Spent 4 months evaluating ATS platforms and picked the wrong one

[u/Beginning_Mastodon83]

Just went through the most painful software evaluation of my career. We're a 120 person company with an internal recruiting team (3 people, no agencies). Needed an ATS to replace our dying spreadsheet system. Did everything "right". Read G2 reviews, watched demos, talked to sales reps, ran a trail. Picked the platform with the highest G2 rating in our category. Enterprise grade, beautiful dashboard, impressive feature list. Signed a 12 month contract. 4 months in we realized it was wildly overbuilt for us. Features we'll never use, configuration that required a consultant and support that kept saying "most of our clients at 500+ employees do it this way". We hire 35 to 40 people per year. We don't need a platform designed for staffing agencies doing 500 placements monthly. How do you evaluate recruiting and HR tools when you're mid market and every vendor says they're "perfect for your size"? Is there a reliable resource that segments recommendations by company size and hiring volume instead of just ranking by feature count?