Sage People vs SmartRecruiters comparison

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93% willing to recommend

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: February 2026).

Sage People vs. SmartRecruiters

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Helped 884,933 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

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (20th), Talent Management (27th), Cloud HCM (23rd), HR Analytics Software (9th)

SmartRecruiters

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

12th

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 March 2026, in the Talent Acquisition category, the mindshare of Sage People is 2.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 3.1%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Talent Acquisition Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SmartRecruiters	3.1%
Sage People	2.0%
Other	94.9%

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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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

"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."

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

"We are now able to visualize global team structures, and as we rollout other features, the organization will benefit from an easy to use system and standard processes."

"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."

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

"The technical support is astounding and they are one of the best support teams I have had the pleasure to work with."

"The product is really easy to customise and configure, and the automation has enabled us to manage several HR processes at the right time in the correct manner."

More Sage People pros

"The features that were most important for us to have were that it is user friendly and functional, which is definitely the case with SmartRecruiters. Our organization is located in developing countries where the bandwidth and internet stability are not the strongest and SmartRecruiters accommodates this challenge. It was a very big plus that we are able to use the system even in these locations."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

More SmartRecruiters pros

Cons

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

"There is a mash-up of Visualforce and apex triggers which bear down heavily on the system."

"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."

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

"Within the absence screens, we have it set up to automatically allow up to five days holiday to carry over. If staff members are allowed to carry over, it’s a bit difficult to add it in easily."

"In comparison with other HRIS reporting tools (like Discoverer / OBIEE for Oracle, Business Objects, Crystal Reports etc. which I have used extensively for over 10 years), I think that Fairsail’s reports functionality is quite limited and only available for Administrator profiles."

"Its stability could be better."

More Sage People cons

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

"Some features are not as straightforward or user friendly to implement."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

More SmartRecruiters cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

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

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"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."

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

More Sage People pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 an expensive solution."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

14%

Marketing Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

11%

Healthcare Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	6

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

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

DarwinBox vs Sage People

Compared 7% of the time

Eightfold Talent Intelligence Platform vs Sage People

Compared 6% of the time

PeopleSoft vs Sage People

Compared 5% of the time

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Workday vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 17% of the time

Ashby vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 13% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 9% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 8% of the time

phenom people TRM Platform vs SmartRecruiters

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Sage People

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Download SmartRecruiters product report

Also Known As

Fairsail

No data available

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