Okay, look, each year vendors wet their pants waiting for Gartner’s Magic Quadrant to come out. The reality is that a lot of less-than-robust (err. lazy) researched professionals use the quadrant as their go-to to pick technology. Also, a reality, if I’m a CHRO or CPO, do I really have the time to go look at a bunch of tech or am I going to assume a trusted-partner like Gartner will do all of that work for me?
Honestly, in some past years, I’ve seen the magic quadrant and thought to myself, “Yeah, all the major players are there. Maybe some aren’t where I think they should be, but they didn’t miss anyone.” In the 2025 Magic Quadrant, I want to believe that either the analyst(s) that worked on this died or got fired halfway through the project, and someone at Gartner let this get out by mistake!
Okay – What did Gartner get right?
First, let me say, by Gartner’s own definition, this is a review of ATS technology for enterprise (large employers).
- Workday, Oracle, & SAP all have to be on the grid. They’re the big three by a mile. Love them or hate them, if you’re an enterprise TA shop, you probably use one of these techs.
- Cornerstone, Avature, and Phenom aren’t really ATSs. Cornerstone is primarily learning. Avature and Phenom are CRM, website, etc. Can you use them as an ATS? Yes. But most enterprise orgs layer them onto the Big 3.
- SmartRecruiters and Greenhouse are amazing best-of-breed ATSs with some larger clients. But most in the industry wouldn’t necessarily consider them large enterprise ATSs. Still, great tech, most TA teams would love to have.
- Darwinbox and PageUp I’m guessing are on here because they are mostly global players outside the US. They are not considered an enterprise, nor would I put them in best-of-breed. “Just because you name him Darren doesn’t mean he belongs to Darren” – Katt Williams
- iCIMS is another best-of-breed ATS that does a bit more enterprise clients. So again, makes sense they are on the list.
11 total “ATSs” on the Magic Quadrant. Seems super light. Was it too much work to get 20 or 25? I could probably give you 50 off the top of my head!
Who did Gartner miss?
- Eightfold. If you’re putting Phenom on this list, how do you not have Eightfold?
- Paradox. One of the fastest growing high-volume hiring technologies that many of the largest enterprise employers are already using today.
- Beamery. One of the best CRMs on the market that competes with Eightfold, Avature, and Phenom. That can also run as an ATS. So, why aren’t they on the list?
- Gem. Another one of these ATSs, CRM, we-do-it-all technologies used by large companies.
- Jobvite & Lever. If you have Smart, Greenhouse, and iCIMS, why stop adding other best-of-breed ATSs that also work with mid-enterprise?
- HireEZ and Seekout. If you’re going to put someone like Cornerstone on your list, both of these techs can be used as ATSs and would be exponentially more effective and useful.
- Ashby, Loxo, Clear Co, Workable, BreezyHR, Pinpoint, TeamTailor, JazzHR, Fountain, Humanly, and Bullhorn (I could go on for days). There are hundreds of ATSs on the market. The Gartner team didn’t even scratch the surface of this market.
- Infor, UKG, Dayforce, iSolved, all the Payroll techs. If you’re going to add HCM recruiting modules, then why stop at three? There are others out there who also work with large organizations that help them do their recruiting.
Gartner will tell you this is an “independent” survey of the market. No one pays to be placed on the magic quadrant. With all that said, I think everyone in our space gets the game. I’m going to assume Phenom actually works with Gartner and pays them for research reports, etc. But Phenom did not pay to be on the quadrant. I’m also going to assume that Eightfold does not. Why? Becuase these two are giant competitors! It makes no sense that one would be on and one isn’t.
Also, you’ll notice only one company is in the bottom quadrant, Cornerstone – which doesn’t even compete in the ATS space. This is done by design. “Hey, Cornerstone, we are putting you in the top quadrant for learning, but since you did a bit of TA, we’ll put you in the bottom for that.” But don’t worry, you sell learning. There are plenty of crappy ATSs on the market to put in the bottom quadrant! But, saying someone sucks, isn’t good for business.
Look, I love recruiting technology. Those who made it onto the quadrant all have good technology. There are also a ton of others that have good technology and should be on there. I’d love to know the analyst(s) who actually did this research. When I asked around to the 200+ people I know who cover this space, no one knew who it was.
I have to agree with you on this one, Tim. While Gartner may have actually done some research for this year’s report, the final quadrant read very bias to me. They did their readers an injustice by failing to provide them with true insight into the breadth of viable options on the market right now. As someone who just completed a six week discovery phase to select a brand new ATS system, I concur that there are ample vendors available. It took me several months of research across TA forums, peers and sites like Gartner, G2, Trust Radius, etc., just to pick the 6 vendors I wanted to interview!) I looked at almost everyone you mentioned here (except the “big three”-too big, not as nimble and too much $$). I would also say that the definition of ATS is not as black-and-white as it used to be, but more subjective now, depending on what your needs are and what the vendor is capable of providing. I was looking for an ATS/CRM combo, with incredibly enhanced features that would take me out of the stone ages (currently using a horrible ATS that was an “after-thought” as part of a Payroll HRIS system-ie: One of the “Three P’s”), and into the current world of Ai-driven, feature-loaded ATS systems, that are built by-and for-recruiters! After all the reviews and real-world customer feedback I’ve read over the last 5 months, I can say that so many of the vendors you’ve mentioned here are absolutely viable and worthy of a conversation for many medium to large organizations. You can get the same features as the big 3 at better pricing, too! At the end of the day, there is no quick/easy way to source the best vendor for your needs. You have to put in the time, understand what you truly need for your business and your end users, do your research, and be well-prepared with thoughtful questions, to ensure you choose the best vendor for your needs. PS: One vendor you didn’t mention was Kula. They were one of my top 3 and I was extremely impressed with them for their overall features, exceptional Ai tools, customer service and implementation support. They were narrowly edged out by another vendor that has a lot more experience onboarding large, high volume organizations. However, I would highly recommend Kula for small to medium sized companies.
Hey Tim
Hope all is well. I would argue that Gartner has done what all the other “research” ratings orgs have done – no research. I don’t agree with some of your comments.
Cornerstone, Avature, and Phenom aren’t really ATSs. Cornerstone is primarily learning. Avature and Phenom are CRM, website, etc. Can you use them as an ATS? Yes. But most enterprise orgs layer them onto the Big 3.
Are you saying that the technology is not ATS ? or that users/customers are not using it as an ATS ? Not sure what “primarily” means?? – Workday is primarily a Core HR product – and Successfactors was primarily a succession planning system. Avature has replaced over 100 SuccessFactors/Taleo/Kenexa /++ and now some Workday ATS systems.
Learn from the mistakes that you comment on. Real research takes real time and if you don’t do that then you are just the same as those you criticise.
Cheers
100% agree with observations and these are true for all king of Magic Quadrant published.
ouch!