SilkRoad Recruiting vs. SmartRecruiters

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SilkRoad Recruiting
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
SilkRoad offers OpenHire, a recruiting and ATS system. It offers recruiting access through social media channels, data security, and EEO compliance for mid-sized to large businesses. It is a component of SilkRoad’s Lifesuite product line.N/A
SmartRecruiters
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
SmartRecruiters’ Talent Acquisition Suite is a cloud-based recruitment marketing and collaborative hiring platform. It features an open marketplace for third party recruitment services. SmartRecruiters also offers talent sourcing and screening as add-on features.
$0
per month
Pricing
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Corporate
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
Global
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
SmartStart
Free
up to 10 active job postings
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$1,000
Additional DetailsThe software subscription is determined by the number of full time employees in your company. A one time cost to set up software, including customizations, integrations, data migration and training.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Considered Both Products
SilkRoad Recruiting

No answer on this topic

SmartRecruiters
Chose SmartRecruiters
I didn't select SmartRecruiters. Lever has better search, communication, and candidate management interfaces. Sonic has great customability. Jobscore workflow is intuitive and very easy to use. Jobvite's candidate experience is top notch. Taleo's metrics and reporting are very …
Chose SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters won our RFP process largely in part because of the candidate experience. This in conjunction with the dynamic nature of their product releases allows us to stay ahead of most recruiting trends.
Chose SmartRecruiters
It's the best of the bunch in that SmartRecruiters is modern, feels like a progressive tech company when you apply, thinks about integration and platform (and not just an electronic file cabinet) and there are a ton of bells and whistles yet you don't feel it. Whereas with a …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
SilkRoad Recruiting
6.8
14 Ratings
16% below category average
SmartRecruiters
8.3
127 Ratings
4% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.214 Ratings9.2109 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.714 Ratings9.7114 Ratings
Publish to Social Media7.812 Ratings7.6112 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.813 Ratings8.1116 Ratings
Customized Application Form5.212 Ratings8.6104 Ratings
Resume Management7.014 Ratings7.8119 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.213 Ratings7.9114 Ratings
Candidate Search8.714 Ratings8.4122 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.014 Ratings9.3126 Ratings
Collaboration8.014 Ratings8.2117 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation7.310 Ratings9.197 Ratings
Email Templates5.714 Ratings8.5114 Ratings
User Permissions3.714 Ratings8.8109 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts4.714 Ratings9.3119 Ratings
Reporting4.714 Ratings4.6105 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Small Businesses
Recruit CRM
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Score 9.5 out of 10
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Vibe HCM
Vibe HCM
Score 4.4 out of 10
Vibe HCM
Vibe HCM
Score 4.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
6.2
(30 ratings)
7.8
(129 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.0
(12 ratings)
6.0
(15 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(12 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(12 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
SilkRoad RecruitingSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
SilkRoad
I think OpenHire is best for a small company (max about 2500 employees). The more employees you have the more HR people you should have and this can get expensive. I know most larger companies are using more advanced systems as well (Workday). During the selection process be sure to determine how many OpenHire users you would need. Ask whether your managers will be willing to work in the system as well or whether HR would have to own the entire process. If you are EEOC compliant, make sure you ask about diversity posting, APP tracking of applicants, and reporting needs. If you require an onboarding tool, SilkRoad offers RedCarpet. I found it to be very complex and hiring managers refused to use it. If you require an onboarding tool, definitely look into it. The demo may look great but there were a lot of implementation steps done to make it work and it just didn't fit our company culture. So make sure it fits yours.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters has allowed us to enable our hiring managers to self-service their requirements for recruitment, simplifying our internal processes. We have visibility of recruitment requirements and significantly improved our approvals process using the software. We have been able to configure our hiring processes relevant to different areas of the business. Collaboration for our hiring teams (managers and business partners) is simple and effective. Candidate experience is enhanced and engaging. The platform has brought many benefits to our Resourcing business partners and hiring managers. We have visibility and insightful data which has integrity, allowing us to make informed business decisions. Our offer process has seen significant improvements and provides an engaging candidate experience, previously this was a labour-intensive process that is now streamlined and automated. The recently launched Community for collaboration amongst customers is very helpful and insigtful for how other people are using the software and exploring ideas with each other
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Pros
SilkRoad
  • The ease of use when it comes to create requisitions from a hiring managers side of things is definitely a positive. It's very much user intuitive and the specifications can be completely customized as to what a company would like to appear within said requisition.
  • Candidate correspondence is an absolute breeze as you can custom load templates into the system that can be edited at any time through an administrator in your company instead of having to go through a technical support team on the other side of things.
  • Overall, it's a pretty no muss no fuss system to use as there's not a great layer of complication about it and like most things, spaced practice and consistent exposure to it tend to iron out those rough edges. From an administration standpoint, adding in locations and hiring managers is incredibly simplistic along with reporting functionality.
  • Candidate folders have come a long way in the system and are much more user friendly at this point than when I began using the system some four years ago. It's very easy to shift candidate profiles between folders and edit on the fly.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
  • Job Referrals - can easily refer others to a job posting and view the status
  • Job Postings - can easily search for job openings and read job description and criteria
  • Application online - Can easily apply for the job directly and see who the hiring manager and hiring recruiter is
Read full review
Cons
SilkRoad
  • OpenHire's user roles can create issues depending on how your company's hiring process flows. For example, at one company, the hiring managers were extremely involved in screening candidates yet the system seems very geared towards use of centralized recruiters who distribute candidates. The lack of ability to customize roles and security to match our managers' needs created additional burden on HR as well as frustration from hiring managers.
  • I experienced several problems uploading documents to accompany a candidate's offer. There was a limit on the number, size and type of attachments that could be included, and there was no alternative (as vetted with OpenHire) besides sending a separate correspondence to the candidate. I found this to appear unprofessional to the candidate as well as creating an extra step in the process for HR/recruiting.
  • The requisition process had a few issues which created inefficiencies in the process. Firstly, for times when you need to post a role confidentially outside of your standard process, there was no way to designate the req as 'confidential'. Instead, you had to use the 'executive' status which created issues (ie: inaccurate data in reporting). Secondly, OpenHire was unable to upload the company directory of emails in the requisition approver fields so rather than being able to select from a drop-down or using a 'smart' field, you had to type each approver's email out manually thus increasing the potential for error and delay in the process.
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SmartRecruiters
  • Settings page can be difficult to navigate & find what you're looking for
  • Job approval chains would be better with additional qualifying fields so that we can segregate different areas of the business better
  • The ability to edit an existing offer template in-system would improve the experience, rather than having to edit offline and upload a whole new version.
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Likelihood to Renew
SilkRoad
It was a great solution for the company in all aspects, especially the cost. The company was not in a position to afford a solution such as Oracle PeopleSoft. The only reason we did not renew OpenHire was we got acquired by a much larger organization and started utilizing the tools that the parent company had available
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SmartRecruiters
I thoroughly enjoy using SmartRecruiters and have shared this feedback with those responsible, however I am not a decision maker in the process. I understand that at the moment there are lots of factors affecting the economy and business outcomes, so I cannot comment with certainty on the renewal of SmartRecruiters at this time, not involved in the confirmation of renewal.
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Usability
SilkRoad
It's not a bad system to use, there just seems to be so much click through to get one task achieved. Once you know all the little routes and pieces it gets easier.
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SmartRecruiters
I would give this rating as overall it a great combo of all your problems. With just one click you can get away with all your problems such as recruitment, candidate update, Interview scheduling, updating candidates, reports of a job perspective, and recruiters perspective. Usability is worth of SmartRecruiters. The dashboard is also very attractive and once you open you will love working on this platform again and again. I would say it is the best platform to use once for smooth work in your organization.
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Reliability and Availability
SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
Read full review
Performance
SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
Read full review
Support Rating
SilkRoad
The support for Silkroad is awful. I know they are working on it and it seems to be slightly better but it's still not great. I have had multiple cases I have never heard from them on, others I have had to follow-up multiple times and one that took a year
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SmartRecruiters
Response is normally very fast. There are times, however, when the response is not useful. It is difficult to work with the reporting and the offer letter templates, and the front line support agents usually are not very knowledgeable. Second, if there are any issues with integrations, the regular support agents will not be able to help you. You'll have to create that ticket and ask them to escalate it to an integration specialist.
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In-Person Training
SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
Quick and easy to learn.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
SilkRoad
NeoGov is a more simple system but just being able to require specific documents has been a huge time saver for us. Other elements in NeoGov aren't as robust but still it saves me a lot of time compared to OpenHire.
Read full review
SmartRecruiters
I've really enjoyed using SmartRecruiters, but these other ATSs that we've checked out offer better reporting features and price points. Over time, we may be transitioning off of SmartRecruiters to one of these ATSs because the price is a set price where SmartRecruiters has employee-based pricing model. Also, these other software products offer better reporting features that would eliminate some of our manual tracking process that we're currently doing.
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Scalability
SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
SmartRecruiters
No explanation really, just a great product.
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Return on Investment
SilkRoad
  • The cost was very high
  • It made managers more involved in the process
  • It got managers involved earlier than they had been in the past
  • It forced managers to stay involved in their recruiting and not just wait for HR to hire someone
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SmartRecruiters
  • In terms of ROI, SR helped our business greatly in returning precious time to my productivity in business management, as well as my team's, so that we could get back to the main work we were hired for. The SR process did most of the heavy lifting.
Read full review
ScreenShots

SmartRecruiters Screenshots

Screenshot of A candidate experience to  reach, engage, and connect with talent wherever they are.Screenshot of Engaged hiring managers empowered by collaboration tools and applicant tracking to drive better hiring decisions.Screenshot of Digital offer management, onboarding, and reporting deliver a seamless journey for new hires and recruiters.Screenshot of SmartRecruiters eases the burden of juggling multiple open roles and hiring large volumes.Screenshot of Frees up hiring teams to focus on making great hires and delivering a better candidate experience by automating routine tasks.Screenshot of Find and discover qualified talent while getting the most from the advertising budget.