DarwinBox vs SmartRecruiters comparison

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DarwinBox

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

SmartRecruiters and DarwinBox compete in the talent acquisition and HR management space. DarwinBox has the upper hand in its extensive feature offering, while SmartRecruiters receives better feedback in support and integration.

Features: SmartRecruiters excels with talent acquisition capabilities, seamless third-party tool integration, and a collaborative hiring interface. DarwinBox stands out for its comprehensive HR suite, including recruitment, employee engagement, and performance management.

Room for Improvement: SmartRecruiters could enhance its data analytics, refine its user interface, and expand CRM functionalities. DarwinBox might improve its deployment simplicity, reduce its complexity for new users, and streamline the onboarding process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SmartRecruiters offers straightforward deployment with extensive support options, favoring quick team setup. DarwinBox's sophisticated cloud platform might present a steeper learning curve, but it provides robust service aligned with its extensive features.

Pricing and ROI: SmartRecruiters generally offers lower initial costs with a pay-per-use structure, leading to quicker ROI. DarwinBox requires a higher initial investment, with potential for long-term ROI through expansive HR management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed DarwinBox vs. SmartRecruiters Report (Updated: July 2025).

DarwinBox vs. SmartRecruiters

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Helped 864,248 peers since 2012

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

DarwinBox

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

10th

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Talent Management (12th), Cloud HCM (10th), HR Analytics Software (6th)

SmartRecruiters

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Talent Acquisition category, the mindshare of DarwinBox is 3.2%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 2.0%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Talent Acquisition

Featured Reviews

SHANOOPCHATHOTH PARAMBIL

Program Manager at Intelliswift

Enhancing attendance and leave management but needs better performance customization

Our primary use case for DarwinBox includes managing attendance, payroll-related tasks, and employee appraisal cycles DarwinBox has provided a significant return on investment for our finance team. Managing payroll and attendance manually would require more team members, so using DarwinBox…

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SUMANTA GHOSH

Regional Recruitment Lead at IQ-EQ

A user-friendly tool that functions without any glitches

With SmartRecruiters, compatibility with other HRIS systems is an area with certain shortcomings that require improvement. SmartRecruiters is a tool that we use as an ATS platform in our company, but we manage the employee lifecycle with the help of SAP, and I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are organogram and position-based mapping."

"The solution that we used previously was very complex. As a result, without referring to the manuals and consulting an expert, it was difficult for a newly hired employee to navigate the platform. However, this is not the case with Darwinbox. It has a very intuitive user interface, and anyone can use it and implement it without having to use a guide or a walk through process. It's very simple."

"In our company, we use DarwinBox to maintain the data of our employees and for recruitment purposes."

"The leave-related modules are comprehensive, offering built-in functionalities for optional leaves."

"SmartRecruiters is a candidate management system or ATS system that we use for recruitment purposes."

"The features that were most important for us to have were that it is user friendly and functional, which is definitely the case with SmartRecruiters. Our organization is located in developing countries where the bandwidth and internet stability are not the strongest and SmartRecruiters accommodates this challenge. It was a very big plus that we are able to use the system even in these locations."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I found the core product quite useful. It is easy to use and quite user-friendly. They have also got other options, such as CRM and HRS. They have other versions such as smart distribute, which is an HRS type of system to analyze and get permissions needed from the applicants. In terms of pricing, SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors."

"It has a lot of good features. We post all of our jobs through the system, and they have a marketplace where you can share the job post with the job boards they're working with. It is integrated with all the records about from where the applications are coming. We have all of our candidates gathered there. We can set up our own hiring processes depending on the type of job and then move them through the process there. It is also possible to involve hiring managers and give them access so that they can also track the candidates and have a look at TBE and interact in the system, which is very useful. We also use SmartRecruiters for job approvals before posting the job as well as for offer approvals before sending an offer. We have everything in the system itself, and everything is being tracked, which is very good for us. It is a reliable system, and you can use it for the full cycle of recruitment. You can really adapt it to your processes. When it comes to the configuration, it is easy to configure. Something that is good with SmartRecruiters is that they are always working on improvements. Every quarter, they have different enhancements or product releases, which is something that we appreciate."

"What I really like about it is that it feels minimal, but is also dynamic. There aren't a lot of ways to get lost, which is good."

More SmartRecruiters pros

Cons

"Customization in performance management is cumbersome."

"Like most software, it has a base version, the vanilla, out-of-the-box version, and customization is required to match it to the unique processes of each company. The Darwinbox team seems to be having difficulty with the customization process. They have to be a little more mature to customize it as per every company's need."

"The solution's API integration with third-party applications should be improved."

"DarwinBox is not a stable solution...DarwinBox is not a scalable solution."

"The filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager."

"We ran into some serious issues related to language barriers."

"Sometimes, there is this language or communication barrier in terms of what the applicants mentioned. SmartRecruiters sometimes has trouble understanding certain types of keywords or has certain types of language, translation, or grammar issues."

"I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Some features are not as straightforward or user friendly to implement."

"There were limitations with the system that we would have liked, not in the time, but the company in Germany really dictated that. So we couldn't do everything in the system we would have liked to it."

"The solution's reporting feature could be improved because it is not very strong."

"We require greater flexibility for customization with our employer branding. Currently, it is very much driven by the SmartRecruiters design. We are using a SaaS solution, so we are powered by what is in the core product itself. A disadvantage of being a SaaS solution is that there aren't many customization options because you are literally buying it out of the box. You use whatever is offered to you in a box as much as you can, and that might be a problem sometimes because customizations are not achievable. They should definitely improve and provide more flexibility for customizations. For a large organization like ours, they can provide more flexibility on the authorization side of things. They could create a much more flexible way of access and separate the IT or help desk access when they need to go into the system and do some fixes. Currently, it is set up in a way that that you have access for everything or nothing, which is not useful in terms of the separation of duty that we have. There are also other things like matrix, where we can have a better and deeper kind of analysis."

More SmartRecruiters cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared with SuccessFactors, there is no major difference in DarwinBox's cost."

"My company makes some yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to DarwinBox."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I wasn't involved in its acquisition, but I would assume that SmartRecruiters is pretty pricey."

"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DarwinBox?

The most valuable features of the solution are organogram and position-based mapping.

What needs improvement with DarwinBox?

Customization in performance management is cumbersome. Processes like six-month appraisals lack easy configurations, and any significant customization requires working with vendors.

What is your primary use case for DarwinBox?

Our primary use case for DarwinBox includes managing attendance, payroll-related tasks, and employee appraisal cycles.

What do you like most about SmartRecruiters?

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.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartRecruiters?

SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution.

What needs improvement with SmartRecruiters?

SAP SuccessFactors vs DarwinBox

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SAP SuccessFactors vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 19% of the time

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HiredScore vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs SmartRecruiters

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Product Reports

Cloud HCM

Download DarwinBox product report

Download SmartRecruiters product report

Overview

Darwinbox is a cloud-based, feature-rich human resources management system that emphasizes on usability and data protection. ... The software unifies all your HR processes, enabling you to be on top of your employees' whole lifecycle with a centralized, singular platform.

DarwinBox

SmartRecruiters social recruiting platform combines awesome free recruiting software with the best on-demand services to make hiring social, collaborative, and enjoyable. Social and mobile recruiting enablement platform that supports 1-click application submissions.

Sample Customers

Myntra, GVK BIO, Bisleri, Times Internet, Delhivery, Aarti

Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers

DarwinBox vs. SmartRecruiters