HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › Applicant tracking syste › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Applicant tracking systems for small business buyers

Asked as “applicant tracking system”, and as “ATS”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Breezy HR
Clear leader
41% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessBreezy HR41%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketGreenhouse47%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseGreenhouse47%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Breezy HR41%2%51endorsed leader
02Workable20%15%41accepted challenger
03Zoho Recruit11%9%44accepted challenger
04JazzHR4%8%37accepted challenger
05100Hires4%9%11accepted challenger
06BambooHR2%6%17accepted challenger
07Teamtailor2%7%14accepted challenger
08Manatal2%8%12accepted challenger
09Lever2%27%15criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Greenhouse0%44%25criticized challenger
10Ashby0%15%13accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Greenhouse vs Breezy HRGreenhouse vs Zoho RecruitBreezy HR vs Zoho Recruit

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Breezy HR41%
02Workable20%
03Zoho Recruit11%
04JazzHR4%
05100Hires4%
06BambooHR2%
07Teamtailor2%
08Manatal2%
09Lever2%
10Ashby0%
11Greenhouse0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Oracle Taleo
100%
7 of 7 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“"Enterprise-First" Legacy Systems (e.g., Workday Recruiting, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors)... terrible fit for small businesses” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Workday Recruiting
100%
8 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Small businesses should generally avoid or be cautious with enterprise-grade Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Workday” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Greenhouse
44%
11 of 25 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise tools like Greenhouse (too pricey/complex).” Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt
Workable
15%
6 of 41 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Workable is solid, but its published pricing is much higher than the budget options, starting at $299/month” GPT-5.4 mini, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

61 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 808 links across 192 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews38 answers · 51 citations · 10 models
capterra.com
37 answers · 45 citations · 10 models
ventureharbour.com
36 answers · 45 citations · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People31 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
recruitee.com
vendor site · Recruitee25 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
sparkhire.com
vendor site · Spark Hire25 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
uschamber.com
21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
hiretruffle.com
19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
100hires.com
vendor site · 100Hires18 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
techreport.com
18 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
zapier.com
vendor site · Zapier17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin15 answers · 16 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

ventureharbour.com/applicant-tracking-systems
36 answers · 10 models
capterra.com/resources/best-applicant-tracking-system
34 answers · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-applicant-tracking-system-for-small-bus…
31 answers · 10 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/applicant-tracking-systems
30 answers · 9 models
recruitee.com/blog/best-ats-smbs
24 answers · 9 models
sparkhire.com/guides/the-best-applicant-tracking-system-for-small-business
24 answers · 10 models
uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/best-small-business-applicant-tracking…
21 answers · 9 models
techreport.com/business-software/best-applicant-tracking-systems-for-small-…
18 answers · 6 models
hiretruffle.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems
17 answers · 8 models
zapier.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems
17 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best applicant tracking system for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which ATS would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top applicant tracking systems for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best applicant tracking system for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an applicant tracking system. What should we look at?”Negative“Which applicant tracking systems should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceDoverChanged
Three alternativesBreezy HR, JazzHR, Zoho Recruit
Spark Hire
Four alternativesBambooHR, JazzHR, Manatal, Workable
against: PinpointJuggleHire
Three alternativesBreezy HR, Spark Hire, Zoho Recruit
against: JazzHRno first choiceagainst: JazzHR, Zoho Recruit
GPT-5.4 miniWorkable
Two alternativesGreenhouse, Lever
Zoho RecruitChanged
Four alternatives100Hires, ApplicantStack, Greenhouse, Workable
Breezy HR, JazzHR, Workable
Three alternativesBambooHR, Greenhouse, Zoho Recruit
against: LeverBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
One alternativeJazzHR
against: Workableno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashWorkable
Three alternativesAshby, Breezy HR, Teamtailor
against: Workday RecruitingWorkableHeld
Three alternativesAshby, Breezy HR, Recruitee
against: GreenhouseDover
Four alternativesBreezy HR, JazzHR, Teamtailor, Workable
against: Greenhouse, Workday Recruiting, Zoho RecruitBreezy HR
Two alternativesJazzHR, Manatal
against: Workable, Zoho RecruitBreezy HR
Two alternativesHomerun, JazzHR
against: Workableagainst: ADP, Ashby, Greenhouse, Oracle Taleo, Paychex, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
Perplexity SonarBreezy HR
One alternativeJazzHR
WorkableChanged
Two alternativesAvaHR, JazzHR
Breezy HR, Workable
Three alternatives100Hires, JazzHR, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR
Three alternativesJazzHR, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Oracle Taleo
Grok 4.1 Fast100Hires
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
against: TeamtailorBreezy HRChanged
Three alternativesJazzHR, Workable, Zoho Recruit
against: GreenhouseBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
Three alternatives100Hires, ApplicantStack, Workable
Breezy HR
Four alternatives100Hires, JazzHR, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
Manatal
Three alternativesBreezy HR, JazzHR, Recruitee
against: Workableagainst: Bullhorn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Greenhouse, Jobvite, Lever, Oracle Taleo, Workday Recruiting
Mistral Small100Hires, Workable
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
BambooHR, Breezy HRChanged
Two alternativesAshby, GoHire
no first choiceBreezy HR
Two alternatives100Hires, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: 100Hires, BambooHR, Cornerstone OnDemand, Workable
DeepSeek V4 FlashBreezy HR
Three alternativesAvaHR, BambooHR, Workable
Breezy HRHeld
Two alternativesWorkable, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR
Five alternativesJazzHR, Manatal, Teamtailor, Workable, Zoho Recruit
against: AshbyDover, Zoho Recruit
Three alternativesBreezy HR, JazzHR, Manatal
Breezy HR
Three alternativesBambooHR, JazzHR, Workable
against: Greenhouse, iCIMSagainst: Breezy HR, JazzHR, Jobvite, Oracle Taleo, Workable, iCIMS
Llama 4 MaverickBreezy HR
One alternativeJazzHR
no first choiceChangedno first choiceBreezy HR
Two alternativesManatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Greenhousenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashJazzHR
Four alternativesAshby, Greenhouse, Lever, Zoho Recruit
WorkableChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, Breezy HR, Zoho Recruit
Greenhouse
Four alternativesAshby, BambooHR, Loxo, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR
Two alternativesHiringBox, Zoho Recruit
against: Greenhouse, Leverno first choiceagainst: Bullhorn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Employment Hero, Greenhouse, Lever, Manatal, Personio, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Workday Recruiting, Zoho Recruit
Kimi K2Breezy HR, Workable
Two alternativesJazzHR, Teamtailor
Breezy HRChanged
Four alternativesJazzHR, Teamtailor, Workable, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR
Six alternatives100Hires, Greenhouse, JazzHR, Manatal, Workable, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR, Dover
One alternativeZoho Recruit
Breezy HR
Two alternativesJazzHR, Zoho Recruit
against: Bullhorn, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
GLM 4.7 FlashXno first choicePrepzoChanged
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Recruit CRM
Breezy HR
Three alternativesGreenhouse, Workable, Zoho Recruit
JazzHR, Zoho Recruit
One alternativeBreezy HR
no first choiceagainst: Bullhorn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Workday Recruiting
MiniMax M2.5Teamtailor, Workable
One alternativeLever
against: GreenhouseWorkableChanged
Three alternativesAvaHR, Breezy HR, Teamtailor
Teamtailor
Six alternatives100Hires, BambooHR, Monday.com, Personio, Workable, Zoho Recruit
Lever, Zoho Recruit
Four alternativesBambooHR, Freshteam, Recruit CRM, Workable
against: OpenCATSno first choiceagainst: Greenhouseagainst: Oracle Taleo, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:04no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:17yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:19yes1423 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:21yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:07yes3619 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 16:58yes87 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:10yes1818 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:04yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:00no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:00yes1527 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:22yes1440 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:06yes1521 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:09yes139 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:00yes14 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:05yes924 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:10yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:18yes3717 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:19yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:03yes2029 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:06yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:03yes1064 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:09yes822 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:04yes1538 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:17yes1045 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:00yes1614 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:08yes712 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:00yes1920 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:16yes2012 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:03yes2215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 16:58yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:16yes1721 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:13yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:06no033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:19yes930 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:16yes2533 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:01yes629 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:00yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:03yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:13yes1116 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:02yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:14yes2314 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 16:59yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:09yes1829 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:21yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:20no040 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:22yes1017 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:07yes25108 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:18no036 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 16:58no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 16:59no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:17no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:09yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:00yes1511 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:08no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:02yes2474 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:16yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:05no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:14yes918 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 16:57yes933 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:19yes521 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:17yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 16:59yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:15yes1321 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:22yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:04yes4023 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:01yes1011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:18yes2647 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:05yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:02yes1781 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:08yes2935 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:13yes22122 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:14no010 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Breezy read as Breezy HR
Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand
HubSpot CRM read as HubSpot
SAP SuccessFactors read as SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting
SuccessFactors read as SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting
Taleo read as Oracle Taleo
Workday read as Workday Recruiting
iCIMS Talent Cloud read as iCIMS
Unresolved, counted raw
Google Form
HiringBox
Lovo
OpenCATS
Prepzo
Recruitee / Tellent
Recruiterbox
Reqcore
Talentlyt
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in talent acquisition

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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