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IBM Kenexa vs PeopleSoft comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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
18th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (8th)
PeopleSoft
Ranking in Benefits Administration
6th
Ranking in Talent Management
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
ERP (9th), Activity Based Costing Software (4th), Demand Management (1st), Talent Acquisition (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PeopleSoft is 3.5%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PeopleSoft3.5%
IBM Kenexa1.9%
Other94.6%
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

"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."
"This tool is very powerful and the ability to tweak it in order to meet desired processes and controls is valuable."
"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."
"Now, having provided this, amongst many other things, we have a much closer relationship to the business."
"Kenexa’s scalability has been great, as we can grow and expand our use no matter what and seamlessly incorporate our business process for new launches."
"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."
"The most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand."
"I like how we can copy a req as we have many duplicates, which saved a lot of time when opening reqs."
"PeopleSoft has been fairly reliable for us. We haven't had any issues with stability."
"Scales up very well."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its stability."
"The integration between Human Capital Management (HCM) and PeopleSoft is an important feature."
"The most valuable feature is ERP application information."
"I think PeopleSoft is a good tool for HR administrators; it's easy to navigate compared to the other ERPs, the management of the tool is straightforward from the employee's perspective so the employee experience is good, and PeopleSoft is intuitive so no one needs to be taught how to use the system."
"The customizations allow us to come up with a lot of complex labor rules. In the Philippines, there's a lot of different kinds of rules you need to be in compliance with. The solution offers up a lot of flexibility and customization that is perfect for our region's requirements."
"Customer service is good."
 

Cons

"It needs to update its reporting and analytics tools."
"IBM Kenexa has a lot of room for improvement. The solution is not advancing anymore in terms of the user experience and in the workflows."
"The team didn't find the reporting tool that easy to use, in terms of pulling their own data, slicing and dicing it, combining groups."
"My rating is not higher because of the support, honestly; the global service center model."
"The reason I’m not rating it with five stars is because of its sheer size."
"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)."
"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."
"For HCM the editing criteria, especially for the time and labor section, the editing tool needs improvement."
"There are some small things I'd like changing, but the big thing that needs work is their technical support."
"Response time takes very long and requires a person to be awake night and day to benefit from it."
"PeopleSoft lacks integration capabilities."
"Scalability is not there in PeopleSoft. Its performance and resilience are also very bad. When you're trying to stretch it, it breaks. It is not resilient. It is also not stable. It is stable as far as data is concerned, but the infrastructure is not stable."
"My developers want to use more HTML instead of the specialized tool, PeopleTools because, they say, it's better from a user perspective."
"The solution needs to work on its mobile technology. We're hoping in the next version we're working on implementing, 9.2, will have more of this."
"The Time and Labor module is not that flexible."
 

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 would consider this to be an expensive product, but the quality justifies it."
"I don't know if they are still providing licenses or if they have suspending licenses."
"This solution offers annual licensing. We pay per user."
"The solution is priced per module."
"It's approximately $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 USD per year."
"The main issue we have with the solution is that it is very expensive."
"The product's cost depends on the number of people in your company or the number of paychecks processed. They charge based on these factors, plus a maintenance fee. I'm not sure about current pricing since Oracle took over."
"PeopleSoft has a yearly maintenance fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
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: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.