PeopleStrong vs SmartRecruiters comparison

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93% willing to recommend

PeopleStrong

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

SmartRecruiters and PeopleStrong compete in the HR technology space, specifically providing recruitment and core HR functions. SmartRecruiters seems to have the upper hand due to its sophisticated CRM functionalities and seamless collaboration tools, which cater to complex workflows and candidate management needs.

Features: SmartRecruiters offers robust CRM functionalities, allowing job posting on multiple platforms, and comprehensive reporting tools. It is recognized for quarterly updates and cost-saving features. PeopleStrong is valued for its flexibility and ease of mobile access, supporting core HR functions like leave and performance management, and offers a solid onboarding experience.

Room for Improvement: SmartRecruiters encounters integration and communication challenges, causing system update compatibility issues and complex reporting. There is a need for better global feature deployment and language support. PeopleStrong could improve its talent management, reporting, and integration capabilities. Users desire more flexibility in customization and API-based integration for process streamlining.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SmartRecruiters utilizes Public and Private Cloud solutions, though it experiences integration and ticketing support delays possibly due to time zone differences. Users acknowledge efficient initial issue response, but the explanation process is time-consuming. PeopleStrong offers Cloud and on-premises deployment, showing recent support responsiveness improvement but struggles with ticket management largely managed through Salesforce, highlighting a gap in real-time solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SmartRecruiters is considered a premium product with high costs justified by advanced features, supporting large-scale recruitment efficiency and cost reductions, with potential discounts for nonprofits. Its ROI is noted more in efficiency than immediate financial savings. PeopleStrong offers a cost-effective model, charging annually per employee, appreciated for its straightforward pricing and satisfactory ROI, especially for basic but widespread HR functionalities. The ROI from both products is recognized primarily in operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed PeopleStrong vs. SmartRecruiters Report (Updated: January 2026).

PeopleStrong vs. SmartRecruiters

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Helped 881,082 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

PeopleStrong

Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software

4th

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

10th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Talent Management (12th), Cloud HCM (14th)

SmartRecruiters

Ranking in Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software

1st

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software category, the mindshare of PeopleStrong is 2.3%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 3.4%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SmartRecruiters	3.4%
PeopleStrong	2.3%
Other	94.3%

Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software

Featured Reviews

reviewer2384715

Assistant Vice President Information Technology at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Simple, easy to access and interface is quite user-friendly.

PeopleStrong is good. The only thing is that they have complete SaaS-based solutions. But sometimes, we feel that we should have an API-based integration aspect. This does not exist right now because we have a separate portal for PeopleStrong. They have been logged in via SSO. But if we want to integrate it via API in the current people system, that feature is not available right now.

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Anudeep Kamuni

Global Lead - TA ops & Analytics | Strategy Growth & Leadership at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees

Efficiently automates tasks but lacks certain features in terms of usability

There are a couple of areas of improvement. SmartRecruiter lacks certain features in terms of usability. For instance, we cannot move candidate profiles, interview feedback, notes, and activities related to one candidate when transitioning from one job to another. We have to manually copy and paste everything for that specific candidate. This is a significant drawback. Additionally, the filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager. This level of inaccuracy is unexpected for an application, especially for smaller organizations. It should have been corrected easily. Moreover, the CRM module lacks video reporting capabilities. These are some the biggest improvement I would like to see.

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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

"It has the capability of reporting. We, as a business team, found it good. In fact, we migrated to PeopleStrong essentially because of its reporting feature."

"The product has valuable flexibility for customization, user interface, and search capabilities."

"It is priced low."

"The mobile responsiveness is strong."

"The hiring process is good. It will create a process-oriented procedure in terms of hiring, promotion, the movement of people, and other related HR tasks."

"PeopleStrong Alt is flexible because it allows customization and the user's experience is very good."

"The UI and UX are fantastic."

"Some of the most valuable features are the onboarding experience of new employees, the employee service portal, and the entire performance management system."

"The all-encompassing ability to manage the process cohesively out of the SmartRecruiter system was valuable."

"I used the free version, which I found valuable."

"The candidate experience was better because the whole process was there."

"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."

"It is a really user-friendly tool, and its implementation is quite wide. It is very easy to manage users and build your workflows. Overall, it works very well for the customization of the workflows for us. The recruitment team has generally found the whole platform useful. We were looking to kind of expand it by using the CRM functions that it has. However, with COVID and recruitment being on the freeze, we weren't really able to make the most of the tool. They are, however, finding it useful to actually build up their talent pools and client candidates to be able to contact them when we kind of have this freeze off."

"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."

"What I really like about it is that it feels minimal, but is also dynamic. There aren't a lot of ways to get lost, which is good."

"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."

More SmartRecruiters pros

Cons

"They could improve talent management capabilities."

"It would be helpful if you could work offline because sometimes, we have problems with internet connectivity."

"They could include a sort of collaborative platform where employees are able to work together with a chat mechanism like WhatsApp and video chat."

"The solution's workflow can improve by adding more customization at the organizational level."

"Sometimes, we feel that we should have an API-based integration aspect."

"PeopleStrong could make it AI-friendly."

"The global scalability and support could improve."

"They had challenges getting the performance management system up and integrated with our systems."

"Around 2015 and into '17, I worked at a federal contractor. I had to switch to a different applicant system as I didn't know if SmartRecruiters was OFCCP compliant, which is something that, as a US-based federal contractor, you have to ensure. They should work to appeal to the contractor industry and get the product OFCCP compliant."

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

"One thing that has been a bit of a struggle is getting tech support. It is a little more difficult to get support from SmartRecruiters. They want you to have your own in-house person to help you with any issues, whereas with both Lever and Greenhouse, you can just click a button at the bottom of the screen and chat with someone almost instantly."

"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 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."

"Sometimes, there is this language or communication barrier in terms of what the applicants mentioned. SmartRecruiters sometimes has trouble understanding certain types of keywords or has certain types of language, translation, or grammar issues."

"The filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager."

"We ran into some serious issues related to language barriers."

More SmartRecruiters cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product has reasonable pricing."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"It's very reasonably priced. It is paid per employee."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"SmartRecruiters is an expensive solution."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

11%

Healthcare Company

10%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PeopleStrong Alt?

It has the capability of reporting. We, as a business team, found it good. In fact, we migrated to PeopleStrong essentially because of its reporting feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PeopleStrong Alt?

It is priced low. I rate the product’s pricing a three out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for PeopleStrong Alt?

Using PeopleStrong, uploading modules, and downloading reports was very easy. The process was hassle-free and user-friendly. We use PeopleStrong for performance management and HR operations, such a...

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Product Reports

Cloud HCM

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Also Known As

PeopleStrong Alt

No data available

Overview

PeopleStrong is Asia Pacific’s leading, and the most comprehensive Human Capital Management SaaS platform. Our technology focuses on delivering a unique employee experience, drives data-driven decisions and agility for businesses.

We have simplified work life for over 500+ large enterprises across the emerging economies of Asia Pacific. Today, PeopleStrong empowers the lives of 2M+ employees with a mobile-first, AI and ML-powered talent operating system. Our tech capabilities span across the lifecycle from hire to exit, including Human Capital Management, Payroll, Talent Acquisition & Management, and Collaboration.

We are rated among the Top 5 in the Asia Pacific at Gartner’s Peer Insights and voted as Customer's Choice of HR Tech in Gartner Voice of Customers Report for 1000+ employee enterprises.

PeopleStrong

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

Hyundai, Amara Raja, Air Asia, Tata Motors, Aviva, Schneider Electric, JLL Business Services, Schindler, Tata AIG, novo nordisk, Cipla

Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers

PeopleStrong vs. SmartRecruiters