited listings — so the cheapest plan is the one a buyer can model least well.
- Value for moneyUnknown
- One hundred dollars a month with unlimited team members is priced well below the per-seat norm for this segment, but value needs a measured capability and there is none: no hands-on use, no independent reviews, and a scoring model with no published validity evidence.
- ScalabilityFair
- No per-seat fee means adding recruiters costs nothing, which is genuinely scale-friendly for a growing team. The ceiling is the candidate volume attached to each plan and an Enterprise tier that is not priced publicly, and the product's stated ICP stops at around two hundred employees.
Our reading of the evidence on this page. No score, no formula.
Where it sits
- Apply
- Screen
- ATS
- Interview
- Decision
The SourcrLab bottom line
Curriculo is an applicant tracking system aimed at startups hiring their first ten to two hundred people. Its editorial pitch is outcome-based screening: rather than matching keywords, the AI is said to read what a candidate actually built and to write a reasoning paragraph behind every 0-100 fit score, feeding a candidate inbox sorted by that score. The part that is architecturally unusual is the MCP server at mcp.curriculo.me — a hosted remote endpoint with twenty-five tools, OAuth 2.1 and personal access tokens, and separate ats:read and ats:write scopes, so Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients can both read and act on ATS data. Pricing is flat and simple: Starter free, Pro at one hundred dollars a month with a fifty-dollar early-bird rate, Enterprise custom, and no per-seat fee on any plan. Two things keep this off a shortlist for a team that needs certainty: the product is in beta, and the vendor's own pages disagree about the free tier's active-job limit.
Best fit
A founder hiring their first ten to two hundred people who already lives inside an AI client. The MCP server turns the ATS into something Claude or Cursor can query and act in — count the open roles, list applicants, move a candidate — with read-only tools separated from write tools, and that is a different proposition from an ATS with AI features inside it.
Think twice if
If you need a settled system of record today. The product is in beta, its own pages contradict each other on the free tier's active-job limit, and the SOC 2 Type II belongs to the hosting infrastructure rather than to Curriculo, which describes its own practices as SOC 2-aligned. None of that is disqualifying for a ten-person startup; all of it matters if you are the one signing.
SourcrLab assessment
Everything on this page comes from the vendor's own pages, checked on the dates below. SourcrLab has not used this product in real recruitment work, so you will not find a first-hand opinion here.
Why choose Curriculo?
The ATS is a tool surface for AI clients
A hosted remote MCP server at mcp.curriculo.me exposes twenty-five tools with OAuth 2.1 or a personal access token and separate ats:read and ats:write scopes, working with Claude, Cursor and other MCP-compatible clients. That inverts the usual arrangement: instead of AI inside the ATS, the ATS becomes something an external agent can query and act in.
Read and write are separated, not blended
The scopes split cleanly: read-only tools count jobs and list applicants, while write tools move candidates and send email. The vendor's own guidance is to leave read on always-allow and write on ask-first. For a system holding candidate data and able to contact people, that separation is the difference between a useful connection and an unbounded one.
Flat pricing with no per-seat fee
Starter is free, Pro is one hundred dollars a month with a fifty-dollar early-bird rate, and no plan charges per seat, so a hiring manager, a founder and an advisor can all be in the system without changing the invoice. In a segment where per-seat pricing is the norm, that removes the usual reason to keep people out of the ATS.
Scores come with written reasoning
Every 0-100 fit score is accompanied by a reasoning paragraph rather than a bare number, and the candidate inbox is sorted by it. Whatever one thinks of the underlying model, a score you can read the argument for is auditable in a way a percentage never is, and it gives a hiring manager something to disagree with.
Main trade-offs
The product is in beta
The vendor states the ATS is currently in beta. That is not a reason to dismiss it — a beta with published pricing and a working MCP server is further along than most — but it is the first thing to weigh when the system in question will hold every candidate record a company has. Ask what beta means here for support, SLAs and data guarantees.
The free tier's limits are contested
The vendor's own pages state both a five-active-job limit and unlimited job listings on the Starter plan, and a further reading on 29 August 2026 found the same disagreement on the candidate side: the dedicated pricing page showed the top 50 candidates per job ranked, while other current first-party content describes a thousand ranked candidates. This page carries no figure on either axis. What is consistently supported is that Starter is free, needs no card and includes unlimited team members. Confirm the active-job and ranked-candidate limits in writing before planning around them.
The SOC 2 belongs to the host, not to Curriculo
Data is hosted on infrastructure that carries SOC 2 Type II certification, while Curriculo describes its own practices as SOC 2-aligned: encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, audit logging and regular reviews. Those are two different statements and only one of them is an audit. Do not read a certified host as a certified vendor.
Outcome scoring is a shortlisting aid, not a validated instrument
Reading what a candidate built and turning that into a 0-100 fit score is an appealing idea, and there is no published validity, reliability or adverse-impact evidence behind it. Nothing states how the model is calibrated or whether a hiring manager can inspect or override it. Treat the ranking as a way to order a pile, never as a selection decision.
Pricing and buying reality
Starter free; Pro USD 100/month, currently USD 50 early-bird; Enterprise custom; no per-seat fees
- Starter: free, no credit card, unlimited team members; the ranked-candidate limit is contested and no figure is carried here
- Pro: USD 100 per month, currently offered at USD 50 per month as a limited-time early-bird rate
- Enterprise: custom pricing
- No plan charges a per-seat fee; team members are unlimited on every tier
- The free Starter plan's limits are stated inconsistently across the vendor's own pages — five active jobs versus unlimited listings, and, on a 29 August 2026 reading, the top 50 candidates per job versus a thousand ranked candidates — so no figure is carried here on either axis
What we do not know
- How many active jobs the free Starter plan actually allows, given the vendor's own pages disagree
- What beta status means for support, service levels and data guarantees
- Candidate volume attached to Pro, and where Enterprise pricing begins
- Data residency and hosting region
Checked on the vendor's pricing page, August 2026. Curriculo FAQ (Starter, Pro, early-bird rate, Enterprise, absence of per-seat fees)
How it fits your stack
Works with
- Claude, Cursor and other MCP-compatible clients, through a hosted remote MCP server with twenty-five tools
- Google Workspace including SSO, Gmail through scoped OAuth, Google Calendar for scheduling and Slack
- An API for custom integrations on the Enterprise plan
Likely replaces
- A spreadsheet-and-inbox hiring process, or a legacy per-seat ATS at a startup that outgrew it
May overlap with
- Startup-segment applicant tracking systems such as Ashby, Lever, Greenhouse and Workable
Check before buying
- The active-job limit on the free plan, in writing, because the public pages contradict each other
- What beta status means for your support and data guarantees
- Which MCP write tools your team will enable, and who approves them
Curriculo vs alternatives
Products a buyer would genuinely put next to this one, with the reason you would pick each instead.
A better fit when a startup at the same stage needs an established ATS with a proven track record rather than a beta product.
A better fit when employer branding and the careers site matter more than AI screening and an agent-facing API.
Used Curriculo?
Tell other recruiters what worked, what did not, and who it suits. Positive, mixed or critical — all useful.
Evidence
- A hosted remote MCP server is available at https://mcp.curriculo.me/mcp with twenty-five tools, OAuth 2.1 and personal access token authentication, and separate ats:read and ats:write scopes, working with Claude, Cursor and other MCP-compatible clients — checked against a primary source: Curriculo MCP documentation (endpoint, 25 tools, OAuth 2.1 and PAT, ats:read and ats:write scopes, supported clients)
- Pricing is Starter free, Pro USD 100 per month with a USD 50 early-bird rate, and Enterprise custom, with no per-seat fees on any plan — checked against a primary source: Curriculo FAQ (Starter, Pro, early-bird rate, Enterprise, absence of per-seat fees)
- The free Starter plan's limits are stated inconsistently across the vendor's own pages: five active jobs versus unlimited job listings, and, on a 29 August 2026 reading, the top 50 candidates per job versus a thousand ranked candidates. No figure on either axis is treated as verified — not enough evidence
- The product is currently in beta — vendor claim, not independently verified: Curriculo homepage (positioning, beta status, outcome-based scoring)
- Data is hosted on infrastructure carrying SOC 2 Type II certification, while Curriculo describes its own practices as SOC 2-aligned, with AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, role-based access control and audit logging. The certification is the host's, not the vendor's — vendor claim, not independently verified: Curriculo security page (hosting certification, encryption, access control, audit logging)
- Candidate scoring is presented as reading what a candidate has built and producing a 0-100 fit score with a written reasoning paragraph. No validity, reliability or adverse-impact evidence is published for it — vendor claim, not independently verified: Curriculo homepage (positioning, beta status, outcome-based scoring)
- SourcrLab has not used this product in real recruitment work. — not enough evidence
Last reviewed: August 2026. How SourcrLab verifies information
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