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IBM Kenexa vs PageUp People comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Kenexa
Ranking in Talent Management
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (12th), Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (6th)
PageUp People
Ranking in Talent Management
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Talent Management category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PageUp People is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Talent Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Kenexa1.7%
PageUp People1.3%
Other97.0%
Talent Management
 

Featured Reviews

Karan Grover - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Suitable for larger-scale companies aiming to streamline and automate their processes digitally
The deployment of the solution took between six to eight months. When we introduced BrassRing at my company, we encountered several challenges. First, moving data from our old system to BrassRing was tough because it needed reformatting. Second, connecting BrassRing with our HR data was tricky due to manual processes for roles and departments. Third, setting up the workflow in BrassRing was complex. Fourth, configuring user access and approval levels was a detailed task. We also had to manage the change process, including running both old and new systems in parallel, communicating changes, and training users. Lastly, monitoring and reporting were needed to ensure data accuracy and proper system usage once everything was in place. We had a team of six to eight people managing the project from our side during the BrassRing deployment. I'm not sure about the size of the BrassRing team, and we also had our own technical team, which had three to four members. The solution required maintenance, particularly from my side as the administrator. Maintenance responsibilities were divided into two parts: some tasks we, as end-users, could control, while others were the responsibility of the BrassRing team. Payment-related tasks were a regular part of our responsibilities. I wasn't the only person maintaining the solution. There were three power users from Infosys, each responsible for a specific geography. My counterpart managed it in the US, and I, along with my colleague in India, managed it for other geographies.
CG
Director at Edge HR
Has all-inclusive pricing and good talent acquisition and onboarding components, and is an excellent product for mid-sized to large organizations
They could probably add surveying, as in engagement surveys, to their product. That would be something that would be valued by their customers. For instance, Culture Amp is a product that does a lot of the engagement stuff. They're diversifying into other aspects of talent management. It is not yet at the same scale as PageUp People, but it is an excellent product as well.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Of all the current talent analytics offerings on the market today, IBM Kenexa Talent Insights is the most comprehensive end-to-end, data-agnostic analytics tool."
"For us in particular, I love how configurable the system is; I can use the same technology for different parts of my business."
"We use the Viewpoint and that is an absolutely powerful tool; it is extremely helpful to get more insights, and to start a conversation with our employees to grow and improve."
"Overall, from a recruiter's perspective, it is an excellent product and is probably one of the best recruitment products out there in terms of usability, ease of understanding, and management of large applicant pools."
"I just think it's a good tool, with great flexibility."
"The most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand."
"It is extremely user friendly. It is very flexible in managing recruitment, especially when you have thousands of applicants as we did. We easily had over 20,000 applicants within a year for some of our positions, so it made it very easy to manage a large application pool. It was very easy to customize by recruiter preference. When you open up someone's profile to see their experience, education, or other things, you can customize that for yourself. It was flexible in that, and each recruiter could set up their preferences. It didn't have to be set up so that everyone had to have the same landing platform, which was very helpful. As someone who trained other HR people on how to use the system, it was very easy to pick up and learn."
"The streamlined, simplicity approach of Kenexa makes it simple for me to navigate."
"PageUp has a different model from other organizations; as part of their pricing structure, they tend to work with you very closely and not charge you for the setup, so there is one price all inclusive of setup, and for that reason, they become an attractive provider to work with."
"The talent acquisition and the onboarding components of the system are most valuable."
"I loved that function, as it made it SO much easier to work out the logistics of those days, and allowing candidates to book their own time slot was a lifesaver as it would have been a nightmare trying to do it for them."
"It provides a centralised repository of information for various HR functions."
"I have recommended PageUp to a lot of my networks due to the fact that it is one of the best systems on the market in terms of functionality, support, and reporting capability."
"It is a reliable, simple to use, end-to-end system for employee lifecycle management."
"Most of features in PageUp are very useful."
"Once automated through the system, the approval timeframe decreased to two days."
 

Cons

"The downside is it's a system that was created many, many years ago and so it just evolves."
"2xO was created by brain-damaged monkeys in front of keyboards."
"The reporting tool is helpful, but it is not the easiest to train on or is not as understandable for other HR pros. Their Workbench site, which is the administrator site that you use to update your website, is not user-friendly. When updates are required, it is not that easy to manage because Workbench is not user friendly. It required more work from the admins. They have Workbench training, which actually was very unhelpful. It took eight hours to complete, and it was not very helpful. Their customer service when it comes specifically to their Workbench site is not helpful."
"There are tools that actually are not there where clients need them, especially the survey analytics to analyze verbatim in different languages."
"I would not recommend IBM Kenexa to others."
"If you happen to be an early adopter of enhancements, it can be a frustrating process, as it is hard to decipher together with their support whether an issue is a bug or working as intended (a change in the way something works)."
"Improved integrations: There are all kinds of issues with integrations, hires failing."
"Once-a-year engagement kind of seems to be a little bit lagging in terms of how we can actually shape and improve organizations, so I was looking forward to understanding a bit more where IBM Kenexa's thinking is going in terms of pulsing with the employee voice and how that kind of integrates and works with tell-it-as-it-is, and the other two applications we have; it's just too early to know."
"The on-boarding process, with specific relation to the provisioning process, isn’t set up as well as other competitors, such as RedCarpet (SilkRoad)."
"There are sometimes problems when loading the system; it can be very slow."
"The ability to pull reports was limited for us."
"Reporting could be improved. Some changes were made to functionality a year or two ago, and whilst there have certainly been some improvements in some areas (in terms of the dashboard view, for example), we have experienced some difficulty in trying to automate some fairly standard reports to be sent out to our hiring areas regarding current recruitment in their respective areas."
"In our experience, PageUp has not been as flexible as we would like or expect as a vendor."
"Maybe there is a need to improve the interface so that we will be able to easily search for modules in regards to the system fix."
"The automated removal of historical data would be great if the user could remove it on an ad-hoc basis when required."
"Personally, I believe that they could be more proactive in assuring that, as a client, you are getting the best ROI possible."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kenexa was fairly priced. However, in 2019, before I left my previous organization, they significantly increased their pricing. It can be affordable, but their pricing is going up. It is not just licensing; it is how many applicants you have in your system on the database side."
"PageUp has a different model from other organizations. As part of their pricing structure, they tend to work with you very closely and not charge you for the setup. So, there is one price all inclusive of setup, and for that reason, they become an attractive provider to work with. Here in Australia, the education sector has gravitated very heavily towards PageUp."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
23%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise6
 

Also Known As

IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sweet Spot International (SSI), Leo Burnett Worldwide (LBW), Sika AG, Legacy Health, Apollo Group Inc., Regeneron, Transurban Group, National Health Service, New Zealand Police, Overland Footwear, Yealands, Johnson Controls, Allscripts, Kerry Foods, Masterpet, AMD, Balfour Beatty
MYER, Target, coles, Fujitsu, Michael Hill
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. PageUp People and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.