Which software for a temp staffing agency in 2026? Criteria and comparison

Short answer: a temp staffing agency needs two tools, not one. Temp agency management software produces assignment contracts, the pre-employment declaration, timesheets and payroll. Recruitment software finds, contacts and puts forward the available temp. An agency that also places permanent staff gains by running all its recruitment in the second tool.

This guide compares six tools that agencies and software directories cite, based on each vendor’s public pages. We publish Marvin, recruitment software for temp staffing agencies: 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.

Temp agency management or recruitment software: what does an agency need?

A temp staffing agency runs two businesses. The first is administrative and regulated: assignment contract, pre-employment declaration, timesheets, payroll, social reporting and the client invoice. The second is commercial: quickly finding an available temp and putting them forward before the agency next door. Few tools excel at both, hence agencies that combine two.

Temp agency management software is the agency’s backbone: it issues contracts, declares hires, collects hours, runs payroll and invoices the client company. No agency can do without it, and replacing it is a heavy project. Several of these tools include a recruitment module, more or less advanced.

Recruitment software (ATS and CRM) covers everything before the contract: the candidate database, availability, multi-posting, contacting temps and the relationship with client companies. That is where an urgent order is won, and where agencies that also place permanent staff have the most to gain.

Which criteria really matter for a temp staffing agency?

What separates the tools, based on what agencies ask for, comes down to eight concrete questions. The first is always the same: who is free tomorrow morning? Then come search across a large database, the dual temp and permanent flow, proactive pitching to clients, contact channels, and coexistence with the payroll software.

1. Know who is available, right now. Availability should update by itself when an assignment ends, be declarable by the temp, and work as a search filter.
2. Find the right profile in a large database. An agency builds up tens of thousands of candidates; search limited to coded fields leaves the good ones asleep. Check that it reads the text of CVs and notes.
3. Handle temp and permanent in the same tool. Two contract types, one talent pool, processes that may differ.
4. Put a temp forward to companies proactively. A temp finishing an assignment should be able to go out as an anonymised CV with your logo to a list of clients, with a record of who received it.
5. Reach temps where they answer. WhatsApp, text messages or email: check the channels actually supported and how conversations are shared across the team.
6. Post jobs and track sources. Multi-posting to your job boards, and the origin of each application.
7. Coexist with the contracts and payroll software. Is there a connection, or will the temp be keyed in again at contract time?
8. Price and set-up. Licences for part-timers and multi-branch networks, set-up time, migration of your history.

Which tools for a temp staffing agency in 2026?

Six tools come up when a temp staffing agency compares its options: temp agency management software with a built-in ATS (BeSTT), four recruitment tools active in this market (Marvin, Tool4Staffing, Eolia, Jobaffinity) and an international platform (Bullhorn). The table sums up what each vendor documents publicly.

“Not documented” means the vendor does not describe the point on the pages we checked, not that it lacks it: ask during the demo. Data hosting: in France for Marvin (Scaleway, Paris) and Jobaffinity; BeSTT, Tool4Staffing and Eolia do not document it on the pages we checked.

Marvin: the agency’s recruitment, alongside the temp agency software

Marvin is the software we publish. Our approach: take on all the agency’s recruitment, temp and permanent alike, and leave the admin to your temp agency software. Desk brings together the talent pool, applications, the client company CRM and messaging.

• Availability keeps itself up to date: the end of an assignment makes the temp available again, they can declare their release date from their own space, and availability works as a search filter.
• The whole database becomes searchable: search reads the full text of CVs and notes, with trade synonyms, and your searches by job and area are saved.
• An available temp becomes a proposal: their anonymised CV with your logo goes to a list of companies in your CRM, and every send is tracked.
• Campaigns go out by WhatsApp and email to a targeted list, from the same screen, with replies coming back to the record.

Multi-posting covers 89 job boards (3 ads per user on Pro, 5 on Suite). Pricing is public, and data is hosted in France, with Scaleway in Paris.

BeSTT: temp agency management, with its own ATS

BeSTT is French software for temp staffing agencies, work-integration temp agencies (ETTI) and EATT. It combines the agency’s complete admin with an ATS: candidate database with multi-criteria search, multi-posting, contracts, DPAE, timesheets, payroll, social reporting, invoicing and debt collection, with contract signing built in or through partners.

Who it is for: the agency that wants a single tool for all temp admin, recruitment included. This is the family to look at first if your main pain is payroll or compliance. Pricing is not published, and the vendor does not highlight AI features on the pages we checked.

Tool4Staffing: the agency ATS and CRM, with an AI assistant

Tool4Staffing is a French ATS and CRM aimed at three businesses: temp staffing, recruitment agencies and IT services firms. It highlights an AI assistant that searches the database, drafts messages, summarises interviews and prepares job ads, plus more than 40 integrations, including temp agency management software.

Who it is for: the agency that wants modern recruitment software and a documented bridge to its temp agency software. Pricing is not published on the home page.

Eolia: the multi-site ATS for agency networks

Eolia, a French vendor, offers a multi-site ATS with EOLIA+: each branch keeps its own environment, with a shared CV database, common multi-posting, access rights per entity and an analytics module by branch and area.

Who it is for: agency networks that want to share a talent pool while keeping each branch separate. Pricing is not published.

Jobaffinity: the general-purpose, sovereign ATS

Jobaffinity, published in Paris, has an “Agencies & Temp” offer: assignments, clients and candidates in one place, search across notes, multi-posting to more than 200 job sites, scoring by AI self-hosted in France and a documented API.

Who it is for: the agency that values high-volume posting and hosting in France. Pricing is on quote.

Bullhorn: the international platform

Bullhorn, based in Boston, mostly serves English-speaking agencies. Its Recruitment Cloud edition handles time capture, shift scheduling and timesheet approval; its native back office is presented for North America.

Who it is for: international networks that recruit in English and rely on a partner ecosystem. For a French agency, plan for the deployment project.

When Marvin is not the right choice

Marvin is not built for the agency whose first goal is to replace its contracts and payroll software. It produces no assignment contract, DPAE, timesheet or payroll, and does not connect to your temp agency software today. If that is your main need, temp agency management software will serve you better.

Other situations where another choice will fit better:

• You want an automatic link between recruitment and payroll. It does not exist in Marvin today: the recruited temp is created again in your temp agency software at contract time.
• You chase temps by text message. Marvin reaches out by WhatsApp and email; it does not send text messages.
• You manage hours and shifts. Marvin tracks activity in days and half-days, not by the hour.
• You want a mobile app. Marvin runs in the browser; it has no dedicated mobile app.
• Your team has many part-timers. Marvin is licensed per user, with a 12-month commitment: run the numbers on your actual organisation.

Conversely, Marvin is a good fit for a mixed temp and permanent agency, or for a network that wants to put a dormant database to work and proactively pitch its available temps, without touching what pays them.

Which tool fits your agency?

The right choice depends on where your agency loses the most time. If it is admin, look first at temp agency management software. If it is recruitment, searching the database and speed of proposal, add recruitment software alongside the tool that handles your contracts and payroll.

• You want a single tool for temp admin, recruitment included: look at BeSTT and temp agency management software.
• You are a mixed temp and permanent agency: Marvin handles all recruitment for both contract types, alongside your temp agency software.
• You run a network of branches sharing a talent pool: Eolia is designed for multi-site use, with a common CV database and rights per branch. Check this point in the demo with the other vendors, Marvin included.
• You post a lot of jobs: Jobaffinity claims more than 200 job sites; Marvin covers 89.
• You want a documented bridge to your temp agency software: Tool4Staffing lists one among its integrations.
• You recruit internationally, in English: Bullhorn.

The best test remains a real order: a need from today, a search in your database, contacting available temps and sending the CV to the client. To go further, our comparison of the 10 best ATS and our guide to multi-posting software.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best software for a temp staffing agency in 2026? There is no single best tool, because a temp staffing agency has two distinct needs. For assignment contracts, the French pre-employment declaration (DPAE), timesheets and payroll, you need temp agency management software such as BeSTT. To find and put forward an available temp quickly, and for an agency that also places permanent staff, you need recruitment software such as Marvin, Tool4Staffing, Eolia or Jobaffinity.

Can recruitment software replace a temp agency's contracts and payroll software? In general, no. Recruitment software for agencies, Marvin included, does not handle assignment contracts, the DPAE, timesheets or payroll: it works alongside the temp agency software. Only temp agency management software covers these obligations, some of it with a built-in recruitment module.

Which software for an agency that places both temps and permanent staff? A mixed agency is better off keeping its temp agency software for the admin and running all its recruitment, temp and permanent alike, in one recruitment tool. In Marvin, a field tells the contract type apart: applications, processes, clients and history are shared, and search covers the whole database.

How much does software for a temp staffing agency cost? Few vendors in this sector publish their prices: most work on quote. Marvin’s pricing is public: €129 (Pro) and €189 (Suite) excl. VAT per user per month on annual billing, €159 and €239 on monthly billing, with a 12-month commitment. That price comes on top of your temp agency software, which stays in place.

How do you switch recruitment software without stopping the agency? By letting the vendor handle the migration and keeping the old tool during preparation. At Marvin, temps, candidates, clients and documents are migrated in about a month: a data engineer merges duplicates and submits each clean-up rule to you, then the switchover takes 24 hours. Your payroll software is not touched.

Sources

• BeSTT: home page and features, checked 10 October 2026.
• Tool4Staffing: home page, checked 10 October 2026.
• Eolia: multi-site ATS for temp agencies, checked 10 October 2026.
• Jobaffinity: agencies and temp offer, checked 10 October 2026.
• Bullhorn: UK pricing, Recruitment Cloud and back office, checked 5 October 2026.
• Marvin: pricing and temp staffing page.

Further reading

Buying guides for the other recruitment businesses: recruitment agency, IT services, executive search, interim management and independent recruiter. Our detailed comparisons: Marvin vs Jobaffinity, Marvin vs Tool for Staffing and Marvin vs Eolia.