# Applicant tracking systems for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "applicant tracking system" and as "ATS", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/talent/applicant-tracking-systems/enterprise

**Standing:** Greenhouse leads with 42% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 55 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Greenhouse](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/greenhouse/index.md) | 42% | 9% | 67 |
| 2 | [iCIMS](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/icims/index.md) | 18% | 24% | 68 |
| 3 | [Workday Recruiting](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/workday-recruiting/index.md) | 16% | 22% | 67 |
| 4 | [SmartRecruiters](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/smartrecruiters/index.md) | 7% | 11% | 47 |
| 6 | [Lever](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/lever/index.md) | 4% | 11% | 44 |
| 7 | [SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/sap-successfactors-recruiting/index.md) | 4% | 21% | 33 |
| 8 | [Ashby](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/ashby/index.md) | 2% | 16% | 19 |
| 9 | [Avature](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/avature/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 13 | [Oracle Recruiting](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/oracle-recruiting/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 54 | [Oracle Taleo](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/oracle-taleo/index.md) | 0% | 60% | 25 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 54 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Greenhouse; alternatives Lever, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- GPT-5.4 mini: iCIMS; alternatives Greenhouse, Workday Recruiting
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Greenhouse; alternatives Ashby, Lever, Oracle Recruiting, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting
- Perplexity Sonar: Greenhouse; alternatives Ashby, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting
- Grok 4.20: Greenhouse; alternatives Lever, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting
- Mistral Small: Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters; alternatives Lever, Pinpoint, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Greenhouse; alternatives Ashby, Lever, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Greenhouse, Lever; alternatives Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- Kimi K2: Greenhouse; alternatives Lever, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Workday Recruiting; alternatives Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS
- MiniMax M2.5: Greenhouse; alternatives Lever, LinkedIn Talent Insights, iCIMS
- GPT-6 Luna: Greenhouse; alternatives Ashby, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Greenhouse, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS; alternatives Darwinbox, Lever

## Sources the answers cite

75 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- lever.co: 35 answers, 48 citations
- greenhouse.com: 29 answers, 38 citations
- pin.com: 23 answers, 24 citations
- geekflare.com: 21 answers, 23 citations
- capterra.com: 19 answers, 26 citations
- leadchangegroup.com: 17 answers, 20 citations
- pinpointhq.com: 17 answers, 18 citations
- forbes.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://lever.co/insights/best-enterprise-applicant-tracking-systems (27 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/guides/best-applicant-tracking-system (18 answers)
- https://greenhouse.com/blog/enterprise-applicant-tracking-systems (17 answers)
- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/best-applicant-tracking-systems (16 answers)
- https://matchr.io/blog/top-15-ats-for-recruiters (16 answers)
- https://pinpointhq.com/insights/best-applicant-tracking-system (15 answers)
- https://lifthcm.com/article/best-applicant-tracking-systems-ats (14 answers)
- https://darwinbox.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems-enterprise (13 answers)
- https://pin.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems (12 answers)
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Workday Recruiting: 15 of 67 labels negative. "Workday Recruiting (Proceed with Caution regarding "Base" Features) ... its native recruiting solution is frequently controversial in the enterprise space" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- iCIMS: 16 of 68 labels negative. "iCIMS Powerful backend, painful on the applicant side. Frequently described as 'overly complicated.'" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Oracle Taleo: 15 of 25 labels negative. "it is now frequently cited as a system to avoid for any organization considering a fresh start or a modernization project" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting: 7 of 33 labels negative. "implementation complexity (SuccessFactors: 12-18 month timelines)" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Greenhouse at 42%.

- iCIMS: 26% to 18%, −8. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 of 54, unchanged.
- Greenhouse: 37% to 42%, +5. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 1 of 54, unchanged.
- SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 13 → 7 of 54.
- Pinpoint: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 14 of 54.
- Lever: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 6 of 54.
- Oracle Taleo: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 54 of 54.
- Workday Recruiting: 15% to 16%, +1. Inside the floor by 12 points · rank 3 of 54, unchanged.
- SmartRecruiters: 6% to 7%, +1. Inside the floor by 12 points · rank 4 of 54, unchanged.
- Ashby: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 8 of 54, unchanged.
- Avature: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 14 → 9 of 54.
- Oracle Recruiting: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 17 → 13 of 54.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.