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IBM Kenexa vs Zoho Recruit comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
29th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (30th), Talent Management (23rd)
Zoho Recruit
Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Video Interviewing Software (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Recruit is 2.7%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zoho Recruit2.7%
IBM Kenexa1.6%
Other95.7%
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software
 

Featured Reviews

Karan Grover - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
AdnanNasir - PeerSpot reviewer
An all-in-one Applicant Tracking System (ATS) with a useful mass customization feature and good customer service
I would like them to improve their UX and UI. The front screen or the home page is dull. The tools in the marketplace have flashy home pages and a very funky style. I think that's one area that they can improve. In the future, I would like an option to integrate Zoho by default with other tools, specifically the HR tools. I would love it if I could convert the candidates directly from Zoho. That would be a huge help. They have a paid extension, but it doesn't work well during the trial period.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Kenexa is fairly stable. We don't have any downtime."
"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 most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand."
"The ease of scaling is one of BrassRing's biggest strengths, making it a trusted choice for large companies."
"Good reporting feature."
"The pricing seems to be very reasonable."
"The solution provides the ability to integrate with other Zoho apps, allowing us to automate the hiring process."
"The CV parsing feature is the most valuable. It can parse resumes for the database. It is easy to deploy, and it is also stable and scalable. Its support is also good."
"The solution is secure and also very user friendly."
"The customization feature is the most valuable. I can add candidates to the system without having to go into it manually. I can look at a LinkedIn or PNet profile and literally right-click on it and pass that candidate into my database almost completely. It is 100% accurate for 90% of the time. It also has good security. I can't log in without a fingerprint. To log in, I have to give a fingerprint on my smartphone."
"One of the features that I really like is that it's very administratively user-friendly. It is easy to add new managers into the system. It's very easy to switch and add regional capability, for instance. Zoho has put a lot of time into the administrative side to make it functional, which was a huge highlight for me and my team. Zoho's reporting functionality is good. It is easy to run lists in Excel, including dashboard reports, to determine if we are hiring accurately. We were able to tweak and improve our recruitment and hiring functions."
"The installation process isn't very complicated."
 

Cons

"I would like to have a better and more user-friendly interface."
"I would not recommend IBM Kenexa to others."
"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."
"It needs to update its reporting and analytics tools."
"Candidate filtering is a little cumbersome. I would love to see all the design and effort Zoho put in to the administrative user experience also be applied to the manager experience side. Quite a bit of filtering has to be done to get to what you want. Also, you can't get through many candidates because Zoho Recruit has a cap on how many candidates you can view at a time. If you've got hundreds of candidates per job, you may have to scroll through 10 pages."
"There's a bit of a learning curve."
"I would like them to improve their UX and UI. The front screen or the home page is dull. The tools in the marketplace have flashy home pages and a very funky style. I think that's one area that they can improve. In the future, I would like an option to integrate Zoho by default with other tools, specifically the HR tools. I would love it if I could convert the candidates directly from Zoho. That would be a huge help. They have a paid extension, but it doesn't work well during the trial period."
"Zoho Recruit could benefit from increased flexibility and customization when creating and sending offer letters to new recruits."
"The pricing could be a bit more reasonable."
"Its automation is currently complicated, and it could be better. The biggest problem is that their instructions, videos, and documentation are terrible. These should be improved. I would like to see an email tracking feature and an option to find email addresses and leads."
"No ability to automatically update details."
"There is a limit to the number of lines you can extract."
 

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."
"I think it costs about $40 per month for a recruiter account. It comes with ten free accounts. It's well worth the money we are paying."
"In terms of cost, Zoho is by far the most reasonable for what you're getting. You get the option of monthly or yearly price. It is one cost per person for a license, and it is reasonable. My solutions are $50 per person per month."
"Zoho Recruit is an affordable solution in comparison to BambooHR and costs relatively the same as Greenhouse implementation wise. It costs less than $100 per user. Large organizations will be able to get enterprise pricing, and Zoho is transparent with their pricing."
"It is in the middle price range. Everything is included in the price."
"The cost of each user depends on the size of our user base."
"The more you scale the solution the more it will cost. If you want the vendor to do the implementation or migration there are extra fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
No data available
 

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 Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Kenexa?
The ease of scaling is one of BrassRing's biggest strengths, making it a trusted choice for large companies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Kenexa?
As a large company, we first bought the complete BrassRing package, which had various features. Later on, we paid extra for specific features like customer test management. When we integrated with ...
What needs improvement with IBM Kenexa?
BrassRing needs improvement in a few areas. First, it should update how it tracks where candidates come from and avoid duplicate entries. Right now, it is not very flexible. Also, its way of making...
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Comparisons

 

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
Manning Global, Hadfield Education, GEP, Scientific Games, International School of London - Qatar, IIM - Ahemadabad, Change.org
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. Zoho Recruit and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.