If you're shopping for AI recruiting tools right now, you've probably come across HireEZ and SeekOut. They're the two big names that keep coming up. And then maybe you stumbled across Screener AI and wondered how it fits in.
Here's the honest answer: these three tools solve different problems. Comparing them head-to-head is a bit like comparing a car, a motorcycle, and a bicycle. They all get you somewhere, but the right choice depends on where you're going.
Let me break down each one so you can figure out which actually fits your workflow.
Quick take
HireEZ and SeekOut are primarily sourcing platforms. They help you find candidates. Screener AI is a screening platform. It helps you evaluate candidates you've already found. Different problems, different tools.
HireEZ: The AI Sourcing Powerhouse
HireEZ (formerly Hiretual) is an AI-powered sourcing and recruitment platform. Its whole thing is helping you find candidates across the internet and engage them. Think of it as a turbocharged candidate discovery engine.
What HireEZ does well
- Massive candidate database. Access to 800M+ profiles pulled from LinkedIn, GitHub, and 40+ other sources across the open web.
- Agentic AI sourcing. You give it a job description and it finds relevant candidates using semantic understanding, not just keywords. It reads full resumes and highlights relevant experience.
- Automated engagement. Built-in email sequencing, automated scheduling, and an AI agent that handles candidate communication.
- Recruitment analytics. Dashboards tracking recruiter KPIs, conversion rates, and hiring funnel performance.
- Market intelligence. Salary benchmarks, workforce demographics, competitor hiring activity.
Where HireEZ falls short
- Pricing is steep. Plans start around $169/user/month billed annually, with enterprise deals running $13K-$48K/year. You have to talk to sales to get exact numbers.
- It's a sourcing tool at heart.Great at finding people, but the actual screening and evaluation of candidates isn't as deep. You still need to review candidates yourself.
- Data can be stale. Since profiles are scraped periodically rather than pulled live, some candidate info may be months old.
- Overkill for small teams.If you're a solo recruiter or small agency, the feature set (and price tag) is probably more than you need.
SeekOut: The Talent Intelligence Platform
SeekOut positions itself as a talent intelligence platform. It started strong in technical recruiting (searching GitHub, patents, publications) and has expanded into diversity hiring and internal mobility.
What SeekOut does well
- Huge profile database. Over 1 billion candidate profiles aggregated from LinkedIn, GitHub, academic publications, patents, and more.
- Diversity hiring filters. Industry-leading DEI filters for sourcing by gender, ethnicity, veteran status, and other underrepresented group indicators. This is a real differentiator.
- Deep technical sourcing. Excellent for finding engineers. It indexes GitHub contributions, patents, and academic papers, so you can find people based on actual technical work.
- Internal mobility. SeekOut Grow helps companies identify existing employees for open roles, which is a completely different use case from external recruiting.
- AI-powered workspaces. Organizes your search, candidate evaluations, shortlists, and outreach for each role in one place.
Where SeekOut falls short
- Also expensive. Contracts range from $10K to $90K+ per year, with the average around $27K. Again, sales call required.
- No built-in messaging for some channels. Lacks InMail or text messaging, so you may need separate tools to actually reach candidates.
- Same stale data issue. Like HireEZ, profiles are scraped periodically. Info can be outdated.
- Enterprise-focused. Designed for large talent acquisition teams. The 750+ customers are mostly big companies, not independent recruiters or small agencies.
Screener AI: The Screening and Scoring Specialist
Full disclosure: this is us. But I'll keep it honest.
Screener AI doesn't help you find candidates. It helps you evaluate the ones you've already found. You bring LinkedIn URLs, it pulls live profile data, and AI scores every candidate against your criteria with written reasoning.
What Screener AI does well
- Plain English screening.Describe what you want like you'd text a colleague. No Boolean, no filters, no checkboxes. The AI understands nuance and context.
- Detailed scoring with reasoning. Every candidate gets a 0-100 score, a fit level, and written reasoning explaining exactly why. You can audit every decision.
- Live data.Profile data is pulled in real time, not scraped months ago. You're evaluating current information.
- Anonymous sharing. Built-in blind candidate presentation mode. Share scored shortlists with clients while hiding names and companies. Huge for staffing agencies.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing. No subscription. No annual contract. Buy credits, use them when you need them. Starts at $9 for 300 credits.
- Re-screening. Same candidate pool, different criteria. Just change the prompt and run it again. Only costs screening credits.
Where Screener AI falls short
- Not a sourcing tool.You need to find candidates yourself (LinkedIn Recruiter, job boards, your ATS, wherever) and bring their URLs in. It doesn't discover candidates for you.
- No built-in outreach.No email sequences, no scheduling, no CRM. It scores and screens. That's it.
- Newer platform. HireEZ and SeekOut have been around longer with larger enterprise customer bases.
The Comparison Table
Here's the side-by-side breakdown.
| Feature | HireEZ | SeekOut | Screener AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary function | Sourcing & engagement | Sourcing & talent intelligence | Screening & scoring |
| Candidate database | 800M+ profiles | 1B+ profiles | You bring URLs (live data pull) |
| AI candidate scoring | Basic fit ranking | Basic fit ranking | 0-100 score with written reasoning |
| Plain English criteria | Job description input | Conversational search | Full natural language prompts |
| Data freshness | Periodically scraped | Periodically scraped | Pulled live per request |
| Anonymous sharing | No | No | Yes, built-in |
| Email outreach | Yes, automated sequences | Yes (limited channels) | No |
| Diversity filters | Basic | Industry-leading DEI tools | Via screening prompt |
| Internal mobility | No | Yes (SeekOut Grow) | No |
| Re-screen same candidates | New search needed | New search needed | Yes, just change the prompt |
| Pricing model | Per user/month (annual) | Annual contract | Pay-as-you-go credits |
| Starting cost | ~$169/user/month | ~$10K/year | $9 for 300 credits |
| Free trial | Demo only | Demo only | 50 free credits on signup |
| Best for | Large TA teams needing sourcing at scale | Enterprise diversity hiring & technical recruiting | Recruiters who need fast, affordable screening |
So Which One Should You Pick?
It depends on what problem you're actually trying to solve.
Pick HireEZ if:
You need to find candidates, not just evaluate them. You want a platform that handles sourcing, engagement, email outreach, and analytics all in one place. You have the budget for $13K+ per year and a team that will use all the features. HireEZ is built for medium-to-large recruiting teams that want one platform for their entire outbound recruiting workflow.
Pick SeekOut if:
Diversity hiring is a major priority and you need best-in-class DEI filters. You recruit a lot of technical roles and want to search by GitHub contributions, patents, and publications. You're an enterprise with internal mobility needs. Or you want a talent intelligence layer on top of your existing ATS. SeekOut shines for large companies with specific diversity and technical recruiting goals.
Pick Screener AI if:
You already have candidates (from LinkedIn, your ATS, job boards, wherever) and need to evaluate them fast. You want AI that actually reads each profile and explains its reasoning instead of just ranking by keywords. You're a staffing agency that needs anonymous sharing. You want pay-as-you-go pricing without committing to an annual contract. Or you're a solo recruiter who just needs screening done fast and cheap.
The combo play
Honestly? The best setup might be using them together. Source candidates with HireEZ or SeekOut (or LinkedIn Recruiter), then screen and score them with Screener AI. Find with one tool, evaluate with another. Different strengths, complementary workflow.
The Pricing Reality Check
Let's talk money because this matters a lot depending on your situation.
HireEZ and SeekOut both require you to talk to sales, sign annual contracts, and commit to minimum spend. If you're a 5-person TA team at a mid-size company, that might make sense. If you're an independent recruiter or a small agency, that's a big commitment before you even know if it works for you.
Screener AI is pay-as-you-go. 50 free credits to start. Then credit packs from $9 to $99. No sales call, no annual contract, no minimum. You can screen 25 candidates for free and decide if it's useful before spending a dollar.
Different models for different situations. Neither is wrong. Just pick what matches your budget and hiring volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Screener AI together with HireEZ or SeekOut?
Absolutely. They're complementary. Use HireEZ or SeekOut to find and source candidates, then export those LinkedIn URLs and run them through Screener AI for detailed scoring and screening. Best of both worlds.
Which tool is best for staffing agencies?
Screener AI was built with agencies in mind. The anonymous sharing feature for blind candidate presentations, pay-as-you-go pricing (no overhead when business is slow), and re-screening the same candidates for different clients are all agency-specific features. HireEZ and SeekOut are more geared toward in-house talent acquisition teams.
Do HireEZ and SeekOut offer candidate scoring like Screener AI?
They offer basic fit ranking when you search for candidates. But it's not the same as Screener AI's approach. With Screener AI, you write specific criteria in plain English and get a 0-100 score with detailed written reasoning for each candidate. HireEZ and SeekOut rank search results by relevance, but don't give you that level of per-candidate evaluation.
What if I only need to screen 20-50 candidates per month?
Screener AI is probably your best bet. At that volume, paying $13K+/year for HireEZ or $10K+/year for SeekOut doesn't make financial sense. With Screener AI's pay-as-you-go model, screening 50 candidates costs under $5. Scale up when you need to, scale down when you don't.
Is there a free trial for any of these tools?
HireEZ and SeekOut offer demo calls but no self-serve free trial. Screener AI gives you 50 free credits when you sign up, enough to screen about 25 candidates with no credit card required. You can test the full workflow before paying anything.