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Bullhorn vs SmartRecruiters comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bullhorn
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
CRM (37th)
SmartRecruiters
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of Bullhorn is 1.1%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 3.4%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SmartRecruiters3.4%
Bullhorn1.1%
Other95.5%
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
 

Featured Reviews

Christiane Hauk - PeerSpot reviewer
COO at RM Group (Switzerland)
Have improved workflows through automation but faced challenges with feature limitations and unclear pricing
The impact of those automation features on our operational efficiency is huge; however, what I don't appreciate about it is that it's very limited; it's limited to Bullhorn and, even within Bullhorn, it's limited to the candidate, the placement, the job, and the contact entity. You cannot automate files, notes, or change requests, so it's very limited, and they also don't do any further development in this anymore since AI is on the market. When it comes to automation in Bullhorn, I would appreciate seeing that automation is possible for integrating files. For example, that you can say, show me all candidates who don't have a file or which have a file that is older than one year, or which have a file type of resume or contract. I would appreciate seeing the possibility to build automations based on change requests, where you can automate according to the status submitted or approved, which is currently not possible, or automation based on notes. When it comes to the missing features in Bullhorn, I have numerous suggestions. Recently they introduced the AI assistant, which is a chatbot within Bullhorn that can refer to candidate, contact, and job data, which is great. However, the output from your prompt can only be copied to a clipboard and not inserted into a Bullhorn field, meaning you always have to do three, four more clicks to get it over to an email or to the field that publishes the job ad. This functionality has to be developed further because there are other tools that can already do this. The prompting and formatting possibilities within the prompt are very limited as well. Regarding AI, there is no match top candidates functionality that provides results good enough to use. We are already using the Textkernel search, which is the future search Bullhorn will integrate. Additionally, we also work with Bullhorn Onboarding, which is a catastrophe; it's not further developed, and they have not provided a new solution for the German-speaking market in five years. We also use the Canvas reporting tool that lacks further development; there are limitations on what you can build reports on. I would appreciate seeing improvements there, and to close this circle, I would appreciate seeing a kind of avatar that can conduct a first interview with a candidate.
Anudeep Kamuni - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Lead - TA ops & Analytics | Strategy Growth & Leadership at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees
Efficiently automates tasks but lacks certain features in terms of usability
There are a couple of areas of improvement. SmartRecruiter lacks certain features in terms of usability. For instance, we cannot move candidate profiles, interview feedback, notes, and activities related to one candidate when transitioning from one job to another. We have to manually copy and paste everything for that specific candidate. This is a significant drawback. Additionally, the filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager. This level of inaccuracy is unexpected for an application, especially for smaller organizations. It should have been corrected easily. Moreover, the CRM module lacks video reporting capabilities. These are some the biggest improvement I would like to see.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What I appreciate best about Bullhorn is its user interface, which is really nice, and I enjoy the flexibility that you have with it and how you can customize it to meet your needs."
"What I appreciate most about Bullhorn's core functionalities and ATS functionalities is that it is highly customizable, the UI is very user friendly, and it's very easy to train."
"With this solution, I was able to add diversity to my recruiting. I was able to source from multiple locations, and I could show where applicants came from. The reporting tools that are on offer, allowed us to expand our reach. We were able to add meaningful diversity into recruiting."
"It is a really user-friendly tool, and its implementation is quite wide. It is very easy to manage users and build your workflows. Overall, it works very well for the customization of the workflows for us. The recruitment team has generally found the whole platform useful. We were looking to kind of expand it by using the CRM functions that it has. However, with COVID and recruitment being on the freeze, we weren't really able to make the most of the tool. They are, however, finding it useful to actually build up their talent pools and client candidates to be able to contact them when we kind of have this freeze off."
"Job publishing and application tracking are the most valuable features. You can keep the flow of a candidate's application into one system. The whole collaboration can also be done within the system, which means that you can schedule interviews and add your feedback and ratings there. You can also communicate with the candidates. The analytics part of it is also very valuable. It is a useful feature that we use quite a lot. We don't really use other features such as recruitment marketing or CRM candidate relationship management in SmartRecruiters."
"The all-encompassing ability to manage the process cohesively out of the SmartRecruiter system was valuable."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that amongst all the other ATS platforms that I have used, SmartRecruiters is the most user-friendly tool."
"I used the free version, which I found valuable."
"With just a click of a button, we can manage the process. Even generating offer letters and obtaining electronic signatures through DocSign are integrated into this application."
"The most valuable feature is the way that they've set it up for collaboration."
 

Cons

"I think one thing that could be improved is that it's expensive."
"Bullhorn Onboarding, which is a catastrophe; it's not further developed, and they have not provided a new solution for the German-speaking market in five years."
"The filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager."
"I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Around 2015 and into '17, I worked at a federal contractor. I had to switch to a different applicant system as I didn't know if SmartRecruiters was OFCCP compliant, which is something that, as a US-based federal contractor, you have to ensure. They should work to appeal to the contractor industry and get the product OFCCP compliant."
"There were problems with integrations around other systems and each one had to be custom-built, which took a little while to get set up and running."
"The solution's reporting feature could be improved because it is not very strong."
"SmartRecruiters' on-click application process could be better."
"One thing that has been a bit of a struggle is getting tech support. It is a little more difficult to get support from SmartRecruiters. They want you to have your own in-house person to help you with any issues, whereas with both Lever and Greenhouse, you can just click a button at the bottom of the screen and chat with someone almost instantly."
"The solution needs to work on a single sign-on."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"They are pretty competitive. As the product matures, it has much more functionality and different pricing models. It can relatively cost a lot more if you want to use additional features, but, in general, it is competitive in the industry. We work on a yearly license agreement based on the company size. There are the support costs, which are a part of the additional cost based on the percentage of the licensing fee. So, it has a license plus support cost. Then, of course, there are other add-on options that we can purchase and procure whenever we want to based on certain negotiated arrangements."
"There were implementation costs in the first year to get everything set up and running, and then they have various modules on top, which are optional and available at an extra charge."
"SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors. Considering the type of features and services it provides, it is probably one of the best solutions in the market. Others may offer a similar price, but their services won't be that good or the user-friendliness won't be that great. The licensing works based on how many users are there in a company. If you are using other functionalities, like CRM and HRS, the price increases."
"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."
"I wasn't involved in its acquisition, but I would assume that SmartRecruiters is pretty pricey."
"Back in 2018, when I engaged with their sales, they wanted to charge around $10,000 for an annual subscription. Depending on your organization, that either could or couldn't be expensive. I personally think it's a fair price. However, I engaged them and negotiated a lower price with them. I think I got closer to $6,000. It came with a commitment of three years."
"I haven't been so involved with pricing, so I don't have all details, but I know that we are paying per head when it comes to different countries. There is an additional fee for new features that they release. If it is something that we would like to use, we need to pay some extra for it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bullhorn?
Bullhorn is expensive, and if you are looking to scale your operations, it really shines.
What needs improvement with Bullhorn?
The impact of those automation features on our operational efficiency is huge; however, what I don't appreciate about it is that it's very limited; it's limited to Bullhorn and, even within Bullhor...
What is your primary use case for Bullhorn?
We are an agency, a staffing agency, and we use Bullhorn mainly as an ATS, so we use it for reporting, onboarding, and to process our payrolling requests.
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Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tiro Partners, Skills Alliance, Think IT Recruitment, Mclaren Consultancy, REACH Employment Services, Aurec, FocusCore, Icon Partners, Curate Partners, Rowben Consulting, Richard Lloyd, Peoplefusion, Gemini People, Glotel
Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers
Find out what your peers are saying about Bullhorn vs. SmartRecruiters and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.