§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads BrightHire on all 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters sits 11 points above BrightHire under rubric v1.0 — 62 (D) against 51 (F) — with SmartRecruiters filed under ATS-integrated and BrightHire under Screening. SmartRecruiters leads every one of the 7 criteria, BrightHire none of them, and the closest of the 7 is Customer Documentation, BrightHire 62 to SmartRecruiters 63. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — BrightHire 50, SmartRecruiters 78 — and at an 18% weight it carries 44% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
BrightHire
BrightHire is an interview intelligence platform that records, transcribes and analyzes hiring interviews into competency-structured notes and ATS scorecards, and additionally runs AI-led screening interviews (BrightHire Screen) that score and rank candidates against customer-defined rubrics.
Vendor profile
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is an enterprise applicant tracking system and talent acquisition suite whose AI layer (the Winston assistant plus SmartAssistant/Winston Match) screens, ranks, and matches candidates to requisitions to support recruiter decisions.
§ The record
BrightHire is filed under Screening AI, SmartRecruiters under ATS-integrated AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773 and Colorado AI Act. Only BrightHire is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | BrightHire | SmartRecruiters |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2019 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 44% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
BrightHire 50 · SmartRecruiters 78
5.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
20% weight · 76% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
BrightHire 52 · SmartRecruiters 70
3.6 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 88% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
BrightHire 36 · SmartRecruiters 45
1.3 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 95% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
BrightHire 42 · SmartRecruiters 48
0.7 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
BrightHire 60 · SmartRecruiters 62
0.3 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 99% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
BrightHire 60 · SmartRecruiters 62
0.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
BrightHire 62 · SmartRecruiters 63
0.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -11.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 11.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -11 beside that -11.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is BrightHire minus SmartRecruiters.
| Category | Weight | BrightHire | SmartRecruiters | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 52 | 70 | -18 | -3.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 50 | 78 | -28 | -5.0 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 36 | 45 | -9 | -1.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 60 | 62 | -2 | -0.3 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 60 | 62 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 42 | 48 | -6 | -0.7 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 62 | 63 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Total | 100% | 51 (F) | 62 (D) | -11 | -11.3 |
§ Evidence
Cited sources and documented absences, criterion by criterion.
An absence is a finding, not a blank: the reviewer looked for a named artefact and recorded that it is not located. Where a source sits is a fact about hosting only.
| Criterion | Weight | BrightHire | SmartRecruiters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 16 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
BrightHire has 23 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; SmartRecruiters has 13 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 2 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for SmartRecruiters sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 36 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 23 for BrightHire, across 2 distinct source domains, and 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- BrightHire last reviewed
- August 2, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- SmartRecruiters last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
HireAIScore scores are editorial research, not legal advice, and no vendor pays for placement, scoring or removal — see the methodology, conflicts policy and terms.
§ Where next