Applicant tracking software: 7 things to check before you pick one
Last updated

Hiring software is judged in the moments nobody demos: the candidate who applies twice, the interviewer in another timezone, the offer accepted on its last day. Here are seven things to check in an applicant tracking system, with DEV3 Hirelane as the worked example.

1. Does the careers page belong to the company?
Candidates should apply on a page that looks like the employer, with only that employer's jobs, search by department and location, and job markup that search engines read. In Hirelane each company has its own theme, logo and optional custom domain, and a theme that fails a contrast check says so before you save it.

2. Can a card be dragged somewhere it should not go?
A pipeline is a promise: nobody gets an offer without the interviews. Check that rules are enforced on the server, not only hidden in the interface. In Hirelane a stage can require a scorecard, and a refused drag returns the card with a plain message.

3. Are scorecards blind until you have scored?
Seeing a colleague's rating first changes your own. Look for blind review that is enforced for every view of the data, including summaries and exports.

4. Does scheduling understand timezones and daylight saving?
Availability belongs to the interviewer, the choice to the candidate, and the clock change must not move an interview by an hour. Ask how holds expire and what happens when two candidates pick the same slot.

5. Is the offer provable?
Look for versions, an approval chain, a viewed receipt and an acceptance record that cannot be quietly edited. Hirelane signs each offer event into a hash chain and seals the accepted PDF.
6. What happens to candidate data?
Retention, consent renewal, export and deletion should be settings, not support tickets. Deletion should wait while an offer is open.
7. What is simulated?
Ask which drivers are real: email, virus scanning, DNS checks, calendar sync and billing. Hirelane ships simulated drivers and states which ones you finish yourself, so the limits are known before you buy.
The hero in dark mode — The same page in deep aubergine for visitors who prefer a dark colour scheme.




