28 AUGUST 2026 · 4 MIN READ

Which hiring systems companies actually use

Every application you send goes through an applicant tracking system, and almost nobody outside recruiting could name one. Here is what ten of them look like from the outside, measured across 685,153 live openings.

The last column is the interesting one

SmartRecruiters carries 30% of all the jobs we track from 1,119 companies — 184 openings each. That is the enterprise shape: a small number of very large employers hiring constantly.

Personio is the mirror image — 2,854 companies averaging ten openings apiece. European small and mid-size businesses, hiring occasionally.

Ashby at eighteen jobs per company is where the venture-backed startups are. Greenhouse, at 4,645 companies and 36 jobs each, is the broadest of the lot and the closest thing this market has to a default.

Why you should care which one you are applying through

The system decides how much work the application is. Some ask for a CV and an email. Others make you retype your entire history into separate boxes, then ask for the CV anyway. Same job, same company, wildly different amount of your evening.

It also decides whether a tool can help. Otto has a purpose-built handler for all ten of the systems above, which is why our coverage claim is a list rather than a promise — you can check it against the table.

Method: active postings in the Otto Roles index on 28 August 2026, grouped by tracking system. Counts the systems we ingest, so it is not the whole market — notably Workday, which gates applying behind an account and which we deliberately do not carry.