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IBM Kenexa vs PeopleSoft comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 8, 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 Benefits Administration
13th
Ranking in Talent Management
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (6th)
PeopleSoft
Ranking in Benefits Administration
6th
Ranking in Talent Management
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
ERP (8th), Activity Based Costing Software (4th), Demand Management (1st), Talent Acquisition (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PeopleSoft is 4.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PeopleSoft4.2%
IBM Kenexa2.0%
Other93.8%
Benefits Administration
 

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.
IanCampbell - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Decades of use have delivered secure, customizable control for public sector operations and finance
I have just completed three assessments: one on inventory demand planning, another on using artificial intelligence to bring supplier contracts in portable document format directly into PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft works both internally as well as with third-party products that integrate seamlessly with PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft operates both from a need-to-know-only basis as well as being able at the same time to do group purchase and realize large quantity purchase discounts. My clients have used marketplaces, and it is really industry-specific whether they use one or not, or if there is even one available. I would rate this product nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 would say the support that we get from the CSMs is the most valuable for me right now, because I'm still leaning on them pretty heavily to understand everything that I'm doing within the system."
"For us in particular, I love how configurable the system is; I can use the same technology for different parts of my business."
"We like IBM; IBM has been great partners for us, they're really invested in our success, and they see us as a valuable client."
"I think the advantage of Kenexa is the degree to which we can configure to meet our specific needs."
"The most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand."
"Great value and flexibility in an ATS, mainly through the automation and the configuration through Workbench you can do to manipulate the candidate experience to really be something that candidates like and allows them to apply to your site easily and put them in a pipeline for recruiters to access and move through a process and get somebody hired."
"It has definitely improved my organization by being able to help the recruiters move candidates through the interview process."
"The most valuable feature of this product is the HR suite; it is the leading vendor for human resources in the market, so for me, the HR and payroll features are the biggest flagship of the PeopleSoft product."
"It's a mature product."
"PeopleSoft HCM is a mature, flexible and robust product."
"I think it's a very strong, solid product, very mature."
"PeopleSoft is a stable solution and it has a lot of functionality."
"The solution's scalability is good."
"PeopleSoft is scalable."
"The most valuable feature is that it's wide and broad and it does about everything anybody needs in a major organization from a back-office systems point of view."
 

Cons

"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."
"Technical support was not always great. They tend to push you towards workbench admins or paid support."
"Improvements can be made from the back end, with the workbench."
"The downside is it's a system that was created many, many years ago and so it just evolves."
"I would like to have a better and more user-friendly interface."
"Maybe there's some room for improvement in the functionality around the actual tools that we build with."
"The downside of Kenexa is that they're constantly reinventing, so they have constant releases with new features and upgrades. The downside of that is that they do experience fairly regular issues with stability that they're not always as quick to respond to as we'd like them to."
"Being in a silo of my own world, my wish would be that everything that's available in their legacy views would be moved into their new Talent Suite products, so we could move over to that."
"The UI and appearance of People Soft needs a lot of upgrading and modernization."
"The biggest disadvantage with things like PeopleSoft is that they do continuous support and fixes and upgrades. You get to choose when you want to implement that upgrade. However, in order to keep up, you have to upgrade."
"This is an area I would warn others about. I've worked on several implementations and there's a long period of time within which PeopleSoft needs to be implemented."
"Agile system configurations to accommodate business dynamics."
"Data might get lost, for instance."
"I think it needs better integration with other parties."
"There should be more analytics, monitoring analytics, and also machine learning should be incorporated into the core product."
"I would like for the initial rollout process to be completed faster so that it can be implemented in a more efficient manner."
 

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."
"Check all options before a decision is made."
"The tool is expensive."
"Mostly yearly payments are to be made toward licensing costs. It is not much of an expensive solution."
"The licensing cost for PeopleSoft is 3,500 per course and the annual subscription fee is 6,500."
"There are no additional costs for licensing."
"This solution offers annual licensing. We pay per user."
"The main issue we have with the solution is that it is very expensive."
"The expenses related to the solution are nominal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
8%
 

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 Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise50
 

Questions from the Community

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What are the differences between Oracle HCM Cloud and PeopleSoft?
Although both are solutions to manage HR, their differences make each one suitable for different companies. Oracle Cloud HCM is a platform for connecting all human resource processes in your organ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PeopleSoft?
The pricing is customer-specific, so I am not generally privy to what the pricing for licensing is. However, generally, I think PeopleSoft is certainly cheaper than cloud solutions.
What needs improvement with PeopleSoft?
More delivered artificial intelligence functionality in operations and finance would be helpful.
 

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
BMI Healthcare, Lone Star College System, Jefferson County Public Schools, Griffith University, Los Rios Community College District, Tervita Corporation, INFRA S.A. de C.V., ICF Habitat, Central Washington University, Tech Mahindra Limited, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Stanford Childrens Health
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. PeopleSoft and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.