§ The result
Bullhorn leads Stepstone by 5 points.
Bullhorn scores 54 and Stepstone 49 under rubric v1.0, a 5-point gap across the ATS-integrated and Screening cohorts. Stepstone takes 1 of the 7 criteria, Post-Market Monitoring among them, against 6 for Bullhorn, whose share includes Bias Audit Transparency. The advantage Bullhorn holds is spread out: Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing (Bullhorn 58, Stepstone 50, 18% weight), yet it supplies only 28% of the weighted points Bullhorn gains across the 6 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Bullhorn
Bullhorn is a cloud-based applicant tracking system and CRM for staffing and recruiting agencies, with AI features (Bullhorn Copilot/Amplify, automation, and Textkernel-powered search and match) that source, screen, and rank candidates against jobs.
Vendor profile
Stepstone
Stepstone is a German job marketplace whose Stepstone Recruit employer platform includes an AI Screening Agent, which rates each application against requirements taken from the job ad, and a Talent Finder, which recommends candidates from a CV database of more than 4 million profiles.
§ The record
Bullhorn is filed under ATS-integrated AI, Stepstone under Screening AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Sourcing.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Bullhorn | Stepstone |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 1999 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 26% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Bullhorn 58 · Stepstone 50
1.4 weighted points to Bullhorn
20% weight · 51% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Bullhorn 62 · Stepstone 55
1.4 weighted points to Bullhorn
15% weight · 73% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Bullhorn 38 · Stepstone 30
1.2 weighted points to Bullhorn
15% weight · 86% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Bullhorn 60 · Stepstone 55
0.8 weighted points to Bullhorn
12% weight · 93% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Bullhorn 35 · Stepstone 38
0.4 weighted points to Stepstone
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Bullhorn 60 · Stepstone 58
0.2 weighted points to Bullhorn
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Bullhorn 60 · Stepstone 58
0.2 weighted points to Bullhorn
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +4.8 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 5.6 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +5 beside that +4.8.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Bullhorn minus Stepstone.
| Category | Weight | Bullhorn | Stepstone | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 62 | 55 | +7 | +1.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 58 | 50 | +8 | +1.4 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 38 | 30 | +8 | +1.2 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 60 | 55 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 60 | 58 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 35 | 38 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 58 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 54 (F) | 49 (F) | +5 | +4.8 |
§ 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 | Bullhorn | Stepstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 15 | 6 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 29 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Bullhorn has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 15 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; Stepstone has 33 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 29 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Stepstone sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 53 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 20 for Bullhorn, across 2 distinct source domains, and 33 for Stepstone, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Bullhorn last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Stepstone last reviewed
- September 25, 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