§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads ZipRecruiter on all 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters finishes 22 points clear of ZipRecruiter under rubric v1.0 — 62 (D) against 40 (F) — across the ATS-integrated and Sourcing cohorts. SmartRecruiters takes all 7 criteria and ZipRecruiter none of them; the nearest contest is Human Oversight Design, SmartRecruiters 62 to ZipRecruiter 55. One criterion, Bias Audit Transparency, is both the widest raw gap (SmartRecruiters 78, ZipRecruiter 24) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 18% weight it makes up 43% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 7 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is an enterprise applicant tracking system and talent acquisition suite whose AI layer (the Winston assistant plus SmartAssistant/Winston Match) screens, ranks, and matches candidates to requisitions to support recruiter decisions.
Vendor profile
ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter is an online employment marketplace whose AI matching engine sends employers' job postings out, alerts matched job seekers and invites them to apply, and labels and ranks applicants (for example as 'Great Match') in the employer's candidate dashboard.
§ The record
SmartRecruiters is filed under ATS-integrated AI, ZipRecruiter under Candidate sourcing 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 | SmartRecruiters | ZipRecruiter |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2010 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 43% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
SmartRecruiters 78 · ZipRecruiter 24
9.7 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
20% weight · 70% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
SmartRecruiters 70 · ZipRecruiter 40
6.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 82% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
SmartRecruiters 45 · ZipRecruiter 27
2.7 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
SmartRecruiters 62 · ZipRecruiter 52
1.5 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 93% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
SmartRecruiters 48 · ZipRecruiter 40
1.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
SmartRecruiters 62 · ZipRecruiter 55
0.8 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
SmartRecruiters 63 · ZipRecruiter 54
0.7 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +22.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 22.4 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +22 beside that +22.4.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is SmartRecruiters minus ZipRecruiter.
| Category | Weight | SmartRecruiters | ZipRecruiter | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 70 | 40 | +30 | +6.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 78 | 24 | +54 | +9.7 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 45 | 27 | +18 | +2.7 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 62 | 52 | +10 | +1.5 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 62 | 55 | +7 | +0.8 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 40 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 63 | 54 | +9 | +0.7 |
| Total | 100% | 62 (D) | 40 (F) | +22 | +22.4 |
§ 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 | SmartRecruiters | ZipRecruiter | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 1 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 1 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 28 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
SmartRecruiters has 13 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 2 documented absences; ZipRecruiter has 33 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 28 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for SmartRecruiters and ZipRecruiter sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 46 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains, and 33 for ZipRecruiter, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- SmartRecruiters last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- ZipRecruiter 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