§ The result
Mercer | Mettl and softgarden tie at 42.
Mercer | Mettl, filed under Assessment, and softgarden, filed under ATS-integrated, tie at 42 under rubric v1.0 by different routes through the criteria. Mercer | Mettl leads 2 of the 7 criteria and softgarden 5, yet the two totals land on the same number. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Mercer | Mettl 42, softgarden 22 — and at an 18% weight it carries 96% of the weighted advantage Mercer | Mettl holds across the 2 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Mercer | Mettl
Mercer | Mettl is an online talent assessment and remote-proctoring platform offering psychometric, aptitude, coding, and skills tests plus AI-assisted exam proctoring and scoring for hiring, certification, and L&D.
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
Mercer | Mettl is filed under Assessment AI, softgarden under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act and Colorado AI Act. Only Mercer | Mettl is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Mercer | Mettl | softgarden |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | IN | DE |
| Founded | 2010 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 47% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Mercer | Mettl 42 · softgarden 22
3.6 weighted points to Mercer | Mettl
12% weight · 68% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Mercer | Mettl 45 · softgarden 58
1.6 weighted points to softgarden
20% weight · 78% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Mercer | Mettl 38 · softgarden 42
0.8 weighted points to softgarden
12% weight · 88% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Mercer | Mettl 38 · softgarden 44
0.7 weighted points to softgarden
8% weight · 94% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Mercer | Mettl 52 · softgarden 58
0.5 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 98% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Mercer | Mettl 28 · softgarden 30
0.3 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Mercer | Mettl 55 · softgarden 54
0.1 weighted points to Mercer | Mettl
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -0.1 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 7.6 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads 0 beside that -0.1.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Mercer | Mettl minus softgarden.
| Category | Weight | Mercer | Mettl | softgarden | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 38 | 42 | -4 | -0.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 42 | 22 | +20 | +3.6 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 28 | 30 | -2 | -0.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 55 | 54 | +1 | +0.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 45 | 58 | -13 | -1.6 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 38 | 44 | -6 | -0.7 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 52 | 58 | -6 | -0.5 |
| Total | 100% | 42 (F) | 42 (F) | - | -0.1 |
§ 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 | Mercer | Mettl | softgarden | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 0 | 1 | — | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | — | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 7 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 0 | 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 | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 9 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 31 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Mercer | Mettl has 14 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 9 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.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 50 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 14 for Mercer | Mettl, across 2 distinct source domains, and 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Mercer | Mettl last reviewed
- June 7, 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