Europe's Glassdoor: anonymous employee reviews that are useful in aggregate, but the same company that ranks employers also sells them branding profiles, and critics say that creates pressure on neutrality.
What it's really for A DACH-region employer-review platform built on anonymous employee ratings.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its anonymous employer ratings (German-speaking Europe), not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Employers pay the most: kununu sells tiered Employer Branding Profiles (Basic/Core/Pro, 12-month minimum) priced by company size, which include advertising on competitor profiles, highlighted job postings, and review-response tools; kununu states it does not delete or alter compliant reviews, but the paid relationship is with the same companies it rates.
Source →- Operating since
- 2007 (19 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- A DACH-focused employer-review platform where current and former employees anonymously rate companies via a structured questionnaire, monetized through paid employer-branding products sold to the employers being reviewed.
- What they do
- Collects voluntary, anonymous employee ratings and text reviews of employers (culture, pay, management) and aggregates them into employer scores and profiles, mainly across German-speaking Europe.
- What to watch for
- The companies being reviewed are also kununu's paying customers (it sells them branding profiles, including ads on rivals' pages and tools to respond to reviews), and critics allege this creates pressure to favor paying employers, though kununu says it does not delete reviews that follow its guidelines.
- Composite score
- 2.30 / 5.00 → grade C
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- kununu was founded in 2007 by Vienna-based brothers Martin and Mark Poreda, and was acquired by XING (now New Work SE) in January 2013 for up to 9.4 million euros / $12.3 million, with the founders staying on as managing directors. Source: The Next Web — XING Acquires Employer Review Platform Kununu →
- kununu's paid Employer Branding Profiles (Basic, Core, Pro tiers, 12-month minimum, priced by company size) include 'Advertising on other profiles' (i.e. competitor profiles), highlighted job postings, and tools to respond to reviews with AI assistance — sold to the same employers kununu rates. Source: OMR Reviews — Employer Branding Profil by kununu (pricing & features) →
- kununu says it does not delete or change reviews that follow its guidelines, but a German court ruled in February 2024 that employers can demand removal of anonymous negative reviews when the platform cannot substantiate them, and users on review sites allege paid-customer bias and 'suspicious waves' of positive reviews. Source: AIM Group — Kununu's legal case to protect anonymous employer reviews in Germany →