Vendors can pay for placement. They can't buy a score.
Every Index Score comes from the same place: hands-on use of ATS tools across Venture Harbour's portfolio companies, plus a close read of features, pricing, plans, documentation and aggregated user reviews — scored on the things buyers actually compare. Some vendors pay for featured placement; we label them PARTNER, and it never moves their number.
How we assess each tool
We don't score from a feature list alone. We've used ATS tools across Venture Harbour's portfolio companies for years, so for the platforms we run hiring on we know how the pipeline, automation and pricing behave once you're living in them. For every tool on the site we also research the features, pricing, plans and documentation, and weigh all of it against aggregated user feedback. Scores sit on a consistent rubric and get updated as products change.
What we score
Each tool is rated on ease of use and pipeline, automation and sourcing, collaboration and compliance, and price and transparency. We weigh the pricing model as heavily as the headline number, because per-seat and per-employee pricing behaves very differently from flat-rate as a team grows.
What money can and can't do
ATSLab is reader-supported. Some links are affiliate links, and select vendors pay for featured placement — always labelled PARTNER. Neither ever changes a score or a rank. See our full disclosure.