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Greenhouse vs SmartRecruiters comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Greenhouse
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SmartRecruiters
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of Greenhouse is 3.5%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 3.4%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SmartRecruiters3.4%
Greenhouse3.5%
Other93.1%
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
 

Featured Reviews

CD
Recruiter at Emerge
An affordable and easy-to-use product that is really intuitive and is one of the most stable applicant tracking systems
The product is easy to use. It's really intuitive. The things are laid out well. The search function seems to be better than other products. When I search for a name, some of the applicant tracking systems struggle to find the name, and I have to keep spelling out the entire name. Greenhouse has a better search function than other products and finds candidates quicker. I haven’t had issues with bugs. I have noticed other products freezing up or acting weird for some reason. However, Greenhouse is a solid solution. It has a really nice layout that tells us about upcoming events.
Anudeep Kamuni - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Lead - TA ops & Analytics | Strategy Growth & Leadership at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees
Efficiently automates tasks but lacks certain features in terms of usability
There are a couple of areas of improvement. SmartRecruiter lacks certain features in terms of usability. For instance, we cannot move candidate profiles, interview feedback, notes, and activities related to one candidate when transitioning from one job to another. We have to manually copy and paste everything for that specific candidate. This is a significant drawback. Additionally, the filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager. This level of inaccuracy is unexpected for an application, especially for smaller organizations. It should have been corrected easily. Moreover, the CRM module lacks video reporting capabilities. These are some the biggest improvement I would like to see.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Greenhouse has a better search function than other products and finds candidates quicker."
"It provides very good flexibility to create filters. Therefore, I can look at candidates' progress across different stages. I can also follow candidates to get updates about where they are in the cycle."
"I think the ease of use is one of the most valuable features."
"The all-encompassing ability to manage the process cohesively out of the SmartRecruiter system was valuable."
"What I really like about it is that it feels minimal, but is also dynamic. There aren't a lot of ways to get lost, which is good."
"Job publishing and application tracking are the most valuable features. You can keep the flow of a candidate's application into one system. The whole collaboration can also be done within the system, which means that you can schedule interviews and add your feedback and ratings there. You can also communicate with the candidates. The analytics part of it is also very valuable. It is a useful feature that we use quite a lot. We don't really use other features such as recruitment marketing or CRM candidate relationship management in SmartRecruiters."
"It has a neat functionality built in where it rates candidates. So, before you even look at the resume, you see a rating, and it is based on keywords. For example, it will tell you that an applicant is a frontend engineer and has used React, Angular, etc. It gives you a heads up so that you don't have to go through a hundred resumes on Monday morning eliminating applicants. It will tell you that this applicant's skills match 87%, which is pretty neat. You can skip the ones that are rated 25% or something."
"I found the core product quite useful. It is easy to use and quite user-friendly. They have also got other options, such as CRM and HRS. They have other versions such as smart distribute, which is an HRS type of system to analyze and get permissions needed from the applicants. In terms of pricing, SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors."
"SmartRecruiters is a candidate management system or ATS system that we use for recruitment purposes."
"I used the free version, which I found valuable."
"With just a click of a button, we can manage the process. Even generating offer letters and obtaining electronic signatures through DocSign are integrated into this application."
 

Cons

"If we have to schedule multiple interviews in Greenhouse, we will have to schedule them individually."
"There are dashboards that I can see, but for pending things that I have to look at, it should provide alerts. For example, if there are 10 new people who are added to the job that I'm involved with, it should provide me with a chart or notification so that I am prompted to look at it. Currently, I have to go and look at the dashboard. There should be a little bit of intelligence to prompt action."
"Probably the biggest issue with Greenhouse is that the scheduling portion isn't very strong or smart."
"We ran into some serious issues related to language barriers."
"The solution's reporting feature could be improved because it is not very strong."
"One of the areas that we would like them to improve is the self-scheduling feature. They have a self-scheduling feature that can be made a little bit more automated when it comes to scheduling. We are trying to use it, but it doesn't feel very user-friendly. This is something that could be improved. They have launched WhatsApp connections in the system, where instead of sending emails, you can WhatsApp candidates directly from the system, but currently, it mainly works in a few countries. Spain, where I'm based, is not one of them. If we use the system, the phone number for the candidates would be from the UK, and we don't think that would be the best. This feature is good for some countries, but not for all at the moment. It was first launched in the USA and then in a couple of countries in Europe. It is not yet launched fully in Europe. Reporting is always something that can be improved. Even though it is working well for us, its reporting can be better. Currently, it is a little bit complicated when it comes to reporting. It has a few pre-made reports that are easy to access, but if you want more details, you need to build your own reports. In order to do that, it is a bit tricky to learn and understand how it works. Even though you have help agents and support for help, it takes some time to learn, but it is not impossible. We have very recently made some integrations with Tableau. We are building dashboards in Tableau where we can get daily updated reports, and they are definitely helpful. That's something we would recommend. SmartRecruiters has recently implemented an inbox. You can have an inbox where you can see all your conversations, but currently, it is not filtering between the recruiters, so you see everyone's emails in there. They have already announced that they are working on the filtering feature for a specific inbox to make it more personalized per recruiter. This way the recruiters can have an overview of their own work."
"There were limitations with the system that we would have liked, not in the time, but the company in Germany really dictated that. So we couldn't do everything in the system we would have liked to it."
"The filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager."
"There were problems with integrations around other systems and each one had to be custom-built, which took a little while to get set up and running."
"Around 2015 and into '17, I worked at a federal contractor. I had to switch to a different applicant system as I didn't know if SmartRecruiters was OFCCP compliant, which is something that, as a US-based federal contractor, you have to ensure. They should work to appeal to the contractor industry and get the product OFCCP compliant."
"SmartRecruiters' on-click application process could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is pretty affordable for startups and medium-level companies."
"The one thing I didn't like, and what caused me to move from Greenhouse, was that they wanted to bump us up almost 20% over what the previous cost was."
"They are pretty competitive. As the product matures, it has much more functionality and different pricing models. It can relatively cost a lot more if you want to use additional features, but, in general, it is competitive in the industry. We work on a yearly license agreement based on the company size. There are the support costs, which are a part of the additional cost based on the percentage of the licensing fee. So, it has a license plus support cost. Then, of course, there are other add-on options that we can purchase and procure whenever we want to based on certain negotiated arrangements."
"There were implementation costs in the first year to get everything set up and running, and then they have various modules on top, which are optional and available at an extra charge."
"I wasn't involved in its acquisition, but I would assume that SmartRecruiters is pretty pricey."
"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."
"Back in 2018, when I engaged with their sales, they wanted to charge around $10,000 for an annual subscription. Depending on your organization, that either could or couldn't be expensive. I personally think it's a fair price. However, I engaged them and negotiated a lower price with them. I think I got closer to $6,000. It came with a commitment of three years."
"I haven't been so involved with pricing, so I don't have all details, but I know that we are paying per head when it comes to different countries. There is an additional fee for new features that they release. If it is something that we would like to use, we need to pay some extra for it."
"SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors. Considering the type of features and services it provides, it is probably one of the best solutions in the market. Others may offer a similar price, but their services won't be that good or the user-friendliness won't be that great. The licensing works based on how many users are there in a company. If you are using other functionalities, like CRM and HRS, the price increases."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
21%
Non Profit
10%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Zenefits, Pinerest, Airbnb Inc., BrightRoll, Vimeo LLC, Evernote
Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers
Find out what your peers are saying about Greenhouse vs. SmartRecruiters and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.