# Bullhorn vs Lever

> Lever scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Bullhorn's 46.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bullhorn leads on maintenance & community. Both do recruiting candidates. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Lever scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Bullhorn's 46.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bullhorn leads on maintenance & community. Both do recruiting candidates.

- Bullhorn: grade D, 46.7/100, rank #644 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bullhorn.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bullhorn.json
- Lever: grade D, 53.6/100, rank #541 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lever.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lever.json

## Which one, for what

### Bullhorn (D)

Good for: An integration built for a staffing agency that already runs on Bullhorn, with Bullhorn's permission for AI use in writing, and needs candidates, job orders, submissions and placements.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 56 against 21

Watch for: The API Fair Use Policy of 17 December 2025 bars connecting third-party AI or LLM tools, or MCP, without Bullhorn's explicit written permission

### Lever (D)

Good for: An agent working inside a company that already runs Lever, for reading the pipeline, adding candidates, moving stages, writing notes and feedback and scheduling externally managed interviews.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 73 against 53
- Security & auth, 60 against 31
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 67

Watch for: No public price, free tier or self-serve signup. OAuth apps and sandbox accounts are issued by Lever staff after a partner application


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Bullhorn | Lever | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 73 | Lever +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 55 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 65 | Lever +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 31 | 60 | Lever +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 5 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 21 | Bullhorn +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 75 | Lever +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **46.7 · D** | **53.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Bullhorn | Lever |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bullhorn, Inc. | Employ, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://rest.bullhornstaffing.com/rest-services` | `https://api.lever.co/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under a Bullhorn customer or partner agreement that is not published, with a public API Fair Use Policy. The `sdk-rest` Java library and the `@bullhorn/taurus` and `@bullhorn/bullhorn-types` packages are MIT per npm and the repositories | Proprietary service under Lever's terms of service. The postings-api and integrator-resources repositories on GitHub hold documentation and example code |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-04-30 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2023-08-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | 2023-09-25 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 13 stars, 1.7k npm/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Bullhorn.** The REST API covers 91 documented entities with required field selection, Lucene and JPQL queries and an event queue. Access is by support ticket or a paid partner contract, and the API Fair Use Policy bars connecting third-party AI or LLM tools or MCP without Bullhorn's written permission. No OpenAPI file or numeric rate limit was found.

**Lever.** The Data API covers about 100 operations with read and write OAuth scopes per resource, field selection and a 99.9 per cent uptime commitment. Access depends on a paying customer or partner approval, with no public price, no OpenAPI file and no official SDK. The status page records three critical incidents between 14 July and 21 August 2026.

## Before you call either

### Bullhorn

1. Confirm the customer holds Bullhorn's written permission for AI or LLM access before any call. The API Fair Use Policy forbids it otherwise
2. Call `/rest-services/loginInfo?username=` first to learn the data centre, then use the returned OAuth and REST URLs and follow any 307 redirect
3. Log in once and reuse `BhRestToken` until a call returns 401, then use the refresh token. Bullhorn limits login rates and may block frequent logins
4. Send `BhRestToken` as a header, never in the URL, and always pass `fields`. `fields=*` is blocked outside `/meta`
5. On 429 wait one second and retry. Writes have no idempotency key, so read the record back before repeating a PUT

### Lever

1. Send `perform_as` with a Lever user id on creates and most updates. Opportunity, note, feedback, panel and interview writes reject requests without it
2. Use the Opportunities endpoints. The Candidates endpoints were deprecated in 2020 and the old candidate id works as the opportunity id
3. Stay under 10 requests a second per key and back off exponentially on 429 and 503. Application POSTs are limited to 2 a second
4. Create interviews on a panel with `externallyManaged` true. Panels made in the Lever app can't be changed through the API
5. Pass `include` to trim fields and follow `next` while `hasNext` is true. An `offset` must come from a previous response
6. Send a full object on PUT to panels and interviews. Missing fields are deleted

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Bullhorn or Lever?

Lever scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Bullhorn's 46.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bullhorn leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Bullhorn and Lever need an API key?

Bullhorn uses an OAuth sign-in. Lever takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Bullhorn and Lever without installing anything?

Yes. Bullhorn has a hosted endpoint at https://rest.bullhornstaffing.com/rest-services and Lever at https://api.lever.co/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-lever.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "bullhorn", "b": "lever"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bullhorn lever`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bullhorn.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lever.json

## Other comparisons with Bullhorn or Lever

- [Ashby vs Bullhorn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ashby-vs-bullhorn.md)
- [Ashby vs Lever](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ashby-vs-lever.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Gem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-gem.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Greenhouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-greenhouse.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Pinpoint](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-pinpoint.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Recruitee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-recruitee.md)
- [Bullhorn vs SmartRecruiters](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-smartrecruiters.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Workable](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-workable.md)
- [Bullhorn vs Zoho Recruit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bullhorn-vs-zoho-recruit.md)
- [Gem vs Lever](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gem-vs-lever.md)
- [Greenhouse vs Lever](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/greenhouse-vs-lever.md)
- [Lever vs Pinpoint](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lever-vs-pinpoint.md)
- [Lever vs Recruitee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lever-vs-recruitee.md)
- [Lever vs SmartRecruiters](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lever-vs-smartrecruiters.md)
- [Lever vs Workable](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lever-vs-workable.md)
- [Lever vs Zoho Recruit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lever-vs-zoho-recruit.md)