§ The result
softgarden and Zoho Recruit tie at 42.
softgarden and Zoho Recruit, both in the ATS-integrated cohort, tie at 42 under rubric v1.0 by different routes through the criteria. softgarden leads 2 of the 7 criteria and Zoho Recruit 4, with 1 level, yet the two totals land on the same number. Human Oversight Design is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — softgarden 58, Zoho Recruit 50 — and at a 12% weight it carries 67% of the weighted advantage softgarden holds across the 2 criteria on that side of the table.
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
Zoho Recruit
Zoho Recruit is a cloud-based applicant tracking and recruiting platform whose Zia AI assistant performs resume parsing, skills-based candidate-to-job matching, match scoring, sourcing, and AI-assisted screening and assessments.
§ The record
softgarden and Zoho Recruit are both filed under ATS-integrated 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. Only Zoho Recruit is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | softgarden | Zoho Recruit |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Low |
| Headquarters | DE | IN |
| Founded | 2001 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
12% weight · 35% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
softgarden 58 · Zoho Recruit 50
1.0 weighted points to softgarden
20% weight · 58% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
softgarden 42 · Zoho Recruit 45
0.6 weighted points to Zoho Recruit
12% weight · 75% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
softgarden 44 · Zoho Recruit 40
0.5 weighted points to softgarden
18% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
softgarden 22 · Zoho Recruit 24
0.4 weighted points to Zoho Recruit
8% weight · 94% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
softgarden 58 · Zoho Recruit 60
0.2 weighted points to Zoho Recruit
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
softgarden 54 · Zoho Recruit 55
0.1 weighted points to Zoho Recruit
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to +0.2 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 2.7 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 +0.2.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is softgarden minus Zoho Recruit.
| Category | Weight | softgarden | Zoho Recruit | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 42 | 45 | -3 | -0.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 22 | 24 | -2 | -0.4 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 54 | 55 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 50 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 44 | 40 | +4 | +0.5 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 60 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 42 (F) | 42 (F) | - | +0.2 |
§ 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 | Zoho Recruit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| 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 | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 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 | 10 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
softgarden has 36 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 31 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; Zoho Recruit has 17 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 10 with a source URL, 7 documented absences.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 53 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains, and 17 for Zoho Recruit, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- softgarden last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Zoho Recruit last reviewed
- July 17, 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