HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Talent acquisition › September 2026 Edition

Recruiting CRM and sourcing

Asked as “candidate sourcing tool”, and as “recruiting CRM”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 44 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Lever
Contested
20% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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 businessPin23%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketLever20%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseBeamery20%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Lever20%0%16accepted challenger
02Gem18%3%39accepted challenger
03Manatal9%0%17accepted challenger
04Zoho Recruit7%0%11accepted challenger
05Pin7%0%11accepted challenger
06hireEZ5%7%30accepted challenger
07LinkedIn Recruiter5%23%26accepted challenger
08SeekOut2%3%34accepted challenger
09Workable2%0%11accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Juicebox0%0%24accepted challenger
11Fetcher0%0%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
Lever vs GemLever vs ManatalGem vs Manatal

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
P05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Lever20%
02Gem18%
03Manatal9%
04Zoho Recruit7%
05Pin7%
06hireEZ5%
07LinkedIn Recruiter5%
08SeekOut2%
09Workable2%
10Juicebox0%
11Fetcher0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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.
LinkedIn Recruiter
23%
6 of 26 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“**Declining Boolean search tools** (e.g., older LinkedIn Recruiter features): Reduced accuracy in regulated industries, leading to missed qualified candidates.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
ZoomInfo
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Why to be cautious: Built primarily for sales intelligence, not recruiting... complain about outdated or inaccurate contact data” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Beamery
80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“rarely have the massive IT/admin bandwidth required to manage heavy enterprise CRMs (like Avature or Beamery)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Bullhorn
38%
3 of 8 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Guard against the recruiting-agency products.** Tools like Recruit CRM, Bullhorn, and Tracker” DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase 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

59 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. 679 links across 212 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews44 answers · 55 citations · 10 models
metaview.ai
vendor site · Metaview30 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
leonar.app
vendor site · Leonar25 answers · 28 citations · 8 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin21 answers · 37 citations · 8 models
juicebox.ai
vendor site · Juicebox20 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
lever.co
vendor site · Lever19 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
sitepoint.com
15 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
intervue.io
vendor site · Intervue14 answers · 14 citations · 10 models
hiretruffle.com
12 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
gem.com
vendor site · Gem10 answers · 10 citations · 6 models
linkedin.com
vendor site · LinkedIn9 answers · 10 citations · 7 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.

selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/best-candidate-sourcing-tools
35 answers · 10 models
leonar.app/blog/best-talent-sourcing-platforms
22 answers · 8 models
metaview.ai/resources/blog/candidate-sourcing-tools
18 answers · 9 models
juicebox.ai/blog/best-sourcing-tools-for-recruiters
17 answers · 9 models
firsthr.app/compare/hiring/sourcing-tools
16 answers · 8 models
sitepoint.com/best-sourcing-tools-for-recruiters
14 answers · 9 models
pin.com/blog/candidate-sourcing-tools
12 answers · 6 models
intervue.io/blog/best-candidate-sourcing-software
11 answers · 10 models
lever.co/insights/best-candidate-sourcing-tools
11 answers · 8 models
pin.com/blog/candidate-sourcing-software
10 answers · 5 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 candidate sourcing tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which recruiting CRM would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top sourcing tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best candidate sourcing tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a candidate sourcing tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sourcing tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Gem, hireEZ
Three alternativesJobvite, Loxo, SeekOut
ATZ CRMChanged
Three alternativesBullhorn, Recruit CRM, Recruiterflow
no first choice
One alternativeContactOut
LinkedIn
Six alternativesGlassdoor, Indeed, Lever, SmartRecruiters, ZipRecruiter, Zoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniLinkedIn Recruiter
Three alternativesSeekOut, Workable, Zoho Recruit
HubSpot CRMChanged
Three alternativesBullhorn, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zoho Recruit
LinkedIn Recruiter
Five alternativesAmazingHiring, Entelo, Gem, SeekOut, hireEZ
100Hires, Zoho Recruitagainst: hireEZno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashGem
Four alternativesFetcher, SeekOut, ZoomInfo Talent, hireEZ
Ashby, GemChanged
One alternativeLever
against: Avature, Beamery, Bullhorn, Recruit CRM, VincereGem
Three alternativesJuicebox, SeekOut, hireEZ
Pin
Eight alternativesJuicebox, Lusha, Manatal, PeopleGPT, Recruit'em, SignalHire, Wellfound, hireEZ's Free Boolean Builder
against: LinkedIn Recruiterno first choice
Three alternativesGem, SeekOut, hireEZ
nothing named
Perplexity SonarGem
Four alternativesFetcher, SeekOut, Workable, hireEZ
LeverChanged
Three alternativesBullhorn, Firefish, Recruit CRM
no first choiceManatal, Pinno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastLever
Two alternativesLinkedIn Recruiter, Workable
WorkableChanged
Four alternativesGreenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Zoho Recruit
against: Bullhorn, Recruit CRMLinkedIn Recruiter
Four alternativesGem, Juicebox, SeekOut, hireEZ
LinkedIn
Seven alternativesBreezy HR, Fetcher, Indeed, Juicebox, Loxo, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choice
Seven alternativesAshby, Gem, Greenhouse, Juicebox, LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Coupa, LinkedIn Recruiter, SAP Ariba, SeekOut, Workday P2P (Procure-to-Pay) and T&E
Mistral SmallGem, Lever
Three alternativesJuicebox, SeekOut, hireEZ
LeverChanged
Three alternativesJobvite, SmartRecruiters, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: LinkedIn Recruiter, ZoomInfoJobin.cloud, Metaview
One alternativeFetcher
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashGem
Three alternativesLinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, hireEZ
LeverChanged
Five alternativesAshby, Gem, Greenhouse, Jobvite, SmartRecruiters
against: Beamery, Bullhorn, Recruit CRM, Tracker, iCIMSno first choiceManatal
Five alternativesGem, Google X-ray searches, LinkedIn, Metaview, Pin
no first choiceagainst: Gem, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, hireEZ
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceSmartRecruitersChanged
Two alternativesRecruit CRM, Tracker RMS
no first choiceManatal
Two alternativesJuicebox, Loxo
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashLinkedIn Recruiter
Three alternativesGem, Gorilla Search, SeekOut
LeverChanged
Four alternativesAshby, Bullhorn, Greenhouse, Workable
no first choice
Six alternativesAshby, ContactOut, Eightfold AI, Gem, SeekOut, hireEZ
against: ZoomInfoManatal
Two alternativesLinkedIn Recruiter, Metaview
no first choiceagainst: Avature, LinkedIn Recruiter, Phenomnothing named
Kimi K2hireEZ
Two alternativesGem, LinkedIn Recruiter
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIGem, LeverChanged
Three alternativesAshby, Greenhouse, Workable
no first choiceagainst: HumanlyZoho Recruit
Four alternativesGoogle X-ray Search, Juicebox, Manatal, Workable
no first choiceagainst: Clearview AI, HiQ Labs, HireVue
GLM 4.7 FlashXGem
Four alternativesJuicebox, Manatal, SeekOut, hireEZ
Jobvite, Zoho RecruitChanged
Three alternativesBullhorn, Gem, Vincere
no first choice
Nine alternativesAmazingHiring, Gem, Hunter.io, Juicebox, Leonar, Lusha, SeekOut, Wiza, hireEZ
against: Avature, LinkedIn RecruiterApollo.io
Four alternativesIndeed, Juicebox, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: ZoomInfo
MiniMax M2.5Lever, SeekOut
Three alternativesFindem, Gem, hireEZ
LeverChanged
Two alternativesJobvite, SmartRecruiters
Gem
Eight alternativesAmazingHiring, Eightfold AI, Juicebox, Lusha, Manatal, Metaview, SeekOut, hireEZ
against: LinkedIn RecruiterPin
Four alternativesFetcher, Gem, Juicebox, SeekOut
no first choiceagainst: LinkedIn, ZoomInfo
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 21:00yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:56yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1556 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:17yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:22yes3618 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:56yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:33yes1625 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:12yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:25no028 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:21yes1423 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:41yes1464 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:43yes717 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:06yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:47no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes1948 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:54yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:20yes2815 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:43yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:00yes2529 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:43yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:36no027 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:30yes817 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:29yes846 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:55yes822 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:46yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:27no06 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:34yes1019 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:48yes1910 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:24yes1810 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:04yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:59yes2158 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:57yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:53yes518 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:34yes1335 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:33yes965 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:26yes982 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:23no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:34yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:56yes1523 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:09yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:58yes138 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:56yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:53yes1940 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:08yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:17yes523 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:23yes516 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:56yes2089 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:13yes1327 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:33no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:59no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:09no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:13yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:48yes1411 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:32no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:38yes1862 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:15yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:48no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:23yes952 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:16yes1361 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:46yes519 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:45no03 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:05no06 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes2549 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:13yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:06yes2010 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:14yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:55yes1923 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:07yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:45no030 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:45yes2843 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:28yes2577 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:11yes523 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
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Unresolved, counted raw
Boolean search + people search engines
Firefish
Giig
Google Alerts
Google Hiring
Google X-ray Search
Google X-ray searches
Gorilla Search
HiQ Labs
Indeed Resume Database
Indeed Sourcing Platform
Pipl
Raindrop
Recruit'em
RecruitingCRM
Responsive
Sales Navigator
Talentlytics
Tracker
Tracker RMS
Workday P2P (Procure-to-Pay) and T&E
Zip
hireEZ's Free Boolean Builder
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.
← Job advertisingRecruitment marketing →