No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

SmartRecruiters vs iCIMS Recruit 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

iCIMS Recruit
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SmartRecruiters
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of iCIMS Recruit is 1.4%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 2.6%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
iCIMS Recruit1.4%
SmartRecruiters2.6%
Other96.0%
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
 

Featured Reviews

ManishGupta9 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director & CEO at Talenton Global
Centralized hiring workflows have cut time to fill and now need better automation and AI features
Implementation can be a bit lengthy and complicated, which is an area where iCIMS Recruit needs improvement. Customer support and automation are areas where iCIMS Recruit is less impressive, and they need to improve more on automation processes. Configurability could be a bit higher because some competitors might have an edge in terms of UX, recruiting workflow, modern recruiter experiences, and sourcing or CRM-oriented experiences. A native HCM is important because many times I have to integrate with different HCMs like Workday or SAP. Pricing is not very transparent, as sometimes I have to keep adding things and they keep adding more prices in terms of lower cost and faster implementation. Some user functionality can require too many steps. Customer support can be inconsistent sometimes, and I have seen some delays. The iCIMS Recruit support team does not always provide very proactive support. Implementations are usually very lengthy and they really need to improve their implementation strategy to cut down a substantial amount of time.
SUMANTA  GHOSH - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Recruitment Lead at IQ-EQ
A user-friendly tool that functions without any glitches
With SmartRecruiters, compatibility with other HRIS systems is an area with certain shortcomings that require improvement. SmartRecruiters is a tool that we use as an ATS platform in our company, but we manage the employee lifecycle with the help of SAP, and I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Everything was very easy to find within iCIMS Recruit, and in general, iCIMS Recruit is very easy to navigate and learn."
"I would describe iCIMS Recruit as a strong enterprise ATS where the biggest value comes from scalability, configurability, and its broader integration ecosystem."
"I could finally place all the positions successfully using iCIMS Recruit."
"The best features iCIMS Recruit offers are that it is easy to progress from sourcing to interviewing through the entire process, from sourcing and interviewing to rejection or acceptance and onboarding."
"The best feature that iCIMS Recruit offers is its customization."
"Overall, I am very happy with iCIMS Recruit."
"iCIMS Recruit's best features include the dashboard, the metrics, the graphs, and the link to our career portal and job postings."
"The solution offers good customization and good dashboards."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that amongst all the other ATS platforms that I have used, SmartRecruiters is the most user-friendly tool."
"Once we implemented SmartRecruiters, it meant that we were able to have a consolidated global overview of all the recruitment activities."
"It is a really user-friendly tool, and its implementation is quite wide. It is very easy to manage users and build your workflows. Overall, it works very well for the customization of the workflows for us. The recruitment team has generally found the whole platform useful. We were looking to kind of expand it by using the CRM functions that it has. However, with COVID and recruitment being on the freeze, we weren't really able to make the most of the tool. They are, however, finding it useful to actually build up their talent pools and client candidates to be able to contact them when we kind of have this freeze off."
"The most valuable feature is the way that they've set it up for collaboration."
"It is a really user-friendly tool, and its implementation is quite wide."
"With this solution, I was able to add diversity to my recruiting. I was able to source from multiple locations, and I could show where applicants came from. The reporting tools that are on offer, allowed us to expand our reach. We were able to add meaningful diversity into recruiting."
"SmartRecruiters is a candidate management system or ATS system that we use for recruitment purposes."
 

Cons

"iCIMS Recruit can be improved by adding additional features related to looking for attrition rate and seeing how many people actually stay within roles, especially for those high-volume roles that have high turnover."
"Recruiters have to spend too much time updating some of the information there."
"The customer support for iCIMS Recruit, specifically the technical customer support, leaves a little bit to desire, as with any other SaaS company."
"I know that they are very expensive and it's a long implementation process, but they're still my favorite applicant tracking system I've used in twenty years."
"iCIMS Recruit could be improved by adding a block to explain certain things."
"The customer support for iCIMS Recruit is terrible. I chose a rating of six because the customer service has been terrible, and we have gone through numerous account managers."
"iCIMS Recruit can be improved from its user interface."
"Customer support and automation are areas where iCIMS Recruit is less impressive, and they need to improve more on automation processes."
"The solution needs to work on a single sign-on."
"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."
"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."
"One thing that has been a bit of a struggle is getting tech support. It is a little more difficult to get support from SmartRecruiters. They want you to have your own in-house person to help you with any issues, whereas with both Lever and Greenhouse, you can just click a button at the bottom of the screen and chat with someone almost instantly."
"Some features are not as straightforward or user friendly to implement."
"The filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager."
"Sometimes, there is this language or communication barrier in terms of what the applicants mentioned. SmartRecruiters sometimes has trouble understanding certain types of keywords or has certain types of language, translation, or grammar issues."
"One thing that has been a bit of a struggle is getting tech support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"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."
"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."
"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."
"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 wasn't involved in its acquisition, but I would assume that SmartRecruiters is pretty pricey."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software solutions are best for your needs.
910,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
16%
Comms Service Provider
14%
University
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iCIMS Recruit?
iCIMS Recruit can be improved by adding additional features related to looking for attrition rate and seeing how many people actually stay within roles, especially for those high-volume roles that ...
What is your primary use case for iCIMS Recruit?
My main use case for iCIMS Recruit is as an applicant tracking system where I review candidates, disposition candidates, and set up candidate screening, which may be virtual or in person. I create ...
What advice do you have for others considering iCIMS Recruit?
The advice that I would give to others using iCIMS Recruit is that it is an ATS system that works well for applicant tracking and workflow process in general. It is easy to navigate, and I think it...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NorthStar Anesthesia, Southeastern Grocers, AmTrust Financial, RPM Pizza, Hackensack Meridian Health, Esurance, Peet’s Coffee, Regis Corporation, Cedar Fair
Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers
Find out what your peers are saying about SmartRecruiters vs. iCIMS Recruit and other solutions. Updated: July 2026.
910,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.