What to ask an ATS vendor
An ATS decision isn't made by the demo but by the questions you ask beforehand. Below is a list covering price and contract, AI features and their regulation, the system's openness, data and security, process and the candidate – and finally the questions you have to ask inside your own company.
Price and contract
- What is the licensing model – do you pay per user or per company?
- Do we get a first-year discount? In the SaaS business it's legitimate to ask. Don't expect anything significant, but a small discount eases the start.
- Can we review the contracts up front? You want to see what you're committing to. Two are key: the Data Protection Agreement (DPA) and the service agreement.
- What is the exit strategy? When you end the relationship, how will it look and what happens to your data?
- Can you migrate data from our current system or from Excel – and how much will it cost? Some vendors provide migration within the license price, others charge for it.
- Are job-board connections included in the price, or charged for each one? And check with the boards themselves whether they charge for the connection – how to avoid it.
AI features and their regulation
- What additional AI features can we use?
- Which of them are subject to regulation, which aren't – and what do they commit us to? Ask for transparent information, not reassurance.
- Can you turn AI features off entirely? So our recruiters can't use them at all until we set our own policy.
This is where the biggest information gap tends to be. AI-tool vendors almost all say they're compliant. But the obligations fall on both the provider and whoever uses AI in hiring. And it's not just about where the data is processed – secure local models or tenants in your region. That's a privacy question.
What isn't a privacy question is a matter of AI regulation: what the AI actually evaluates in the hiring process, whether that's something restricted, and what regulatory obligations it carries. The applicable rules depend on where you operate, so confirm them with your own counsel.
The system's openness
- Does the system have a REST API – and can we see it? This matters: many vendors say they have an API, but you'll never actually see it.
- Do we get documentation for our IT? Give it to your IT department to judge whether they can connect, say, your career site. Or hand it to the agency that's going to build your career site – have them quote it and you assess the complexity.
- Do you support webhooks? When you ask about the API, ask about these too. They enable simpler data management: they let you know the moment something happens.
The advantage of an open API is that you can connect the system to your own BI, to an onboarding tool, or to an HRIS.
Related features: API · Webhooks · Career site
Data, security and privacy
- How do you handle data protection?
- What will the ATS need from us? Have this reviewed by your own IT security.
But don't ask only the vendor about privacy – ask yourselves inside the company too how you handle it. The same goes for security.
Process and the candidate
- Does the system have something like an SLA, so a candidate doesn't spend too long in the process?
- Can it measure candidate experience automatically, say via Net Promoter Score? The important word is automatically.
Don't be fooled when a system offers to have you send the NPS to the candidate at the end of hiring as an email template. That makes no sense.
If your hiring is decentralized and your recruiter can't even send rejection messages, they'll never send the NPS at all. All the more so if they don't do their hiring with heart but just rush through it because they have no time. That's why you need a system that does it automatically.
Related features: SLA on candidate processing · Automated NPS measurement
Questions inside your own company
- Ask your managers what they expect in terms of how candidates should be handled.
- Ask for references to the vendor's other clients. With them, focus mainly on what's talk and what's reality.
- How will the initial onboarding go?
But be careful with managers: don't be driven by old-fashioned opinions and don't let anyone dictate that you have to send candidates around by email only.
Frequently asked questions
What should you ask an ATS vendor?
Ask about the licensing model — whether you pay per user or per company — and whether you get a first-year discount. Request the contracts up front: the key ones are the Data Protection Agreement (DPA) and the service agreement. Ask about the exit strategy and whether, and for how much, the vendor can migrate data from your current system or from Excel. For AI features, ask not only what they do but also which ones are subject to regulation and what they commit you to: obligations fall on both the provider and whoever uses AI in hiring, and beyond privacy law it's mainly about the applicable AI rules for your market. Also ask whether AI features can be turned off entirely so recruiters can't use them until you have your own internal policy. Verify the system's openness: does it have a REST API, and will you actually see it? Give the documentation to your IT or agency to judge how hard it is to connect your career site. Ask about webhooks too. Then about SLAs, so a candidate doesn't spend too long in the process, and whether the system can measure candidate experience automatically via NPS. An offer to send the NPS to candidates manually as an email template makes no sense. Request references to other clients and, with them, find out what's talk and what's reality.