ICIMS Hire is an enterprise applicant tracking system (ATS) that supports core hiring workflows. With comprehensive support for screening, interview management, offer management, and onboarding, it is built on enterprise‑grade technology and designed to support complex, global hiring at scale.
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SmartSearch ATS
Score6.6 out of 10
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SmartSearch is an enterprise-grade native recruitment platform that unifies applicant tracking, CRM, onboarding, and reporting. Purpose-built for staffing and talent acquisition teams, it automates workflows, improves visibility, and reduces reliance on disconnected recruiting tools.
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Pricing
ICIMS Hire
SmartSearch ATS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ICIMS Hire
SmartSearch ATS
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Implementation pricing is determined on a per-company basis.
Starting price (does not include set up fee) - Pricing is determined on a per-company basis, tailored to organization size, configuration, and selected solutions.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Advanced Personnel Systems (SmartSearch)
Verified User
Chose SmartSearch ATS
I did not choose to purchase this software.
If you are someone who wants to go back and forth with the rep and customize a tool and reports that match your business then you will like this tool.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SmartSearch ATS
I would rate iCims as #1, Newton #2, and Smart Search #3
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
When we partnered with ICIMS in 2018, it met our needs. 8 years later, I think ICIMS can offer more. AI needs to be incorporated into its system to better service its customers. The other recommendation is that they should offer training and communicate more often with their clients. Their dashboard should also be improved to make it easier on the eyes.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
I think our environment has stretched SmS and their capabilities (positively) but we have grown together and developed an enormously capable system together that is now very well integrated into our business. For doing applicant tracking, requisition management and offer management that has really been strong. I think we can partner together and build some better analytics and reporting capabilities that would be better suited for our business.
My favorite: Workflow Auto-Process Rules. When moving a candidate to the "Phone Screen" stage, the system can automatically trigger a text message to them with a link to my calendar. Once they pick a time, it sends the calendar invite to both of us and attaches their resume for me.
It eliminates the manual emailing, making the company look incredibly fast and organized to the candidate.
The simplicity with which you are able to navigate the tooling. Very intuitive, requires little training and troubleshooting. At a prior company we were using a robust system which took me weeks to navigate and learn. As a hiring manager, this is such a drag as I am not constantly hiring people to keep the skills fresh.
ICIMS Hire is great at reporting on past applications. Whenever I have a new opening on the team, instead of spending ad money on social, I go dig for "star candidates" that applied 1 year ago, for example, and start there. I personally hired a returning candidate this way which is such a great relationship builder with possible future candidates.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
The search functions are outstanding. It is the reason we originally went with SmartSearch many years ago. The ability to do very simple or complex searches gives the recruiting staff great flexibility in how they look for and narrow down candidates.
The hire and onboarding traks allow us to create very specific processes we want our staff to follow to insure a consistent and repeatable result. I can create traks that can be very general or traks that literally provide emails and reminders to all of the players (recruiters, managers, candidates, etc...) every step of the way. This is particularly helpful where we have customers who have extremely stringent contractual guidelines that must be followed.
Support. Their customer support is second to none. We always joke that they are our favorite vendor to deal with.... Anytime we have an issue or question. They are there to walk us through it. The training is on target and the staff has always been friendly and more than eager to help make us successful with the tool.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
SmartSearch has a steep learning curve if you want to extensively use the features like automated tasks and the report writer
Technical support is spotty and sometimes very frustrating, they don't respond for weeks at a time.
SmartSearch user interface is old and has far less ability to customize the interface than other tracking systems
SmartSearch has virtually no ability to connect directly with other software and allows now other software to connect in - so no Microsoft Flow, no Zapier, no mail parser, etc. and since Smart Search capabilities are limited, not being able to integrate it with other platforms easily is unfortunate.
We would highly likely renew iCIMS Hire because it consistently delivers strong value across our recruiting process. It streamlines workflows, improves collaboration between teams, and provides reliable reporting and insights. The system is scalable, user-friendly, and continues to evolve with new features, making it a dependable long-term solution for our hiring needs.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I believe over the past 30 or so pages (or so it seems), you have every reason for my business to continue as a SmartSearch ATS client and user. The support is off the charts great the few times I need them (generally not even once per year). My business has been a client since 2004. That should say it all.
The platform is intuitive once configured and makes managing candidate pipelines, status updates, and communication straightforward. However, certain tasks—like custom reporting, bulk updates, and navigating between modules can feel a bit cumbersome and could benefit from a more modern interface. Overall, it’s reliable and effective for structured, high-volume recruiting environments like federal hiring.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
There are so many facets of SmartSearch, that to know everything about it is nearly impossible. While it is mainly straight forward, there is a lot. After using the program for a while, you become pretty comfortable with the basics and can start adding some of the other features.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
There is always ample advance notice before the software goes down for maintenance and this is usually done at off-peak hours. As for system failures - I can't think of any that have effected us in over two years od use.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
My license for SmartSearch goes back to 2004. It has always been available for me - don't remember a single time it was not available in all of those years.
We can think of no dissatisfaction with our daily use of iCims, involving its response time to commands or incompatibility with any other software we presently use.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Before pandemic and iCIMS Talent Cloud acquisitions I would give 10 without a doubt. Unfortunately, I see a strong decrease in the support model, which seems to be mainly connected with the fact that acquired companies/tools/features need to be integrated with the platform, and knowledge of newly provided services and tools were not yet incorporated fully into the support.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Once you get the 1 person on the phone they are very knowledgeable and tend to solve the problem. The issue is there are not enough resources to handle all the clients. Their primary clients are "recruiting firms" and I think that is where most of the their support resources go
I would say I believe iCims online training is very good. It's informative, visually appealing, and simple in explaining all the different aspects of iCims. I also really like the new candidate onboarding, and all the other training curricula you have up to be able to inform or send out to the candidate. I like you can attach a URL link for videos as well so you can really customize the training. I feel that overall, I would like to see more. Perhaps, more robust options with the training, if that's something iCims is expanding on in the future.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Using the basic functions of SmartSearch is an easy implementation. But consider carefully what your organization needs to really drive placements. Because we only did a basic implementation first, we were caught off guard when later trying to implement more functions and realizing that the capabilities were limited or were difficult to learn and implement and realizing that tech support was not going to be consistent.
Fully available automation, lesser bad data quality, more information is gathered at the time of applicant profile creation without having the need to ask for any follow ups or additional notifications. Integrates better with Oracle, Workday and SAP than other similar systems. Service tickets are resolved faster than other vendors we worked with.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Functionally, SmartSearch is not on the same page as ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter as a platform is much more geared toward helping applicants and is essentially a glorified resume database. SmartSearch offers so much more in terms of features and abilities, that would not really be appropriate to try and compare the two. Similarly, the overall use of SmartSearch is an apples and oranges comparison to LinkedIn Talent. LinkedIn is great for sourcing and attracting talent, but in terms of tracking candidates all the way through a hiring process and tracking a heavy volume of job orders across a variety of states and locations, the two just don't really compare.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
iCims is currently pretty good and the best TAS for us at our stage of growth - but further improvement and enhancements will only help make it even better.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
That's easy - they have helped us grown and make more money. The core element of their technology (e.g. the ability to search for, identify and contact candidates is excellent).
They are a business partner and do their very best to help us succeed.
