HCL Connections vs Jive comparison

HCLSoftware and Jive Software are both solutions in the Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) category. HCLSoftware is ranked #5, while Jive Software is ranked #7. HCLSoftware holds a 5.3% mindshare in CP, compared to Jive Software’s 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Jive Software users who would recommend it.

HCL Connections

Read 55 HCL Connections reviews

1,306 Views
522 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Jive

Read 10 Jive reviews

1,269 Views
203 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HCL Connections

Jive

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Jive and HCL Connections compete in the collaboration and communication platform market. Jive stands out for its ease of use, while HCL Connections is preferred for its advanced integration capabilities.

Features: Jive is known for its user-friendly interface, social intranet capabilities, and community-driven support, which enhance internal communication and employee engagement. HCL Connections emphasizes extensive collaboration tools, focusing on file sharing, document management, and seamless integration with enterprise systems.

Room for Improvement: Jive could enhance its integration capabilities and offer more advanced document management features. It should also improve its scalability for larger enterprises. HCL Connections can streamline its deployment process and simplify its user interface. It may also work on reducing its complexity for users who do not need extensive features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Jive provides a simple cloud-based deployment model, simplifying setup and reducing overhead, with customer service noted for its quick responses. HCL Connections, though more complex, offers robust support and detailed deployment guides that ease integration with existing systems.

Pricing and ROI: Jive typically incurs lower initial costs with faster ROI due to its straightforward deployment and usage, making it appealing to small to medium businesses. HCL Connections may require a higher initial investment because of its advanced features, promising long-term benefits for enterprises utilizing interconnected applications.

To learn more, read our detailed HCL Connections vs. Jive Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

HCL Connections vs. Jive

March 2026

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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

HCL Connections

Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

5th

Ranking in Enterprise Social Software

15th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Jive

Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

7th

Ranking in Enterprise Social Software

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (31st), Web Content Management (26th), Knowledge Management Software (14th), Enterprise Intranet (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) category, the mindshare of HCL Connections is 5.3%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jive is 5.7%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HCL Connections	5.3%
Jive	5.7%
Other	89.0%

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

Featured Reviews

Hasnain Zahid

Talent acquisition & development specialist at Software Productivity Strategists, Inc. (SPS)

A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.

Read full review

Gian DE Bernardi

VP - International Business at Amtex S.A.

A flexible solution that improves our administrative efficiency

We use Jive-n for followups on details regarding purchase orders, shipping documents, and other information We are able to handle more than one hundred POs at any given time with their shipping docs and info, with only one person in charge. This solution provides great flexibility of permission…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Connections provides a single solution that offers profiles, communities, file sharing, wikis, blogs, surveys, activities, bookmarks, forums, ideation, activity streams and events."

"All the features above improve collaboration among employees."

"It is the single source of truth that can be shared anywhere."

"It's easy to use for both developers and end users."

"IBM Connections Pink means a new way of collaboration, like you have never seen before."

"The Files feature has really changed the way we do business."

"The most valuable feature is the Activity flow that is used to catch new activities."

"The most valuable features of Connections would be that it opens up communication silos that previously existed in the company, so that people have the opportunity to discover talents and interests in other areas that may not pertain to their normal job function."

More HCL Connections pros

"Colleagues are more informed, it is easier to find content, and silo breaking has significantly improved our collaboration."

"We are able to handle more than one hundred POs at any given time with their shipping docs and info, with only one person in charge."

"Jive came out on top for feature, price, and ability to meet regulatory needs."

"The platform works well to collaborate with creating documents or media for a specific goal."

"Various business groups were able to collaborate effectively using this tool."

"We recently rebranded our organization and used this tool as our primary channel."

"In comparison to other platforms, Jive-n provides the fastest way to integrate new affiliates into your organization."

Cons

"The support is an area where the product can improve...If you are having an issue on a Monday, the support personnel will contact you next Monday."

"I have found the wiki to be lacking in functionality."

"We hear complaints from our users that Connections, and other IBM products, are not intuitive."

"For instance, when you open a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you just get a copy of it; you can't put it up again."

"From the sharing perspective, it is very clunky. It's very hard to share files and very hard to share content."

"The setup was complex. Integrations were an issue and several things went wrong such as identification, credentials etc."

"For most of my users, the consistent feedback has been about how difficult it is to use and how the interface is poorly designed."

"With the Connections desktop plugin, right now, when we copy files over, we have to do it individually and create our folder structure; we can't just copy our folders over and have them all exist."

More HCL Connections cons

"We had major performance issues when our user base went up."

"Standard Silver technical support is similar to standard support by all vendors, i.e., not quick enough."

"Create a better way of adding users in bulk by email address."

"A visual navigator would be very useful as many colleagues have an issue to find their way and connect the dots."

"Stream activity could be better organized."

"The search engine could be improved and also provide some kind of indexing."

"The mobile app could be better."

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Comparison Review

it_user8925

Developer with 51-200 employees

Aug 23, 2013

Jive vs Sharepoint vs Drupal Commons

At Mediacurrent we often get requests to compare Drupal to other platforms used for intranet sites and social business platforms (like https://dev.twitter.com/ for example). This is often referred to as “Social Business Software”, which has grown in popularity in recent years. I decided to do a…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Connections?

The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team ...

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What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?

I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.

See all answers

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Comparisons

Drupal vs HCL Connections

Compared 31% of the time

Microsoft Teams vs HCL Connections

Compared 22% of the time

SharePoint vs HCL Connections

Compared 15% of the time

Liferay Digital Experience Platform vs HCL Connections

Compared 12% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs HCL Connections

Compared 12% of the time

More HCL Connections Competitors

Slack Business - Enterprise vs Jive

Compared 15% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs Jive

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Teams vs Jive

Compared 10% of the time

Drupal vs Jive

Compared 10% of the time

SharePoint vs Jive

Compared 9% of the time

More Jive Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HCL Connections

March 2026

Download HCL Connections product report

Buyer's Guide

Jive

March 2026

Download Jive product report

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections

Clearspace, Jive SBS, Jive Engage, Jive-x, Jive-n

Overview

IBM Connections™ is a leading unified collaboration and social networking solution that helps you filter out the noise to get work done. Connections empowers your teams and organization to engage with the right experts, accelerate innovation, and deliver results. All the collaboration tools you need to be productive are united under a single sign-on so you can reduce time spent switching between disparate tools and focus on the people and work that matters most. Experience a security-rich and business-compliant environment sanctioned by IT. Confidently share knowledge within your teams and your organization, and extend collaboration beyond traditional boundaries. Connections can enable you to improve decision-making, increase productivity, and accelerate time-to-market. Shift from being merely productive, to truly effective with Connections today.

IBM Connections can help you: Engage experts. People-centric platform enables you to easily locate the expertise you need, right now. Accelerate innovation. Illuminate and promote new ideas within a thriving social network of teams and communities. Empower teams. Get work done together and take action; anywhere—from any device. Deliver results. Leverage cognitive insights to prioritize results and arrive at better outcomes. Extend collaboration. Safely collaborate with customers and partners, bringing them into the conversation.

HCLSoftware

The workplace has changed. It has become more mobile, and has become a place where communication and collaboration across all spheres of the business is key to success. This is where Jive comes in with its cutting-edge mobile portal, its enterprise social network, and its integrative platform that is compatible with current infrastructure and modern cloud applications.

As a portal, Jive brings colleagues, content, and current news straight to your desktop or mobile device at the touch of your fingertips. The enterprise social software aspect of Jive connects business colleagues as never-before across geographical locations and throughout the organizational structure. The Jive platform is completely flexible and integrative, and will seamlessly integrate with current systems such as SharePoint and CRM tools, as well as cloud apps like Google Drive and Okta

Jive Software

Sample Customers

Yamato Financial Co. Ltd., University of Zurich, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., Telus, Rabobank, Christian Brothers Services, Grupo Financiero Banorte, The Loft Group, Dow Water & Process Solutions, JGC Corporation, College of Medicine, Swansea University, solvito GmbH, Loft Group, Hamm-Reno Group GmbH, Geno SA

Eloqua, Hitachi Data Systems,T-Mobile, UBM, Thomson-Reuters, Groupon, Nike, Cisco, and others.

Buyer's Guide

HCL Connections vs. Jive

March 2026

Free Report: HCL Connections vs. Jive

Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Connections vs. Jive and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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