§ The result
softgarden leads Mercor on all 7 criteria.
softgarden finishes 19 points clear of Mercor under rubric v1.0 — 42 against 23 — across the ATS-integrated and Screening cohorts. softgarden leads every one of the 7 criteria and 3 of them by 20 raw points or more, Data Governance Disclosure among them; Mercor leads none. Data Governance Disclosure is the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing at once (Mercor 22, softgarden 54, 15% weight), but it accounts for only 26% of the weighted advantage softgarden holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Mercor
Mercor is an AI talent platform that runs automated 20-minute AI video interviews and semantic resume/profile matching to vet, score, and place candidates and expert contractors, and offers an enterprise applicant-screening product that scores employers' applicant pools against role rubrics with pass/fail recommendations.
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
Mercor is filed under Screening AI, softgarden under ATS-integrated AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773. Only Mercor is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Mercor | softgarden |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 2023 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
15% weight · 26% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Mercor 22 · softgarden 54
4.8 weighted points to softgarden
20% weight · 47% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Mercor 22 · softgarden 42
4.0 weighted points to softgarden
12% weight · 62% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Mercor 20 · softgarden 44
2.9 weighted points to softgarden
18% weight · 74% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Mercor 10 · softgarden 22
2.2 weighted points to softgarden
12% weight · 84% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Mercor 42 · softgarden 58
1.9 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 92% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Mercor 20 · softgarden 30
1.5 weighted points to softgarden
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Mercor 40 · softgarden 58
1.4 weighted points to softgarden
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -18.7 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 18.7 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -19 beside that -18.7.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Mercor minus softgarden.
| Category | Weight | Mercor | softgarden | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 22 | 42 | -20 | -4.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 10 | 22 | -12 | -2.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 20 | 30 | -10 | -1.5 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 22 | 54 | -32 | -4.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 42 | 58 | -16 | -1.9 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 20 | 44 | -24 | -2.9 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 40 | 58 | -18 | -1.4 |
| Total | 100% | 23 (F) | 42 (F) | -19 | -18.7 |
§ 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 | Mercor | softgarden | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 1 | 1 | — | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 7 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own 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 | — | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 10 | 8 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 31 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Mercor has 16 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 10 with a source URL, 8 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 52 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 16 for Mercor, across 4 distinct source domains, and 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Mercor 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