Performance management software compared

A head of people at a 200-person company is told to replace spreadsheets and email threads before the next review season, and the first quote she asks for shows a $4,000 minimum annual agreement. Performance management software runs review cycles, tracks goals, and gives managers and employees a place to exchange feedback during the year. The nine products here each cover review cycles, goals or OKRs, and continuous feedback, and we checked every price on the vendor's own website. Each product page links to the pages we used.

Prices are in US dollars unless a vendor lists another currency. Several vendors price by location or by headcount band, so a quote for your country and team size can differ from the list prices below.

What the software does

Review cycles are scheduled rounds in which managers, employees and sometimes peers answer written questions about a period of work. The software sends the forms, reminds late reviewers, and collects the answers. Some tools add calibration, where managers compare ratings across a group before they are final.

Goals or OKRs are targets that employees, teams and the company set and update. OKR stands for objectives and key results, a format in which each objective has measurable results attached. Continuous feedback means feedback given outside a review, such as a request to a colleague, a note after a project, or weekly check-ins between a manager and each report.

We require all three because a tool that only sends review forms is a form builder. A product that only collects weekly check-ins does not give HR a defensible review record. The criteria are drafts and have not been approved by an editor.

Why buyers move away from annual reviews

Gallup reports that only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve, in an article on its site published in May 2019. The same article says employees who get weekly feedback are 5.2 times more likely to strongly agree they receive meaningful feedback than those who get it annually. Gallup does not give a survey year for these figures, so read them as a direction rather than a current benchmark.

That research explains why the vendors below all sell feedback and goals next to reviews. Lattice says it supports annual, quarterly, project-based and automated review cycles. 15Five groups reviews, OKRs and weekly check-ins in one plan. Small Improvements puts anytime feedback on its middle tier.

How the prices compare

Eight of the nine vendors publish at least some per-user prices, and Culture Amp does not.

Product	Listed price per user per month	Minimum or catch
Small Improvements	$3, $6 or $9 by tier	20 users on two tiers, 30 on the top tier
Peoplebox	$8 for Performance Management	None stated
Betterworks	$8, or $9 with Talent Intelligence	One-time implementation cost, amount not listed
Lattice	$10 for Performance, $8 for Goals & OKRs	$4,000 minimum annual agreement
15Five	$11 for Perform, $16 for Total Platform	Add-ons may carry minimums
Engagedly	$5 to $8 for the Performance Suite	$7,500 a year minimum
PerformYard	$5 to $15 for Performance	Rate depends on headcount and products
Leapsome	7 euros for reviews, 4 euros for goals	Needs its HRIS platform
Culture Amp	Quote only	Tier depends on headcount

Every vendor that states a billing term bills annually, so there is no month-to-month option in this group. Lattice states that it bills all contracts annually in USD only.

A 200-person example shows how far the list prices spread. Lattice Performance at $10 and Goals & OKRs at $8 add up to $18 per seat per month, which is $43,200 a year for 200 seats at list price. 15Five Perform at $11 comes to $26,400 a year, and it includes reviews, OKRs and check-ins in one plan. Peoplebox at $8 comes to $19,200. Small Improvements Elevate at $9 comes to $21,600, though that is the tier with all features and its own volume discounts from 200 active users. These are list prices before any negotiation, add-ons or implementation fees.

Minimums matter more for small teams. Lattice's $4,000 minimum equals 34 seats of Performance at $10 for a year. Engagedly's $7,500 minimum equals 78 seats at the top of its $5 to $8 range. Small Improvements is the only vendor here with a seat floor in its published tiers. It also states a 30-day free trial, which we did not find stated by the other eight.

Pricing pages that need a second look

Three vendors leave a buyer with a question the page does not answer. Lattice's pricing page structured data describes Performance and Goals & OKRs as available separately for $8 a month, while the visible page shows Performance at $10. We list $10 because that is what a visitor sees, and we flag the gap on the product page.

Leapsome lists prices in euros only. Its Performance Reviews module costs 7 euros per employee per month and Goals & OKRs costs 4 euros. Every module reads from the employee record, so a buyer also needs one of its HRIS tiers. The Foundation tier is 0 euros with any module until December 31 and is then charged at list price, and the page shows the Foundation list price as 7 euros in one place and 5 euros in its calculator. We report euros as listed and do not convert them.

PerformYard and Engagedly publish ranges. PerformYard shows $5 to $15 per person per month for both of its plans, and its calculator displays no figure. Engagedly shows $5 to $8 for its Performance Suite and does not say which bundle sits where in that range. Budget with the top of each range until you have a written quote.

Goals and OKRs are not equal across tools

Every product here covers goals, but only some use the OKR format. Peoplebox lists individual goals as OKRs, KRAs or KPIs, and Lattice has a dedicated Goals & OKRs product with cascading goals. 15Five's Perform plan lists OKRs and weighted goal management. Small Improvements describes goals and objectives aligned with company objectives and never uses the term OKR on its goals page.

Goals also connect to reviews differently. In Culture Amp, goals can be pulled into a manager review or self-reflection only for individual and individual development goals, only while a cycle is in draft, and only as they exist when the cycle launches. A goal created after launch does not appear in that review. If your reviews are built around team goals, ask the vendor to show the review form with a team goal on it.

Feedback means different things

Continuous feedback covers three different features, and vendors use the word for all of them. The first is requesting feedback from colleagues at any time, which Small Improvements describes on its feedback requests page. The second is recurring manager check-ins, which 15Five describes in its help center as a recurring feedback and communication tool, available on its Perform and Total Platform plans. The third is recognition such as praise, which Small Improvements includes even on Launch.

Leapsome includes instant feedback and meetings in its HRIS tiers rather than selling them as a priced module. For a team that mainly wants weekly manager conversations, the check-in and 1-on-1 features matter more than 360-degree review forms, and the plan that includes them can differ from the plan that includes reviews.

Security and what we could not confirm

Lattice, 15Five, Culture Amp and Betterworks state SOC 2 on their own pages. Betterworks also states ISO 27001 and GDPR. Lattice and Culture Amp state GDPR. 15Five says single sign-on is included with some plans and sold as an add-on for others, so confirm which applies to your plan. PerformYard says it works with SSO, Slack and Teams, and includes SSO and HRIS integrations in every plan.

We found no security statement we could read for Leapsome, Small Improvements, Engagedly or Peoplebox. Leapsome's trust center loaded without any listed frameworks, and the other pages returned errors. That does not mean they lack certifications. Ask each for a current SOC 2 report before you sign.

Records and compliance basics

Review forms are personnel records. Federal rules at 29 CFR 1602.14 require employers to keep records about promotion, demotion and rates of pay for one year from the later of the record's creation or the personnel action. If a discrimination charge is filed, relevant records must be kept until final disposition. The rule does not name performance appraisals, but reviews that feed pay or promotion decisions are the kind of record it covers.

For software buyers this turns into a practical question about exports. We could not confirm contract terms for data export or cancellation on any of the nine products, so those fields are blank on the product pages. Ask each vendor in writing what you receive on termination and in what format.

Who fits which tool

A team under 50 people will hit minimums quickly. Small Improvements Grow at $6 is the cheapest published fixed price here for a plan with reviews, objectives and anytime feedback, though it has a 20 user floor and Engagedly and PerformYard list lower figures inside their ranges. Lattice's $4,000 minimum is sized for roughly 34 seats of one product.

Companies of 500 or more are the group Betterworks says it adds most value for. It names Enterprise services such as change management and a dedicated implementation team, and it says implementation is a one-time cost on top of per-user pricing.

Companies that need review and engagement surveys from one vendor should look at Culture Amp, which sells Perform and Engage and publishes no prices. HR teams that want reviews tied to an HRIS can look at Leapsome, whose modules require its platform.

What to test during a trial

• Build a review cycle with a self-review, a manager review and two peer reviews, then launch it to five people and time the setup.
• Create a team goal and an individual goal, then open a review form and check whether both show up.
• Request feedback from a colleague outside your team and see what the recipient receives and who can read the answer.
• Ask for a written quote that lists implementation, add-ons, minimums and the renewal date.
• Export a completed review cycle and check that ratings, comments and goal progress are all in the file.