Seasonal hiring software you pay for in the peak and keep for free the rest of the year
Seasonal hiring software has to fit a year that is two busy months and ten quiet ones. VoxScreen screens the peak with one-way video interviews: seasonal applicants record short answers from a single link, and the answers come back transcribed, scored and ranked. Plans are monthly with no annual contract, so a business can pay for a larger candidate allowance during the ramp and return to the permanent free plan afterwards without losing the account. A candidate is counted once, the first time their email is added, so last year's staff can be invited again at no cost.
Where screening breaks down
Seasonal hiring is a deadline, not a pipeline. The store opens for the holidays or the terrace opens for summer on a date that doesn't move, and everyone who needs the same kind of worker is hiring in the same three weeks. An applicant who waits four days for a call has usually taken another job by the time it comes.
The managers doing the hiring are the same people preparing for the season. They screen in whatever time is left, which is none, so seasonal teams get hired on availability and a quick impression at the door. Sometimes that works. It is also why the same businesses re-hire in week three.
Software makes this worse more often than better, because it is sold by the year. An annual contract sized for the peak is ten months of paying for nothing, and a trial that lasts a week or a month ends either before the season starts or in the middle of it.
How a round runs
- Build the interview before the season, when there is time to think. On the free plan it costs nothing to leave it sitting ready, and open roles are unlimited, so every seasonal posting can have its own.
- Open applications with the interview link in the posting. Applicants record that day, on a phone, without waiting for anyone to call them back, which is the whole advantage in a three-week race.
- Invite last season's good people directly. They are already in the account from last year, so they don't count against this month's allowance.
- Review in batches at the end of each day. The ranked list, transcripts and per-criterion scores make a hundred applicants a job for an evening, and a site manager can be added to review their own site's list for free.
- When the roster is full, move back down to the free plan. Paid plans can be cancelled at any time, and the free plan has no end date.
What it replaces
The four-day wait for a callback
In a seasonal market speed decides who you get to choose from. An applicant who can record an answer the evening they apply is in your process while a competitor is still trying to reach them by phone.
Hiring on availability alone
Availability tells you who can work, not who can handle a queue of impatient customers. Two questions about a difficult shift, answered by everyone, separate those quickly.
An annual contract bought for six weeks
Paying by the month, for the months with applicants in them, matches the cost of the tool to the shape of the year.
What it costs at your volume
Plans differ in one thing: how many new candidates you add in a month. A candidate counts once, the first time their email address is added, and never again. Everything else is the same on every plan.
| Situation | New candidates a month | Plan | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out of season: one role, 20 applicants | 20 | Free | $0/mo |
| The ramp: 15 seasonal roles, 30 applicants each | 450 | Starter | $39/mo |
| Peak across three sites, 500 applicants each | 1,500 | Premium | $149/mo |
The tools you're probably comparing
For a seasonal employer the rows that matter are about time: whether anything is free outside the season, how long a trial lasts if nothing is, what a paid month costs, and whether the plan limits how many roles can be open at once when all of them open in the same week.
| Tool | Free plan, not a trial | Free trial, if there is no free plan | Entry price | Active jobs included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VoxScreen Our product | Yes, 50 candidates a month | Not needed. The free plan has no end date | $39/mo | Unlimited, on every plan |
| Truffle | No | 7 days / 30 credits, no card | $49/mo | Not stated on their site |
| Hireflix | No | 1 month | $75/mo | Unlimited |
| Willo | No | Not stated on their site | $59 per live role/mo | 5 live roles on Lite |
| Hirevire | No | 7 days, no card | $49/mo | 1 on Essentials |
- Truffle. Sources: hiretruffle.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs Truffle
- Hireflix. Sources: hireflix.com/pricing , help.hireflix.com · VoxScreen vs Hireflix
- Willo. Sources: willo.video/pricing · VoxScreen vs Willo
- Hirevire. Sources: hirevire.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs Hirevire
When this is the wrong tool
- Your volume swings so much that unused allowance in quiet months is real money to you. VoxScreen's allowance resets each month and doesn't roll over. Truffle's credits do roll over on its larger plans. VoxScreen vs Truffle
- Your peak brings in more applicants than the Premium allowance in a single month. Hireflix sells unlimited responses at a flat price, which is the better shape for a short, very large surge. VoxScreen vs Hireflix
- Seasonal hires need identity, right-to-work or background checks in the same flow. VoxScreen has no such step. Willo sells them as add-ons. VoxScreen vs Willo
- You hire a handful of seasonal staff from people you already know. A message and a trial shift will tell you more than a recorded interview, and faster.
Interview questions for these roles
Each guide gives the questions in full, with what a strong answer sounds like and a scorecard to rate against. No sign-up.
Retail and logistics peaks
Summer and holiday hospitality
Common questions
Can we pay only for the months we are hiring?
Yes. Paid plans are monthly, can be cancelled at any time and carry no annual contract. Outside the season the free plan covers 50 candidates a month with no end date. It has unlimited open roles too, so nothing has to be archived to move down.
Do returning seasonal workers count against our allowance again?
No. A candidate counts the first time their email address is added to your account. Someone who worked last summer and is invited to this summer's interview is free, however many months have passed.
Is there a limit on how many seasonal roles we can have open at once?
No. Open roles are unlimited on every plan, which matters in a season when fifteen postings go live in the same week. Plans differ only in how many new candidates they take in a month.
How fast can we go from posting to a shortlist?
As fast as applicants record, because nothing is scheduled. An interview takes a few minutes to set up and applicants can answer the same day they apply. In practice the limit is how quickly someone on your side reviews, which is why the list arrives ranked with transcripts.
Does unused allowance carry over into the peak?
No. The allowance resets every month and nothing rolls over. If banked capacity matters more to you than a low monthly price, that is a genuine reason to prefer a credit-based tool.
Our seasonal applicants are students and second-jobbers. Will they do this on a phone?
Yes. The interview runs in the phone's browser with no app and no account, and any question can be set to voice only. Keep it to three or four questions with a visible time limit. A long interview for a ten-week job is where applicants give up.
Can each site manager review their own applicants?
Yes, and adding them is free. One thing to know first: team members see every job in the account, not only their own site's. For most seasonal employers that is fine. If sites must be kept separate, that is a limit of the product.
Try it on a real role
Set up an interview in five minutes, send one link, and read the ranked results. The free plan takes 50 candidates a month and needs no card.
Start free