Sprad vs. Loxo: which one fits your agency?

Loxo and Sprad both sell recruiting agencies a way to find candidates outside their existing network, but they charge for it in opposite ways: Loxo licenses access to a bundled 1.2B-profile database for a flat $149-199 per seat monthly, while Sprad starts free and charges 79 € per seat (Recruiter Lite) plus flexible credits for deep searches, contact data and interviews. Loxo fits agencies that search constantly and want unlimited access baked into the price; Sprad fits agencies whose search volume varies and who want to own the resulting talent pool rather than rent access to someone else's.

Provider snapshots

Loxo

loxo.co

Loxo: homepage, September 2026.

Loxo packages sourcing reach into a conventional annual seat licence. Its strongest case is frequent use: the more consistently every recruiter searches, the easier the fixed fee is to justify.

Sprad

sprad.io

Sprad Active Sourcing, September 2026.

Sprad separates the workspace fee from actual usage. That makes the economics easier to scale down in quiet months while keeping the agency’s accumulated candidate pool.

Loxo vs. Sprad, side by side

Where the two differ in practice

What Loxo genuinely does better

Loxo's 1.2B-profile database is real and bundled — it's not a third-party integration bolted on, and for a US-heavy agency running dozens of searches a month, a flat-fee unlimited model can work out cheaper than paying per search. Loxo also has a decade-plus track record (founded 2012) and a self-updating CRM that automatically refreshes candidate location, title and company data from public signals without manual re-entry — a genuinely useful maintenance feature that Sprad's consent-based approach handles differently (candidates update their own profile actively, rather than the system scraping updates silently). If your agency is US-based, searches constantly, and doesn't need voice or video screening, Loxo's model is a legitimate fit.

Where Sprad's model changes the economics

Sprad starts free and scales with credits, so a quiet month costs less than Loxo's flat fee — a 5-recruiter team on Recruiter Lite pays 395 €/month (5 × 79 €) versus roughly $745 (about €685) for Loxo Core, before either team runs a single search (full math in our Loxo pricing breakdown). And because Sprad's talent pool belongs to the agency rather than living inside a licensed database, canceling doesn't mean losing access to candidates the agency has already built a relationship with. Sprad also builds in voice and video interview screening across 12 languages, which Loxo doesn't offer at all — useful for agencies doing high-volume shortlisting rather than pure sourcing.

How to tell real AI search from keyword search: if results appear instantly, it is almost always a (semantic) keyword search. A genuine AI check assesses every profile individually against your requirements, which takes a little longer but also finds people whose profile is thin or lacks the “right” keywords. Sprad offers a Quick Search with first results in about 3 seconds and a deep search that runs the full per-profile check.

In the Recruiting category of the public PeopleSearchBench (119 real search tasks), Atlas comes to 73.5 out of 100 in our own re-measurement, converted to the published scale. Published by Lessie, October 2026; Atlas is our own re-measurement with the benchmark's open test procedure, converted to the published scale; not an official entry.

Being fair about the gaps

Sprad isn't the stronger choice everywhere. Its outreach runs through LinkedIn and email, automated with follow-ups if you want — Loxo, despite documented reliability issues, also offers email automation as a built-in channel.

Sprad's client-facing CRM is explicitly in beta, while Loxo's core ATS/CRM has years of iteration behind it. And Loxo's database strength in the US market is more established. Sprad's deep search takes a few minutes because every profile is assessed (Quick Search answers in about 3 seconds), and it has no call notetaker or placement reporting yet.

Switching costs and getting started

Loxo's onboarding runs through a demo or a quote request — there's no published self-serve trial, so evaluating it means committing to a sales conversation before seeing real data in the product. Sprad starts free (100 credits a month, 200 in the first month) and bills further usage by credit, so a team can test the workflow before deciding whether to move everyone over. On migration, Sprad also offers a free import of legacy contacts from Xing, Bullhorn or an Excel export — useful for an agency with years of accumulated relationships sitting in an old CRM export rather than a live Loxo account.

Which one fits your agency

• US-based agency, high search volume, wants unlimited database access: Loxo's flat-fee model can work out cheaper at real scale.
• Agency with variable search volume that wants to avoid paying for capacity it doesn't use: Sprad's pay-per-use credits fit better.
• Agency that wants voice or video screening in the same workspace as sourcing: Sprad is the only one of the two that offers it.
• Agency worried about what happens to its candidate data after canceling a subscription: Sprad's ownership model is built for exactly that concern.
• Agency that already runs its whole outreach inside Loxo's CRM: Loxo, though its own reviewers flag reliability problems worth weighing.

Some agencies genuinely run both during a transition — keeping Loxo's database for an existing US search practice while testing Sprad's requirement search and screening on new roles, before deciding where to consolidate. For the wider field beyond these two, see our roundup of Loxo alternatives.

FAQ

Is Sprad cheaper than Loxo?

For most agencies, yes — Sprad's Recruiter Lite at 79 €/seat plus credits usually costs less than Loxo's $149-199 flat fee, and you can start free — the picture only shifts if every seat runs deep searches almost daily.

Does Sprad have the same database size as Loxo?

Both claim over 1 billion searchable external profiles — Loxo through its own licensed Loxo Source database, Sprad through one of the largest profile databases worldwide, searched across LinkedIn, XING, GitHub and the agency's own pool in a single search.

Does Loxo offer voice or video candidate screening?

No. Loxo's product is focused on sourcing, ATS and CRM. Sprad includes voice and video interview screening across 12 languages as part of the same workspace.

Can I keep my candidate data if I cancel Sprad or Loxo?

Sprad's talent pool is designed to stay with the agency; candidates opt in, and the agency keeps the pool with a full raw-data export and exportable views. The talent network of invited talents stays free. Loxo's database access is licensed — canceling the subscription ends access to Loxo Source, though your own added candidate records remain exportable from the CRM.

Which is better for a small agency with unpredictable search volume?

Sprad — its credit-based pricing means a quiet month costs less, whereas Loxo's flat per-seat fee runs the same whether the team searches once or fifty times.

Does Loxo or Sprad have a longer track record?

Loxo, founded in 2012, has more than a decade of iteration behind its ATS/CRM core. Sprad has built recruiting software for seven years, starting with employee referrals, and its client-facing CRM is still explicitly in beta while the sourcing, screening and ATS core are live.

The honest bottom line

Loxo is a mature, US-strong database license at a flat monthly cost. Sprad is an AI requirement search with LinkedIn and email outreach in one inbox, voice/video screening and a talent pool the agency keeps.

Neither is universally better — the right pick depends on how often your team actually searches and how much data ownership matters to you. See Sprad's pricing for your team size at sprad.io/industry/recruitment-agencies.