Gem Reviews: What Recruiters Say (+ Why Juicebox Is the Better Alternative)

Gem Reviews: What Recruiters Say (+ Why Juicebox Is the Better Alternative)

Aditya Sheth

5MIN

Oct 4, 2025

Oct 4, 2025

TL;DR: Reviews of Gem highlight strengths in outreach and analytics but reveal recurring complaints: high cost, clunky workflows, limited integrations, and weak support. Recruiters seeking speed, global coverage, and AI-powered recruiting tools are switching to Juicebox — the best Gem alternative in 2025.

Recruiters spend hours each day inside their CRM. If the tool is slow, expensive, or incomplete, it doesn’t just hurt productivity — it hurts hires.

That’s why we looked at Gem reviews across G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot to understand what recruiters really think. The feedback is clear: Gem has strong features, but also major limitations.

Below, we’ll break down the pros, cons, and show why Juicebox is the #1 Gem alternative for fast-growing recruiting teams.

The Positives: What Recruiters Like About Gem

Reviews highlight three areas where Gem adds value:

  • Outreach: Email sequencing tools help recruiters automate candidate outreach.

  • Analytics: Managers appreciate pipeline visibility and reporting dashboards.

  • Candidate CRM: Better than spreadsheets for tracking engagement history.

For teams upgrading from manual workflows, these features are welcome.

But once recruiters scale up? That’s when the cracks show.

The Negatives: What Reviews Reveal

Across all platforms, recruiter complaints are consistent:

1. Pricing feels too high
Gem is one of the more expensive recruiting CRMs. Reviews note that ROI is hard to justify, especially for mid-sized teams.

2. Slow, clunky workflows
Recruiters report laggy UI and “too many clicks.” In recruiting, speed matters — and Gem slows teams down.

3. Limited integrations
Gem doesn’t connect seamlessly with every ATS, job board, or sourcing tool. Recruiters end up juggling multiple systems — while Juicebox recently rolled out enhanced ATS integrations and flexible search fields, giving teams one streamlined workflow.

4. Steep learning curve
New hires take weeks to get comfortable, which delays recruiting results.

5. Support frustrations
Support teams are often slow or unhelpful, especially with billing issues. For a premium tool, that stings.

Juicebox: The Faster Gem Alternative

Recruiters in 2025 need more than a CRM with sequencing. They need a growth engine. That’s why teams are switching to Juicebox.

  • Remarkable speed: Aggregate 800M+ verified profiles across 30+ sources in seconds.

  • 🎯 Find the best people instantly: AI-powered shortlists surface top candidates by skills, role, and experience. With Autopilot V2, recruiters can even refine criteria after a search run and let the AI recalibrate in real time.

  • 🌍 Job board + passive talent: No need to juggle job boards — Juicebox unifies active + passive candidates.

  • 🤖 Always-on recruiting agents: Deploy Juicebox Agents, your 24/7 AI assistants that continually source, score, and email candidates in the background.

  • 📊 End-to-end analytics: Outreach, hires, and ROI in one dashboard.

  • 💸 Fair pricing: Flexible, transparent plans without surprise costs.

  • 🤝 Support that cares: Onboarding built for recruiters, not engineers.

Gem vs Juicebox: Side-by-Side

Theme

Gem.com

Juicebox

Recruiter Speed

❌ Slow, click-heavy workflows

❌ Steep onboarding

✅ Remarkable speed, 1-click sourcing

✅ Easy to use from day one

Finding Best People

❌ Limited coverage (mostly LinkedIn) ❌ Manual filtering needed

✅ AI-powered shortlists

✅ 30+ sources, global coverage

Outreach

✅ Sequencing praised

❌ UI slows scale

✅ Smart AI outreach

✅ Streamlined workflows

Job Boards

❌ Still need separate job board accounts

✅ Unified job board + passive sourcing

Support

❌ Reviews cite slow/unhelpful support

✅ Fast, proactive support + transparent billing

Why Recruiters Are Switching

If you’re a freelance recruiter or scaling a recruiting team, Gem’s cost, complexity, and slow UI may be holding you back. Recruiters who’ve tested both consistently find that:

  • Juicebox is faster to onboard and easier to use.

  • Global sourcing and AI shortlists give you deeper candidate pools.

  • Support and pricing feel aligned with recruiter needs.

FAQs: Gem Reviews

Is Gem.com worth it?
Gem works for sequencing and analytics but is expensive and clunky for many recruiters.

What is the best Gem alternative in 2025?
Juicebox is the best Gem alternative in 2025. Beyond sourcing, it also offers advanced recruiting metrics tracking that helps teams measure ROI across sourcing and outreach.

Why switch from Gem to Juicebox?
Faster workflows, better candidate coverage, lower costs, and more responsive support.