Still buried in endless skills spreadsheets?
If you’re managing compliance or skills tracking, you probably know how fast static Excel files become outdated, error-prone, and a nightmare during audits.
After researching AG5 and dozens of skills management solutions, I saw that wasting hours prepping for audits is far too common—especially if your team relies on manual tracking or scattered records.
AG5 tackles this head-on by giving you a live, centralized skills matrix, clear gap analysis dashboards, instant audit-ready reports, and seamless integrations with HR and learning systems. From my analysis, the visual interface and one-click compliance reports stand out, particularly for manufacturing, logistics, and regulated industries.
In this AG5 review, I’ll break down how you can eliminate chaos and simplify compliance tracking with their platform.
You’ll discover a detailed walkthrough of AG5’s features, pricing, integration strengths, and how it stacks up to other options you might be considering.
You’ll get the hands-on insights you need to compare features, identify weak spots, and make a call with confidence.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary
- AG5 is a skills management platform that replaces spreadsheets with a visual, centralized tool for tracking employee skills and compliance.
- Best for mid-market to enterprise companies in regulated industries needing real-time workforce skill visibility and audit readiness.
- You’ll appreciate its intuitive skills matrix and strong support that simplify managing certifications and quickly finding qualified replacements.
- AG5 offers subscription pricing based on employee count, with tailored quotes and no free trial but a free personalized demo available.
AG5 Overview
Founded in 2017 and based in Amsterdam, AG5 has a clear mission. My research shows they exist to help you finally replace chaotic skills spreadsheets.
What really stood out to me is their tight focus. They specifically serve mid-market and enterprise companies with large teams of deskless workers, especially in manufacturing, energy, and logistics where compliance is non-negotiable.
My recent AG5 review found their development roadmap wisely prioritizes practical needs, including deeper integrations with your core HR systems and a refined mobile interface.
Unlike broader performance suites, AG5 is a pure specialist. My analysis shows it was purposefully built to replace the “Excel matrix of death” with a visual, operational tool that your managers will actually use.
You’ll find them working with highly regulated organizations in manufacturing and energy, where having the right certified person on the job directly impacts safety and output.
From my evaluation, their strategy centers on making skills data visible and actionable for your operational managers. This focus helps you instantly find qualified staff and breeze through stressful compliance audits.
Now let’s examine their capabilities.
AG5 Features
Excel skills tracking still giving you headaches?
AG5 features are designed to help you transform chaotic spreadsheets into a dynamic, centralized platform for managing workforce skills. Here are the five main AG5 features that can solve your most pressing skills management problems.
1. Centralized Skills Matrices
Still using outdated Excel sheets for skills?
Manual version control and scattered data can make it impossible to get a clear picture of your team’s capabilities. This often leads to frustrating delays and errors.
AG5’s visual, interactive skills matrix eliminates this chaos, giving you a dynamic operational tool. From my testing, the color-coded proficiency levels really shine, letting you see certified or expiring skills at a glance. This feature allows you to drill down into an employee’s qualifications instantly.
This means you get real-time visibility into your entire workforce’s skills, making it easier to ensure everyone is qualified and ready for their role.
2. Skill Gap & Qualification Analysis
Unsure if your team has the right skills?
Defining required skills and then constantly checking if your employees meet them is a huge challenge. This uncertainty can create significant operational risks.
AG5 automatically compares required skills for roles or projects against actual employee qualifications, highlighting precise gaps. Here’s what I found: it helps you identify exactly where your team needs development, like missing safety certifications. This powerful feature provides actionable insights directly.
The result is you can proactively address skill shortages and ensure your workforce is always fully prepared for critical tasks and compliance requirements.
3. Audit & Compliance Management
Dreading your next compliance audit?
Gathering proof of employee qualifications for auditors can be a time-consuming, high-pressure nightmare. This process often takes days or even weeks of preparation.
AG5 creates a single source of truth for all certifications, streamlining audit preparation significantly. From my evaluation, this is where AG5 shines, allowing you to instantly generate audit-ready reports showing full workforce compliance. You can filter by specific qualifications or teams with a single click.
This means you can drastically reduce audit prep time from weeks to minutes, confidently proving compliance to regulators like ISO or OSHA.
4. Find a Replacement
Struggling when a key employee is absent?
When someone calls in sick, scrambling to find a qualified replacement can halt production or delay critical tasks. This wastes valuable time and resources.
AG5’s “Find a Replacement” feature enables instant, data-driven contingency planning. What impressed me most is how you can select an absent employee’s role, and AG5 immediately finds other available, qualified team members with matching skills. This feature ensures continuous operations.
So, as a manager, you can quickly find the right person to cover a shift, ensuring business continuity and avoiding costly downtime.
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5. Learning & Development Pathways
Identifying skill gaps but not sure how to fix them?
Knowing what skills are missing is one thing, but connecting those gaps to actionable training is another challenge. Often, L&D is disconnected from real-time skill needs.
This AG5 feature links identified skill gaps directly to specific training actions, bridging that crucial gap. From my testing, it lets you assign predefined training plans and even integrates with your external LMS to pull back completion data. This automatically updates an employee’s skill matrix.
This means you can efficiently guide employee development, ensuring training investments directly address identified skill gaps for maximum impact.
Pros & Cons
- ✅ Transforms chaotic skills data into highly visual, easy-to-understand matrices.
- ✅ Significantly reduces time and effort needed for compliance audits and reporting.
- ✅ Quickly identifies qualified replacements for absent staff, ensuring operational continuity.
- ⚠️ Some users desire more extensive, highly customizable reporting features.
- ⚠️ Lacks broader performance management features found in full HR suites.
What I love about these AG5 features is how they work together to create a comprehensive skills management ecosystem. This platform cohesion ensures all data is consistent and actionable.
AG5 Pricing
AG5 pricing is not straightforward, but for good reason.
AG5 pricing follows a custom quote model, meaning you’ll talk to sales for a detailed, tailored proposal. This approach ensures your investment directly matches your specific skill management needs and organizational scale, avoiding generic solutions.
Cost Breakdown
- Base Platform: Custom quote
- User Licenses: $3 to $7 PEPM (estimated, volume discounts)
- Implementation: Varies; potential costs for dedicated support, data migration
- Integrations: Potential costs for complex/custom HRIS/LMS integrations
- Key Factors: Number of users, modules, integration complexity, volume
1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors
Their pricing structure needs your attention.
AG5’s pricing operates on a subscription-based, per-employee-per-month (PEPM) model, requiring a custom quote tailored to your needs. What I found regarding pricing is it adjusts based on your user count, specific modules selected like audit compliance, and how complex your integrations are. Volume discounts are often available for larger enterprises.
This helps your budget by ensuring your investment is truly aligned with your operational scale, avoiding overpayment for unused capacity.
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2. Value Assessment & ROI
Is their investment worthwhile for you?
AG5 connects costs to significant business outcomes like compliance, reduced audit times, and improved skill visibility. From my cost analysis, this can deliver substantial ROI by replacing error-prone manual spreadsheets with a dynamic, centralized platform. Compared to general HRIS solutions, AG5’s specialized focus means deeper functionality for skill management.
This means your budget gains efficiencies, reduces risks, and avoids the costly mistakes associated with outdated skill tracking methods.
3. Budget Planning & Implementation
Plan your budget strategically here.
While AG5 uses a PEPM model, you should budget for potential add-on costs. These include dedicated implementation support, complex data migration services, or custom HRIS/LMS integrations. Budget-wise, these factors impact your total cost of ownership, especially in the first year. Always get a detailed quote covering all potential services.
This helps you understand the full financial commitment upfront, avoiding surprises that could impact your project’s overall success.
My Take: AG5’s custom pricing emphasizes tailored value for mid-market and enterprise clients, ensuring your investment directly supports specific skill management and compliance needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
The overall AG5 pricing strategy reflects a commitment to customized value for your unique enterprise needs, making it a strategic investment. Contact their sales team for a personalized quote and detailed breakdown.
AG5 Reviews
What real users actually say.
I’ve analyzed numerous AG5 reviews across major platforms like G2 and Capterra to bring you a clear picture of actual customer experiences and overall sentiment.
1. Overall User Satisfaction
Users are highly satisfied.
From my review analysis, AG5 consistently achieves stellar ratings, often above 4.7 out of 5 stars on major review sites. What I found in user feedback is how its focused simplicity resonates deeply with customers, making it exceptionally easy to adopt and implement. This clear pattern across AG5 reviews highlights a truly positive overall sentiment that stands out.
This indicates you can expect a user-friendly platform that excels at its core function without unnecessary complexity.
2. Common Praise Points
Simplicity and visuals win users.
Users consistently praise AG5’s intuitive interface, specifically contrasting it with overly complex HR tools. From customer feedback, the skills matrix’s powerful visualizations are repeatedly cited as a game-changer, transforming data into actionable insights. Furthermore, review-wise, the exceptional customer support receives widespread acclaim for its responsiveness and helpfulness.
This means you’ll benefit from clear insights, quick adoption, and reliable support for your skills management needs.
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3. Frequent Complaints
Reporting and feature scope limitations.
While largely positive, users occasionally express desires for more robust, customizable reporting capabilities beyond the standard templates. What stood out in customer feedback is how AG5’s specialized focus means some missing features found in full HR suites. You might want more flexibility here.
What you should know is these are generally minor issues, reflecting AG5’s core mission rather than fundamental flaws.
What Customers Say
- Positive: “The visual aspect of the skills matrix is a game-changer. What used to take hours, we now see in seconds.”
- Constructive: “While AG5 excels at core skills management, I really wish there were more options for custom reports beyond the standard templates.”
- Bottom Line: “AG5 is fantastic for dedicated skills tracking. Don’t expect a full HR suite; it does its specialized job exceptionally well.”
Overall, AG5 reviews consistently paint a picture of high user satisfaction with a specialized solution. The overwhelming sentiment points to a powerful, easy-to-use tool for critical skills management needs.
Best AG5 Alternatives
Considering other skills management options?
The best AG5 alternatives include several strong platforms, each better suited for different business situations and priorities. From my competitive analysis, I found key differentiators that should guide your decision.
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1. Skills Base
Need granular skills data control?
Skills Base is often seen as a powerful, raw database for intricate skills taxonomy, making it ideal if you need extreme data precision. From my competitive analysis, Skills Base offers highly granular data control, though its UI can feel less modern than AG5’s visual-first approach. This alternative fits when you prioritize deep data control.
Choose Skills Base when your primary need is extremely granular data control and complex skills taxonomy, and at-a-glance visualization is less critical.
2. Kahuna
Planning for large-scale enterprise talent mobility?
Kahuna positions itself for enterprise-wide talent mobility and strategic workforce planning, offering robust analytics for large organizations. What I found comparing options is that Kahuna provides robust analytics for workforce planning, often feeling more complex and designed for a bigger scale than AG5. This alternative supports broad talent initiatives.
Choose Kahuna when your primary goal is strategic workforce planning and internal talent mobility for a very large enterprise deployment.
3. Leapsome
Seeking an all-in-one HR suite?
Leapsome offers skills/competency frameworks as one module within a broader performance management and employee engagement suite. Alternative-wise, Leapsome integrates skills within a full HR suite, meaning you get less specialized skills management but a unified platform for diverse HR needs.
Choose Leapsome when you want an all-in-one platform to manage your entire performance lifecycle, accepting a less specialized skills module.
4. MuchSkills
Prefer a simple, visual, affordable option?
MuchSkills offers a very modern, chart-based visualization of skills, often appealing to tech companies and creative agencies. What I found comparing options is that MuchSkills excels in simple visual skill representation, but it’s less focused on the strict certification and audit trail features that are AG5’s core strength.
Choose MuchSkills if you’re a smaller, less-regulated company seeking a simple, beautiful way to visualize team skills for project allocation.
Quick Decision Guide
- Choose AG5: Operational skills management, compliance in regulated industries.
- Choose Skills Base: Extremely granular data control and complex skills taxonomy.
- Choose Kahuna: Strategic workforce planning for large enterprises.
- Choose Leapsome: All-in-one performance and engagement HR suite.
- Choose MuchSkills: Simple, visual skill mapping for smaller, less-regulated teams.
The best AG5 alternatives depend on your specific business needs and industry context, rather than generic feature lists. Carefully evaluate each based on your priorities.
Setup & Implementation
Ready for AG5 deployment?
From my AG5 review, deploying this skills management platform is largely straightforward, but your preparation greatly influences success. Here’s what you’ll want to understand about the implementation process and its demands.
1. Setup Complexity & Timeline
Data preparation is your biggest hurdle.
While the technical setup for AG5 is surprisingly quick, your internal efforts in gathering, cleaning, and structuring existing skills data are the true bottleneck. This initial data work is critical; poor data leads to poor outcomes. Depending on your data volume and quality, this core implementation phase can take weeks.
You’ll need to dedicate resources to thorough data preparation and establish a clear skills matrix structure before beginning your import.
2. Technical Requirements & Integration
Integration adds a layer of complexity.
AG5 itself has minimal hardware requirements, being a cloud-based solution. The primary technical consideration is integrating it with your existing HRIS or LMS platforms. What I found about deployment is that these integrations often require dedicated IT resources or professional services to configure properly for seamless data flow.
Ensure your IT team is ready to support API connections or that you budget for expert assistance to manage these technical linkages.
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3. Training & Change Management
User adoption is surprisingly smooth.
The visual nature and intuitive interface of AG5 significantly reduce the learning curve. Most managers and administrators can become proficient with just a few hours of training. From my analysis, this ease of use prevents significant resistance often seen with new software, making change management less daunting.
Focus your efforts on consistent communication and demonstrating the immediate value AG5 provides to encourage widespread and rapid user engagement.
4. Support & Success Factors
Excellent support smooths the path.
AG5 receives consistent praise for its hands-on onboarding and proactive customer success team. They actively assist with skills structure mapping and initial data import, significantly smoothing the transition from spreadsheets. Implementation-wise, their guidance is a critical success factor for new users, especially during initial setup.
Leverage their expertise fully, especially for data structuring. Your commitment to internal data quality will significantly impact your long-term success.
Implementation Checklist
- Timeline: 4-8 weeks for core setup; depends on data readiness
- Team Size: Internal data team, IT for integration, AG5 CS for onboarding
- Budget: Beyond licensing, consider data cleaning/integration services
- Technical: HRIS/LMS integration; strong data quality for import
- Success Factor: Thorough data preparation and AG5’s onboarding support
Overall, successful AG5 implementation hinges on your internal data preparation and leveraging their excellent customer support. It’s a focused deployment that, when approached strategically, leads to rapid visibility into workforce skills and improved compliance.
Who’s AG5 For
Is AG5 the right fit for your team?
Deciding if AG5 aligns with your business needs is crucial. This AG5 review section offers practical guidance on who benefits most from its unique capabilities, assessing ideal business profiles, team sizes, and specific use cases.
1. Ideal User Profile
Compliance-driven mid-market and enterprise operations.
AG5 is purpose-built for mid-market to enterprise companies (100-5,000+ employees) in regulated sectors like manufacturing, energy, food & beverage, logistics, and healthcare. From my user analysis, it’s ideal if you’re transitioning from error-prone spreadsheets to manage critical workforce skills and certifications for compliance.
You’ll see significant success if audit-readiness is a key concern, empowering line managers with real-time visibility into team qualifications.
2. Business Size & Scale
Mid-sized to large enterprises, significant workforces.
AG5 truly shines for organizations with 100 to 5,000+ employees, especially those with a substantial workforce of deskless workers. What I found about target users is that it excels when managing large populations of deskless workers in high-risk operational environments requiring strict skill verification.
You’ll know AG5 fits if your current skill tracking struggles with scalability or real-time, audit-ready data for operational teams.
3. Use Case Scenarios
Operational compliance, real-time skill gap analysis.
AG5 is designed for workflows centered on operational compliance, workforce readiness, and swift skill gap resolution. User-wise, it empowers you to replace manual spreadsheets, ensuring your team possesses the right qualifications. I found this works for achieving audit-readiness with minimal effort and daily operational planning.
If your priority is ensuring every worker is certified, identifying training needs, and simplifying compliance audits, your use case aligns perfectly.
4. Who Should Look Elsewhere
Small businesses or broad HR suite seekers.
If you’re a small business (under 100 employees) with basic skill tracking needs, or seek a comprehensive HRIS/LMS, AG5 might be an overkill or lack broad features. What I found about target users is that it isn’t designed for those requiring robust feature sets beyond skill management or full performance tracking.
Consider an all-in-one HR suite or dedicated LMS if your primary need extends beyond skill management to encompass payroll or full talent development.
Best Fit Assessment
- Perfect For: Mid-to-enterprise companies in compliance-heavy industries needing skill visibility.
- Business Size: 100-5,000+ employees, especially with large deskless workforces.
- Primary Use Case: Operational compliance, real-time skill gap closure, audit preparation.
- Budget Range: Varies by scale, expect mid-to-high tier for specialized solutions.
- Skip If: Small business or requiring broad HRIS/LMS functionality.
Ultimately, this AG5 review shows your best fit centers on your business’s need for strict compliance and efficient, visual skill management for your operational teams. It’s ideal for specific compliance and visibility needs.
Bottom Line
AG5: The Verdict Is In.
This AG5 review synthesizes extensive analysis into a clear, actionable recommendation. I’ll guide you through its core strengths and limitations, helping you confidently determine its fit for your business.
1. Overall Strengths
Skills management simplified.
AG5 truly excels at transforming complex skills data into intuitive visual matrices, praised consistently for its simplicity and laser focus. It centrally manages workforce capabilities, eliminating spreadsheet chaos and enhancing compliance audits. From my comprehensive analysis, its powerful visual skills matrix is a game-changer.
These capabilities drive significant efficiency gains, cutting audit preparation time dramatically. They prove invaluable for regulated industries prioritizing compliance, workforce visibility, and rapid skills verification.
2. Key Limitations
Consider these limitations.
While highly focused, AG5’s specialized nature means some users occasionally desire broader HR suite functionalities or deeper reporting customization. Based on this review, its feature scope is intentionally narrow, focusing exclusively on skills, not broader performance or payroll functions.
These aren’t deal-breakers for its target audience but rather manageable trade-offs for its focused excellence. Ensure your core need aligns with dedicated skills management, not an expansive HR platform.
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3. Final Recommendation
Recommended for focused needs.
AG5 is an excellent choice for mid-market and enterprise organizations in regulated industries, especially those struggling with manual skills tracking. From my analysis, it profoundly simplifies compliance and workforce visibility, delivering rapid ROI by eliminating spreadsheet dependency. It particularly excels for deskless workers.
Your decision should prioritize specialized skills management over an all-encompassing HR suite. Proceed with confidence if compliance, comprehensive visibility, and streamlined skills tracking are your top priorities.
Bottom Line
- Verdict: Recommended for specialized skills management
- Best For: Mid-to-large enterprises in regulated industries with deskless workers
- Biggest Strength: Intuitive visual skills matrix and compliance readiness
- Main Concern: Specialized focus means limited broader HR functionalities
- Next Step: Request a demo to see the skills matrix in action
Overall, this AG5 review confirms its position as a highly effective, specialized tool. My assessment provides strong confidence for specific skills needs looking to modernize their workforce data.