§ The result
softgarden leads Zappyhire by 8 points.
softgarden scores 42 and Zappyhire 34 under rubric v1.0, an 8-point gap across the ATS-integrated and Screening cohorts. The 7 criteria split 6 to 1 in favour of softgarden: softgarden is ahead on Article 11 Technical Documentation and Zappyhire on Bias Audit Transparency. Post-Market Monitoring is the widest raw gap (softgarden 44, Zappyhire 28) but not the heaviest weighted swing, which is Article 11 Technical Documentation at 20% (softgarden 42, Zappyhire 30), 27% of the weighted advantage softgarden builds across the 6 criteria it leads.
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.
Vendor profile
Zappyhire
Zappyhire is an AI-powered recruitment automation platform that screens and ranks candidates through resume parsing, a recruiting chatbot, AI assessments, and robotic video interviews, layered on an applicant tracking system.
§ The record
softgarden is filed under ATS-integrated AI, Zappyhire 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. Only Zappyhire is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | softgarden | Zappyhire |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | DE | IN |
| Founded | 2001 | 2018 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 24% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
softgarden 42 · Zappyhire 30
2.4 weighted points to softgarden
12% weight · 43% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
softgarden 44 · Zappyhire 28
1.9 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 62% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
softgarden 54 · Zappyhire 42
1.8 weighted points to softgarden
18% weight · 72% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
softgarden 22 · Zappyhire 28
1.1 weighted points to Zappyhire
8% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
softgarden 58 · Zappyhire 45
1.0 weighted points to softgarden
12% weight · 92% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
softgarden 58 · Zappyhire 50
1.0 weighted points to softgarden
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
softgarden 30 · Zappyhire 25
0.8 weighted points to softgarden
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +7.8 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 9.9 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +8 beside that +7.8.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is softgarden minus Zappyhire.
| Category | Weight | softgarden | Zappyhire | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 42 | 30 | +12 | +2.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 22 | 28 | -6 | -1.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 25 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 54 | 42 | +12 | +1.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 50 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 44 | 28 | +16 | +1.9 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 45 | +13 | +1.0 |
| Total | 100% | 42 (F) | 34 (F) | +8 | +7.8 |
§ 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 | softgarden | Zappyhire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 7 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources 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% | 31 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 12 | 6 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
softgarden has 36 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 31 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; Zappyhire has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 12 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Zappyhire sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 54 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains, and 18 for Zappyhire, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- softgarden last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Zappyhire last reviewed
- June 7, 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