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Recruiting

Firefish

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Firefish Software Ltd · www.firefishsoftware.com

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Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Firefish at a glance

Vendor
Firefish Software Ltd
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Default not stated; pages mention Netherlands source, captured 3 Nov 2026
Free plan
Yes, per the vendor’s own page source, captured 3 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Firefish 2/5, the mean of 6 judges. Firefish Software Ltd is a recruitment CRM the vendor describes as built for UK recruitment agencies, supporting contract, temporary and permanent desks, with AI, automation and email sequencing. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 3 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 3 Nov 2026. all sources

Firefish alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read "DSGVO-konform" and "AI-powered matching" on every page in this category. Reads instead for the deletion deadline that is actually configured, the AI feature that can actually be turned off, and what the invoice does when a job goes out to three paid boards.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Applicant management & hiring workflow 2 of 5 2 of 5
Multiposting, career page & candidate experience 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
Retention, deletion & talent-pool consent 1.5 of 5 1.5 of 5
AI screening transparency & control 3 of 5 3 of 5
HR handover, integrations & API 2 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 3 of 5
Pricing transparency 0.5 of 5 0.5 of 5

Applicant management & hiring workflow

How this is scored

The daily work of hiring: pipeline stages per job, collaboration with hiring managers, structured evaluation, interview scheduling and candidate communication — judged on whether a decision is documented rather than merely made.

0 — Not an applicant tracking system; applications cannot be managed in the product.

3 — Applications collected per job with a status pipeline, notes or comments on each candidate, and email to candidates from the system.

5 — Configurable pipeline stages per job, hiring managers invited to rate or comment on candidates, and interview scheduling with calendar integration and email templates.

8 — Hiring-manager access limited to their own vacancies, structured scorecards or interview kits, approval workflows for requisitions and offers, bulk actions with automated but reviewable candidate communication, and a history on each candidate of every stage change and who made it.

10 — The pipeline is an auditable record of a fair process: every decision attributed and reasoned, evaluation criteria fixed before applications arrive, reporting on time-to-hire and drop-off per stage, and the full history exportable per candidate for an AGG dispute.

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The Skeptic

The job-workflows module manages shortlists, interviews, offers and placements across permanent, temp and contract desks, candidates upload their own compliance and right-to-work documents, and references are pulled into profiles automatically — the daily work happens in the system. We found no public information on configurable pipeline stages per job, structured scorecards, approval steps, or a history of who moved which candidate and when. "Manage Interviews & Offers" is a feature heading, not a documented decision trail. 1 3 4

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Multiposting, career page & candidate experience

How this is scored

Getting a vacancy in front of the right people and letting them apply: job-board distribution for the German market, the career page, and an application process that does not lose candidates on a phone.

0 — Not a publishing tool for vacancies; the product neither hosts job ads nor sends them to job boards.

3 — A hosted job list or career page with an online application form, and postings to free job boards or aggregators.

5 — A branded career page, multiposting to several named job boards including at least one major board in the German market (StepStone, Indeed, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit or similar), and an application form that works on a phone.

8 — Multiposting with booking and budget tracking per board from inside the system, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit and Google for Jobs covered, source attribution per applicant, a career page in several languages with an embeddable widget, application without an account, and the form configurable per job.

10 — Distribution is measured, not only broadcast: cost and applicants per channel reported, the career page meets a stated accessibility standard, one-click or CV-parse application on mobile, and candidates can see their own status and withdraw themselves.

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The Skeptic

Multiposting to named boards is documented: one click sends an advert to all UK and Ireland StepStone boards, live jobs sync to Indeed with Direct Apply, applicant source data is tracked, and pre-screen questions can be added to adverts. We found no public information on booking or budget tracking per board from inside the system, on Google for Jobs or the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, or on any stated career-page standard — the "Websites" add-on appears only as a name in a module list. 5 6 9

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Retention, deletion & talent-pool consent

How this is scored

What happens to the data of people who were not hired: automatic deletion on a configurable deadline, talent-pool consent that expires, data-subject requests, and access logging — the criterion the employer is actually liable for.

0 — The vendor states that applicant data is kept with no means of deleting it, or the product holds no applicant data at all.

3 — Applicant records can be deleted or anonymised by hand, and GDPR compliance is stated for applicant data.

5 — Automatic deletion or anonymisation after a configurable period following rejection, and candidates asked for consent before they are kept in a talent pool.

8 — Retention rules per country or entity, talent-pool consent with expiry and automated re-consent requests, a documented way to answer access and erasure requests or candidate self-service, a log of who viewed or exported an applicant file, and permissions a works council can review.

10 — Governance that can be evidenced: deletion runs are logged and reportable, special-category data can be excluded or restricted by field, every export is recorded, and the vendor publishes how deletion propagates to backups and to the job boards and tools it syncs with.

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The Skeptic

A GDPR workflow is triggered as new candidate data enters the CRM from job boards, automated communications are described as GDPR compliant, and the trust page documents the vendor's own retention mechanics — backups held 28 to 35 days, export data removed after five working days. We found no public information on a configurable deletion deadline after rejection, consent expiry or re-consent requests for talent pools, or a log of who viewed an applicant file. The talent-pools page describes adding candidates to pools automatically with notifications, which is a push model, not a consent gate. 2 6 7

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AI screening transparency & control

How this is scored

Whether any automated ranking, matching, parsing or rejection is disclosed, explained and switchable — recruitment is a high-risk use under the EU AI Act, and an undisclosed score next to a candidate's name is a co-determination matter (BetrVG §§ 94, 95). A product without AI features is judged on stating so.

0 — The vendor describes AI that rejects or ranks candidates automatically with no human step and no way to switch it off.

3 — AI features (CV parsing, matching, text drafting) described with what they do, and a statement that a human makes the hiring decision.

5 — Each AI feature described with its purpose, AI features optional or switchable per account, and either the model provider named or a statement that candidate data is not used to train models.

8 — AI outputs shown with their reasoning to the recruiter, the model provider named as a subprocessor, candidates informed when AI is used, protected attributes stated to be excluded, EU processing available for the AI features, and the vendor's EU AI Act position published.

10 — The vendor treats recruitment AI as the high-risk system the law says it is: documentation a works council can base an agreement on, bias testing described and repeated, logs of every AI-assisted decision retained for audit, and every AI feature off by default until the customer enables it.

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The Skeptic

The AI policy is more concrete than most in this category: Firefish positions itself as a deployer of limited-risk systems under the EU AI Act, Microsoft Azure OpenAI is named as the processor, customer data is stated not to train any models, human oversight is explicit, and AI processing is said to stay within Firefish's controlled Azure environments. We found no public information on switching the AI features off per account, on how a match score is explained to the recruiter beyond a percentage next to a name, on informing candidates that AI is used, or on excluding protected attributes. For a works-council conversation, that gap matters, because the matching and ranking is marketed front and centre. 3 8 9

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HR handover, integrations & API

How this is scored

The hire does not end in the ATS: handover to the HR system and payroll, identity and calendar integration, e-signature for contracts, and an API a team can build on.

0 — A closed tool with no integrations, no API and no export.

3 — A CSV or Excel export of candidates, and a few named integrations such as email or calendar.

5 — Named integrations with calendar and video-interview tools, a handover of hired candidates to at least one named HR system, and a documented API or an integration platform such as Zapier.

8 — Maintained integrations with several named HR systems common in DACH (Personio, DATEV-connected systems, SAP SuccessFactors or similar) carrying the hire's data without retyping, SSO and SCIM, e-signature for offers and contracts, webhooks, and an API with published limits.

10 — Integration is designed rather than bolted on: a versioned API with a deprecation policy, handover that carries documents and consent status into the HR record, deletion that propagates to connected systems, and the vendor maintaining the German integrations itself.

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The Skeptic

There is a documented open API, third parties can apply to build integrations, and the directory names categories including Job Boards, Communications, Pay & Bill and AI & Automation, with detailed Indeed and StepStone integrations. We found no public information on a handover of hired candidates into a named HR system, on calendar or video-interview integrations, single sign-on, e-signature for contracts, or published API limits. The Pay & Bill category is a signal, but a category is not a named integration. 1 5 6 10

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where applicant data lives, who the contracting entity is, who the subprocessors are — including the job boards, CV parsers and AI providers the system passes CVs to. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; weighted higher here than in categories holding the customer's own data, because every record belongs to a third party who never chose the vendor. Dimensions the evidence does not establish are unknown, not non-European.

0 — Vendor, contracting entity and hosting all shown to be outside the EU, with no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement offered, with hosting or the contracting entity outside the EU or not established.

5 — EU hosting stated and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, with a data processing agreement offered.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessor list published with locations including CV-parsing and AI providers, and a DPA that covers applicant data as the customer's processing.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, certification published, and the AI and CV-parsing features run within the EU on providers the customer can see.

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The Skeptic

Hosting is the best-evidenced dimension: all customer data sits in Microsoft Azure with the primary data centre in the Netherlands and the secondary in Ireland, and AI processing is said to remain within Firefish's controlled Azure environments. A Data Processing Agreement is published, Azure OpenAI is named as the AI processor, and the vendor states no other third party processes data unless the client requests it. The contracting entity is not established on the captured pages — the trust page references Disclosure Scotland checks, the UK Cyber Essentials scheme and UK GDPR — and we found no published subprocessor list with locations. 2 7 8

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: the pricing model (per employee, per open job, per recruiter seat), job-board posting costs, add-ons for AI, career page or integrations, and the minimum term.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A public "from" price, a free tier, or one priced tier, with the rest on request.

5 — Prices for each tier public with the billing period (per month or per year) and the pricing basis (employees, jobs or seats).

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its basis and limits, add-on prices listed, job-board posting costs or the booking model stated, minimum term and VAT treatment given.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given company size, number of open roles and recruiter seats, with every add-on, posting package and overage published.

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The Skeptic

The only price figure in the pages we read is that the StepStone integration is free to all Firefish customers on Basic, Professional or Enterprise packages; the packages themselves carry no figures, and talent pools sit behind Professional behind an "Upgrade to Professional" prompt. Everything else routes through a book-a-15-minute-call. A buyer cannot compute any annual cost from these pages. 1 6 7

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Firefish

Is Firefish European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Firefish is based.

Where does Firefish store data?

The default storage location for customer data is not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026. The vendor’s pages mention Netherlands as hosting location, per the vendor’s page captured 3 Nov 2026.

Does Firefish have a free plan?

Yes. Firefish has a free plan, per the vendor’s page captured 3 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Firefish?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates Recruitee (3.5/5), Pinpoint (3.5/5) and softgarden (3.5/5) highest among the other 31 Recruiting products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Recruitee (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Firefish alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (11)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Security / trust page — found from the homepage www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Applicant management & hiring workflow — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Applicant management & hiring workflow — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Multiposting, career page & candidate experience — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Multiposting, career page & candidate experience — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Retention, deletion & talent-pool consent — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 AI screening transparency & control — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 AI screening transparency & control — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 HR handover, integrations & API — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →
  11. 11 HR handover, integrations & API — found from sitemap www.firefishsoftware.com Checked 3 Nov 2026 Details →