HiringCafe searches for you. CoBlack applies for you

What HiringCafe built

HiringCafe is a job search engine at hiringcafe.com, operated by SpicyHR Inc. Its co-founders are Ali Mir, a former software engineer at Meta, DoorDash and Rippling, and Hamed Nilforoshan, who earned a CS PhD at Stanford and worked in data science at Airbnb and Snapchat.

Its documented filters cover remote, hybrid and onsite work, seniority, minimum salary, years of experience, visa sponsorship, degree requirement, industry and company funding stage. A job tracker holds saved jobs, saved searches and boards. Read-only Claude and ChatGPT connectors are available.

On September 28, 2026, Talent Agent came out of beta for everyone in the US. The company describes it this way: “Talent Agent is an AI agent that searches across every job in our index on your behalf, 24/7, and flags new roles the moment they go live. It reads your resume, learns what you’re looking for, and filters out ghost listings so you only see real, actively hiring roles.”

HiringCafe does not submit applications; every listing links to the employer’s own application page. Its about page says: “Talent Agent does the job searching and filtering for you, and sends you only the best matches.”

What users and the company say

HiringCafe grew to more than 2 million monthly users entirely by word of mouth, and it indexes 5 million+ jobs.

A Reddit user summed up the appeal: “Proper filters, boolean keyword search, sort by date, location filters, saved searches”.

Its ghost listing work deserves credit. HiringCafe sources job details and the apply page URL directly from the employer. It checks each employer’s apply page approximately every 4 hours, and filters out 3 to 4 percent of postings under its policies.

On the day Talent Agent left beta, the company also announced $6.8 million in pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital. General partner Fraser Kelton said: “HiringCafe is building the absolute best product for people looking for a job, not for people advertising jobs.”

The launch post makes a promise: “It’s free, and it always will be for job seekers.”

Where CoBlack stands

The fork in HiringCafe vs CoBlack is search versus submission.

CoBlack submits applications server side, with no review screen and no final click, and keeps running while the member is offline. No browser extension is needed. Auto Apply submits through Greenhouse, Ashby and Workday.

Every application gets a resume generated for that specific opening from the member’s profile. The member can open the exact tailored PDF built for each one. On screening questions, what the member wrote is preferred over generated text wherever it matches, and generation never invents credentials. A missing required fact holds the application back rather than sending it. CoBlack drafts a cover letter only when the employer’s form asks for one.

Sourcing differs. HiringCafe takes job details directly from employers; CoBlack uses a licensed job feed filtered to employer applicant tracking systems: Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and Workday.

Several things are HiringCafe’s. Its search is free for job seekers, with no paywall. It filters ghost listings, and it offers filters like visa sponsorship and a tracker.

CoBlack does not apply to an opening that scores below a 60 percent match, and every plan has a monthly allowance. Point is $0 with no card required, up to 30 applications a month, about one a day. Vector is $19.99 a month for up to 200. Matrix is $39.99 a month for up to 400.

Who each one fits

HiringCafe fits a person who wants to search and apply by hand, and it gives that person a free search tool built around them.

The same person at CoBlack gets the applications sent, each with its own resume.

Nothing stops someone from using both: HiringCafe to read the market, CoBlack to keep applications going in the United States or Canada.

Same problem, different ends

CoBlack sells a competing product, so read this with that in mind and check the pages cited for yourself. Both companies work on the same problem from different ends. HiringCafe finds the job. CoBlack sends the application.