§ The result
3 points separate JobAdder and softgarden.
Under rubric v1.0, JobAdder and softgarden finish 3 points apart, 45 to 42, as two ATS-integrated entries. JobAdder leads 3 of the 7 criteria, including Bias Audit Transparency, while softgarden leads 2, including Human Oversight Design, and 2 are level. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — JobAdder 35, softgarden 22 — and at an 18% weight it carries 55% of the weighted advantage JobAdder holds across the 3 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
JobAdder
JobAdder is a Sydney-based ATS and CRM for recruitment agencies and in-house teams whose Adder Intelligence layer, launched in November 2025 on LLMs hosted in Amazon Bedrock, gives every applicant an AI summary and relevancy rating and also drafts client-ready candidate overviews (Smart Floats), suggests skill codes, proposes record updates and writes job ads, alongside database skill matching.
Vendor profile
softgarden
softgarden is a German cloud applicant tracking system (multiposting, career sites, applicant management and onboarding) with optional AI features: AI-Assisted Applicant Matching, which highlights applicants who closely match a job's requirements, and a newer LLM-based Screening Assistant, which scores each applicant against screening criteria.
§ The record
JobAdder and softgarden are both filed under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | JobAdder | softgarden |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | AU | DE |
| Founded | 2007 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 48% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
JobAdder 35 · softgarden 22
2.3 weighted points to JobAdder
20% weight · 81% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
JobAdder 50 · softgarden 42
1.6 weighted points to JobAdder
12% weight · 91% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
JobAdder 54 · softgarden 58
0.5 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 98% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
JobAdder 56 · softgarden 54
0.3 weighted points to JobAdder
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
JobAdder 43 · softgarden 44
0.1 weighted points to softgarden
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 5 figures above sum to +3.6 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 4.8 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +3 beside that +3.6.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is JobAdder minus softgarden.
| Category | Weight | JobAdder | softgarden | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 50 | 42 | +8 | +1.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 35 | 22 | +13 | +2.3 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 56 | 54 | +2 | +0.3 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 54 | 58 | -4 | -0.5 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 43 | 44 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 58 | - | - |
| Total | 100% | 45 (F) | 42 (F) | +3 | +3.6 |
§ 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 | JobAdder | softgarden | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 5 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 7 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 24 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 31 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
JobAdder has 29 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 24 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; softgarden has 36 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 31 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for JobAdder sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 65 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 29 for JobAdder, across 3 distinct source domains, and 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- JobAdder last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- softgarden 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