Most software marketed as AI CV screening is an applicant tracking system with a scoring feature attached. That is not a criticism, it is a category distinction, and it determines whether a tool solves your actual problem. If your difficulty is managing a hiring pipeline, you need an ATS. If your difficulty is that three hundred applications arrived and nobody can read them properly, you need a screening layer, and those are different products.
This comparison is organised by what each category does rather than by a ranked list, because a ranking depends entirely on which problem you have. We publish no competitor prices: published pricing changes frequently and quoting a rival's figure incorrectly is unfair to them and misleading to you. Every vendor is linked to its own pricing page in the sources.
How to Read Any Comparison, Including This One
Four questions separate genuine capability from marketing language, and they are worth asking any vendor including us.
- Does it score against your criteria, or against a model of past hires? Scoring learned from who was hired before reproduces whoever was hired before. Scoring against published criteria does not.
- Can it show you why? A number without a rationale cannot be defended to a hiring manager, a candidate or a tribunal.
- Where is candidate data processed? A material question under UK GDPR and for public sector procurement.
- What breaks at your volume? Batch limits, file size caps and concurrency ceilings matter far more than feature lists once you are past a couple of hundred applications.
Category One: Enterprise ATS Platforms
Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever and Workable sit here, along with Workday and SuccessFactors at the largest end. These are hiring operating systems: requisition approval, structured interview kits, scorecards, reporting, integrations.
Choose one when your problem is coordination. Multiple stakeholders, structured interview processes, hiring manager accountability, reporting to a board.
Be careful when your problem is volume triage. The AI features in this category are generally assistive rather than evaluative, and several of these vendors are candid about that. Greenhouse's own writing notes that many platforms marketed as AI recruiting software are traditional systems with AI layered on, and that buyers should ask where AI changes outcomes rather than which tasks it automates. That is a fair point and it applies to the category.
UK consideration. Most are US-headquartered with US-centric defaults. Establish where processing occurs and whether the product understands UK constructs such as NHS bands or Civil Service frameworks, because generally it will not without configuration.
Category Two: Agency CRM and ATS
Bullhorn dominates UK agency use, with Vincere, JobAdder and Recruitly also widely deployed. These are built for the agency business model: client and candidate relationships, placements, margin, redeployment.
Choose one when you are an agency. Generic ATS platforms do not model the commercial side of agency work and the gap is painful.
Be careful when you need evidence-based assessment. These systems are strong on relationship and pipeline data and comparatively light on reading a CV against criteria.
Category Three: Mid-Market ATS
Teamtailor, Pinpoint, BambooHR, Recruitee and Manatal occupy this space, generally with an employer brand or careers-site emphasis and simpler implementation.
Choose one when you want a competent pipeline tool quickly without an implementation project.
Be careful when volume screening is the requirement. Careers-site quality and application volume management are different problems, and strength in the first does not imply the second.
Category Four: Screening Layers
This is where CVSense sits, so read the rest with that in mind. A screening layer does not replace an ATS. It reads applications against your criteria, produces a scored and reasoned shortlist, and exports that into whatever system you already use.
Choose one when your bottleneck is the sift specifically, and you do not want to migrate a working pipeline to solve it.
Be careful when you have no ATS at all and need one, because a screening layer will not manage your pipeline.
Where We Are Genuinely Weaker
Fairness requires naming this. A screening layer is not a full ATS, so if you need requisition approval, interview scheduling and offer management, we do not provide them. Our batch ceiling is 500 CVs per screening batch with 50 files per upload request, which is ample for most UK campaigns and a real constraint if you run single batches larger than that. We do not currently support multi-language CV parsing. And adding a second system means a second tool in the workflow, which is a genuine cost even when the integration is straightforward.
Where We Are Genuinely Stronger
Evidence classification rather than keyword matching, meaning each required skill is recorded as evidenced, claimed or missing with the supporting text identified. A per-candidate written rationale you can export and show. UK processing, with candidate CVs handled in the London region and no third-party model provider in the path. And sector rubrics for UK frameworks that generic platforms do not model.
The Comparison That Actually Decides It
Rather than comparing feature grids, run the same real campaign through any two candidates for purchase. Take one role you have already filled, with the applications you actually received, and check three things.
- Does the shortlist contain the person you hired, and if not, why not?
- Can you read the reason each candidate was ranked where they were, and would you be comfortable showing it to that candidate?
- How long did the whole batch take, including the manual work before and after?
That test takes an afternoon and tells you more than any comparison article, this one included.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do We Need Both an ATS and a Screening Layer?
If you have pipeline coordination needs and a volume problem, yes, and that combination is common. If you only have one of those problems, buy for that one.
Why Not Just Use the AI Already in Our ATS?
Try it on a real campaign and inspect the reasoning. If it produces a defensible per-candidate rationale against your published criteria, you have what you need. If it produces a number you cannot explain, it will not survive a hiring manager challenge.
Is There a Best Tool Overall?
No, and any article claiming otherwise is selling something. The category you need is determined by your bottleneck.
How Should We Handle UK Compliance in Procurement?
Ask where processing happens, whether candidate data trains any model, whether per-candidate rationales are exportable for subject access requests, and what the retention controls are. Those four answers separate vendors quickly.
What About Pricing?
Get current quotes directly. Published pricing in this market changes often and rarely reflects what a mid-market UK buyer actually pays. Every vendor's own pricing page is linked below.
The Honest Conclusion
If you need a hiring operating system, buy one of the enterprise platforms and do not expect it to solve volume triage. If you are an agency, buy an agency system. If your specific problem is that nobody can properly read the applications arriving, a screening layer addresses that without replacing anything.
We are the last of those, and we are not the right answer to the first three.
Vendor pages are linked below so you can check current positioning and pricing directly rather than relying on our summary. This article reflects our reading of publicly available product positioning and is not a substitute for your own evaluation.
Sources
Greenhouse. Greenhouse Pricing.
https://www.greenhouse.com/pricing
Workable. Workable Pricing.
https://www.workable.com/pricing
Lever. Lever Pricing.
https://www.lever.co/pricing/
Ashby. Ashby Pricing.
https://www.ashbyhq.com/pricing
Teamtailor. Teamtailor Pricing.
https://www.teamtailor.com/en/pricing/
Bullhorn. Bullhorn UK.
https://www.bullhorn.com/uk/
JobAdder. JobAdder Pricing.
https://www.jobadder.com/pricing
Manatal. Manatal Pricing.
https://www.manatal.com/pricing
Pinpoint. Pinpoint.
https://www.pinpointhq.com/
Recruitly. Recruitly Pricing.
https://www.recruitly.io/pricing
Information Commissioner's Office. Employment Practices: Recruitment and Selection.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/recruitment-and-selection/
The Stationery Office. Equality Act 2010.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
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