Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby vs Workday: how each ATS works

Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby vs Workday is a comparison most candidates never think to make, but you run into all four every week if you apply to tech, startup or large-company jobs. They’re applicant tracking systems: the software the employer uses to collect applications and move candidates through hiring. On your side, they decide what the form looks like, whether you need an account, and what happens to your resume after you upload it.

This is a practical guide: how to tell which ATS a posting uses, what each one does with your resume and screening answers, and how to apply on each without wasting time. Where I describe what a system does, I link the vendor’s own documentation.

Which ATS does a company use? Check the URL

The quickest way to tell which ATS a company uses is the address bar on the application page. Click “Apply” on the company’s careers page and look at where you land.

Greenhouse’s support docs describe the hosted board as a fixed root plus a company token. In practice, as of October 2026, a boards.greenhouse.io link redirects to job-boards.greenhouse.io, so you’ll see both.

Some companies embed the form inside their own careers site, so the URL stays on their domain. Clues then: a “Powered by Greenhouse” or “Lever” footer, the look of the form, or the confirmation email, which usually comes from the ATS. Workday is easy to spot even when embedded, because it asks you to sign in or create an account before the first step.

Greenhouse ATS: what it does with your resume

The form. Usually one page: name, contact details, resume, optional cover letter, links like LinkedIn, then whatever questions the employer added, plus voluntary demographic questions in some regions.

Account. You can normally apply without one. Greenhouse also offers an optional candidate account, MyGreenhouse, whose Quick Apply fills the form from your saved profile. Its candidate FAQ says resume parsing “can make mistakes” and that you should review your information before applying.

Knockout questions. Greenhouse’s application rules include auto-reject on some plans. It works on custom questions of the yes/no, single-select and multi-select types, so a “no” to a licence or location question can reject you automatically. It runs on your answers, not your resume text.

Ranking. Greenhouse has an optional AI feature called Talent Matching. Per its data processing FAQ, it extracts things like skills, titles and dates from resumes and sorts candidates into match categories against criteria the hiring team sets. Greenhouse says it doesn’t advance or reject anyone on its own, and the employer chooses whether to turn it on for each job.

Lever ATS: what it does with your resume

The form. Also usually a single page at the posting’s /apply URL. You attach a resume, and Lever tries to fill name and contact details from it, then you add links and answer the employer’s questions.

Account. Usually not needed to apply.

Resume parsing. Lever’s help article on resume parsing says it extracts details like your name, organization and contact details into your candidate profile. It accepts formats including PDF and DOCX but can’t parse images, and suggests a simple test: if you can’t highlight the text in your file, it probably can’t be parsed.

Knockout questions. Lever’s documentation on the archive describes automation workflows that archive candidates who meet set conditions. In Lever, “archived” is effectively “not moving forward,” so a wrong answer to a required question can end an application early here too.

Ashby ATS: what it does with your resume

The form. Single page, on the posting’s Application tab. Ashby’s application form docs list the field types employers can use, including short and long answers, multiple choice, yes/no, number, date, location and education history. There’s a dedicated resume field, and the docs say an uploaded resume (up to 16MB) is used to auto-fill application fields.

Account. Usually not needed.

Knockout questions. Ashby announced auto-reject rules on application questions, including questions that appear across many jobs at the same company. Treat yes/no questions on an Ashby form as possible filters.

Ranking. Ashby’s AI-assisted application review lets recruiters write criteria for a job and have AI check applications against each one. Ashby describes the result as meets or doesn’t meet for each criterion, with a human making the decision, rather than a single score.

Workday ATS: what it does with your resume

The form. Several steps, typically My Information, My Experience, Application Questions, Voluntary Disclosures and Review. Each employer configures its own site, so steps and questions vary.

Account. Usually required, and per employer: an account on one company’s Workday site generally doesn’t work on another’s. Why that happens, and how to manage it, is in why Workday makes you create an account.

Resume parsing. Most Workday sites offer to fill the experience step from your uploaded resume. It saves typing, but it often puts dates, titles or bullet points in the wrong place, so check every role it creates before you continue.

Ranking. Some employers add Workday’s HiredScore, which grades applicants against a requisition’s requirements. Workday’s documentation on HiredScore grades says A and B candidates meet or exceed the requirements, but that C and D candidates can still be good fits and recruiters should review them too. It’s a prioritisation tool the employer chooses to use, not something every Workday site has. After you apply, the status labels can be confusing; see Workday application status explained.

Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby vs Workday at a glance

Do these systems rank your resume?

Not in the way most resume advice suggests. None of them reads your resume and silently deletes it because of a font. What they do is store your application, let recruiters search and filter it, and, if the employer has paid for and switched on an AI feature, sort or grade candidates against criteria the hiring team set. The vendors themselves describe these as aids to a human decision.

The automatic rejections that are clearly documented come from screening questions: a yes/no, single-select or similar answer that the employer set up to reject or archive. That’s why your answers to work authorization, location, licence and years-of-experience questions deserve more care than your font. I go deeper into this in does ATS reject resumes?

Tips for applying on each ATS

Greenhouse

• Upload the cover letter when the field is there and the role matters to you.
• Read each custom question twice; yes/no and dropdown questions may be auto-reject rules.
• If you use MyGreenhouse, check what its resume parsing saved to your profile.

Lever

• Attach the resume first, then check the name, email and phone it filled in.
• Make sure your PDF has selectable text, not a scanned image.
• Use the “additional information” box for something useful, or leave it empty.

Ashby

• Keep the resume under 16MB so it can be used to auto-fill fields.
• Check the location and education fields after autofill; they have their own structured format.
• Some employers reuse the same questions across all their jobs, so answer them consistently.

Workday

• Keep a list of which employers’ Workday sites you have accounts on, and use a password manager.
• After resume autofill, check every role’s title, dates and description.
• Slow down on the Application Questions step; that’s where knockout questions live.

For all four

• Use a single-column resume saved as a text-based PDF or DOCX.
• Tailor the content to the posting, not the format to the ATS.
• Answer every screening question truthfully and check work authorization and sponsorship twice.