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Bullhorn vs Xref 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
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
CRM (38th)
Xref
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
28th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of Bullhorn is 1.2%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Xref is 1.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Bullhorn1.2%
Xref1.5%
Other97.3%
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.
it_user1545606 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior HR Advisor at a aerospace/defense firm with 201-500 employees
Helps improve turnaround times and flags suspicious activity
The Xref feature I find the most valuable is probably the fact that it does the security check to make sure that the references are not dodgy. It's got security settings in the backend that flag suspicious activity straight away. Most referencing systems are just automated emails that go to somebody that's nominated by the potential employee. Anybody could be the owner of those email addresses; it could be their mom or brother. There are no security checks in place with other systems.

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."
"In the terms of reference checks, it shortens that whole process, which in turn gets you to offer the best candidate before they get offered somewhere else."
"It is often quicker than playing phone tag, which happens a lot when you're doing reference check. Anyone that has done them before knows that they can turn into weeks of playing phone tag."
 

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."
"It would be great to have a defense industry security check option. To be compliant, we have to have a different tool for that."
"It would be great to have a defense industry security check option. To be compliant, we have to have a different tool for that."
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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
Best Pacific Institute of Education, BUSY At Work, Sue Ryder, The Salvation Army, Contact Energy Limited, Cromwell Property Group, Cushman & Wakefield Pty Ltd, Diageo, Direct Line Group, Hirepool Ltd, Scalabrini Village, NZ Lotteries Commission, Proforce, Samsung
Find out what your peers are saying about Zoho, SmartRecruiters, PeopleStrong and others in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software. Updated: March 2026.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.