A Sonara alternative that applies where employers read
Sonara closed in 2024. It had the right idea, upload once and let software apply, and its users are looking for the next thing. Here is what to look for, and where Shortlist is different.
What Sonara did
You uploaded a resume, set your preferences, and Sonara found matching postings and applied to them on your behalf, running in the background and reporting what it had sent. For a lot of people it was the first time software did the applying rather than just the searching. It stopped operating in 2024, and former users have been comparing replacements since.
What to look for in a replacement
The tools that took Sonara's place split into two kinds, and the difference matters more than the price.
- Where does it apply? Many tools apply through job boards, or through LinkedIn's one-click button. Employers often read those queues last, and automating LinkedIn is against LinkedIn's rules. The application that counts is the one on the company's own careers page.
- Do you see what goes out? Sonara sent on its own. Some replacements still do. If you would not send a form you have not read, choose a tool that shows you the filled form first, or lets you set the bar it applies by.
- Is the resume the same PDF every time? A tool that attaches one file to every application is a tool that applies as a stranger. Tailoring toward the posting, without inventing anything, is the difference between being read and being skimmed.
- How fast after the posting? Recruiters read the first applications in. A tool that applies once a day is a day late on most of them.
How Shortlist differs
Shortlist is an AI job application agent that applies on the employer's own form: Greenhouse, Ashby, Workable, Lever, Workday and Rippling. It reads company career pages every six hours and, if you set a rule, applies to a new match on the same pass, minutes after the posting. It never applies through LinkedIn or Indeed.
Nothing goes out without your OK or your rule. Keep approval on and you see every filled form before it is sent. Set a rule and Pip applies only to jobs that clear your bar, then mails you what went out. A question the form asks that Pip cannot answer from your profile waits for you rather than being guessed.
Every reply from an employer is filed against the application it belongs to and forwarded to your inbox, so a recruiter's mail does not sit under the newsletters for three days.
What it costs
Ten applications are free, with no card. After that the plans are by the week, because a job hunt is a burst of a few weeks rather than a subscription; every plan is on one page. Autopilot, the rule-based sending, is included on every paid plan.
Before you decide
Look at the live board first. If your roles are on it, in your country, at the pay you need, Shortlist can apply to them. If they are not, no tool that draws from the same sources will do better, and you will have found that out for free. The comparison page sets Shortlist beside bulk bots and browser extensions in plain terms.