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Lever vs. PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool vs. SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lever

    Score9.8 out of 10
    N/ALever is a Talent Acquisition Suite designed to help talent teams to reach their hiring goals and to connect companies with top talent. Lever provides ATS and applicant CRM capabilities, in LeverTRM. The Lever Hire and Lever Nurture features allow leaders to grow their people pipeline, build long-lasting relationships, and source the right people. Lever Analytics provides customized reports with data visualization, see offers completed and interview feedback, and it informs strategic decisions…N/A

    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool

    Score5 out of 10
    N/AThe PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform is a talent management platform designed for Higher Education and Government organizations, now from PowerSchool (acquired August, 2018). Modules include analytics, applicant tracking, position management, onboarding, records management, and performance management.N/A

    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ASmartRecruiters was acquired by SAP in late 2025, and its functionality will be integrated into SAP SuccessFactors HCM. Check out the Sap SuccessFactors HCM listing for the latest updates.N/A
    Pricing
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——The software subscription is determined by the number of a company's full time employees. There is a one time cost to set up software, including customizations, integrations, data migration and training.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Considered Multiple Products
    Employ Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answer on this topic
    SAP
    Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    I didn't select SmartRecruiters. Lever has better search, communication, and candidate management interfaces. Sonic has great customability. Jobscore workflow is intuitive and very easy to use. Jobvite's candidate experience is top notch. Taleo's metrics and reporting are very …
    Incentivized
    Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Price, configurability, automation capability. At the top with Teamtailor and Workable IMO.
    Incentivized
    Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    We were down to SR and Lever. SR lacked a couple of features Lever had (that they've since rolled out) but SR provided a smooth, transparent and collaborative sales process that ultimately tipped the scales in their favor.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    23 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    27 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    23 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    16 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Lever and PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool and SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Feature
    Lever
    9.7
    34 Ratings
    20% above category average
    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool
    7.3
    3 Ratings
    3% above category average
    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    8.6
    127 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Job Requisition Management9.831 Ratings8.03 Ratings9.8109 Ratings
    Company Website Posting9.831 Ratings7.22 Ratings9.9114 Ratings
    Publish to Social Media9.821 Ratings7.12 Ratings7.5112 Ratings
    Job Search Site Posting9.823 Ratings8.12 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
    Customized Application Form9.829 Ratings8.03 Ratings9.7104 Ratings
    Resume Management9.832 Ratings7.03 Ratings5.6119 Ratings
    Duplicate Candidate Prevention9.830 Ratings2.72 Ratings9.6114 Ratings
    Candidate Search9.833 Ratings7.92 Ratings8.1122 Ratings
    Applicant Tracking9.832 Ratings8.03 Ratings9.9126 Ratings
    Collaboration9.832 Ratings7.03 Ratings9.6117 Ratings
    Task Creation and Delegation9.822 Ratings7.12 Ratings9.997 Ratings
    Email Templates8.928 Ratings7.82 Ratings9.7114 Ratings
    User Permissions8.931 Ratings8.42 Ratings9.7109 Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts9.832 Ratings7.03 Ratings9.9119 Ratings
    Reporting9.830 Ratings8.62 Ratings1.7105 Ratings
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of Lever and PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool and SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Feature
    Lever
    -
    Ratings
    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool
    7.7
    8 Ratings
    6% above category average
    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    -
    Ratings
    New hire portal00 Ratings9.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools00 Ratings7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance tracking and reporting00 Ratings7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Lever and PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool and SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Feature
    Lever
    -
    Ratings
    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool
    5.8
    3 Ratings
    23% below category average
    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    -
    Ratings
    Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subordinate goal setting00 Ratings7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance tracking00 Ratings2.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Lever and PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool and SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Feature
    Lever
    -
    Ratings
    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool
    2.7
    3 Ratings
    87% below category average
    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    -
    Ratings
    Performance plans00 Ratings4.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Plan weighting00 Ratings2.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans00 Ratings2.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Review status tracking00 Ratings4.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Rater nomination workflow00 Ratings2.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Review reminders00 Ratings4.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow restrictions00 Ratings1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency00 Ratings4.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings1.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of Lever and PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool and SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Feature
    Lever
    -
    Ratings
    PeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from Powerschool
    7.3
    4 Ratings
    7% above category average
    SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    -
    Ratings
    Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Candidate search00 Ratings9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Candidate development00 Ratings7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Small Businesses
    Crelate
    Score9.1 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Crelate
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    CareerSiteBuilder
    Score10 out of 10
    SumTotal (legacy)
    Score7.9 out of 10
    CareerSiteBuilder
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    JobDiva
    Score8 out of 10
    Cornerstone Galaxy
    Score8.1 out of 10
    JobDiva
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.8
    (35 ratings)
    8.0
    (20 ratings)
    7.9
    (129 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    6.0
    (15 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.1
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.1
    (12 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LeverPeopleAdmin Higher Ed Platform, from PowerschoolSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Employ Inc.
    I think Lever is great for any sized company, but especially strong for smaller, growing teams. It's a very simple system, but clean, sleek, and very useful in any scenario. They have great support whenever you need it so those with smaller HR or People teams could easily benefit from their help. Can't think of too many scenarios where Lever wouldn't be well-suited, but maybe once you grow to International growth and hiring, it may be better to have a more Enterprise style business, set up for larger scaling.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    Organizations who have very few applications and/or very few positions posted are probably less likely to benefit as high from PeopleAdmin. Large organizations who have several positions and/or several applications/applicants can definitely benefit from this product. This product is not as well suited for performance management as I had hoped because there is not a lot of freedom to creating and designing different evaluations for different position types in the system when you have an organization that has thousands of different employees and types.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    SmartRecruiters has allowed us to enable our hiring managers to self-service their requirements for recruitment, simplifying our internal processes. We have visibility of recruitment requirements and significantly improved our approvals process using the software. We have been able to configure our hiring processes relevant to different areas of the business. Collaboration for our hiring teams (managers and business partners) is simple and effective. Candidate experience is enhanced and engaging. The platform has brought many benefits to our Resourcing business partners and hiring managers. We have visibility and insightful data which has integrity, allowing us to make informed business decisions. Our offer process has seen significant improvements and provides an engaging candidate experience, previously this was a labour-intensive process that is now streamlined and automated. The recently launched Community for collaboration amongst customers is very helpful and insigtful for how other people are using the software and exploring ideas with each other
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Employ Inc.
    • Great integration: Keeps a list of Outlook email communication along with LinkedIn and other data sources
    • Is fairly lively, not too much lag between screens even though it is looking through a lot of data.
    • Has excellent reporting on how well each email message is working.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • Applicant tracking was a good use of this tool for our department. I think it could use a few more customization features but overall it was a good tool to weed out applicants who were not qualified for the position.
    • The system has some canned reporting tools that also worked well for our department and management needs.
    • It was a great place to house our position descriptions and provided a readily accessible source for hiring managers to make requested updates and changes and for employees to see and have access to their position descriptions.
    Read full review
    SAP
    • Job Referrals - can easily refer others to a job posting and view the status
    • Job Postings - can easily search for job openings and read job description and criteria
    • Application online - Can easily apply for the job directly and see who the hiring manager and hiring recruiter is
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Employ Inc.
    • [In my experience,] terrible customer support - pay more to get less...
    • Integrations are spotty and can break without reason
    • Lever has so much potential, but their Roadmap is lacking in ways that will really help customers succeed
    • Focuses on the number of candidates and not the company's need to build talent in a cost effective, data driven and collaborative way
    • Overpromised and underdelivered in [the] capability of the tool. [I believe that you should] not trust your sales team.
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • PeopleAdmin's internal report writer needs work. Currently, in version 7, reporting can only be done requisition number by requisition number. The report writer needs to be modified so it can create reports enterprise-wide.
    • PeopleAdmin's Data Mart product needs substantial modification. In version 5.8, on a monthly basis, PeopleAdmin provided us with an Microsoft Access database containing our historical data up to that period end. In version 7, the "Data Mart" contains our historical data. The Data Mart consists of over 300 files. These files are not database table downloads nor is it parts of a database data dump. Rather, the files appear to be scrapes from html pages. They contain html codes and other character data that needs to be cleaned before they can be uploaded. The files are not in a table-by-table format. Any one file can contain data from two or more tables. The format of the Data Mart makes it difficult to load the data into a database and format it in a table structure that is comparable to the Access database provided with version 5.8.
    Read full review
    SAP
    • Settings page can be difficult to navigate & find what you're looking for
    • Job approval chains would be better with additional qualifying fields so that we can segregate different areas of the business better
    • The ability to edit an existing offer template in-system would improve the experience, rather than having to edit offline and upload a whole new version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    We are evaluating our options as it relates to PeopleAdmin. We are likely to renew as we can not find another product that gives us the functionality we have with PeopleAdmin 5.8 in the area of Position Description. Outside of that, we would likely be close to finding another product solution.
    Read full review
    SAP
    I thoroughly enjoy using SmartRecruiters and have shared this feedback with those responsible, however I am not a decision maker in the process. I understand that at the moment there are lots of factors affecting the economy and business outcomes, so I cannot comment with certainty on the renewal of SmartRecruiters at this time, not involved in the confirmation of renewal.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Employ Inc.
    It isn't difficult to use for the applicant processing, but [I feel] if you want to pull reports or use their tools, good luck!
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    I would give this rating as overall it a great combo of all your problems. With just one click you can get away with all your problems such as recruitment, candidate update, Interview scheduling, updating candidates, reports of a job perspective, and recruiters perspective. Usability is worth of SmartRecruiters. The dashboard is also very attractive and once you open you will love working on this platform again and again. I would say it is the best platform to use once for smooth work in your organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Employ Inc.
    What support? - Add a ticket and get links to [I believe] their unhelpful user guide. Add a charge if you want better support - afterward just got those links faster...
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    Response is normally very fast. There are times, however, when the response is not useful. It is difficult to work with the reporting and the offer letter templates, and the front line support agents usually are not very knowledgeable. Second, if there are any issues with integrations, the regular support agents will not be able to help you. You'll have to create that ticket and ask them to escalate it to an integration specialist.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    Quick and easy to learn.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Employ Inc.
    Lever is comparable to Greenhouse in its basic recruiting functions. I have found it to be WAY better than Bullhorn (clunky and overly-complicated with a very dated and non-intuitive interface) and Jazz HR (slick and pretty, but limited in its functions). The best ATS I've used is the proprietary tool at Meta, but alas, that tool is for internal use only
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    I've used both Target Recruit and HR Smart. When working with Target Recruit it quickly became apparent it was not the right solution for us. Another solution we examined prior to selection PeopleAdmin was iCIMS. iCIMS is a very social system but was not as familiar with the Higher Education recruitment processes as was PeopleAdmin.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SAP
    I've really enjoyed using SmartRecruiters, but these other ATSs that we've checked out offer better reporting features and price points. Over time, we may be transitioning off of SmartRecruiters to one of these ATSs because the price is a set price where SmartRecruiters has employee-based pricing model. Also, these other software products offer better reporting features that would eliminate some of our manual tracking process that we're currently doing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Employ Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    No answers on this topic
    SAP
    No explanation really, just a great product.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Employ Inc.
    • Lever provides an enormous ROI by getting us in front of the right candidates that are going to make us more money and more successful as an org.
    • I think that both the quality and quantity of new hires has gone up ever since we started using lever and involving the entire org in the process.
    • It also saves us a lot of time because we don't need to send referrals via email, while saving/attaching resumes and such.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PowerSchool Group LLC
    • We are now able to track our recruitment sources to determine our ROI on university paid subscriptions.
    • We have reduced our recruiting approval review times by 50%
    • We have identified areas for improvement substancially by having robust reporting available at our fingertips.
    Read full review
    SAP
    • In terms of ROI, SR helped our business greatly in returning precious time to my productivity in business management, as well as my team's, so that we could get back to the main work we were hired for. The SR process did most of the heavy lifting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lever Screenshots

    Screenshot of where to identify the top origin and sources of candidates in all stages, the Offer stage, and the Hired stage.