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.