§ The result
Spark Hire leads Stepstone on 5 of the 7 criteria.
Spark Hire (Video interview) edges Stepstone (Screening) by 4 points under rubric v1.0, 53 to 49. Spark Hire leads 5 of the 7 criteria and the remaining 2 are level, so Stepstone is ahead on none of them; the closest of the 5 Spark Hire leads is Article 11 Technical Documentation, Spark Hire 58 to Stepstone 55. One criterion, Bias Audit Transparency, is both the widest raw gap (Spark Hire 62, Stepstone 50) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 18% weight it makes up 48% of the weighted advantage Spark Hire holds across the 5 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Spark Hire
Spark Hire is a hiring platform combining one-way (async) and live video interviewing with an applicant tracking system (via its Comeet acquisition), and adds AI features that score and rank candidates' resumes and one-way video responses to help recruiters prioritize submissions.
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
Spark Hire is filed under Video interview AI, Stepstone under Screening AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, EU AI Act, Illinois HB 3773 and Colorado AI Act. Only Spark Hire is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Spark Hire | Stepstone |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 2012 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 48% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Spark Hire 62 · Stepstone 50
2.2 weighted points to Spark Hire
15% weight · 65% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Spark Hire 60 · Stepstone 55
0.8 weighted points to Spark Hire
20% weight · 79% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Spark Hire 58 · Stepstone 55
0.6 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Spark Hire 62 · Stepstone 58
0.5 weighted points to Spark Hire
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Spark Hire 64 · Stepstone 58
0.5 weighted points to Spark Hire
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 5 figures above sum to +4.5 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 4.5 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +4 beside that +4.5.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Spark Hire minus Stepstone.
| Category | Weight | Spark Hire | Stepstone | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 58 | 55 | +3 | +0.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 62 | 50 | +12 | +2.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 60 | 55 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 62 | 58 | +4 | +0.5 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 38 | 38 | - | - |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 64 | 58 | +6 | +0.5 |
| Total | 100% | 53 (F) | 49 (F) | +4 | +4.5 |
§ 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 | Spark Hire | Stepstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 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% | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources 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% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 16 | 4 | 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 |
Spark Hire has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 4 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 Spark Hire and Stepstone sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 53 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 20 for Spark Hire, across 2 distinct source domains, and 33 for Stepstone, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Spark Hire last reviewed
- June 7, 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