Lever vs Ashby: the short version

Lever and Ashby both do the fundamental job of an ATS well: sourcing candidates, tracking them through a pipeline, scheduling interviews, automating messaging, and plugging into the video conferencing tools your team already uses. Where they diverge is in what happens once you go past that baseline. Lever leans on a broad third-party integration ecosystem and has no native onboarding module at all, so that step lives entirely outside the platform. Ashby has just introduced its own onboarding add-on, but it's a new feature still in early rollout, and its AI resume check gives you a pass or fail rather than a nuanced score. Neither includes a native Chrome sourcing extension, so sourcing from LinkedIn or elsewhere still means switching tools.

Where Lever is strong

Lever's biggest strength is maturity. Candidate sourcing and tracking are dependable, mail automation works as expected, and interview scheduling is well integrated even if it can feel rigid once your workflows get more complex. Its real advantage is the sheer range of third-party integrations on offer, which makes it a sensible fit for teams that already have a stack of specialist tools they want to plug in rather than replace. Video conferencing integration is standard and works without friction.

Where Ashby is strong

Ashby holds up well on the same fundamentals: sourcing is dependable, tracking is effective, and its job board customisation, while not groundbreaking, gets the job done. Its integrations work well across the tools teams typically rely on. Ashby's more interesting move is its new onboarding add-on, a genuine step toward covering more of the hiring lifecycle in one place, and its AI resume check, while binary rather than scored, at least gives teams a first automated filter against job criteria.

The honest trade-off

Put side by side, Lever and Ashby are closer than a quick glance suggests. Both offer solid, unglamorous tracking and scheduling. Both stop short of native onboarding in any mature sense: Lever doesn't attempt it, and Ashby's version is brand new and still finding its footing. Both treat AI as a supporting feature rather than a core one, with Lever's scoring largely dependent on outside add-ons and its video AI limited to transcription and summary, and Ashby's AI check capped at a pass or fail read with no scoring of recorded video answers. Choosing between them often comes down to which integration ecosystem and existing workflow you're already closer to, rather than any dramatic feature gap.

The third option: Hirex

Hirex is worth putting on the shortlist before you commit to either, because it treats AI as core infrastructure rather than an add-on. Where Lever depends on third-party tools for match scoring and Ashby's AI check only returns pass or fail, Hirex's AI reads each CV against your actual job criteria and returns a clear fit score with a full breakdown. Where Lever's video AI transcribes and summarises live calls, and Ashby's notetaker does the same, Hirex goes further and scores recorded video interview answers automatically, breaking down strengths and risks per question so hiring managers get real signal, not just a transcript. Hirex's AI sourcing can also search LinkedIn from a plain-language description of your ideal candidate, and scan your existing candidate pool for people who already fit a newly opened role, something neither Lever nor Ashby offers natively.

Beyond AI, Hirex ships with a dedicated Chrome sourcing extension, a fully customisable job board with SEO and multilingual support built in, and native onboarding in the same platform, complete with tasks, buddy assignment, and cross-team automation, rather than the third-party workaround Lever requires or the early-stage add-on Ashby has just launched. Integrations cover the tools teams already use, including HackerRank, Codility, Hireflix, Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, and Slack. Most teams are live and sourcing within days rather than weeks, and Hirex is typically more affordable than either incumbent, which matters when you're weighing three platforms that all claim to do similar things.

So, which should you choose?

Lever makes sense if your team already leans on a wide set of specialist tools and is happy to keep onboarding and AI scoring outside the ATS itself. Ashby is a reasonable fit if you want dependable core tracking and are comfortable with a binary resume check and a very new onboarding module while it matures. Hirex is the better call if you want AI scoring and video interview scoring built into the platform from day one, native onboarding without stitching together extra tools, faster setup, a dedicated sourcing extension, and a price point that doesn't assume you need every incumbent feature to get real value. Given how close Lever and Ashby are on the fundamentals, it's worth seeing what Hirex offers before you sign anything.