Updated July 2026.
Seven systems read most US job applications in 2026: Workday, SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, and Taleo, with Ashby taking startups. Roughly 98 percent of the Fortune 500 use some ATS (per Jobscan's 2025 report), and the table below shows who uses what and how to pass each.
| ATS | Fortune 500 share | Where it dominates | Typical companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workday | ~39% | Large enterprise | Amazon, Target, Walmart |
| SuccessFactors | ~13% | SAP-stack enterprise | SAP-stack Fortune 500 |
| Greenhouse | Mid-market lead | Mid-market tech and SaaS | Airbnb, Stripe, HubSpot |
| Lever | Mid-market tech | High-volume tech hiring | Netflix, Quora |
| Taleo | Legacy enterprise | Government and Oracle shops | AT&T, Tesla |
| iCIMS | Mid-market diverse | Retail, manufacturing, healthcare | Uber, Best Buy |
| Ashby | Startup lead | Fast-growth startups | Notion, Ramp |
Fortune 500 share figures come from Jobscan's 2025 ATS usage report. Enterprise skews Workday, mid-market tech skews Greenhouse or Lever, startups skew Ashby.
You spent two hours tailoring your resume and have no idea which ATS is about to read it. Workday weights the skills section first. Lever ignores headers and footers entirely. Taleo penalizes two-column layouts harder than any other parser. The system on the other side of the upload shapes whether your resume ever gets seen. This is the 2026 field guide to the seven ATS platforms that read most US applications, who uses each one, and what to tune before you upload.
For the full ATS optimization hub, see ATS resume optimization. For the word-level companion to this post, read how to write a resume for ATS.
How to Tell Which ATS a Company Uses Before You Apply
Open the "Apply" link and read the URL. It names the ATS in seconds. If the URL is masked, the form style is the fallback tell.
| ATS | Application URL contains | Apply-page tell |
|---|---|---|
| Workday | myworkdayjobs.com | Long multi-step form, forced account creation |
| Greenhouse | boards.greenhouse.io | Clean single page, email-only |
| Lever | jobs.lever.co | Single page, referral prompt |
| Taleo | taleo.net | Long legacy form, account required |
| iCIMS | icims.com | Multi-step, follow-up assessment email |
| Ashby | jobs.ashbyhq.com | Single page, dark accent, LinkedIn pull |
| SuccessFactors | career*.sapsf.com | Multi-page SAP form, account required |
The 7 ATS That Handle Most US Hiring in 2026
Workday
Market share signal: Leads Fortune 500 hiring at about 39 percent (per Jobscan's 2025 ATS usage report), including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Bank of America, Salesforce, and McDonald's.
Parser strengths: Best-in-class text extraction, the strongest parser of the seven on single-column files. Handles DOCX equally well.
Parser weaknesses: Accuracy drops sharply on two-column layouts. Strict about date formats; mix "Jan 2022" with "01/2023" in the same resume and date extraction can fail.
Resume tuning: Single-column PDF, consistent date format, full proper names for tools (not abbreviations).
Application quirk: Forces account creation. The "upload resume to auto-fill" feature works well when your file is clean; it fills most of the form automatically and you can correct the rest.
SuccessFactors
Market share signal: SAP-owned and second in the Fortune 500 at roughly 13 percent, concentrated in large SAP-stack enterprises. Career-site URLs contain sapsf.com or career*.sap.
Parser strengths: Conservative, predictable parser. Reliable on clean single-column DOCX.
Parser weaknesses: Older instances stumble on graphics, columns, and non-standard headings.
Resume tuning: Single-column, DOCX-safe, standard section labels, no tables or text boxes.
Application quirk: Long multi-step forms and forced account creation. Budget extra time and save as you go.
Greenhouse
Market share signal: Dominant in mid-market tech and SaaS. Used by Airbnb, Pinterest, HubSpot, DoorDash, Stripe, Reddit, Wayfair, and Instacart.
Parser strengths: Strong text-based parser on single-column files. Reads the Skills section first and uses it as the initial scoring pass.
Parser weaknesses: Loses data on two-column files. Limited handling of text inside graphics or icons.
Resume tuning: Put Skills above Work Experience. Mirror the posting's tool names exactly. PDF is preferred over DOCX.
Application quirk: Easy email-only submission. Greenhouse passes structured data directly to the recruiter dashboard, so a clean parse maps to a clean candidate card.
Lever
Market share signal: High-volume tech hiring. Used by Netflix, Eventbrite, Quora, Box, Mixpanel, and Shopify (for engineering roles).
Parser strengths: Reliable on single-column hybrid files. Fast indexing for recruiter search.
Parser weaknesses: Ignores PDF headers and footers entirely. Any name or contact info placed in the header zone is invisible to the parser.
Resume tuning: Move all contact details into the document body, not the header. Single column. PDF.
Application quirk: Lever surfaces internal referrals prominently. If you have a connection at the company, ask them to refer you through Lever's referral link before you apply cold.
Taleo
Market share signal: Legacy enterprise and government. Used by AT&T, Nike (older systems), Tesla, Bank of New York Mellon, the US federal government, and most Oracle customers.
Parser strengths: Mature, predictable parser when the format matches what it expects.
Parser weaknesses: The strictest parser of the seven. Two-column layouts and functional resumes lose large chunks of data. Sensitive to non-standard section labels.
Resume tuning: Single column, standard section labels (Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications), no creative formatting. DOCX often parses more reliably than PDF on older Taleo instances.
Application quirk: The longest application flow of any modern ATS. Plan for 25 to 40 minutes per Taleo application. Save your work as you go; some Taleo instances time out after 30 minutes of inactivity.
iCIMS
Market share signal: Mid-market workhorse. Used by Uber, U.S. Cellular, Best Buy, Whirlpool, Toyota North America, and many healthcare networks.
Parser strengths: Solid on single-column files. Reasonable handling of bulleted lists.
Parser weaknesses: High two-column risk. Highly sensitive to non-standard section headings. Using "My Story" instead of "Work Experience" tanks the section categorization score.
Resume tuning: Strict standard headings, single column, PDF, no decorative tables.
Application quirk: iCIMS often forwards the application to a third-party assessment platform after submission. Watch your inbox for a follow-up email with a short skills test; ignoring it removes you from the pipeline silently.
Ashby
Market share signal: Fast-growth startups and AI-first companies. Used by Notion, Linear, Ramp, Vanta, Mercury, and many YC-funded startups.
Parser strengths: Modern parser built in 2021. Handles PDFs from any source, including builder-generated files.
Parser weaknesses: Less forgiving on resumes longer than two pages. Caps the snippet shown to recruiters at the first two pages.
Resume tuning: Same as Greenhouse and Lever. Single column, PDF, exact tool name matches, two pages or fewer.
Application quirk: Ashby pulls public LinkedIn data when you paste your profile URL during application. Make sure your LinkedIn headline and current role match your resume; mismatches show up in the recruiter view as a flag.
Side-by-Side Comparison Table
The seven platforms at a glance:
| ATS | Best for | Two-column risk | Preferred format | Headers/footers | Notable companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workday | Fortune 500, enterprise | Low | PDF or DOCX | Read | Amazon, Target, Walmart, Salesforce |
| SuccessFactors | SAP-stack enterprise | High | DOCX-safe | Partial | SAP-stack Fortune 500 |
| Greenhouse | Mid-market tech, SaaS | Low | Read | Airbnb, Pinterest, HubSpot, Stripe | |
| Lever | High-volume tech | Medium | Ignored | Netflix, Eventbrite, Quora, Shopify | |
| Taleo | Legacy enterprise, gov | High | DOCX preferred | Partial | AT&T, Tesla, US federal gov |
| iCIMS | Mid-market diverse | High | Partial | Uber, Best Buy, Toyota NA | |
| Ashby | Fast-growth startups | Low | Read | Notion, Linear, Ramp, Mercury |
One Resume That Passes All Seven (The Universal Format)
Tuning a separate resume for each ATS is unrealistic when you are applying to 30 companies a week. The universal format that clears all seven platforms in 2026:
- Single column, full width
- System font (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica) at 10 to 11 point
- Standard section labels in this order: Summary, Skills, Work Experience, Education, Certifications
- Contact info in the document body, not in the header
- PDF exported directly from Word, Google Docs, or a resume builder
- Consistent date format throughout ("Jan 2022 to Mar 2024" used the same way every time)
- Two pages maximum
- Tool and certification names spelled out in full, matching the job posting
A resume built on this template will not score top in any single ATS, but it will clear the threshold on every one. That is the right tradeoff when you do not know which platform is reading it.
Build One Resume That Clears All Seven Platforms
Building one resume that clears Workday, SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo, and Ashby in one go is the entire job of QuickResumeAI. It uses the universal format above, mirrors keywords from the posting, names tools in full, and exports a single-column PDF that parses cleanly across all seven platforms. Try QuickResumeAI. No signup needed.
For more on the ATS path, see our ATS resume keywords guide, the best resume format for ATS in 2026, and why your resume is rejected by ATS. Applying through job boards instead? Here is how to optimize your resume for Indeed.
