13 Best Employee Performance Review Software in 2024

In this article:

• What to Look For in a Continuous Performance Review Software
• The 13 Best Continuous Performance Review Software
• FAQs about Continuous Performance Review Software

What to look for in the best employee performance review software

Performance review software helps managers and HR leaders:

• Set clear expectations and targets
• Conduct fair performance evaluations 
• Track employee progress over time 
• Hold performance reviews 

But not all performance reviews software are created equal. Most focus on facilitating annual or bi-annual reviews—which doesn’t quite improve performance.

How do we know? Gallup conducted a study on traditional performance management and the stats speak for themselves:

• Only 29% of employees strongly agree that the performance reviews they receive are fair, while only 26% strongly agree they are accurate. 👎
• Only 14% of employees strongly agree that the performance reviews they receive inspire them to improve. 🫤
• Only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. 😳

We also hear it from employees all the time, or in some cases, read it on Reddit:

It’s not that performance reviews themselves are all bad, it’s that they’re run too infrequently. 

For performance reviews to effectively track and improve employee performance, it needs to be continuous. That doesn’t mean forcing everyone to submit weekly reports, it means:

• Feedback is given at the moment of need (good and bad!)
• 1:1s between managers and employees are focused on support 
• Capabilities are specified and tracked by role
• Goals are set collaboratively with managers and updated frequently

This doesn’t have to replace formal performance reviews either. 

In fact, continuous feedback from peers, line managers, and senior management actually forms an unbiased and comprehensive view of an employee's performance. This makes it easier to discuss promotion, pay, and performance during formal reviews. 

At Mesh.ai, our performance enablement software, we’ve seen that this trifecta of continuous feedback, regular 1:1s, and goal co-creation on top of annual performance reviews leads to 15% higher performer density in our client organizations. 

That being said, the best performance review and management software should: 

1. Facilitate continuous feedback and development
2. Empower managers to coach their direct reports to better performance through regular 1:1s
3. Make it so employees co-create and track goals with their managers

In this article, we’ll introduce you to Mesh and how it excels in these three areas, and review 12 other continuous performance review software.

The 13 best performance review software in 2024 - Summary

In a nutshell, here are the 13 best performance review software we'll review today:

1. Mesh.ai

Mesh.ai is a performance enablement platform that empowers every employee to become a high performer.

In fact, our clients improve high-performer density by 15%, creating a more impactful, productive, and effective workforce.

They’re able to do this because Mesh.ai keeps employees:

• Accountable to goals and competencies that are aligned to business needs and frequently updated 
• Responsible for their own development plan and progress tracking
• Motivated to improve with the help of continuous feedback exactly when and where they need it
• Supported by their managers in 1:1s that generate meaningful development conversations

It all works together to create a culture of high performance from your most senior executive to your fresh out of university new hire. 

And Mesh.ai has Maven—an AI coaching co-pilot that helps employees set SMARTer goals, streamlined 1:1s, specific and impactful feedback, and effective reviews. 

Let’s take a closer look at how Mesh excels in the areas we outlined earlier.

📚 You may also like: 4 Best continuous performance management software in 2024

→ Factor 1: How Mesh.ai facilitates continuous feedback and development

Performance reviews can only be continuous if your people are getting insights into how they’re performing on a regular basis. 

On Mesh.ai, managers can give instant feedback (Praise or Advice) through the main dashboard whenever they need to—whether that’s after a huge accomplishment or a problem area to address. 

Praise lets an employee know what they’re doing well so that they can continue to do it while advice lets them know where to focus their development efforts. 

Teams that leverage praise and advice on Mesh see a ~138% boost in feedback inputs throughout the year over traditional periodic review/feedback cycles.

The platform doesn’t leave continuous feedback to chance, it embeds it into your culture. 

Employees are able to request feedback when they feel they need it. And our intelligent ‘Nudges’ feature prompts managers to provide feedback at moments of need such as goal and initiative completion, work anniversaries, and if feedback hasn’t been given in a while.

These nudges make sure managers never miss an opportunity to share feedback when it matters most, and that employees can immediately apply this feedback to the task at hand.

Mesh’s AI assistant Maven also offers real-time suggestions to improve the structure and phrasing of feedback. This reduces anxiety around giving feedback, especially for those who find it challenging, and makes sure every piece of feedback is meaningful and relevant.  

The best thing is, managers can tie their feedback to competencies that are crucial to succeed in a specific role. And employees can track their progress against each competency on their “Develop” dashboard and see feedback received for each competency. 

This means feedback is never hollow—it actually helps employees understand what they should work on to improve performance. 

📚 You may also like: 5 Best real time feedback software for continuous feedback

→ Factor 2: How Mesh.ai empowers managers to coach direct reports to better performance

One-on-ones are the best times for managers to:

• Address issues in real-time
• Offer resources and support
• Coach and mentor employees

With Mesh.ai, both managers and employees can set up recurring 1:1s, streamline agenda creation, and follow through on action-items. They can:

• Choose who they want to go on a call with
• Select date, time, and duration
• Select frequency (e.g. Weekly on Friday)
• Sync 1:1s with Google/Outlook Calendars
• Add agenda points and get AI recommendations for agenda points
• Add meeting notes

And whenever the meeting approaches, they’ll receive notifications to ensure they come ready and prepared.

Teams that conduct 1:1s on Mesh.ai see a ~64% increase in completion rates over legacy performance management systems.

With Mesh.ai, these 1:1 meetings become more than just check-ins; they transform into powerful coaching sessions. 

The platform's AI co-pilot, Maven, assists managers in preparing for these meetings by suggesting relevant talking points based on recent performance data, feedback, and goal progress.

Managers can easily track conversation history, ensuring that each 1:1 builds upon previous discussions. This continuity helps in addressing ongoing challenges and celebrating progress over time.

Mesh.ai also provides managers with real-time insights into their team's performance, enabling them to identify trends and potential issues before they escalate. 

This proactive approach allows managers to offer timely support and guidance, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

📚 You may also like:  10 Best one on one meeting software & scheduler tools for HR 

→ Factor 3: How Mesh.ai empowers co-creation of goals

During 1:1 meetings, Mesh.ai provides a dedicated space for managers and employees to discuss and formulate goals together. 

These goals are then seamlessly integrated into the platform's OKR (Objectives and Key Results) section, allowing for easy tracking and documentation of progress over time.

Key benefits of Mesh.ai's goal co-creation approach:

1. Alignment: Goals and competencies are directly tied to team and business needs, increasing their relevance and impact.
2. Accountability: Shared creation fosters a sense of ownership, leading to higher commitment to achieving goals.
3. Clarity: Clear documentation of expectations reduces misunderstandings and improves focus.

Teams that manage goals on Mesh.ai achieve ~22% higher achievement of team and individual goals than legacy performance management systems.

To keep everyone on track, Mesh sends timely update reminders, ensuring that goals remain top-of-mind and progress is consistently monitored:

Mesh.ai's AI co-pilot, Maven, also plays a crucial role in this process. It can suggest SMART goal structures, provide examples relevant to the employee's role, and even offer insights on how to make goals more challenging or achievable based on past performance data.

📚 You may also like:  4 Best performance objective software for HR teams 

Mesh.ai costs

Our pricing is designed to meet and scale to your organization’s performance needs. 

That’s why there’s more than one package to choose from: Base, Premium, and Enterprise.

• Foundations: $4 per user, per month
• Growth: $8 per user, per month
• Excellence: $12 per user, per month

You can see what features are included in each:

→ Want a tool where performance reviews are meaningful, effective, and continuous? Get in touch with us for a demo of the product. ←

2. Effy AI 

Effy AI is a performance review software perfect for HR teams who want to implement performance surveys as part of their processes. 

It has a library of ready to use templates for different areas of performance, such as:

• Communication
• Cultural fit
• Leadership
• Teamwork

By running these surveys periodically, you’ll be able to track how those areas improve by individual and by team over time. 

This gives you continuous insights that managers can use to coach and support their team. And it equips HR leaders with the data they need to inform their People strategy. 

We love how modern the tool feels with its emphasis on using AI to accelerate the performance review process. 

For example, if you don’t want to use one of the templated surveys, you can choose to answer a few questions to the AI and it will generate a custom review survey for you. 

Our one caveat with using the tool is that it ONLY does reviews whereas Mesh supports other parts of the performance puzzle such as 1:1s, development, feedback, and more. 

Pricing: Effy AI is an affordable $2.50 per person/month, billed annually. If you want to pay monthly, the price skyrockets to $6 per person/month.

3. Primalogik

Primalogik is a performance review software with a feature that can benchmark performance in your organization, giving you oversight into which teams are performing and which teams need support.

As you can see in the image above, there’s a comparison column under the Summary. This shows the individual’s score compared to the organizational benchmark. It even highlights the gap for you.

A word of warning: benchmarking is only effective if you have a range of performance levels. If everyone is underperforming, your benchmark won’t help you improve the organization as a whole because you’ll be working to a lower expectation.

Primalogik also has features that support goals, tasks, instant feedback, and opinion surveys.

Pricing: Primalogik is available under one package option starting at $159 per month for up to 25 users. It then goes up to $209 per month for up to 35 users. For 100 users it’s $499 per month.

4. Howamigoing

Howamigoing is a performance review software that focuses on getting unbiased feedback by letting employees give it anonymously. 

This can help you foster a culture where employees are open and honest about the performance of their peers—because reviews can and should come from more than just managers. 

We love that employees can request feedback and get continuous insights into how they’re performing at any given time in the year, rather than wait for a formal performance review to take place. 

While Howamigoing is strong for its feedback functionality, we wish it was more comprehensive and supported HR teams and managers with more performance data such as goal success rates and capabilities development—both of which are available through Mesh. 

Pricing: Howamigoing offers two pricing tiers:

• Starter: $4 per user up to 200 users
• Pro: Starting from $4 per user 201+ users

5. AssessTEAM

AssessTEAM is a performance review software enabling all evaluation methodologies. This includes traditional annual reviews, 360-degree feedback, real-time feedback, customer experience evaluation, and project performance evaluation.

You’ll get a comprehensive understanding of how employees perform, including the opinions of your customers—something most tools don’t cater to. 

AssessTEAM also has a mobile app to make reviews easier to complete when your team has a moment and doesn’t tie them to their computer screen. 

And the surveys to evaluate performance are kept simple:

Pricing: AssessTEAM is offered in three packages: Basic Premium, and Enterprise. The pricing model is based on companies with up to 500 employees and starts at $3 per user, per month.

6. Reflektive 

Reflektive is a performance review software that surfaces the data you’ll need to fill out effective reviews for your peers, managers, and direct reports. 

So often employees sit down to complete reviews and have to rely on their memory on its own to judge the performance of another. Because Reflektive puts past feedback, goals, and past reports alongside the review report, you have all you need to be fair and effective.

This goes for self reviews and 360 reviews from others in the business. 

We love this feature because it's something we do at Mesh too. It’s a critical part of making performance reviews valuable and accurate.

Pricing: Reflektive does not list its pricing publicly.

7. 15Five 

15Five is a performance review software that helps managers and HR leaders make decisions about who gets promoted, who gets bonuses, and who still has some work to do before they’re rewarded financially. 

And it gives them the data to back up those decisions when employees ask why they were made. 

The platform also supports engagement surveys, training programs, and analytics alongside its performance review feature. 

Pricing: 15Five’s has three pricing tiers to choose from:

• Engage: $4 per user/per month
• Perform: $10 per user/per month
• Total Platform: $16 per user/per month

All plans are billed annually.

8. CharlieHR 

CharlieHR is a continuous performance review software that offers you the opportunity to get 1-to-1 account setup, access to best-practice HR templates and expert guidance on common HR issues. 

This is on top of their core features and is perfect for new HR leaders and small teams who could use that extra support.

CharlieHR also supports onboarding, engagement, perks and benefits, and time off—making it an HR all rounder. 

Pricing: £30 a month for Admin Support or $5 per month for its most basic plan. 

9. Zensai 

Zensai is a performance review software that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, making it an ideal choice for organizations heavily reliant on the Microsoft ecosystem. 

Because of this you’ll have better adoption of the tool among your employees. It even captures performance data and facilitates reviews without requiring users to leave the Microsoft Teams platform.

We love how Zensai leverages the familiarity of Teams to reduce the learning curve associated with adopting new performance management software. 

One potential limitation is that Zensai's strong focus on Microsoft Teams integration might make it less appealing for organizations using other collaboration platforms (like Slack) or those with a more diverse tech stack.

Pricing: Zensai does not list its pricing publicly. It does make clear that you can purchase each of the three solutions (Learn365, Perform365, Engage365) on their own or as a bundle. 

10. Peoplebox 

Peoplebox  is a performance review software that successfully reduces the administrative burden associated with review cycles by 90%.

This is achieved through a combination of expert-built templates, easy customization options, and automated management features.

We love how Peoplebox allows you to set up 360-degree reviews in minutes. You can choose from expert-built templates for different types of reviews, create your own questions, or pick specific questions from their library. This flexibility ensures that your reviews are tailored to your organization's needs without requiring extensive setup time.

While Peoplebox excels at reducing admin work, it's worth noting that some organizations might prefer a more hands-on approach to their review process. The high level of automation might not suit companies that want more direct control over each step of the review cycle.

Pricing: Peoplebox starts at $7 per user, per month and is billed annually. Require more than its basic talent management plan? You can get the full suite for $12 per user, per month.

11. Breathe HR

Breathe HR is a comprehensive HR software that includes performance review capabilities alongside a wide range of other HR functions. 

In addition to performance reviews, the platform supports onboarding processes, location management, holiday requests, and much more. This functionality makes it an attractive option for HR teams wanting to consolidate their tools and streamline their workflows.

Pricing: Breathe HR starts at £18.00 per month.

12. PerformYard 

PerformYard is a performance review software you can use to tailor your review process to the competencies you want to track and develop as an organization.

PerformYard allows you to create custom competency frameworks that reflect your organization's unique needs and values. 

You can define and assess competencies at various levels, from entry-level positions to leadership roles, ensuring that your reviews are tailored and relevant across the entire organization.

This feature provides valuable insights into employee growth and helps identify areas where additional training or support might be needed.

It’s similar to Mesh's development feature where you can set and track the development of core competencies by employee and like that data to performance reviews.

Pricing: You can access PerformYard for $5-10 per person/month. You also have the option to ‘add on’ their engagement features for an extra $1-3 per person/month.

13. Trakstar

Trakstar is a continuous performance review software that shines in its ability to set and monitor expectations for new employees right from the onboarding stage.

This approach helps align new employees with company goals and performance standards from day one, potentially improving long-term productivity and engagement.

Another standout feature is Trakstar's ability to align reviews to a distribution curve automatically. This can be a challenging and time-consuming task for managers and HR leaders, especially during busy periods. Trakstar's system does the math for you, potentially saving significant time and effort.

Pricing: Trakstar does not publicly share its pricing. 

Performance review software - FAQs

Have more questions about performance review software? We answered them below:

What is performance appraisal software?

Performance appraisal software streamlines the process of evaluating employee performance. 

It automates the collection of performance data, facilitates feedback from managers and peers, and tracks employee progress against goals. 

This software helps you provide structured, regular feedback, enhancing employee development and organizational productivity.

How much does a performance review and appraisal software cost?

The cost of performance review and appraisal software varies. 

The software we listed in our article starts from $4 per employee per month and can go all the way up to $16, depending on how many features you need.

Some vendors offer enterprise pricing models based on the size and needs of your organization.

What is the best tool for performance management?

We think the best tool for performance management that actually leads to higher performance is Mesh. 

This is because we’ve seen smashing results in our client organizations: 

• Teams that use continuous feedback on Mesh see a ~138% boost in feedback inputs throughout the year over traditional periodic review/feedback cycles.
• Teams that conduct 1:1s on Mesh see a ~64% increase in completion rates over legacy performance management systems.
• Teams that manage goals on Mesh achieve ~22% higher achievement of team and individual goals than legacy performance management systems.

Want to see Mesh in action? Book a personalized demo call here.

How does employee performance review tool work?

Employee performance review tools automate the entire appraisal process, making it more efficient and effective. Here’s how they work:

1. Goal Setting and Trackingsome text
   • Set Performance Goals: You can define clear, measurable goals for each employee. These goals align with your organization’s objectives.
   • Track Progress: The tool tracks employee progress against these goals in real-time, providing updates and alerts as needed.
2. Feedback Collectionsome text
   • Multi-Source Feedback: Collect feedback from various sources, including peers, subordinates, and managers. This 360-degree feedback offers a comprehensive view of an employee’s performance.
   • Continuous Feedback: Enables ongoing feedback rather than waiting for annual reviews. This helps in addressing issues and recognizing achievements promptly.
3. Self-Assessmentssome text
   • Employee Input: Employees can perform self-assessments, reflecting on their own performance and identifying areas for improvement. This encourages self-awareness and personal growth.
4. Peer Reviewssome text
   • Collaborative Input: Gather insights from colleagues who work closely with the employee. Peer reviews provide additional perspectives on teamwork and interpersonal skills.
5. Manager Evaluationssome text
   • Managerial Insights: Managers can evaluate their team members based on predefined criteria. These evaluations often include qualitative and quantitative metrics to provide balanced feedback.
6. Performance Reportssome text
   • Automated Reports: Generate comprehensive performance reports that compile feedback, goal progress, and evaluations. These reports help in making informed decisions about promotions, raises, and development plans.
   • Data Analytics: Utilize built-in analytics to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement across the organization. This data-driven approach supports strategic planning and talent management.
7. Development Planssome text
   • Personalized Development: Based on the performance reviews, create personalized development plans for each employee. These plans outline the steps and resources needed to enhance skills and achieve career goals.
8. Integration with Other Systemssome text
   • Seamless Integration: Many performance review tools integrate with other HR systems, such as payroll, learning management systems (LMS), and employee engagement platforms. This integration ensures a cohesive approach to talent management.

What are the benefits of performance and appraisal software?

Performance and appraisal software offers numerous benefits like:

• Efficiency: Streamlines the review process, saving time and reducing administrative burden.
• Consistency: Standardizes evaluations, ensuring fairness and transparency across the organization.
• Engagement: Increases employee engagement by fostering continuous feedback and recognition.
• Development: Promotes professional growth through targeted development plans and actionable feedback.
• Decision Making: Provides valuable insights for making informed decisions about promotions, compensation, and succession planning.

What are the different types of performance & appraisal software?

Performance and appraisal software come in various types to meet different organizational needs. Here are the main types:

1. Goal-Based Systems

• Focus: These systems concentrate on setting, tracking, and achieving individual and organizational goals.
• Benefits: They ensure that employees are aligned with company objectives and help track progress towards these goals in a structured manner.
• Examples: Lattice, 15Five, and Betterworks.

2. 360-Degree Feedback Systems

• Focus: Collect feedback from multiple sources, including peers, subordinates, and managers.
• Benefits: Provides a comprehensive view of an employee's performance, capturing various perspectives. It’s particularly useful for leadership and development purposes.
• Examples: Culture Amp, Reflektive, and Trakstar.

3. Continuous Performance Management Systems

• Focus: Emphasize ongoing feedback and development rather than annual reviews.
• Benefits: Facilitates regular check-ins, continuous feedback, and real-time performance tracking, promoting ongoing employee development and engagement.
• Examples: 15Five, Impraise, and Workday.

4. Project-Based Reviews

• Focus: Evaluate performance based on specific projects or tasks.
• Benefits: Ideal for organizations that operate on a project basis, allowing for detailed assessment of contributions to specific initiatives.
• Examples: Asana, Trello, and Jira.