Best Performance Management Software for 2025

It is extremely adaptable, allowing for multiple different processes and rules. It has unique features and the ability to change language, save anything, and add dates that make sense for your organization. The support staff is helpful and accessible, ready for unique requests and retraining.

My organization purchased Trakstar Performance Management before I arrived. I took on the training, design, launch, and implementation of the tool. I developed processes and policies and distributed them to the staff of 30+. I used all functionalities in the performance management tool. Our team built this tool for our organization over the course of 3 months, rolled it out over another 3 months, and have been using it for about 2 years.

The titles of the functions are rather confusing, as "policy" and "review" are not what I expect them to be. Its high adaptability can make it challenging to build and maintain. The reports are simple, but I believe they are being developed further; I never got much value from them.

Trakstar stands out for having some of the best service I've experienced and the most practical adaptability I've seen.

When seeking a tool like this, consider cost per user, functionality/adaptability, system integration, and support available. This tool is especially useful if you have multiple existing processes to change over. It is easy to set up users, and it would be much more streamlined if personnel data came from recruitment and fed into learning and development paths using the additional platforms.

I'm unsure of all changes, but the reporting was advancing when I was using it more. Metrics were available for performance but not in minute detail from what I recall.

Our organization is a nonprofit with about 100 employees. However, we had high turnover, so user build-out was a frequent function. It's great for organizations looking for adaptable performance reviews, with the resources to afford and build out the platform package (hire, recruit, learn). There is more value in time and money with the additional areas. Once built, it's a breeze.

I like that the process and layout is very similar regardless of which product and service you use from them - quite intuitive. It supports employers ability to maintain compliance by listing out requirements and flagging missing items or expired items. Lastly, being able to file 1099s digitally is a luxury I hadn't had previously. A total time saver.

We implemented Deel initially as a way to pay our onshore 1099 contractors, track their contracts and contact information outside of our HRIS. After two years, we had a new problem to address and changed our Deel platform to include an EOR. We had offshore contractors that we wanted to bring on as full-time employees to retain them and ensure compliance with the IRS. The change was seamless and the EOR is intuitive, informative and our offshore employees have been satisfied with the service from their end.

I think there is room to improve the connection between employer and the EOR service representatives in that a dedicated point-of-contact that is in house with Deel and not an international partner. Another consideration for EOR is having to pay a month's salary deposit up front for payroll is not ideal for cash flow. Lastly, I would love to see more employee and contractor features that you might find on a traditional HRIS because I believe it would be a better and more enriched experience for them.

For 1099 contractor management, oftentimes you use an ERP or accounting SaaS which has limitations. Deel bridges the gap between accounting SaaS/ERPs and an HRIS. For EOR, Deel is middle of the road in value. It is a great option for smaller OPEX budgets, but there are other EOR companies who offer more desirable features and better in-house service partners.

Consider the number of contractors or employees you would need for the upfront and annual costs to be justified. Whether or not you are familiar with global payroll, consider how much compliance support you need or is desirable for you. Lastly, consider whether you are up to converting your local currency to the international currency. Deel does not currently offer this in the employee profile, they only show the employee's local currency.

There is better customer service and help tutorials. Further, I have found there is an increase in the amount of educational materials available through Deel in order to stay current on contractor and global payroll trends and compliance.

I have known it to be used by HR and Finance professionals alike. Payroll administrators, regardless of where they fall organizationally, will find this tool beneficial. I believe organizations where these contracts or payrolls are relatively straightforward can benefit. Running payroll and paying invoices takes 10 mins or less per pay period.

Rippling centralizes the majority of the HR processes (+ Finance and IT, if you chose) that would otherwise be spread across multiple systems. For example, our company’s flex benefits, COBRA, and ACA were either managed with a carrier outside of our broker or manually by us and now Rippling handles the administration of all these areas in consolidation with our other health insurance benefits.

The strength of Rippling’s integration library allows for consistent and regular communication to and from Rippling for processes that are not directly managed within the system. For example, prior to Rippling, we manually onboarded and offboarded employees to/from Guideline. With Rippling, the systems speak to each other and manage the employee’s lifecycle with our company-sponsored 401k.

A highly beneficial aspect of Rippling is the workflow feature. Workflows have allowed us to set up Rippling in a way that allows it to speak within the system, initiate processes, and communicate to people/external systems. Rippling is a high-tech HRIS and a constantly progressing platform that meets the needs of today’s operations teams (HR, IT, Finance included).

We selected Rippling to implement a strong HRIS while centralizing other HR operations. By implementing Rippling, we were able to solve and improve several areas. First, we consolidated historical employee data from three to four different platforms into one, allowing us to use Rippling reporting to provide company trends. Second, we simplified benefits administration by transferring health insurance, Flex Benefits, COBRA, and ACA management to the Rippling platform. Third, Rippling offers a cleaner, more centralized, and highly integrated solution for our HRIS needs. I have been actively using Rippling for six months.

Rippling is a complex system. For it to be fully functional to the best of its ability it needs to be given the time to implement and set up in great detail. Knowing this, the implementation should have been much more hands-on. I’d recommend that whoever is leading the implementation internally has experience with other systems, so they know what to look for.

Rippling does not have an employee “notes” section. As the place I rely on for the most up-to-date employee job and personal information, it is missing the ability to keep it up to date with employee relations information directly in their profile. This is a feature I have experience with in other HRIS’s and is a missed opportunity in the Rippling platform.

Unlike BambooHR, a competitor, Rippling does not offer a “missing data” report. To find out who within the company is missing information, we will have to discover it when it is flagged during another unrelated process. I think this puts us at risk if we are unknowingly missing key information or signatures from any employee.

Rippling is a fully functional operations system with a large integration library. It provides HR with the necessary tools and offers Finance and IT tools. Incorporating various clouds and add-ons allows Rippling to carry an administrative weight heavier than its competitors.

Rippling is a complex system, so you should be prepared to invest time and attention to building a strong foundation during the implementation process. It can do a lot, but it needs to be built on the backend for the front end to function at its best. Since many tools within Rippling rely on one another, approach it with a big-picture philosophy for your organization’s intentions. Be clear about what you need during the discovery process, as Rippling has many features, but not all may be necessary for your company.

Rippling continues to introduce small improvements to existing features and entire tools, like performance reviews, and exclusive highly functional built-in integrations, like Carta. These developments are likely to continue as Rippling gains popularity in HR and Finance.

Rippling is highly flexible and can be strong for a wide range of companies. It can suit new startup companies (less than 50 employees) but may be best for 70+ and growing SMBs.

The platform is intuitive and easy to navigate, requiring no in-depth manual to use effectively. The support and customer success managers are excellent, helping us translate data for senior leadership. The AI capabilities are impressive, allowing us to summarize survey data quickly, which saves a significant amount of time.

My company has used Quantum Workplace for two years now. The primary reason was to have a global solution for employee surveys, as we operate in both the US and Europe. Beyond just a survey system, we sought a partner with the knowledge and benchmarking capabilities to support our growth.

Quantum Workplace provides insights that help improve employee engagement at all levels. They deliver key questionnaires and go further by analyzing the data, using AI to summarize employee input and creating presentations with the key results for both leadership and employees.

The analytics can feel quite complex if you don’t work with them daily. Customization options are limited, particularly for the emails sent from the system. Additionally, I would like to see more flexibility in administering access rights.

Compared to other tools I’ve used, which tend to be more generic HRIS solutions, Quantum Workplace stands out by staying ahead with technology like AI. This technological focus is a significant advantage.

Don’t limit the tool’s use to an annual survey; instead, leverage it regularly to gain insights into the sentiment of your organization and employees. Ensure there is a dedicated person to manage and maximize its potential. Take your time to implement it properly and become familiar with the software. Once you’re comfortable, it will significantly enhance your work.

Quantum Workplace consistently evolves with technology and listens to customer feedback to improve. We see yearly updates, each of which becomes increasingly relevant and beneficial.

Quantum Workplace is well-suited for large organizations looking to improve employee engagement.

• I love the action planning capability that action planning has
• I love that engagement allows you to filter so many different ways and the heatmap  functionality is fantastic 
• I love the calibration view you can share in performance

We decided to purchase Culture Amp as an engagement platform. Later, we added on performance. We needed a tool that helped us act on employee survey results and also had performance capabilities. We chose culture amp because it met the pain points we were having, they have a great customer success team & truly are working toward great product enhancements. I’ve personally used the tool since august 2021. Performance since last October.

• In performance, it’s not as easy as you’d like to exclude individuals from a calibration cycle from a filtering perspective
• In performance, I wish we could filter by division
• In engagement, I wish I could share a link with a leader for their dashboard not just via email

• Culture amp is different than competitors because of the action planning, it really sets them apart.
• I prefer the performance to BambooHR (what I’ve used in the past) because the views are so much better in calibration

• Consider action planning. What are you going to do with the engagement survey info?
• Consider how your performance cycle will be imported back into your point of record (for us it’s BambooHR and that may be a challenge, TBD!)

More filtering & word clouds in engagement! Too soon in using performance to tell.

A medium to large org (one with more data to measure!).

Charthop was user-friendly and intuitive making it easy to navigate. Charthop was flexible in that one could build many different org chart versions and permission them based on who needed access to them. Charthop also allowed for customizable fields within the system to meet the needs of your business.

Charthop was a tool we used at a previous company for about 1-2 years. It helped us create and easily maintain organizational charts throughout the company. The HRIS system we used did not have strong org chart capabilities. Making changes was very cumbersome and clunky, and downloading them was impossible. Charthop allowed us to create several different org chart versions while allowing us permission access as needed.

I don't recall having any concerns with Charthop as it was a very good solution for our team and company.

Similar tools to Charthop were not as customizable and limited in how we could use the tool. We tried other tools but decided to go with Charthop in the end.

When looking for an org chart tool, think about how many people in your organization will need to access the charts you develop. If talent planning, you'll want to keep certain charts confidential and hidden from certain users. Also, think about other tools you could bundle with this feature in the long run so that the system can be used to solve more than one problem for your company.

I'm unaware of the evolution of this product.

Charthop is good for HR teams in companies.

Easy to use and navigate for anyone including those technologically challenged. Easy to set up a performance review from the backend perspective. Lastly, I like how an entry level employee can see how their goals are vertically integrated into the top goals/company's strategic plan. I believe this visibility helps all employees understand the end goal better and that they are an important part of a bigger goal.

I have used ClearCompany for less than a year and am happy with the ease of the product. Our company was looking for a performance review system that was more integrated and connected to our strategic plan. Our company bought ClearCompany because of the many features, advantages, and benefits the product offered over our past performance review provider. One key benefit was the platform provides transparency on the progress of an individual's goal(s) and the team's goals. The organization as a whole can see goals the top executives set for the term and how each contributor's goals vertically connect to supporting those top goals.

I did not care for the performance review builder where they use job descriptions from a prebuilt template. I thought the template was incomplete and lacking in descriptions of job functions/responsibilities. Also, if an organization's goal is to build individual performance reviews for each position, using this software may be very time consuming. This software is better for a standard template review process for groups of employees. Building the review template is not quick because it takes time to learn how to build it first.

The visibility into a company's goals and others goals is different (and nice). Employees can congratulate others and make comments when their peer's goals are achieved, which is different and a positive employee engagement tool. There is the capability to create more customized performance reviews, if willing to put in the time. There is also the capability to "set it and forget" when creating a performance review. The system will notify an employee/manager when it is time for their review.

A company should identify their needs first. They might not need this comprehensive performance management tool. They should think about what is currently working and what is not working. I suggest making a list with 1. must haves, 2. would likes, and 3. I wish. This list will guide the buying decision.

They planned to build out the job description feature more.

An organization where it is critical to the business that everyone in the organization (from the bottom up) knows and understands the company's goals and who is responsible for each subgoal.

• Ease of use for both administrators and employees.
• AI functions generate a critical framework for training programs.
• Integration with existing platforms is seamless, and it includes performance management, collaboration tools, reporting, and data analytics.

I evaluated this platform for a client who made the purchase. The client needed a tool to support employee development and client learning for their rapidly growing business. Additionally, the platform needed to have API integration, analytics, and skills intelligence as they prepared to implement strategic workforce planning.

Pain Points:

• Decentralized and fragmented learning platforms
• Limited employee engagement in career mobility through learning and development
• Challenges with onboarding new employees— inconsistency and misalignment of expectations
• Lack of tracking and oversight for skills aligned with regulations and compliance for individual roles

• Lacks customization options and deeper analytics in reporting, which could be helpful as the company scales.
• The integration options work for the company now, but they will likely outgrow these in the next two years and need to look for new options.
• The cost is relatively high, which could prompt the company to consider alternative tools in the future.

We also evaluated Docebo, but at the time, AI capabilities were less of a priority for the client. I believe Docebo could be a future opportunity for the client, as I have recommended it for clients seeking stronger analytics and AI-driven capabilities.

My client’s top three priorities when looking for a similar tool are user experience, integration, and ramp-up time. Cost is also critical, as my clients are scaling startups accountable to investors, which means they need to get the most value for their spending.

Eloomi has expanded its integration options and improved its mobile experience, significantly enhancing the user experience. However, the cost remains a factor, driving a stronger need for the platform to increase its value, which it appears to be doing.

Eloomi is ideal for professional services, tech startups, and SMEs.

It's really easy to use in terms of setup of surveys and adding and deleting employees. You get results instantly with many ways to view the data and drill down. Their support is really good as well - knowledgeable and responsive.

I used WorkTango in a previous role, and used it for about 4 years. We bought it because we were looking for a better way to conduct employee engagement surveys, and WorkTango helped us do that in a way that was completely customizable. We did annual surveys as well as regular pulse checks. With WorkTango we could see participation rates throughout the survey periods and got results instantly. The tool provides some analysis and different ways to cut data (department, tenure, etc.).

The exporting of results isn't perfect - it got better while we were using it but we still had to manually create certain views to share the results we wanted with our executive. The trending feature, which is great overall, doesn't work if you change the wording of a question in any way, so if you want to reword a term the trending doesn't work.

I had always used companies to run engagement surveys and it was a less intuitive process and the results took weeks if not months to get. WorkTango makes it easy and instant.

Think about how often you want to use it and how to make the most of it. If you do one survey a year it's likely not worth it. Make sure you're comfortable interpreting results as well. The system does some of that but you need to be able to analyze responses and determine why things might be surfacing. And don't buy this type of tool if you're not going to do anything with the results.

WorkTango was very responsive to our suggestions for features or improvements. During the 4 years we used it there were some upgrades or changes, as well as one significant upgrade that addressed a lot of things and made the tool better, especially in terms of how data is displayed and exported.

Great for HR teams and people with little to a lot of technical savviness.

• PerformYard offers a high level of customization, allowing the organization to tailor the performance management process to its specific needs.
• The platform is user-friendly and easy to learn for employees at all levels.
• PerformYard enables ongoing feedback for employees, fostering a workplace culture of development and continuous improvement.

My organization chose PerformYard because we needed a better way to stay on top of employee performance and streamline how we manage goal-setting and reviews.

Before PerformYard, it was challenging to track everyone’s progress and ensure feedback was delivered consistently, often leaving employees unclear about how they were performing. This tool has been transformative, providing a straightforward way to keep goals visible, track progress, and make feedback an ongoing process rather than a once-a-year event.

We’ve been using PerformYard for over a year, and it has noticeably improved how connected our team feels to their personal goals and the broader objectives of our organization.

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• PerformYard does not easily integrate with other HRIS programs, which limits its utility in more complex tech environments.
• The lack of a mobile app restricts employees from accessing the system flexibly on the go.
• The tool could benefit from more data-driven reporting features to provide managers with enhanced capabilities for analyzing employee performance.

Compared to Lattice, PerformYard offers more robust customization options and is notably more user-friendly. Specifically, the platform allows organizations to customize performance reviews to align with their unique requirements.

When considering PerformYard, organizations should evaluate whether the software integrates with existing HRIS or other tools containing employee data, such as UKG Ready. It’s also important to assess the level of customer support and training offered by PerformYard to ensure smooth adoption and ongoing use.

PerformYard has improved over time by enhancing its ability to implement continuous feedback and coaching through more customizable templates.

PerformYard is ideal for small organizations that require customization and for newer organizations building their performance management processes.

1. It allows you to build as many teams as you would like.
2. It is clear on its anonymity policy so that team members feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.
3. It allows you to conduct custom surveys on any topic.

We bought this tool for our organization because we take employee feedback very seriously. We have been using the tool for 3 years. I have been using it as a regular employee for 2 years and as an HR professional (admin of the tool) for 1 year. It allows you to get regular feedback (at whatever frequency you prefer) and allows you to put team members into teams so that managers can get team-specific feedback. It also allows you to give "Good Vibes" so that any team member can provide recognition to their peers.

1. It does not have a Performance Management feature, which other similar tools do. For the price point, I would expect more features.
2. It does not have industry benchmark data for specific questions, which is something our ELT was hoping to see.
3. It currently does not integrate with our HRIS, which I mostly fault to the HRIS but it means I have to manually add all of our members and put them on teams.

I have not personally used comparable tools but I have done demos with others. I think this tool is very clear (more so than competitors) on its anonymity policy which is very important to our employees. I also think Good Vibes is a fairly unique feature that our team heavily uses and appreciates.

People should consider what features they need the tool to have. This tool does not have performance management, which is something that many similar tools do. They should also consider pricepoint. Workleap is a high price point for the limited number of features. Overall, I think it is a great tool, just hard to justify the price considering it is lacking a crucial feature (performance management) that we will need soon.

Workleap has launched new features throughout our time using it and I know it is currently working on others. Good Vibes was a feature that was added due to requests, and it has been a great addition to the tool. It also has an amazing Customer Support system, where you can answer your own questions or if you can't, they are very prompt at responding.

It is very good for large organizations that want specific team feedback. It is also good for teams that have a large budget for employee engagement metrics.

Peoplebox enables goal-setting for the company and individual managers, aiding in performance evaluations.

It facilitates the scheduling of one-on-one meetings with managers to support their development.

It allows for monitoring managers’ performance, ensuring they stay on task and meet expectations.

As an organization, we were receiving hundreds of applications and were overwhelmed with the volume. We struggled to review them all effectively to identify the most suitable candidates for our open positions. The CEO discovered Peoplebox, which has been instrumental in streamlining the application review process, allowing us to focus on interviews and hiring the best fit for the company.

Peoplebox includes an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that helps filter applications, highlighting those most qualified for interviews and further consideration. I have personally used Peoplebox for several months and have found it to be a valuable tool in our hiring process.

Peoplebox should allow for broader incorporation of employees, not just managers, in the engagement process.

The pricing model, which charges per person per month, should be revised to offer set rates based on company size to make it more accessible.

Peoplebox stands out by providing goal-setting features for both the company and individual employees.

It also facilitates one-on-one meetings specifically for performance evaluations, which is a unique offering.

When purchasing this type of tool, consider how many employees you will include on the platform.

Define the specific aspects of your organization you aim to improve, such as hiring, engagement, or performance tracking.

Evaluate the importance of employee engagement and satisfaction to your company’s success, as this tool excels in those areas.

Peoplebox has evolved by incorporating AI, which enhances job description creation and improves the ATS for more effective application filtering.

AI also streamlines scheduling interviews with multiple managers, minimizing conflicts.

Any organization that deals with a high volume of applications would benefit from Peoplebox, especially with its advanced AI features and application management tools.

Betterworks is great for building team collaboration. It has a well developed information hub. Betterworks also has a mobile app that is popular with employees.

Betterworks was purchased to streamline collaboration among the team. It is primarily used in employee goal setting across the organization. It provides team members with the ability to recognize and congratulate each other on accomplished goals. It integrates with multiple systems that we use. I have used Betterworks for 1 year.

It is very expensive and not suitable for small teams. It also has issues with integration across several systems that we use. Customer service isn’t super responsive.

There are other more cost effective and less buggy tools to use. However, its goal setting capabilities are impressive.

Betterworks is built for teams that are 1000+. It is an investment at its price point. I have run into technical issues and had issues with customer service occasionally.

They have added features to be more competitive and updated their goal setting capabilities.

Betterworks is good for large organizations with a large budget and someone to keep track of interface issues.

• Data/Reporting
• Integrations
• Customer support team
• Webinars/thought leadership

Our organization chose to buy Lattice for a few reasons. At the time, they were one of the few companies offering a people management platform at an enterprise level that had been shown to deliver results. Additionally, they provided customization and data through their engagement surveys that helped make a difference at a company level. We also were able to connect it with our ATS for better candidate engagement surveys.

I can't recall anything that we disliked when we were using Lattice. I think the initial setup of integrating it with our ATS and then permissioning to be able to see results was difficult but that wasn't necessarily a Lattice issue as much as an internal controls one.

Lattice competed very strongly with WorkdayHCM and CultureAmp. I generally preferred Lattice and CultureAmp equally though I like the webinars and thought-leadership that Lattice puts out a lot, so that is where I might give it the edge.

• Integrations
• Overall usage
• Ease of use
• Ability to share/collaborate on with the information
• Cost per user or survey

When I was first introduced to Lattice, it seemed everyone talked about the survey capabilities. Since though I've seen it discussed more for the analytics and internal mobility elements. Given how the world has changed, seeing it evolve in that direction is cool.

• People Teams (HR/Recruiting)
• Managers
• Business Leaders
• C-Suite