Sage People vs SmartRecruiters comparison

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Sage People

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

SmartRecruiters and Sage People compete in the recruitment and HR software category. SmartRecruiters has the upper hand with its advanced candidate sourcing and recruitment features.

Features: SmartRecruiters offers strong candidate sourcing capabilities, effective candidate pipeline management, and customization options for recruitment processes. It seamlessly integrates with other systems and supports collaboration among users. Sage People provides comprehensive HR management features including robust reporting, absence management, and payroll integration. It is designed to consolidate various HR processes into a unified system.

Room for Improvement: SmartRecruiters needs to enhance its global accessibility and improve system integration. Users request more advanced onboarding solutions and enhanced customization options. Sage People requires better automation, enhanced reporting capabilities, and increased customization for workflows and interfaces.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SmartRecruiters primarily offers public cloud deployment with responsive customer support through ticket systems, though users want easier access to live help. Sage People provides flexible deployment options including public, private, and on-premises solutions. Its technical support is good, but there are noted delays, and users seek more direct support channels.

Pricing and ROI: SmartRecruiters is priced at the higher end but delivers significant value with comprehensive features that contribute to a positive ROI through streamlined recruitment processes. Discounts for non-profits are appreciated. Sage People's pricing is moderate, ideal for larger SMEs, although potentially costly for startups. Its scalable HR functionalities provide value for extensive usage.

To learn more, read our detailed Sage People vs. SmartRecruiters Report (Updated: July 2025).

Sage People vs. SmartRecruiters

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

Sage People

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (33rd), Talent Management (31st), Cloud HCM (28th), HR Analytics Software (12th)

SmartRecruiters

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Talent Acquisition category, the mindshare of Sage People is 0.7%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 2.0%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Talent Acquisition

Featured Reviews

Spencer Gray

People Advisor at Thomas International

Highly customizable, robust, and access to helpful online community

In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms. While I understand that this system is not solely focused on performance management and is more of a generalist solution, it still lacks the capabilities and features that you can find in other specialized platforms. If we were to switch to a provider solely focused on performance management, we would have access to a wider range of features and capabilities that are not currently available in this system. Sage People offers a wide range of functions that meet most requirements. However, there is still room for improvement. One feature that I would like to see added is the ability to detect and address any failures in the custom processes or functions built within the system. I would like to see a tool that can automatically sense and identify any issues in the system. Currently, when something goes wrong, it's not always immediately obvious and requires a lot of manual troubleshooting. It would be helpful if there was an error message that clearly explained why the system is failing. This would speed up the investigation process and make it ten times faster.

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SUMANTA GHOSH

Regional Recruitment Lead at IQ-EQ

A user-friendly tool that functions without any glitches

With SmartRecruiters, compatibility with other HRIS systems is an area with certain shortcomings that require improvement. SmartRecruiters is a tool that we use as an ATS platform in our company, but we manage the employee lifecycle with the help of SAP, and I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required.

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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

"The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good."

"Without a doubt, the most valuable aspect of this solution is the reports, as it offers endless possibilities for report customization. You can easily build any report you can imagine with this system."

"The solution provides the ability to trace back records, is reliable, makes life easy, and is secure."

"The most valuable feature of Sage People is the integration with our payroll system."

"The most valuable features of Sage People are the reports that are useful for decision-making and the API that can be integrated well. Additionally, the solution can be accessed from mobile devices onto the cloud."

"Compared to the other system that we were using, I think Sage is more friendly. As an administrator, Sage's dashboard is visually friendly and many tasks are easier to accomplish. Another feature that we've liked since we started using Sage is the reporting. With the other system, we needed to configure a lot of things manually when it came to reporting, but with Sage the reporting tasks are much simpler."

"The reporting features are also very valuable because, on top of 300+ reports available on the system, you can also customize quite a number of reports."

"Sage makes all the information accessible, like pulling a file because an employee needs something ASAP. It's all in the system. It's easy to find old reports if I need them for payroll purposes. It might take days to do some of this work by hand."

More Sage People pros

"I found the core product quite useful. It is easy to use and quite user-friendly. They have also got other options, such as CRM and HRS. They have other versions such as smart distribute, which is an HRS type of system to analyze and get permissions needed from the applicants. In terms of pricing, SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors."

"With this solution, I was able to add diversity to my recruiting. I was able to source from multiple locations, and I could show where applicants came from. The reporting tools that are on offer, allowed us to expand our reach. We were able to add meaningful diversity into recruiting."

"The most valuable feature is the way that they've set it up for collaboration."

"Job publishing and application tracking are the most valuable features. You can keep the flow of a candidate's application into one system. The whole collaboration can also be done within the system, which means that you can schedule interviews and add your feedback and ratings there. You can also communicate with the candidates. The analytics part of it is also very valuable. It is a useful feature that we use quite a lot. We don't really use other features such as recruitment marketing or CRM candidate relationship management in SmartRecruiters."

"SmartRecruiters is a candidate management system or ATS system that we use for recruitment purposes."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that amongst all the other ATS platforms that I have used, SmartRecruiters is the most user-friendly tool."

"It has a neat functionality built in where it rates candidates. So, before you even look at the resume, you see a rating, and it is based on keywords. For example, it will tell you that an applicant is a frontend engineer and has used React, Angular, etc. It gives you a heads up so that you don't have to go through a hundred resumes on Monday morning eliminating applicants. It will tell you that this applicant's skills match 87%, which is pretty neat. You can skip the ones that are rated 25% or something."

"With just a click of a button, we can manage the process. Even generating offer letters and obtaining electronic signatures through DocSign are integrated into this application."

More SmartRecruiters pros

Cons

"The integration with our payroll system could improve. However, it is managed by another company."

"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets. In my previous experiences with other HR software, we had to buy another solution to obtain this functionality, and it would be a great feature for Sage to consider adding. For an HR system, Sage would do very well to include it."

"The automation in Sage People could improve. The solution is the best used for data storage but the automation could be better to have more functionality."

"If Sage People were to become a fully cloud-based solution, it could lead to significant improvements. With the COVID pandemic highlighting the benefits of remote work, a complete shift to cloud-based functionality would be a welcome development for users."

"The user interface is not great."

"There were a couple of things that we wanted to customize, but we couldn’t do it ourselves."

"The budget module does not work. Sage People need to maybe make it more user-friendly."

"Its technical support could have been better."

More Sage People cons

"The solution's reporting feature could be improved because it is not very strong."

"The solution needs to work on a single sign-on."

"The major improvement area is how it integrates with other systems. That's where we've had some sort of pain points. They've done a lot of work with their development team in setting up integrations with other types of software like SuccessFactors, which we use, but we have found some glitches there. This is probably where they need to do some work. Sometimes, when it refreshes or there is any sort of update in SmartRecruiters, it has a direct impact on the integrations that we have with other tools. We are not always notified when that takes place. We have had HR say to us, "We've just hired this guy. He is not there in our end board at all. What's going on?" That's when we realized that the integration is actually broken. When we have other solutions like SuccessFactors, it would be very helpful to have knowledge articles for such integrations. We have found some of the templates that we want to use and some of the customizations that we do around the offer letters and the contract letters to be a little bit more difficult, which hasn't made this process any more efficient than it was. We still have to do a bit of manual intervention there. I don't know if it is just our company, but we need to have different clauses and things in place. We have stopped using DocuSign as well, and we are trying to look at other ways of doing that. They are aware of this."

"I don't see the integration of SmartRecruiters with SAP happening quite seamlessly, making it an area where improvements are required."

"SmartRecruiters' on-click application process could be better."

"There were limitations with the system that we would have liked, not in the time, but the company in Germany really dictated that. So we couldn't do everything in the system we would have liked to it."

"We require greater flexibility for customization with our employer branding. Currently, it is very much driven by the SmartRecruiters design. We are using a SaaS solution, so we are powered by what is in the core product itself. A disadvantage of being a SaaS solution is that there aren't many customization options because you are literally buying it out of the box. You use whatever is offered to you in a box as much as you can, and that might be a problem sometimes because customizations are not achievable. They should definitely improve and provide more flexibility for customizations. For a large organization like ours, they can provide more flexibility on the authorization side of things. They could create a much more flexible way of access and separate the IT or help desk access when they need to go into the system and do some fixes. Currently, it is set up in a way that that you have access for everything or nothing, which is not useful in terms of the separation of duty that we have. There are also other things like matrix, where we can have a better and deeper kind of analysis."

"There were problems with integrations around other systems and each one had to be custom-built, which took a little while to get set up and running."

More SmartRecruiters cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is other software on the market that can do similar functions to Sage People that could be better in price. Some solution allows you to do your payroll processes by month or by the process. Small companies could benefit by using another solution."

"Its cost is moderate for a multi-group licensing model."

"The cost of Sage People varies depending on the financial resources of the organization. While it may be affordable for middle-level companies, it may be more challenging for young companies to bear the cost."

"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"From an SME standpoint, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as expensive. However, for the average startup, it may not be affordable since our current annual expenditure on the system, which supports approximately 210-220 users, amounts to approximately £15,000 to £18,000."

"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."

"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."

More Sage People pricing and cost advice

"There were implementation costs in the first year to get everything set up and running, and then they have various modules on top, which are optional and available at an extra charge."

"I haven't been so involved with pricing, so I don't have all details, but I know that we are paying per head when it comes to different countries. There is an additional fee for new features that they release. If it is something that we would like to use, we need to pay some extra for it."

"They are pretty competitive. As the product matures, it has much more functionality and different pricing models. It can relatively cost a lot more if you want to use additional features, but, in general, it is competitive in the industry. We work on a yearly license agreement based on the company size. There are the support costs, which are a part of the additional cost based on the percentage of the licensing fee. So, it has a license plus support cost. Then, of course, there are other add-on options that we can purchase and procure whenever we want to based on certain negotiated arrangements."

"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."

"I wasn't involved in its acquisition, but I would assume that SmartRecruiters is pretty pricey."

"Back in 2018, when I engaged with their sales, they wanted to charge around $10,000 for an annual subscription. Depending on your organization, that either could or couldn't be expensive. I personally think it's a fair price. However, I engaged them and negotiated a lower price with them. I think I got closer to $6,000. It came with a commitment of three years."

"SmartRecruiters is much better than its competitors. Considering the type of features and services it provides, it is probably one of the best solutions in the market. Others may offer a similar price, but their services won't be that good or the user-friendliness won't be that great. The licensing works based on how many users are there in a company. If you are using other functionalities, like CRM and HRS, the price increases."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Comms Service Provider

15%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

13%

Healthcare Company

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about SmartRecruiters?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that amongst all the other ATS platforms that I have used, SmartRecruiters is the most user-friendly tool.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartRecruiters?

SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution.

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What needs improvement with SmartRecruiters?

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Comparisons

Workday vs Sage People

Compared 41% of the time

Cegid vs Sage People

Compared 33% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs Sage People

Compared 26% of the time

More Sage People Competitors

Workday vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 30% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 20% of the time

Greenhouse vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 14% of the time

HiredScore vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Sage People

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Download SmartRecruiters product report

Also Known As

Fairsail

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Overview

Connect teams across borders

Customise communications: Deliver business updates to specific groups and gather feedback with surveys.
Personalise experiences: Create engaging, branded experiences – tailored by group or region.
Connect global teams: Manage your entire workforce, wherever they are. Embed global policies while enforcing local regulations.
Help teams thrive, anywhere: Support wellbeing, provide localised benefits packages, and more.

Get ahead with actionable HR analytics

Make informed decisions: Use People analytics for actionable insights in seconds.
Provide real-time insights: Give up-to-the-minute recommendations so leaders jump on trends and adjust plans.
Customise dashboards: Plan hiring, analyse attrition, manage absence, and more.
Get actionable feedback: Understand the employee experience through surveys, tailored to different groups.

Compete successfully for top talent

Deliver a differentiated, stand-out candidate experience with easy-to-use employer branding themes and options that shows off your culture and company story.
Fill roles faster with skilled talent using our unique, AI-powered, intelligent candidate matching.
Have new employees hit the ground running with seamless remote pre-boarding and onboarding experiences.

Sage

SmartRecruiters social recruiting platform combines awesome free recruiting software with the best on-demand services to make hiring social, collaborative, and enjoyable. Social and mobile recruiting enablement platform that supports 1-click application submissions.

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair

Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers

Sage People vs. SmartRecruiters