Short answer: an executive search firm needs an ATS and CRM that put its database to work, produce client reporting without re-keying and protect confidential mandates. What separates the tools is search across interview notes, the progress report, off-limits companies, AI and where the data is hosted.
This guide compares six tools that executive search firms cite, based on each vendor’s public pages. We publish Marvin, software for executive search firms: we present it alongside the others, and we say plainly when it is not the right choice. The examples come from the French market, where this guide was first written.
Updated 10 October 2026. Vendor information recorded from their public pages between 5 and 10 October 2026; sources are listed at the end of the article.
What does an executive search firm expect from its software?
An executive search firm runs few mandates, long, confidential and partly paid upfront. Its software must find an executive met five years ago, keep track of every exchange, report to the client without copying notes across and keep mandates separate. An ATS designed for volume does not meet these requirements.
A firm’s value lies in its history: fifteen or twenty years of meetings, references and interview notes. As long as it sleeps in a tool that only searches coded fields, every mandate starts again from LinkedIn. The software’s first job is therefore to make that history searchable, then extend it with direct approach, search tracking and the client report.
Which criteria really matter for an executive search firm?
What firms ask for during demos comes down to eight questions. Does the database bring up the right profiles? Does the progress report build itself? Can the client follow the search? Are off-limits visible before the approach? Are mandates kept separate? And what does the AI do with our data?
- Search that reads notes as well as CVs. That is where a candidate’s mobility, conditions and real motivations live.
- The progress report produced from the tool. Candidates, stages, rejection reasons and notes, in a format the client reads: spreadsheet, PDF, in your branding.
- Client follow-up between meetings. A link or portal where the client sees only their search and gives feedback.
- Off-limits and signed clients visible before the approach, not discovered afterwards.
- Confidential mandates: role-based permissions, restricted records, an activity log.
- Records that stay alive: LinkedIn and email exchanges attached to the record, profile updates, no copy-paste.
- AI and security: which data the AI works on, which providers process it, and whether you can connect your own assistant.
- Vendor, hosting and migration: where the data lives, the interface language, who migrates twenty years of history, and how to get it back if you leave.
Which tools for an executive search firm in 2026?
Six tools come up when an executive search firm compares its options: two French platforms built around AI (Marvin and Leonar), the long-standing French tool of direct-approach firms (Ad-Men) and three English-speaking benchmarks (Recruiterflow, Clockwork and Ezekia). The table sums up what each vendor documents publicly.
| Tool | Reporting and client follow-up | Confidentiality and off-limits | AI and MCP | Public price | Data hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin (France, Paris) | Search report exported in one click (Excel), client follow-up link (Suite) | Role-based permissions, restricted records, client badge on LinkedIn | Copilot, interview notes (Suite), MCP server included | €129 (Pro), €189 (Suite) excl. VAT / user / month, annual | France (Scaleway, Paris) |
| Leonar (France, Paris) | Client portal with pipeline access and search analytics | Private pipelines, role-based permissions | AI sourcing and Copilot, MCP and API included | €119 excl. VAT / user / month, annual; interview notes as an add-on | France |
| Ad-Men (France, AD-RH) | AD-Men View client portal, search reports | Off-limits management | Not highlighted | Not published | On your premises or in the cloud |
| Recruiterflow (United States) | Branded progress reports, shared dashboards | Not compared here | AI agents (AIRA plan, on quote), MCP | $119 / user / month, annual (Platform plan) | Region not published |
| Clockwork (United States) | Client collaboration portal with real-time feedback | Not compared here | AI candidate assessment and scoring | $1,800 / user / year | Not documented |
| Ezekia (United Kingdom) | Client portal to follow each search, reporting | ISO 27001 certified | AI search, Claude, OpenAI and Copilot integrations | Per user, monthly, on quote; 30-day trial | Not documented |
“Not compared here” and “not documented” mean we did not find the point on the pages we checked: ask during the demo.
Marvin: the database, mandates and client report in one tool
Marvin is the software we publish. Our approach: put the firm’s history to work, then extend each search to the client report and the invoice, on a single dataset.
- Your interviews become searchable: Note writes the summary of video interviews using your templates, and search digs through notes as much as CVs, with trade synonyms.
- Search starts from what the firm already knows: Scout searches your database, then widens to LinkedIn; the record shows who has already met the candidate and what was said.
- The search report comes out in one click, with rejection reasons coded by the firm, and the client follows the search through a secure link.
- Mandates stay separate: role-based permissions, restricted records, and a badge on LinkedIn when a profile works at a signed client.
The Copilot and the MCP server are included in every plan; Note, Scout and the client portal are part of the Suite plan. Data is hosted in France, with Scaleway in Paris.
Leonar: the AI-first platform for agencies, with a public price
Leonar, published in Paris, is an ATS and CRM built around AI, with a dedicated executive search offer: sourcing across more than 30 professional sources, a client portal with pipeline access, private pipelines and multichannel sequences.
Who it is for: search firms that want sourcing included and open AI. Its strengths are a public price (€119 excl. VAT per user per month on annual billing), a free trial and an MCP server included; interview notes are an add-on from €15 to €39 per user per month. Our detailed comparison: Marvin vs Leonar.
Ad-Men: the long-standing tool of direct-approach firms
Ad-Men is published by AD-RH and claims more than 500 clients. It is the long-standing reference of French direct-approach firms: off-limits management, the AD-Men View client portal, built-in invoicing and multi-posting, deployable on your own infrastructure or in the cloud.
Who it is for: firms that want a search workflow refined over many years. Pricing is not published and the vendor does not highlight AI features on the page we checked. Our detailed comparison: Marvin vs Ad-Men.
Recruiterflow: client reporting for English-speaking firms
Recruiterflow, published in the United States, presents itself as AI-first software for search and recruitment firms. Its strengths are client reporting, with branded progress reports and shared dashboards, and a suite of AI agents.
Who it is for: English-speaking firms. The Platform plan costs $119 on annual billing; interview notes and matching are part of the AIRA plan, on quote. The interface is in English. Our detailed comparison: Marvin vs Recruiterflow.
Clockwork: the North American retained search benchmark
Clockwork is US software built for executive search: recruiting CRM, relationship mapping, a client collaboration portal with real-time feedback, a business development CRM and AI candidate scoring, in a single plan.
Who it is for: retained search firms working mainly in North America. Its price is public: $1,800 per user per year.
Ezekia: British executive search, with no lock-in
Ezekia, a British vendor, is built for retained executive search, with a client portal to follow each search and ISO 27001 certification.
Who it is for: firms that want a specialised tool and a flexible contract. It is billed per user and monthly, with no annual commitment, on quote, with a 30-day trial, and integrates with Claude, OpenAI and Microsoft Copilot. Our detailed comparison: Marvin vs Ezekia.
When Marvin is not the right choice
Marvin is not the best choice for a firm that wants a client report fully laid out in its branding, brand by brand, with no touch-up. The search report comes out as an Excel workbook, with the columns you choose; it is the candidate presentation documents that come out with your logo, as PDF or Word.
Other situations where another choice will fit better:
- You want off-limits companies removed from results. Marvin flags them (badge on LinkedIn, colour-coded company statuses) but does not exclude them from search automatically.
- Your candidates answer by text message. Marvin reaches out through LinkedIn, email and WhatsApp; it does not send text messages.
- You want to try it alone before talking to anyone, or pay monthly with no commitment. Several vendors offer a free trial or a monthly contract; at Marvin, the commitment is 12 months, including on monthly billing.
- You work mainly in North America. A tool like Clockwork or Recruiterflow is better established there.
- You refuse to record interviews. AI interview notes require recording the video call; without them, your notes remain searchable, but you write them yourself.
Conversely, Marvin is a good fit for a French firm that wants to put fifteen years of history to work, produce the client report without copying, and keep its mandates confidential in a tool hosted in France.
Which tool fits your firm?
The right choice depends on your market and on what costs you the most time today. A French firm that wants to put its history to work will lean towards a French platform built around AI; an English-speaking or North American firm will look first at tools built for its market.
- You want a searchable database, reporting and invoicing in one tool hosted in France: Marvin.
- You want sourcing included and a public price: Leonar and Marvin publish their prices.
- You value a long-standing search workflow, possibly installed on your premises: Ad-Men.
- You work in English, with very visual client reporting: Recruiterflow.
- You do retained search in North America: Clockwork.
- You want a monthly contract with no commitment: Ezekia.
The best test remains a real mandate: a search in your database, an approach, an interview summary and the report sent to the client. To go further, our comparison of ATS CRMs for recruitment agencies and our guide to sourcing software.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best software for an executive search firm in 2026? There is no single best tool: it depends on your market, your working language and your size. For a French firm that wants a searchable database, client reporting and confidential mandates in a tool hosted in France, Marvin and Leonar are worth comparing. Recruiterflow, Clockwork and Ezekia are English-speaking benchmarks, and Ad-Men is the long-standing French tool.
How do you produce a progress report without rebuilding it in Excel? Choose a tool that builds it from what is already recorded: candidates, stages, rejection reasons and interview notes. In Marvin, the search report exports in one click to an Excel workbook, with the columns you choose, and the client follows the search through a secure link between two meetings.
How does executive search software protect confidential mandates? Through role-based permissions, restricted records and a client portal limited to each search. In Marvin, a consultant only sees their own scope and requests access to the rest, the client only sees the candidates presented on their search, and every action is time-stamped and attributed. Data is hosted in France.
Can you connect Claude or ChatGPT to an executive search firm’s database? Yes, if the vendor offers an MCP server. Marvin, Leonar and Recruiterflow document one. At Marvin, it is included in every plan and runs on your own Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor subscription; your AI sub-processors are listed in the DPA, available on request.
How much does executive search software cost? Public prices recorded in October 2026 range from €119 (Leonar) or $119 (Recruiterflow) to $150 (Clockwork) per user per month on annual billing, excluding add-ons; Ad-Men and Ezekia work on quote. At Marvin: €129 (Pro) or €189 (Suite, with the client portal and interview notes) excl. VAT per user per month on annual billing, with a 12-month commitment.
Sources
- Leonar: executive search offer and pricing, checked 10 October 2026.
- Ad-Men: AD-RH product page, checked 10 October 2026.
- Recruiterflow: pricing and MCP connection, checked 5 October 2026.
- Clockwork: pricing, checked 10 October 2026.
- Ezekia: home page and pricing, checked 10 October 2026.
- Marvin: pricing and executive search page.
Further reading
Buying guides for the other recruitment businesses: recruitment agency, interim management, IT services, temp staffing and independent recruiter. To go further: our comparison of the 10 best ATS.