§ The result
3 points separate Stepstone and RippleMatch.
Stepstone holds a 3-point edge over RippleMatch under rubric v1.0, 49 to 46, across the Screening and Sourcing cohorts. The 7 criteria split 5 to 2 in favour of Stepstone: Stepstone is ahead on Article 11 Technical Documentation and RippleMatch on Bias Audit Transparency. Article 11 Technical Documentation is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — RippleMatch 46, Stepstone 55 — and at a 20% weight it carries 56% of the weighted advantage Stepstone holds across the 5 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
RippleMatch
RippleMatch is an early-career recruiting platform that sources students and recent graduates for employers' roles, ranks applicants with a 0-100 Fit Score built from criteria the recruiter configures, and adds verified skill badges, applicant review, interview scheduling and campus-event tools.
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
RippleMatch is filed under Candidate sourcing AI, Stepstone under Screening 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.
| Record | RippleMatch | Stepstone |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 2016 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 46% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
RippleMatch 46 · Stepstone 55
1.8 weighted points to Stepstone
15% weight · 65% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
RippleMatch 50 · Stepstone 55
0.8 weighted points to Stepstone
18% weight · 78% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
RippleMatch 53 · Stepstone 50
0.5 weighted points to RippleMatch
15% weight · 90% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
RippleMatch 27 · Stepstone 30
0.4 weighted points to Stepstone
8% weight · 94% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
RippleMatch 60 · Stepstone 58
0.2 weighted points to RippleMatch
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
RippleMatch 57 · Stepstone 58
0.1 weighted points to Stepstone
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
RippleMatch 37 · Stepstone 38
0.1 weighted points to Stepstone
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -2.5 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 3.9 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 -2.5.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is RippleMatch minus Stepstone.
| Category | Weight | RippleMatch | Stepstone | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 46 | 55 | -9 | -1.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 53 | 50 | +3 | +0.5 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 27 | 30 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 50 | 55 | -5 | -0.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 57 | 58 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 37 | 38 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 58 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 46 (F) | 49 (F) | -3 | -2.5 |
§ 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 | RippleMatch | Stepstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 7 | 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% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 7 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 7 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 35 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 29 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
RippleMatch has 42 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 35 with a source URL, 7 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 RippleMatch and Stepstone sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 75 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 42 for RippleMatch, across 5 distinct source domains, and 33 for Stepstone, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- RippleMatch last reviewed
- September 25, 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