Ever Gauzy
Ever Gauzy tagged ten releases in a day, and two of them stop logging your database password
Comparison · HR
Deputy vs Fountain
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Deputy and Fountain — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Deputy vs Fountain: at a glance
| Feature | Deputy | Fountain |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | HR | HR |
| Velocity score | 0.0 | 6.3 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | permissions, payroll-compliance, workforce-scheduling, access-control | source-dashboards, reporting-accuracy, campaign-management, suite-consolidation |
| Last editorial update | 1d ago | 5d ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Deputy?
Deputy is hardening pay-data permissions while Australian super rules claim release slots.
Deputy's recent work splits between access control and Australian payroll compliance. A rebuilt access-level system in late April introduced custom roles with finer-grained control over what people can see and do, followed in June by permissions that restrict visibility of pay rates and labour costs. July's release adapted Deputy Payroll to PayDay Super, the Australian employer reporting requirement. Scheduling picked up one visible change: the open/empty shift row can be pinned while managers scroll.
What is Fountain?
Fountain is repairing Source's reporting and navigation while its AI agents build up behind it.
This batch is almost entirely Source — Fountain's sourcing and campaign product — being made trustworthy at scale. The Openings table was reworked to survive accounts with large numbers of openings, campaign budget reporting was corrected where Budget Spend and Target Budget disagreed, a Campaigns page is arriving to aggregate performance across openings, and an Applicants link moved into the left sidebar. Alongside it, WorkBright's state W-4 forms in I-9 Center were refreshed to 2026 versions. The genuinely new capability in the broader feed — Cue Scheduled Tasks and per-customer Sam configuration — sits just outside this window.
Deputy vs Fountain: editorial side-by-side
Deputy
0.0HR
Deputy is hardening pay-data permissions while Australian super rules claim release slots.
◆ Current state
Deputy's recent work splits between access control and Australian payroll compliance. A rebuilt access-level system in late April introduced custom roles with finer-grained control over what people can see and do, followed in June by permissions that restrict visibility of pay rates and labour costs. July's release adapted Deputy Payroll to PayDay Super, the Australian employer reporting requirement. Scheduling picked up one visible change: the open/empty shift row can be pinned while managers scroll.
◆ Where it's heading
Permissions are the throughline — custom roles first, then sensitive pay data placed behind them — which is the shape of a product answering harder questions from larger, multi-site customers. Compliance work anchors Deputy to the Australian market its payroll product serves, and that regulatory calendar will keep taking release capacity. Scheduling itself, the core surface, is getting refinement rather than rethinking. The feed also carries the same release twice under slightly different titles, so apparent cadence runs ahead of actual shipping.
◆ Prediction
Expect further permission scoping across cost and pay surfaces, and follow-up work as PayDay Super reporting beds in. The entries show nothing about roadmap outside Australia and scheduling.
Fountain
6.3HR
Fountain is repairing Source's reporting and navigation while its AI agents build up behind it.
◆ Current state
This batch is almost entirely Source — Fountain's sourcing and campaign product — being made trustworthy at scale. The Openings table was reworked to survive accounts with large numbers of openings, campaign budget reporting was corrected where Budget Spend and Target Budget disagreed, a Campaigns page is arriving to aggregate performance across openings, and an Applicants link moved into the left sidebar. Alongside it, WorkBright's state W-4 forms in I-9 Center were refreshed to 2026 versions. The genuinely new capability in the broader feed — Cue Scheduled Tasks and per-customer Sam configuration — sits just outside this window.
◆ Where it's heading
Fountain is doing consolidation work across a suite assembled from several products: making Hire and Source agree on the same hire count, giving campaigns one page instead of several views, and putting universal applicant access one click away. That is the unglamorous prerequisite for the agent layer it is building on top, since Cue and Sam are only as good as the numbers underneath them. The recent releases read as a company fixing its reporting substrate before leaning harder on automation.
◆ Prediction
Expect the Campaigns page to graduate from 'coming to Source' to general availability with the corrected budget metrics wired in, and expect more Hire/Source figure reconciliation of the kind already applied to hire counts.
Alternatives to Deputy and Fountain
Other HR products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Deputy or Fountain.
Qandle
Qandle's feed is daily HR reference content, published on a near-clockwork cadence
Employment Hero
Employment Hero's feed is an AI-in-HR content library, not a product changelog
iCIMS
iCIMS publishes hiring-market commentary; the product itself stays off this feed
CodeSignal
Alternatives-page SEO on the surface; underneath, the skills data is being made queryable.
Wagepoint
The feed is an accountant-marketing channel, not a product changelog.
See all Deputy alternatives → · See all Fountain alternatives →
Recent activity from Deputy and Fountain
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5d agoFountainApplicants Link in the Left Sidebar
- 5d agoFountainOpenings Dashboard Search & Filter Fixes
- 5d agoFountainClearer Campaign Budget Reporting in Source
- 5d agoFountainCampaigns Page in Source
- 5d agoFountain2026 State W-4 Form Updates
- 5d agoFountainNew in Fountain: release digest, July 22 - August 5
- 1mo agoDeputyPayDay Super for Deputy Payroll
- 2mo agoDeputySensitive Data Permissions for Pay Rates
- 3mo agoDeputyCustom Access Levels
- 3mo agoDeputyCustom access levels
- 3mo agoDeputyFreeze Empty/Open Shift Row in Schedule Employee Views
- 4mo agoDeputyOpen/empty shift row can be pinned in schedule views
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Deputy and Fountain?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Fountain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Deputy better than Fountain?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Fountain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other HR products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Deputy?
Top Deputy alternatives in HR are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Deputy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/deputy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Fountain?
Top Fountain alternatives in HR are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Fountain alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/fountain for the full list with editorial commentary on each.