Spott Pricing in 2026: What a Small UK Agency Actually Pays

What a small UK agency actually pays for Spott depends mostly on the billing cycle. Core is $139 per user a month if you commit to a year and $169 if you pay monthly, with the AI included either way. Spott is about $19 per user a month above Shortlists on annual billing. The real differences are the commitment, the scope of the product and what each one is built around.

Key takeaways

• Spott Core costs $139 per user a month on annual billing and $169 on monthly billing. Pro costs $199 annually and $249 monthly. (Source: Spott pricing page, checked 6 October 2026.)

• Spott's AI notetaker, AI matching and unified inbox are in Core. The only extra cost Spott lists is enrichment credits for contact data.

• A five-seat agency pays $8,340 a year on Core with annual billing, or $10,140 on monthly billing.

• If you are tied into a Spott year and want to move, Shortlists costs $40 per user a month until that term ends.

Spott is a well-funded, AI-native recruiting CRM that includes its AI costs in every plan

Spott deserves a fair hearing before any numbers. It is backed by Y Combinator and has raised $24.2 million, including a $21 million Series A led by Balderton Capital. It reports more than 5,000 daily active users across five continents, holds ISO 27001 certification, hosts data in the EU by default and states that customer data is never used to train AI models. (Source: Spott pricing page FAQ, checked 6 October 2026.)

Its pricing model is also clearer than most. Spott states that the AI spend behind matching, note-taking, outreach drafting and recommendations is included in every plan, rather than sold as a separate module. Early reviews are strong too, with a 5.0 out of 5 rating on Capterra from a small number of reviews. (Source: Capterra, checked 6 October 2026.) Our side-by-side comparison of Spott and Shortlists covers the products feature by feature. This article is about cost.

Spott's published plans: Core from $139 and Pro from $199 per user a month on annual billing

Spott publishes three plans. Two carry a list price, and the third is priced through a demo.

The gap between the two billing cycles is wide. Monthly billing on Core costs about 22% more than the annual-billing rate. Looked at the other way around, the annual Core rate is about 18% lower than the monthly rate, while Pro is about 20% lower, consistent with Spott's "save up to 20%" message.

One Core seat on the annual rate comes to $1,668 for the year. At $169 a month, the same seat reaches that total during the tenth month, so monthly billing costs less overall if you use the system for nine months or less. From ten months, the annual rate costs less. If you expect to stay longer, annual billing is the better deal. This assumes the annual rate is a commitment for the full year, which is worth confirming with Spott.

What a small UK agency actually pays for Spott a year at three, five and eight seats

Here are the licence totals for a year at three common small-agency sizes, with Shortlists alongside for reference. Both are before VAT.

Seats multiplied by the published per-user price, multiplied by 12. Licence cost only.

On annual billing, an eight-seat agency pays $1,824 more per year for Spott Core than for Shortlists. On monthly billing, a five-seat agency pays $2,940 more per year for Spott Core than for Shortlists. The question for most small agencies is therefore whether they are comfortable committing to a year with a new system, rather than which tool has the lower list price.

Costs that sit outside Spott's seat price: Enrichment credits, the billing commitment and migration time

Spott is unusually open about extras. Its pricing FAQ names enrichment credits, used to find candidate emails and phone numbers, as the only cost beyond the seat price, so budget for those if your team sources contact data regularly. Data enrichment itself is listed on the Pro plan.

The annual commitment is the second cost to plan for. On the annual rate, a five-seat agency is committing to $8,340 for the year, and that commitment is what makes the lower seat price possible. If the system turns out not to fit, the remaining months are still owed.

Migration is the third. Spott says a move typically takes about four weeks, sometimes faster when the previous system's data arrives complete, and that its own team handles extraction, validation and go-live. That is a thorough process, but four weeks of running two systems has a cost in time on a small desk.

Where Spott's breadth suits a small agency, and where it can be more than a 3-to-10 seat desk needs

Spott is built to serve agencies of every size, and its own site lists being enterprise-ready among its core strengths. That breadth is a genuine advantage for some small agencies. If your team runs multi-channel candidate campaigns every week, wants marketing automation inside the CRM, or plans to open a second office, Pro and Enterprise give you room to grow without changing system.

For a 3-to-10 seat desk doing permanent placements, much of that breadth can go unused. The question is less whether Spott is good, which it clearly is, and more whether you will pay for and learn features your desk does not need. A CRM built only for small agencies makes the opposite trade: Fewer plans and fewer settings, with features weighted towards the work a small team does every day.

How Spott and Shortlists compare on price and terms for a 3-to-10 seat UK agency

Sources are the Spott and Shortlists pricing pages, checked 30 September to 6 October 2026. "Not listed" means the item does not appear on Spott's pricing page; check with Spott.

The two tools overlap more than they differ on AI, so the deciding factors are elsewhere. Business development (BD) is the clearest one. BD Radar scans every day for funding rounds, senior hires and leavers and ranks the companies worth calling, so you can get to the hiring manager before the job is posted. Candidate search works in plain English, as set out on the candidate database page, and the full list of inclusions is on the Shortlists pricing page.

Who should choose Spott, and who will get more from a CRM built for 3-to-10 seats

Choose Spott if you want marketing automation and multi-channel sequences in the CRM, if you plan to grow well past ten seats or open a second office, or if your clients specifically ask for ISO 27001. Spott is also the better fit if you are comfortable committing to a year to get the lower rate.

Whichever way you lean, a few questions are worth putting to Spott before you sign. Ask for the price in pounds, since its page shows a pound option and the sterling figure is what will reach your accounts. Ask how enrichment credits are priced and how quickly a small team tends to use them. Finally, ask what happens at renewal and how you export your data if you leave. Clear answers to those make any comparison, including one with Shortlists, far easier to run.

Choose Shortlists if you run a 3-to-10 seat permanent desk where winning new clients is the constraint on growth, and you would rather stay month to month. There is more on why that matters in our guide to month-to-month recruitment CRMs, and you can browse other head-to-head comparisons if you are still shortlisting.

If you are already part-way through a Spott year, you do not have to wait for it to end. Shortlists costs $40 per user a month until your Spott term finishes, and data migration is free. We respect the craft, so the software takes the admin and your recruiters keep the judgement that wins placements.

Frequently asked questions

Price both tools on your own seat count and billing cycle before you decide

Work out your seat count for the next twelve months, decide whether you want to commit to a year, and trial both tools on your own candidate records. A practical test is to run one live role through each tool for a week, then compare how much admin each removed, how quickly your team found the right candidates in its own records, and whether either surfaced new clients worth calling. Shortlists is built for 3-to-10 seat UK agencies and used by 55+ of them.

• Try it free and see how your records sit in it before you commit to anything.

• Book a Demo and we will map the migration around your existing term.