Top 10 performance management software: a comprehensive breakdown

Considering we spend a third of our waking hours at work, it’s understandable that 70% of people* tie their purpose to their jobs. This connection drives employees to excel at their roles and contribute to their company in meaningful ways.

As human resources and people ops professionals, you play an important role in understanding each team member’s purpose and empowering them to fulfill it.

Performance management software can support you in enabling employees to reach their full potential. The most popular platforms have features to conduct multi-perspective performance reviews, clarify personal development goals, align the whole team on business objectives and company mission, and offer learning and onboarding tools.

This article will discuss the top performance management software available in 2023 to help you decide which one would benefit your company most.**

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‍*McKinsey, 2021

**The information below is based on our research in 2023. All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms such as G2 and Capterra in May-July 2023.

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Companies

Pricing

Language options

Customer rating

Leapsome

Pricing starts at US$8 with a 14-day free trial available

13

4.8

ClearCompany

ClearCompany performance management

ClearCompany’s pricing isn’t readily available.

3

4.6

eloomi

eloomi performance management

Eloomi’s pricing isn’t readily available.

22

4.7

Engagedly

Engagedly performance management

Engagedly pricing starts at US$5000 per year with three different plans to choose from

10

4.4

Factorial

Factorial performance management

Access to all features starts at US$11.20 per employee per month

6

4.5

Kissflow

Kissflow performance management

Starts at US$1500 per employee per month

8

4.3

Profit.co

Profit.co performance management

Starts at US$9 per employee when billed monthly

13

4.7

SAP Successfactors

SAP performance management

Starts at US$6.30 per employee when billed monthly

39

4

Workday HCM

Workday performance management

Pricing not readily available

34

4

Worktango

Worktango Performance management

Pricing not readily available

9

4.6

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Bridge (Betterup)

Starts at US$4/month per user when billed monthly.

27

4.3

Key features to look for in a performance management tool

Before we jump into the software comparison, let’s clarify the essential features you need to foster great performance and continuous improvement:

Better employee performance

Ensuring employees are heard and supported creates a sense of community and boosts performance.

Versatile goals and OKR management

Psychological studies show that setting objectives can motivate teams to improve their performance by up to 18%. Look for goal management features with customizable settings so you can adapt them to your processes rather than the other way around.

Learning and development management

Showing, not just telling, employees how to improve their performance will ensure the best results. Plus, 71% of professionals want more development opportunities from their jobs. That’s why you should look for a platform that has a built-in learning management system (LMS) to design customized training courses for your team.

Feedback and recognition tools

Ideally, feedback should be a two-way street, which means that employees feel comfortable openly sharing their opinions and voicing their concerns with management. Top performance management platforms make it easier for staff to exchange instant praise or anonymous feedback that doesn’t compromise their psychological safety.

Ease of use and customization

Intuitive software has higher adoption rates, which means more people will use it, making it more likely to have a widespread, positive impact on your business.

Analytics

Software should help you easily visualize and interpret performance review and check-in data. As a result, you’ll have data-driven insights to inform your employee feedback programs.

Show employees the only way is up

Leapsome promotes top performance with automated review cycles, data-driven feedback, and expert meeting templates.

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^1. Leapsome

Leapsome’s comprehensive suite of features bridges the gap between performance, engagement, and development. You can create a thriving culture of continuous improvement and achievement while driving company-wide success.

Our Reviews module allows you to run impactful, development-focused appraisals with your team. We offer a choice between best-practice templates and highly customizable review builders, so you can set up your processes in accordance with your needs. You can use review data to track performance over time, compare teams, departments, genders, and more, and uncover gaps in skills and development.

Additionally, you can set up or use Leapsome AI to generate competency frameworks for your departments and teams. This gives employees clarity on career progression and expectations in terms of their skill development. Leapsome’s competency frameworks are highly customizable and can be used to ensure fairness in performance reviews by assessing the same roles on the same skills.

Leapsome’s highly customizable goals module aligns teams behind shared objectives while fostering a sense of purpose in employees. Whether you’re using objectives and key results (OKRs) or another goal methodology, Leapsome significantly reduces the time you have to spend on setup and tracking. You can also ensure transparency by visualizing individual and departmental objectives on a goal tree. Furthermore, syncing progress with 1:1 meetings and reviews builds goal management into your everyday processes.

With our comprehensive Learning module, you can create customized learning paths and courses for your business. This enables each employee to pursue development opportunities based on their specific aims, interests, and needs. Additionally, we partnered with Goodhabitz and now offer five of their professional development courses to get you started.

Our Instant Feedback and Meetings modules enable you to enrich your work culture and drive performance. You can help your entire team celebrate each other’s successes and hard work to spur future excellence. Our range of meeting features empowers managers to engage with their reports more effectively to reflect on their performance and pave the way for ongoing improvement.

Altogether, Leapsome has seven products:

Reviews
Goals
Surveys
Learning
Compensation
Instant Feedback
Meetings

You can use each module independently, which means you can choose the combination of tools you need. However, Leapsome is a holistic solution, so our products are most effective when they’re able to connect and build processes for the entire employee lifecycle.
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Are you new to performance management or process or just looking for some performance review tips to make your approach even more constructive and impactful? We’ve got a dedicated guide for that.

Main features
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Customizable performance review tools‍
Competency frameworks to visualize development requirements
Versatile goal and OKR-setting features‍
Feedback and praise features
Powerful data and analytics
Choice of questionnaire templates and premade surveys‍
Employee development roadmaps ‍
Meeting tools and templates
Personalized development and learning paths‍
Streamlined compensation and promotion management‍
Flexible onboarding plans

Pros

Holistic people enablement tool
Intuitive user interface (UI)
Supports 13 languages
Highly scalable
Customizable goal-setting and surveys
Attentive customer service

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cons

Continuous iteration can lead to occasional bugs
Mobile app not yet available
Slight learning curve due to all the features

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Trusted By:

“We wanted to reinvent the performance dialogue and work with a system supporting continuous improvements.

All other tools we looked at lacked the holistic focus on other essential areas of people enablement. We needed something more complete”

Marie-Claire Haag-Fundinger

Organizational Change Expert at Generali Switzerland

Read case study

^2.ClearCompany

ClearCompany is a talent management software that caters to specific industries, such as engineering, manufacturing, and technology. The system gives you real-time updates related to goals, progress, and coaching, so employees consistently get instant feedback on their tasks. This can be beneficial if you’re part of a remote team and often have delays in communication.
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Main features
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Performance reviews
Feedback tools
Analytics and reporting
Recruitment and onboarding features

Pros

Easy to use
Supportive customer service
Customizable features

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cons

Reported issues with customer support
Only has versions in three languages
Some limited functionality unless you pay a premium
Slow loading speeds

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^3.eloomi

Danish software company eloomi provides a unified platform for learning and performance management. The 360+ feature allows teams to give and receive feedback on skills, which it then visualizes on graphs. Users can also request reviews from external stakeholders, such as partners, clients, and former colleagues, via email.
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Main features
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Goal management
Integrations with LMSs
Data analytics
Operational checklists

Pros

Mobile app
Attentive customer service team
Easy to use

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cons

Limited review features and no link between LMS and reviews
Higher cost than some other competitors
Occasional bugs and glitches

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^4.Engagedly

Engagedly focuses on performance, development, and engagement through its range of features. Its gamification capabilities offer a twist on performance management and allow employees to earn points for learning skills and completing tasks. Team members can then redeem those points for gift cards.

Main features
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Performance reviews
Goal management
LMS with gamification features
Feedback and recognition tools

Pros

Mobile app
Easy to navigate
Appealing design

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cons

No review automations
Limited goal management features
Unintuitive UI
Using the mobile app can be challenging

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^5.Factorial

Designed for small to medium-sized businesses, Factorial is a human resources information system (HRIS) that aims to reduce repetitive tasks like time tracking, leave management, and payroll. With its goal-setting feature, users can define individual and team-specific objectives. Factorial also allows teams to check whether goals are on track, progressing, or at risk but lacks progress bars and other visual monitoring tools.
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Main features
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Goal-setting tools
Recruiting and onboarding features
Performance reviews
Data analytics and reporting

Pros

Mobile app
Easy to use
Customizable for administrators

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cons

Reports of sudden, disruptive changes
Unresponsive customer support team
Difficult to recover data

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^6.Kissflow

Although Kissflow is primarily a digital workplace platform, it also has a range of employee management features, including reviews, onboarding tools, and applicant tracking. Managers can conduct 360 reviews and leave reports with actionable feedback. However, Kissflow has a very stripped-down set of features, so it may not meet larger and more complex companies’ needs.
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Main features
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Performance management
Onboarding and onboarding features
Leave management
Applicant tracking system

Pros

Mobile app
Responsive customer support
Intuitive UI

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cons

No goal management features
Limited review features
Steep learning curve

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^7.Profit.co

Profit.co is suitable for organizations that use the OKR methodology. The platform has a range of features to set objectives and track their progress. Its OKR templates, key performance indicator (KPI) library, and adjustable timeframes also enable users to customize the features to their company processes. However, enterprises that opt for other goal frameworks may find that Profit.co doesn’t suit them due to its strong focus on OKRs.
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Notable features
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Performance reviews
OKR management
Survey tools and templates
Task management
Meeting tools and templates
Feedback and recognition tools

Pros

Mobile app
Free plan for up to five users
Multiple ways to view OKR progress

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cons

Limited scope for goal management
Inflexible paid plans
OKR feature has a steep learning curve

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^8.SAP SuccessFactors

Available in over 30 countries and languages, SAP SuccessFactors is an international human capital management (HCM) software. It emphasizes enabling good performance by hiring employees with the right skills through its recruitment feature. The platform also has review, evaluation, and planning tools to empower teams to keep working at their best.
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Main features
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Performance reviews
Goal management
Recruitment and onboarding tools
Leadership development

Pros

Versions in 39 languages
Mobile app
Comprehensive business tool

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cons

More expensive than some other competitors
Limited customization options
Steep learning curve due to the large range of features

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^9.Workday HCM

If you’re looking for a range of solutions that can complement your approach to performance management, Workday HCM may be for you. The platform offers everything from a payroll system to sales planning and strategy tools. Workday’s main performance management features include its goal management and reviews tools, like 360 reviews and customizable templates.
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Main features
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Goal management features
Performance reviews
Meeting tools
Collaboration tools
Survey tools and templates

Pros

Supports 34 languages
Mobile app

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cons

Complex to use
Steep learning curve
Some automations are slow
Potentially a pricier option than most competitors

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^10.Worktango

Formerly known as Kazoo, WorkTango aims to improve the employee experience with a combination of surveys, feedback, goals, and incentive features. It also has a selection of review tools like best-practice questionnaires, frameworks, and performance calibrations. You can also sync OKRs, reviews, and feedback with the meetings tool, so managers always have all the information they need about reports at their disposal during check ins.
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