They told you that because their software has one, and they are clinging to that and other features to charge you more money than you need to spend.

What they did not tell you is that a candidate portal also comes with these issues…

• Websites with candidate portals are 2-10 times more expensive than those without.
• For anyone using ATS/CRM-type systems like Bullhorn, Vincere, Jobadder, Firefish, etc., they have portals, so you are duplicating tech and overpaying for it.
• CV data stored in a website portal can not be suitably insured for losses you may incur from ransoms and cyberattacks or the subsequent fines the ICO might hand out due to GDPR.
• The ICO states that all reasonable care should be taken in cybersecurity; storing data you do not need to store in a feature that serves only the vanity of the recruitment website vendor is not taking all reasonable care. Stopping the storage of data is.
• Storing a candidate’s personal data on your website makes it attractive to hackers, more so if you keep their CVs, as they often contain special category data as classified by GDPR.
• 75% of all hacker activity is to steal personal data.
• 75% of all hacker activity is aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. That describes 90% of all recruiters.
• CV files can store viruses used for hacks; you may catch those in your computer’s virus tools, but they are still there lurking in your website.
• Making a candidate make an account with your website to apply for a job is stone age thinking.
• Making a candidate make an account with your website to be able to create a job alert, also stone age thinking.
• Candidate profiles and the CV data come under GDPR. Under GDPR, you are to keep the data up to date. If a candidate registers in your portal, then finds a job and does not come back to the portal and update their CV in your portal, you are keeping out-of-date data.
• If you did ever use the out-of-date data to screen someone for a job, you would be falling foul of GDPR.