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HCL Connections vs Jive comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

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
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Jive
Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
7th
Ranking in Enterprise Social Software
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (28th), Web Content Management (20th), Knowledge Management Software (12th), Enterprise Intranet (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) category, the mindshare of HCL Connections is 6.0%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jive is 8.3%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL Connections6.0%
Jive8.3%
Other85.7%
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
 

Featured Reviews

Hasnain Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
GD
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Connections, with its file sharing and lightweight document management capabilities, has helped us reduce the volume of email and network file usage."
"With IBM connections cloud you are able to get the users active in the solution from day one and start developing Social Solutions that deliver real business outcomes!"
"It has really changed the way people work: File sharing, getting away from shared drives, being able to set up communities for information, and empowering business units to leverage support for their business units."
"IBM Connections Cloud gives us the opportunity to put files in one location for the people to get access to."
"Communities are a popular way of combining blogs, wikis, files, and activities centered on a common objective or subject which proves popular and increases collaboration across people and teams."
"The ease of use has definitely improved the way my organization functions."
"For us, the most valuable feature is really the threaded conversations, because we don't get a threaded conversation with other tools."
"The platform allows in a very easy way to create community and start collaborating."
"Various business groups were able to collaborate effectively using this tool."
"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."
"Jive-n offers the best curated experience of the social-based content for enterprises."
"Colleagues are more informed, it is easier to find content, and silo breaking has significantly improved our collaboration."
"In comparison to other platforms, Jive-n provides the fastest way to integrate new affiliates into your organization."
"We recently rebranded our organization and used this tool as our primary channel."
"The platform works well to collaborate with creating documents or media for a specific goal."
 

Cons

"The setup was complex. Integrations were an issue and several things went wrong such as identification, credentials etc."
"Our users would like to see more document management capabilities in the base IBM Connections package (without having to install extended components). Users also prefer using a traditional folder structure for organizing content and are not used to tags (might be a learning curve or resistance to change)."
"The perfect software doesn't exist, but I think Connections is really a good piece of software with few things lacking."
"The file plugin for Mac need some improvement."
"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."
"For most of my users, the consistent feedback has been about how difficult it is to use and how the interface is poorly designed."
"Development of more customized widgets as per the organization’s requirement is one area, which if improved, will attract even those employees who don't use this product often."
"The inclusion of a file plugin for Windows Explorer would make it easier to use."
"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."
"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."
"The mobile app could be better."
"Jive-n can improve their integration, plugins and democratize their configuration abilities."
"Stream activity could be better organized."
"The search engine could be improved and also provide some kind of indexing."
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908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
20%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Performing Arts
7%
Construction Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise5
 

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 ...
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.
Ask a question
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections
Clearspace, Jive SBS, Jive Engage, Jive-x, Jive-n
 

Overview

 

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.
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Connections vs. Jive and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.