JOIN vs softgarden

JOIN

Pipeline, scorecards, interview scheduling with two-way Google and Outlook sync, automated messages and roles and permissions are confirmed across the tiers. We found no public information on pipelines configured per vacancy, on hiring managers seeing only their own jobs, on approval steps for requisitions or offers, or on any record of who changed a candidate's stage and why — and that record is precisely what my colleagues and I need before we can agree to the tool.

softgarden

The public pages show an application overview with team communication, a dashboard with appointments, to-dos and recruiting KPIs, and a system history that records access attempts and changes to data records — that history is the one lever a works council can hold onto. Beyond it we found no public information on pipeline stages per job, structured scorecards, interview scheduling, or hiring-manager access limited to their own vacancies, so no decision is shown as documented and attributed rather than merely made.

JOIN

Multiposting to 250+ paid boards with StepStone as a Preferred Partner, a career page 'im eigenen Design', quick apply on mobile and source attribution on every application are confirmed. We found no public information on a Bundesagentur für Arbeit feed, Google for Jobs markup, accessibility, career-page languages, budget tracking per board, or on candidates seeing their own status and withdrawing themselves.

softgarden

Over 1,200 job boards plus social media and Google Ads, a career page in both packages, SEO-optimized ads, and conversion rates and entry channels evaluated per job advertisement — distribution here is at least measured, not only broadcast. Yet no German board is named on the captured pages — neither the Bundesagentur für Arbeit nor a major paid board appears — and we found no public information on Google for Jobs markup, mobile application without an account, or candidates viewing their own status and withdrawing themselves.

JOIN

The privacy policy promises deletion or full anonymisation once a storage period expires, GDPR rights are said to be built into every candidate profile, and deleting the account removes all company content. A talent pool sits in every tier while we found no public information on a recorded consent step, its expiry, a log of who viewed or exported an applicant file, or how deletion propagates to the job boards and backups — for the criterion the employer is liable for, that silence decides the score.

softgarden

Automated deletion of applicant data configurable by the responsible party to their operational requirements, a recommended six-month retention default, a four-week deadline for answering data-subject requests with a compliance address, and a system history logging access attempts and changing operations — the core of the employer's liability is genuinely stated. We found no public information on talent-pool consent with expiry, retention rules per country or entity, candidate self-service, or how deletion propagates to backups and to the boards the vacancy was posted to.

JOIN

The homepage tells startups to 'screenen Sie mit KI' and every tier ships a KI-Stellenanzeigen-Generator. We found no public information on what the screening evaluates, its inputs, where it runs, the provider, whether it can be switched off, any assurance that a human decides, or any EU AI Act position — an unexplained machine verdict next to a name is a co-determination matter, and no answer means no agreement.

softgarden

An AI screening assistant and candidate matching are sold under the slogan "transparent and ohne Blackbox", and the privacy pages state that applicant data in the applicant management system is not transferred to third countries. A slogan is not documentation a works council can base an agreement on: we found no public information on what the matching evaluates, whether each AI feature can be switched off per account, whether a rejection always rests on a human action, whether candidates are informed, or which provider runs the models.

JOIN

Excel export, two-way calendar sync with Google and Outlook, Zapier & Make and an API in Advanced and Enterprise are confirmed, with 'maßgeschneiderte Integrationen' promised only at Enterprise. We found no public information on a handover to any HR system common in DACH, on SSO or SCIM, e-signature for contracts, webhooks or published API limits; nothing in the captured pages shows the hire's data reaching the HR record without retyping.

softgarden

The journey continues into the vendor's own pre-boarding, onboarding and offboarding modules, but on the captured pages it ends there. We found no public information on an API, SSO, e-signature for contracts, or a named handover to any HR or payroll system common in DACH — so the question I always put, whether an internal applicant's file follows them into their personnel record, cannot be answered from public pages.

JOIN

The contracting entity is the Swiss JOIN Solutions AG under Swiss material law with exclusive venue at JOIN's seat, and the English version of the terms governs; hosting is described only as 'primär in der EU', and we found no public information on the infrastructure behind it. We found no published subprocessor list beyond a category mention of Stellenportale, and the location of the AI screening and any CV parsing is unclear — the AG is European but not EU, and I cannot co-sign a chain I cannot see.

softgarden

Hosting in German data centres on named providers (WIIT AG and Equinix Germany GmbH in Frankfurt am Main and Düsseldorf), a Berlin contracting entity with register entry and German VAT number, a processing agreement to download or sign digitally, published ISO and DEKRA certifications, and a statement that no third-country transfer of applicant data occurs — most of what co-determination needs is on the record. The support tool is flagged for US CLOUD Act exposure through its Irish entity, involving only business email addresses of support requesters with the vendor arguing it acts as a controller, and ownership is not confirmed on the captured pages — which keeps this short of the top.

JOIN

Standard and Advanced are priced at '17 € pro Job/Monat' and '34 € pro Job/Monat' with annual billing, limits of up to 15 active jobs, VAT expressly excluded, and notice periods of 30 days annual and 5 days monthly. Enterprise is 'Staffelpreise' from 15 open jobs behind a contact request, and we found no public information on the cost of the paid job-board postings — the invoice is computable only for small volumes on the public tiers.

softgarden

The entry package is public — "ab 199 € / Monat" plus VAT, at most five jobs included, unlimited users — while All-in-One carries only "Individuelle Preisgestaltung", individual pricing tailored to hiring volume. We found no public information on job-board posting costs, the heart of this vendor's media business, on prices for the AI or onboarding modules, or on the minimum term, so a Mittelstand buyer cannot compute the real annual invoice from public pages alone.