Absorb LMS vs. PiiQ by Cornerstone

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Absorb LMS
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Absorb LMS aims to empower organizations to train employees with the skills needed to stay modern and relevant in today's fast-paced world. The LMS software focuses on aligning learning needs with business demands.N/A
PiiQ by Cornerstone
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Cornerstone’s PiiQ is an SMB offering formerly known as Sonar6. PiiQ is aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses and includes core learning management and performance management systems, including content creation, mobile accessibility, and in-product reporting.
$8
per user per month
Pricing
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
PiiQ Performance
$8.00
per user per month
PiiQ Learning + Content
$8.00
per user per month
PiiQ Learning + Content & Performance
$15.00
per user per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequired$1,000 per installation
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Features
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Absorb LMS
9.0
101 Ratings
10% above category average
PiiQ by Cornerstone
6.6
11 Ratings
21% below category average
Course authoring8.583 Ratings6.011 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.688 Ratings6.811 Ratings
Player/Portal8.892 Ratings6.810 Ratings
Learning content9.372 Ratings6.611 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.676 Ratings7.98 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.996 Ratings6.210 Ratings
Assignments9.885 Ratings6.711 Ratings
Compliance management9.979 Ratings5.89 Ratings
Learning administration9.798 Ratings6.611 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics8.896 Ratings6.911 Ratings
Social learning7.952 Ratings00 Ratings
Gamification7.647 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.769 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(101 ratings)
8.6
(40 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(6 ratings)
3.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.5
(37 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(86 ratings)
9.2
(36 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(2 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
6.5
(9 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.9
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Absorb LMSPiiQ by Cornerstone
Likelihood to Recommend
Absorb Software Inc.
Our integration experience was very well managed. We launched on-time, and only had to do basic end-user training because the system is very user friendly and intuitive to use. The customer support is exceptional, we have an assigned Customer Success Manager we meet with and talk to regularly. They are very responsive and have helped us optimize our processes to get the most out of the system. Because the system is easy to use, we have very few user issues or tickets we have to support. 90% of user problems are resolved by using the FAQs we provided when we launched the system
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Cornerstone OnDemand
Well suited for:
  • A busy environment where you want learners to be self-sufficient and to be able to access learning solutions at a time that suits them.
  • For anyone who wants to access learning using different platforms such as iPad, mobile, PC, etc
  • Anyone who needs a more in-depth learning solution rather than an overview of key learning points.
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Pros
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Customer Service - Our CSM, Kirsten Spak, provides friendly, timely and high quality help and has helps us to understand and efficiently use the system.
  • Course Creation - We have been able to create custom courses with a wide range of features, including branding, audio, video and assessments.
  • Reporting - Absorb LMS offers a robust reporting function which allows us to understand our users and meet the needs of our partners when user information is required for their projects.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Enables employees to draft work goals and collaborate with their supervisors on a final version - improves mutual understanding right up front.
  • Combines performance goal ratings with competency ratings and provides a blended score. Simplifies the goal weighting so you don't have to do any calculations.
  • 9-box matrix provides useful definitions and descriptions so managers can prepare development notes or plans for individual employees.
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Cons
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Reporting needs some additional help, especially the Course Activity Report. It would be great to see the description of the course on the header of the report.
  • The courses on the smart devices look wonky and sometimes the videos don't show up, yet you can hear it.
  • The Absorb LMS phone application also needs a lot of work. It does not show all the tiles that are available in the browser version.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Would be good to have have a virtual "top level" (eg board) user built in to allow senior execs without a direct manager to be able to be set up with KPIs instead of having to create a dummy user
  • Reports have difficulty downloading if pop ups disabled or in some browser environments
  • When competencies are updated while a cycle is open, any changes don't effect that open cycle but only future ones. Would be nice to be able to have the option to apply changes to existing "open" cycles
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Likelihood to Renew
Absorb Software Inc.
We love the ability to have a user-friendly system that integrates well with our different HR interfaces (we have 3 systems that feed data/employees into the system). It makes it easy to track course completions and report out on metrics enterprise-wide. In addition, the ability to provide consistent education to staff who are geographically dispersed is a huge incentive for us, and Absorb LMS does this seamlessly.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
It's not that CSB isn't a decent performance management system, but we have decided to go with just one vendor (Workday) for an HRIS/performance management/payroll system so we can directly relate pay to performance. We are more interested in having just one system that "talks" to the other pieces instead of having to work with several vendors. It reduces the hassle of having to communicate with different support teams, having different contracts, and so on.
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Usability
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb LMS is easy to use from both a user experience and admin experience. For users, navigating the site to complete assignments or finding courses to develop new skills is very user-friendly. As an admin, the course creation tools walk you through each step simply, but have a ton of functionality to support any of your training needs.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
There are specific things within the goals and competencies that are user-friendly. For example, the rating slider isn't great in my opinion. You can slide in between ratings which can create some odd scoring (if you use scoring). It seems a better solution would be a drop down where you select your rating. There are also some glitches in the system and have been told Cornerstone is aware of them but are focused on delivering new features. There are workarounds, but that doesn't seem to be a great answer.
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Reliability and Availability
Absorb Software Inc.
The customer service team is top notch. They have always been readily available and quick to assist regardless of the day or time of the call
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Cornerstone OnDemand
So far 100%.
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Performance
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb LMS's performance is very reliable and consistent. Pages load quickly. Report are generated within a reasonable amount of time (even with significant amounts of data), etc. Nothing seems to slow it down.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
The saving process slows it down. It doesn’t auto save. If you leave a page, it will sometimes warn you, but not always. When you hit the save button, a window pops up that says creating/saving packets. It feels very archaic.
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Support Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb LMS's client service managers have been extremely responsive, efficient, and available. While we pay for a higher level of support, we have found it well worth the investment. We've been less pleased with the accounting side of the organization, but that has little impact on the delivery of training to our clients and employees.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
My assistant could better address this issue. My perception is that there is not immediate assistance, and that there can be a wait for help. That is not a negative, just a perception. I have not used support in two years.
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Online Training
Absorb Software Inc.
I meet and do training with my absorb support every week. and I have all my questions answered! it's great
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Cornerstone OnDemand
We bought training provided by 3rd party – it was fabulous.
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Implementation Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
No answers on this topic
Cornerstone OnDemand
I think we could have done a better job of rolling out the tool to our managers. We were under a tight timeline. In the training, we showed them everything and said go do it by this date. Looking back, I would have done it in pieces: for example, 2 weeks to write goals, 2 weeks to get sign-off from direct reports. I just let them go at it. Since then we’ve moved to agile development environment and are applying the technique to everything. In future would only do through change sprint. It is a big change I didn’t take it seriously enough.

I had a team of 3 project managing. You need a champion from every department to make sure you’re getting it right and to make sure what’s happening is communicated. It’s not something you can do without input from department heads
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Alternatives Considered
Absorb Software Inc.
hands down favorite in look, function, cost and service. Others were close but could not meet our external and internal cases. Our current one (we looked at them again) did not have 40% of the functionality or value, despite the bargain cost, it was not worth it to continue. Only new hires used our LMS for onboarding because they had to; no one went back for more training. With Absorb our classes are more dynamic and targeted.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
Lesson.ly has been great to work with but it is a very clear and simple, user-friendly system that anyone can pick up with very little training as it is self-explanatory. It also has a great mobile interface and lots of different features that are easy to add for the admin but really impactful for the user.
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Scalability
Absorb Software Inc.
This is one of the main reasons we chose Absorb as our LMS. It is a very user-friendly application that is able to be deployed across multiple departments in geographically dispersed locations. It works amazingly well for us.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Absorb LMS's user-friendly interface and interactive learning features contributed to a 150% increase in learner engagement levels. The platform's ability to deliver engaging content and quizzes enhances employee participation and knowledge retention at retail
  • With Absorb LMS, we are looking to streamline our remote employee onboarding process, and tracking to reduce the time taken for new hires to complete training modules by 30%.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • It's tool and it's only as good as the person wielding it. The investment in PiiQ was accompanied by a quarterly cadence and manager feedback training. We feel like our employees are given regular feedback and bonuses are tied to objective accomplishment.
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ScreenShots

Absorb LMS Screenshots

Screenshot of a company's unique identity with a training interface that is custom-designed for the brand.Screenshot of a company's image and values with a training interface that is tailored to the brand's specific needs.Screenshot of the course creation workflow, that offer a diverse set of formats, including instructional videos, quizzes, and assessments.Screenshot of Absorb's course details page, accessible from the course catalog dashboard, used to give learners an understanding of the course material.Screenshot of learners' progress insights, used to make data-driven decisions with the reporting capabilities of Absorb LMS.Screenshot of course creation with Create AI Beta.

PiiQ by Cornerstone Screenshots

Screenshot of PiiQ Performance Employee ReviewScreenshot of PiiQ Learning on DevicesScreenshot of PiiQ Manager/Employee Check-insScreenshot of PiiQ 9-box Talent MatrixScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Publish New ContentScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Searchable Library & Self-registration