Workable vs Ashby: the short version

Workable and Ashby are both full applicant tracking systems built to take a hiring team from sourcing through to an accepted offer. They overlap heavily on the basics: sourcing tools, candidate messaging, interview scheduling, video conferencing integration and third-party connections all show up on both platforms. Where they genuinely diverge is in maturity and polish. Workable is the older, broader platform with a wide integration ecosystem and a dedicated onboarding portal, while Ashby leans on a newer, more streamlined workflow that some teams find easier to live in day to day but that is still catching up in places like onboarding and browser-based sourcing.

Where Workable is strong

Workable's biggest asset is breadth. Its third-party integration library is extensive, so it tends to slot into whatever recruiting stack a company already has. Interview scheduling is strong, if a little inflexible once workflows are set, and candidate tracking is thorough enough that little falls through the cracks, even if it can feel over-detailed for smaller teams. The Screening Assistant adds a genuinely useful semantic match score to CVs, and the HR plan tier includes a dedicated onboarding portal with task tracking, which is a real advantage for teams that want hiring and onboarding under one roof from day one.

Where Ashby is strong

Ashby's strength is consistency. Sourcing is dependable rather than flashy, messaging is functional, and scheduling is reliable, even if none of these push far past what is expected of a modern ATS. Candidate tracking does its job well without much fuss, and third-party integrations work smoothly once connected. Ashby also screens resumes against your stated criteria automatically, and its Notetaker feature transcribes live interview calls, which is handy for teams that want a clean written record of every conversation without extra manual note-taking.

The honest trade-off

The honest trade-off is depth versus newness. Workable gives you more surface area: more integrations, a built-in onboarding portal, and a semantic scoring layer for CVs, but some of that comes wrapped in extra clicks and occasionally generic automated messaging. Ashby is leaner and often feels more modern to use, but it has no native Chrome extension for sourcing, and its onboarding module only just launched, so early adopters should expect some rough edges. Neither platform scores recorded video interview answers with AI, and neither turns CV screening into a fully weighted, explainable fit score. Both stop at pass or fail, or a single match number, without breaking down why.

The third option: Hirex

This is where Hirex is worth a look before you sign with either. Instead of a semantic match score or a simple pass or fail, Hirex's AI reads each CV against your actual job criteria and returns a clear fit score with a breakdown of why a candidate scored the way they did. On the interview side, Hirex goes further than either competitor: it scores recorded video interview answers automatically, highlighting strengths and risks per question, something neither Workable's one-way video interviews nor Ashby's Notetaker are built to do. Sourcing is AI-powered too. You can describe your ideal candidate in plain language and have Hirex search LinkedIn for matches, or point it at your existing candidate pool to surface people who already fit a role you just opened, all backed by a dedicated Chrome sourcing extension that neither Ashby offers nor Workable has fully refined.

Hirex also closes two gaps that show up clearly in this comparison. Its job board is fully customizable out of the box, with SEO and multilingual support built in rather than bolted on. Onboarding is native to the same platform, with tasks, buddy assignment and cross-team automation ready to use, not a tier-locked add-on like Workable's or a feature still in early rollout like Ashby's. It connects with the tools recruiting teams already rely on, including HackerRank, Codility, Hireflix, Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom and Slack, and most teams are live and sourcing within days rather than weeks, typically at a more affordable price than either incumbent.

So, which should you choose?

If you need a mature platform with the widest integration library and a ready-made onboarding portal today, Workable is a sound choice. If you prefer a leaner, more modern workflow and can tolerate a newly launched onboarding add-on and no browser extension, Ashby fits well. But if what you actually want is AI that explains its scoring, video interviews that grade themselves, sourcing that works from a plain-language brief, and onboarding that lives in the same platform as hiring, it is worth trialling Hirex before you commit to either.