If you run a growing business, the way you handle job applications is probably a mess. Not because you don’t care about hiring — but because most businesses default to whatever’s easiest, which usually means posting a “We’re hiring, email us at info@…” line at the bottom of the About page.
Then you get 20 applications a week in your inbox. CVs mixed with actual client emails. Half the applicants forget to mention which role they’re applying for. You lose track of who you’ve replied to. Someone falls through the cracks. Two weeks later a good candidate accepts a job somewhere else because you never got back to them.
After building websites for more than 300 businesses since 2009, we’ve watched this pattern play out dozens of times. So through Rixden — our sister company that builds WordPress plugins — we now install a proper careers system on every client website that needs one. It’s called Rixden Career Manager, and it’s what we recommend when a client says “we want to add a careers page.”
Why the usual “solutions” don’t work
Before Rixden Career Manager existed, our options were limited.
Email-based job postings are how most small businesses start. It works for one job at a time and instantly falls apart at three. No tracking, no organisation, no way to see the pipeline.
Big HR platforms like BambooHR, Workable, or Greenhouse are excellent — but they cost R8,000 – R15,000 per month, take weeks to configure, and completely replace your website’s careers page with their own hosted portal. Overkill for a business hiring 2-3 people a year.
Existing WordPress job plugins are either abandoned (last update three years ago), massively bloated (WP Job Manager alone bundles half a dozen add-ons and dependencies), or built for job boards where you list other companies’ jobs — not your own.
Custom-coded careers pages work until you need to add applicant filtering, resume storage, status updates, or automated candidate emails. Then you’re back to the developer every month.
None of these actually solve the real problem: a small-to-medium business just wants to list a few jobs, receive applications through a clean form, and manage the pipeline without paying enterprise prices.
Enter Rixden Career Manager
Rixden Career Manager is the plugin Rixden built to fill this gap — after we spent years installing bloated alternatives on client sites and wishing there was something simpler. It’s a lightweight, focused careers system for businesses that need to hire but don’t need a full HR suite.
The free version does more than you’d expect:
- Unlimited jobs, unlimited departments, unlimited applications
- Frontend careers board with search, department filter, job type filter, work model filter (remote/hybrid/on-site)
- Apply-in-place modal with resume upload — no redirect to a separate site
- Session-based favourites so candidates can shortlist jobs
- Admin dashboard with pipeline stats and clickable stat cards
- Fully customisable frontend styling — title sizes, colours, button styles — from the Settings tab
- Notification emails when new applications arrive
- Search and sort across all applications in a single table
You install it, add a couple of departments, create your first job, and paste the rixden-careers shortcode on your careers page. That’s it. Ten minutes from install to accepting applications.
Here’s what makes it different from what’s out there:
It’s not a job board. It’s a careers system for your business. Every job is yours, every application comes to you.
It has zero external dependencies. No Google Fonts, no phoning home, no third-party APIs. Runs entirely on your server.
It’s tiny. Under 40KB total. Won’t slow your site down like the bigger job plugins do.
It looks good. Modern, mobile-friendly interface that works with every WordPress theme. No wrestling with clunky forms from 2015.
The free version is genuinely useful on its own. No trialware, no locked features that break your workflow until you upgrade.
Pro adds the workflow layer
Once you’re getting real application volume, you’ll want the Pro features:
- Application status pipeline — move candidates through 6 stages (Pending, Reviewing, Shortlisted, Interviewed, Hired, Rejected) with a single click
- Automated candidate emails — applicants get a confirmation email when they apply, and a status update every time you move them through the pipeline. No more manually chasing candidates.
- Custom email templates — customise every automated email with variables like
{name},{job_title}, and{app_id}that auto-populate - Application notes — private internal notes on any candidate so your hiring team stays aligned
- CSV export — pull all application data out in one click for spreadsheet analysis or importing into another system
- Locations management — add locations as a filter for jobs (useful once you have offices in multiple cities)
- Job view tracking — see how many times each listing has been viewed so you know which jobs need better exposure
- Priority support — direct email support from the Rixden team
The workflow layer is what turns Career Manager from “a place to receive CVs” into an actual hiring system.
Real businesses using it
For our own web design clients, we’ve installed Career Manager on:
- A South African retail chain hiring across multiple store locations — the location filter is a lifesaver
- A tech startup hiring engineers, marketing, and ops in parallel — the pipeline view keeps their hiring team aligned
- A hospitality business with high seasonal turnover — the automated candidate emails saved them hours per week
The most common piece of feedback: “I forgot how many CVs used to just sit in my inbox unread.”
Pricing
The free version is live on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Two clicks to install, no signup needed.
The Pro version is genuinely affordable:
- $39/year (roughly R720) for a single site
- $79/year (roughly R1,450) for up to 3 sites
- $149/year (roughly R2,750) for unlimited sites
Compare that to R8,000+/month for enterprise HR platforms and it’s an easy call for any small business that hires a few people a year.
Should you use it?
If you run a small-to-medium business that hires occasionally and you’re still using email or a bloated third-party plugin, install the free version this week. It’ll pay for itself in saved time within the first week of your next hiring push.
If you’re a web designer building sites for clients who need a careers page — this is the plugin to reach for. We now install it as a default on any client site that mentions hiring at any stage.
You can grab it here:
- Free version on WordPress.org: wordpress.org/plugins/rixden-career-manager
- Pro version + full feature list: rixden.com/career-manager
- More about Rixden: rixden.com
Questions or want to see it in action on a client project? Get in touch and we’ll walk you through it.