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BambooHR vs IBM Kenexa comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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

BambooHR
Ranking in Benefits Administration
8th
Ranking in Talent Management
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Cloud HCM (8th)
IBM Kenexa
Ranking in Benefits Administration
13th
Ranking in Talent Management
18th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Talent Management category, the mindshare of BambooHR is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Talent Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BambooHR2.3%
IBM Kenexa1.6%
Other96.1%
Talent Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ram-Mohan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Align Technology
Pre-built adapters simplify CI/CD processes but monitoring improvements are needed
If Bamboo can provide a dashboard with tool health, such as whether the master or instance has the required space, it would be beneficial. Sometimes, when I trigger a build, it ends with no space on the agent machine where the agents are installed. If Bamboo can create an internal monitoring mechanism and display the tool's health status on the landing page or homepage, it would help end users and DevOps Engineers like me.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I can easily go to BambooHR to search for any staff member in the company."
"It is a great HR product for your business."
"It is VERY user friendly, and we are constantly getting unsolicited positive feedback from employees."
"The solution's technical support is super responsive and helpful. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"The scalability of BambooHR is good."
"It provides great applicant tracking and documentation for our needs."
"Customer support has been one of the stand-out aspects of using BambooHR, with answers always within the same day and as helpful and friendly as possible."
"The BambooHR system makes it a lot faster for me to review and follow-up with candidates and it saves me time from having to print or distribute candidates that need to be reviewed with executives."
"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 think one of the biggest benefits that Kenexa brings is the scalability."
"This tool is very powerful and the ability to tweak it in order to meet desired processes and controls is valuable."
"The ability now to be able to take data, load it yourself, ask the business questions and get the answers on your own process with the business just made it a lot faster, and the cognitive solution gives us some insights for us to think about."
"As I said, IBM are doing a great job with us at the moment, but we're always looking and speaking and open to having conversations with other people because the market's changing and IBM are aware of that."
"The most important features are that the instrument can be customized, that we can get important and relevant data about our employees, and the responsiveness of our client team from IBM has been phenomenal."
"Without this solution, we would have more administrative functions and would need to hire more HR employees."
"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."
 

Cons

"BambooHR could be improved by managing leave in a way that transfers remaining days at the end of the annual year to the following year."
"If Bamboo can create an internal monitoring mechanism and display the tool's health status on the landing page or homepage, it would help end users and DevOps Engineers like me."
"BambooHR needs to have more flexibility around performance management."
"As an international company, there are several administrators in different countries making changes to the system and there is no way of knowing who has made a change, which can be frustrating."
"I would like to see some improvements with custom reports and Signature templates."
"The UI needs improvement because it needs to be more user-friendly."
"We recommend to have your own payroll integration as per GCC norms."
"If you are dealing with two or more businesses under one company name, it is not possible to transfer employees between companies if they have a separate bamboo set up."
"Improvements can be made from the back end, with the workbench."
"2xO was created by brain-damaged monkeys in front of keyboards."
"We're really looking forward to some of their enhancements to their onboarding portal, specifically for recruiters and hiring managers."
"I would like to have a better and more user-friendly interface."
"It was a little rocky, as they always are, but we went live on time and that's all that matters."
"There were functions we couldn't customize and needed to."
"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)."
"I would say that it could likely be made slightly easier to consume and work with - less scientific or engineering oriented - but IBM Kenexa Talent Insights is about the most powerful and useful tool I've seen."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, the solution is in the middle compared to other tools offering similar functionalities."
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"We pay a monthly subscription to use the solution. The subscript model is based on how many employees we have active."
"It was definitely cheaper than some of the larger systems."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
18%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering BambooHR?
Organizations of all sizes, especially those that are experiencing rapid growth, want to have a way to effectively manage their HR operations. Our organization feels that BambooHR is an HR manageme...
What needs improvement with BambooHR?
If Bamboo can provide a dashboard with tool health, such as whether the master or instance has the required space, it would be beneficial. Sometimes, when I trigger a build, it ends with no space o...
What is your primary use case for BambooHR?
I am a DevOps Engineer and I mostly deal with the Bamboo CI/CD automation part. I facilitate my team by providing the environment to run their tests. Generally, I create the pipelines that take the...
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Stance, SoundCloud, Reddit, Shopify, 99designs, Stitcher, Disqus, Beans & Brews, Stacy and Witbeck, Vino Farms, MokiMobility, SecurityMetrics
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
Find out what your peers are saying about BambooHR vs. IBM Kenexa and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.