7 Best Performance Feedback Tools for Timely Feedback

Timely feedback helps employees grow within their roles, stretch into new career opportunities, and directly contribute to business success.

But getting your managers to deliver timely feedback in a meaningful way is a mountain of a task. They’re up against busy schedules and confusion over what good feedback looks like.

The right performance feedback tool makes it easy for managers to give timely, meaningful feedback, and for employees to act on this feedback.

This way, both parties are empowered: managers become respected leaders, and employees become high performers. 

However, choosing the right tool is no easy feat. This is why we put together this article, where we’ll go into the 7 top performance feedback tools in the market with unique features.

This isn’t a list full of surface level information you could get from ChatGPT either. 

To help you find the right tool, we asked our People Science team for advice, dug into real user reviews and use cases, and listed out the pros, cons, and pricing of each tool.

Jump Ahead:

• Analysis: 4 Factors You Should Look For
• Review: 7 Best Employee Performance Feedback Tools

Full transparency, we’re kicking this list off with our own product, Mesh. We think it’ll impress you, but we also want to make it clear that this article won't dump on our competitors. We can acknowledge their strengths and the situations where they’re a better fit than we are. 

The 7 Best performance feedback tools - A summary

In a nutshell, here are the 7 best employee performance feedback tools we'll review in-depth today:

1. Mesh.ai 
2. Howamigoing 
3. FlowyTeam 
4. Effy AI 
5. Primalogik 
6. AssessTEAM 
7. Synergita

And here’s a summary table:

But before we dive in, I asked our People Science team to share their expertise on what makes a *genuinely* useful tool for managers to give meaningful, effective feedback. 

Let's take a look at their response.

4 Factors to look for in your employee feedback tool

Our People Science team believes that feedback only improves performance if it’s meaningful and continuous.

And research supports this: One Gallup study from 2023 showed that 80% of employees who received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged. 

Considering engaged employees are more likely to be high performers, meaningful feedback is one thing organizations will need to prioritize.

Unfortunately, Gallup also found that out of 15,000 employees, only 16% said the last conversation they had with their manager was ‘extremely meaningful’.

So how do you ensure your organization is facilitating meaningful and continuous conversations? 

You bring in a performance feedback tool that does these four things:

1. Allows managers to co-create goals and competencies with the employee
2. “Nudges” managers on when, and how regularly, they should give feedback
3. Makes it easy to schedule, track, and manage 1:1s
4. Gives suggestions on how to write meaningful feedback

In this article, we’ll discuss how Mesh (our performance enablement software) excels in the above areas. Then, we’ll also give 6 alternative tools and discuss their pros, cons, and customer reviews to help you make a more informed decision.

1. Mesh AI- Best employee performance feedback tool for improving employee performance

Mesh.ai is a performance enablement platform designed to empower managers to become leaders and employees to become high performers. Our software has proven to improve high-performer density by 15%. 

This is possible through performance enablement features on Mesh that helps managers coach employees effectively, and gives employees a clear idea of their goals and how to achieve them. This includes:

1. Goals and OKRs 
2. Real-time, continuous feedback 
3. Unbiased 360 performance reviews
4. Frequent 1:1s
5. Meaningful performance assessments

Here’s how Mesh makes it easy for managers to give meaningful, continuous feedback: 

1. Share real-time “Praise” or “Advice”. Managers can praise an employee immediately after a goal or milestone is achieved. Or they can offer private, real-time feedback on areas for improvement so everything is on track. 

💡 Teams that use “Praise” and “Advice” on Mesh witness a ~138% boost in feedback inputs throughout the year over periodic review/feedback cycles. 

2. Map feedback to competencies. On Mesh, feedback isn’t hollow—it’s mapped to core competencies that drive business results and aligns with personal and career development. 

What’s more, the feedback employees receive can inform the development and performance goals they set in the platform, the conversations they have with their managers in 1:1s and the period reviews they complete.

3. Encourages a culture of asking for feedback. Mesh makes it easy for employees to ask for help and resources from their direct managers, peers, or anyone in the organization. This is key to make sure there are no blockages to complete tasks effectively. 
4. Democratize access to feedback: Feedback is useless if the right person doesn’t see it in time. Mesh allows managers, employees, and executives to exchange feedback through tools they already love, like Slack and MS Teams. 

The software also provides helpful prompts to make giving praise and advice less daunting and more effective.

Mesh all works together to create an ecosystem of continuous improvement and enabled performance where employees know:

• What they’re doing well so they can continue to do it
• What they need to improve so they can find the resources to help
• How they’re progressing on goals so they can get back on track
• What action they should take next so they can perform better in their roles

Let’s look at how Mesh’s performance enablement features meet the four factors we outlined earlier. 

→ Factor 1: How Mesh AI allows managers to co-create goals and competencies with the employee

With Mesh, employees and managers can set time aside in their 1:1s to co-create goals. They’ll then put those goals into the OKR section of the platform to document progress over time.

→ You can learn more about setting up goals in Mesh here. 

The same goes for competencies. Managers and employees can work together to identify what competencies the employee should develop to improve their overall performance. 

This keeps the goals and competencies employees set aligned to the needs of the team and wider business, increases accountability, and provides clarity over what’s expected. 

The platform will make sure employees stay on track with their goals by sending update reminders:

→ Factor 2: How Mesh AI “nudges” managers on when, and how regularly, they should give feedback

Mesh makes giving and asking for feedback feel like second nature for managers.

All thanks to its ‘nudges’ feature which lets managers and colleagues know when it’s time to give feedback or praise. It’s linked to lifecycle events such as goal and initiative completion, work anniversaries, and time elapsed since last feedback. 

When those moments happen, the Mesh platform will send a timely prompt to initiate action.

Here's a quick video of how it works:

These notifications appear in the platform and in Slack or Teams. This ensures the nudge gets seen and action gets taken. 

And that ensures employees are appreciated, supported, and encouraged in a meaningful way which in turn increases their engagement and ability to perform to a high standard.

Want additional support for giving meaningful feedback?

📚Check out the 8 Mistakes Managers Make When Giving Employee Feedback

📚Or read our helpful guide: How to Write Mid Year Review: 7 Steps, Examples & Tips

→ Factor 3: How Mesh AI makes it easy to schedule, track, and manage 1:1s

Mesh comes with a 1:1 feature that’s proven to increase 1:1 completion rates by 64%.

Managers can set up recurring 1:1s with each of their direct reports, sync them automatically to their calendar, create agendas in under 5 minutes, and document action items all from one place.

The two images below show how to set up these meetings and create agendas.

The platform also surfaces data such as past feedback, goal progress, and more to focus the meeting on what matters and give support to the employee where they need it most. 

After the meeting is complete, managers get an automated summary enabling them to focus on being in the moment and less on taking notes during calls.

It's designed to make 1:1s frequent, seamless, and focused—all of the ingredients for more meaningful conversations that will create high performers out of your people.

→ Factor 4: How Mesh AI gives suggestions on how to write meaningful feedback

When you introduce Mesh to your organization, you’re also introducing your people to Maven—the AI co-pilot who coaches managers and employees on how to write feedback that drives change. 

With Mesh, you don’t leave great feedback to chance because you’ve equipped your managers with the tools to deliver it consistently and effectively.

Maven can: 

• Spot bad feedback before it’s been submitted
• Show what went wrong with the feedback draft
• Make suggestions on how to improve it
• Automatically rephrase the feedback for you

It’s a powerful feature that cuts down on the time it takes to give effective feedback, removes the fear many people feel around giving feedback because the hard work is done for them, and makes every piece of feedback given more meaningful.

Learn more about Mesh Maven here. 

Pros, cons, and user reviews

We spoke to some of our customers and read reviews they’ve posted on G2 to understand how Mesh helps them enable performance through feedback and what they might struggle with.

Here’s what we found.

Pros:

• Ensures feedback is regular, timely, and linked to employees' goals and capabilities
• Puts feedback into employees’ flow of work by integrating it into their workplace communication tools
• Does more than just feedback, enabling performance through additional features like goal setting and performance reviews

Cons:

• Requires a shift from traditional performance management to performance enablement that some organizations might struggle with
• Volume of data, insights, and notifications could become overwhelming
• Unable to download documents and data from the platform

User Reviews:

Want to see more? Head to our G2 profile.

Mesh AI costs

Our pricing is designed to meet and scale to your organization’s employee performance feedback 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 that facilitates real-time feedback and enables better performance you can measure? Get in touch with us for a demo of the product. ←

2. Howamigoing - Best Employee Performance Feedback Tool for Anonymous Feedback and Questions

Howamigoing is a performance feedback tool that recognizes the impact feedback has on company culture and employee retention. Because of this, they’ve built a product with a suite of tools that empowers everyone in the organization to get the feedback they need, whenever they need it.

💫 Where they shine 💫 : Feedback requests and questions that can come at anytime, privately and publicly

What we really love about Howamigoing is it’s ‘Ask me anything’ feature:

It’s designed so employees can ask questions of anyone in the company (anonymously or not). 

This can be a great way for employees to ask questions of senior leadership without fear. 

Employees can also request private feedback at any time. So if they’ve just wrapped a project or had an interaction they feel they could benefit from, they can request private feedback from specific colleagues:

It comes with templated forms but you also have the option to design a custom one. 

Where the product falls short is its lack of nudge technology. It’s easy for employees to forget to use the platform because the performance feedback doesn’t become a habit. 

We saw several G2 reviews where the admin complained about adoption in the company.

It also doesn’t use AI to coach better feedback writing, so the quality of the feedback is left to chance.

Howamigoing Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be a Howamigoing customer. Here’s what we found: 

Pros

• Users love its interface and UX
• Feedback can be given anonymously if employees prefer it that way
• Takes feedback a step further by encouraging employees to ask questions of colleagues to improve communication and understanding

Review from a Howamigoing user:

“What I really like about Howamigoing is that it’s really clean - really easy to test and try it out. We looked at many other platforms, but Howamigoing won because of the UX/UI, that’s important for this area– and being integrated with Personio is a real bonus.”

Cons

• Some users felt the gifs and platform UX felt ‘childish and distracting’
• Too reliant on employees driving feedback culture (teams struggle to give time to responses)
• Many users wished for more integrations with other tools

Review from a Howamigoing user:

“We're very happy with the service but as an admin user I'd like the ability to see something like a 'feedback score' for employees, so that if someone is never participating it would be good to address why that may be.”

If the above review resonates with you, you’ll be interested to know that the Mesh platform has reports available that show if and how much employees are giving and receiving feedback as well as other aspects of the platform like goal setting. 

→ Check out our article here that breaks down the performance dashboards available: 11 Employee Performance Dashboard Examples ←

Howamigoing Costs

Howamigoing offers two pricing tiers:

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

3. FlowyTeam - Best Performance Feedback Tool for Weekly Feedback Check-ins

FlowyTeam is an employee performance feedback tool trying to equip everyone in your org with the features they need to succeed. Those features include OKRs, KPIs, task management, reward functionality, and of course, 360 performance reviews and feedback.

 💫 Where they shine 💫 : Weekly feedback functionality

FlowyTeam, from the outside, looks easy to get lost in. That’s because it does SO much as a single tool. You can:

• Set OKRs and KPIs and create reports
• Create and track time logs and work tasks 
• Check-in on employees regularly through 1:1s or in-app messages
• Give and receive 360-degree reviews
• Reward employees
• Manage projects using tools like Kanban boards

But amidst these many features is a simple weekly activity that connects employees to their managers and lets them know what they should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing.

We love this regular check in where employees can find out what’s working and what’s not. It gives them the information they need to have a successful week, even if the last one was a little rocky.

This weekly feedback can help employees achieve fun rewards available in the platform, such as:

Our word of caution with FlowyTeam is that it could be doing too much as a platform. Everyone loves an all-in-one solution but only if that solution can do it all well—which is a difficult feat. 

In our opinion, it seems there's more emphasis on measuring performance and not enough on enabling it.

FlowyTeam Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be a FlowyTeam customer. Here’s what we found: 

Pros

• Users love the performance reports generated on the platform
• You can give rewards to users based on their performance
• Offered in multiple languages (though there may be some translation errors)

Review from a FlowyTeam user:

“Our team started with OKRs and 360 reviews. We found it much easier to avoid paperwork and collect all data manually, that's why we switched to flowyteam.”

Cons

• Users wanted more templates included in the platform
• Several users wished there were more training videos for OKRs and KPIs 
• Takes time to learn how to use the platform 

Review from a FlowyTeam user:

"There is no email notification to remind staff to update their current OKR progress."

FlowyTeam Costs

FlowyTeam offers a free account to single users. Beyond that, they price the platform at $4 per user per month.

If you pay yearly, there’s a slight discount per user.

Have more than 250 employees? They ask that you get in touch for a custom quote. 

4. Effy AI - Best Performance Feedback Tool for Companies with Less than 15 People

Effy AI is an employee performance feedback tool that provides features such as performance tracking and feedback within an accessible platform.

💫 Where they shine 💫 : Effy is the only tool on our list that is available for free after the trial period.

Effy AI is free for up to 15 users, making it accessible to small-to-mid businesses who struggle to pull together a budget or get buy-in from the exec team. 

This free version includes:

• Reviews in Slack
• Customizable templates
• Reminders and status updates
• Excel download

If you need more functionality, you can opt for the paid plan which is quite reasonable at $85/month. This comes with up to 100 user seats and everything in Free, plus:

• Review reports, based on question scores
• Anonymized reviews
• Peer nomination flows
• Multi-manager reviews

We also like that Effy allows employees to select who they receive feedback from. It helps create more diversity in the review process rather than an employee only hearing from their manager.

Effy also gives AI generated reports on employee performance HR can use to make a case for further investment in employee development, engagement, and retention strategies. 

So even if you have a small budget now, you can always invest more in performance feedback going forward.

Effy Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be an Effy customer. Here’s what we found:

Pros

• Seamless user experience
• Free offer available
• Users like that managers get employee performance insights too, not just HR

Review from an Effy user:

"I use Effy for our company's 360 review process. I like how there are pre-made templates and administration of the feedback is relatively simple and quick."

Cons

• Some features are behind paywall such as the automated AI performance reports 
• Users want more integrations 
• Lack of peer to peer recognition functionality

Review from an Effy user:

"The 1-1 meeting feature could be improved. We had some difficulties with paid leave days left after 2 years which should expire, but we have found a workaround in the system."

Effy Costs

Effy is free for up to 15 users with a simple version of the platform. If you want the full suite of features or have more than 15 team members, you can pay for their pro plan at $85 per month. 

5.  Primalogik - Best Employee Performance Feedback Tool for Comparing Performance Across the Org

Primalogik is an employee performance feedback tool with three features supporting performance based feedback. Those are: 360 Degree Feedback, Performance Reviews, and Instant Feedback.

The platform as a whole is focused on performance management. 

 💫 Where they shine 💫 : Using ‘Comparison Mode’ to benchmark employee performance data from 360 reviews

As part of their 360 feedback feature, managers and HR can compare and contrast the performance reviews of their employees. 

This is beneficial for benchmarking and understanding who is performing best in the organization, who’s underperforming compared to others, and what areas different people need to spend time upskilling.

For example, maybe you spot that the entire sales team is lacking in one area. That information could help you take the appropriate action, whether that's training, a coach, or a new hire.

Primalogik Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be a Primalogik customer. Here’s what we found: 

Pros

• Great for habit building around feedback
• Several users reported the cost is affordable
• Great customer support
• Can edit questionnaires and customize them

Review from a Primalogik user:

“We use Primalogik for formal performance reviews, 360 reviews between colleagues, and ongoing feedback. The best part of using it so much is the habit of always providing feedback, regularly. We have a stronger repeating habit, as a company, around it because of this product.”

Cons

• Some users wish the interface was more intuitive to use
• Lack of customization
• A few users wished reporting could be customized further

Review from a Primalogik user:

“Primalogik doesn't have exactly the best UI - it could be refined a bit.”

Primalogik Costs

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.

There’s also a sliding calculator on their pricing page you can use to calculate exactly what it would cost your org.

6. AssessTEAM - Best Performance Feedback Tool for Scheduling Feedback

AssessTEAM is an employee performance feedback tool focused on giving you everything you need to assess, analyze, and improve team performance. And this includes robust feedback functionality.

 💫 Where they shine 💫 : Feedback that can be scheduled or delivered in real-time

Sometimes to make feedback continuous you need to schedule it in. We love that AssessTEAM makes this possible. 

These scheduled feedback requests that can be sent out automatically weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually.

Alongside ad-hoc feedback delivered at moments of impact, your team will have a consistent flow of feedback to inform their development and performance.

AssessTEAM Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be an AssessTEAM customer. Here’s what we found: 

Pros

• Users liked the option to make reviews anonymous as a way to increase honesty
• You can you build your own review and customize it to the roles at your company
• Customization of platform and templates

Review from an AssessTEAM user:

“I greatly value the flexibility that AssessTEAM provides. As a small business owner, I require a platform that is straightforward and easy to use, rather than one that is overly complex. I find the platform to be highly effective in meeting my team's performance management needs, and its cost is perfectly aligned with my budget as my team expands.”

Cons

• Extract of data/feedback needs improvement
• Some users found it tough to navigate the platform
• Overwhelming to get it set up because of its level of customization

Review from an AssessTEAM user:

“It is not so easy to select the visualization so I can differentiate reviews I made from reviews I received, it took me a while to figure that I should filter by evaluee. I think self reviews and reviews received should be separate from reviews given. For context, our team mostly focuses on written review and not so much on scores so the dashboard for us doesn't replace easily finding reviews given.”

AssessTEAM Costs

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.

Any more than that and the company creates a custom quote.

7. Synergita - Best Performance Feedback Tool for Encouraging Continuous Feedback 

Synergita Perform is an employee performance feedback tool with a full suite of performance management features. 

It’s one of three platforms Synergita offers. The other two are Synergita Engage and Synergita OKR.

‍

 💫 Where they shine 💫 : Using a feedback leaderboard to gamify giving and receiving continuous feedback

We love that Synergita makes giving and receiving feedback fun by creating a leaderboard and showcasing awards received in the organization, and categories where employees are scoring high in such as in ‘appreciation’ or ‘one on one meetings’. 

By publicly recognizing and rewarding employees it encourages others to get involved by giving and requesting feedback that could land them on the leaderboard. 

Synergita Pros, Cons, and User Reviews

We looked through real user experiences and reviews to find out what it’s really like to be a Synergita customer. Here’s what we found: 

Pros

• Easy to navigate and use 
• Users love being able to encourage and aware their peers
• Includes surveys that are easy to use

Review from a Synergita user:

“360-degree feedback was a novel process to us, but it was made easier and seamless by Synergita. Our employees, even in this remote working scenario, take a genuine interest in others’ growth and give anonymous feedback to their peers. This improves the overall culture score of the workforce as we introduce training programs based on accurate reports from 360-degree feedback on each employee’s performance.”

Cons

• Several users complained about the customer support and turnaround times
• Requests to include payroll features
• Lack of customization in reports

Review from a Synergita user:

“Building of reports from the front end is very limited. This can be a bit of a hassle on my part considering the fact that the syngerita team is slow in adding new reports to the list proactively. Turnaround time on service requests are pretty low.”

Synergita Costs

With Synergita you can either pay for one of the platforms or all three with their all-in-one package option.

The Perform package is offered at $7 per user, per month and is the most expensive of the three platforms. If you go for the all in one package, it’s $12 per user, per month.

Performance Feedback Tools - FAQs

Have more questions about performance feedback tools? We answered them below:

What is employee feedback software?

Employee feedback software refers to digital tools and platforms that enable managers, peers, and others to provide constructive feedback to employees on their performance. 

This software streamlines the feedback process, allowing it to happen more frequently, efficiently, and effectively compared to traditional annual performance reviews. 

Key features often include:

• customizable feedback forms
• real-time notifications
• analytics and reporting
• integration with other HR systems
• and support for multiple feedback sources (managers, peers, self-assessments, etc.).

What are the three types of performance feedback?

1. Positive feedback: Recognizes and reinforces desirable behaviors, accomplishments, and strengths to encourage the employee to continue doing those things. 

Example: "Great job on leading the project to a successful launch ahead of schedule!"

2. Constructive feedback: Identifies areas for improvement and offers specific guidance on how the employee can develop and enhance their performance. 

Example: "I noticed the client was confused about some of the technical details in the presentation. Next time, try explaining the concepts in simpler terms and check for understanding."

3. 360-degree feedback: Gathers input on an employee's performance from multiple sources, including managers, peers, subordinates, and sometimes customers. This holistic approach provides diverse perspectives for a well-rounded view of strengths and development areas. 

Example: A 360 review might reveal that while an employee's manager is satisfied with their work, peers find the employee difficult to collaborate with at times.

How do you gather performance feedback?

Performance feedback can be gathered through various methods:

1. One-on-one meetings between manager and employee
2. Periodic performance reviews (annual, semi-annual, quarterly)
3. Regular check-ins or status updates
4. 360-degree feedback surveys
5. Real-time feedback enabled by software tools
6. Project debriefs or post-mortems
7. Self-assessments completed by the employee
8. Unsolicited feedback shared in the moment

The key is to use a mix of methods to gain a comprehensive view of performance over time from multiple angles. Software tools can help make many of these methods easier and more efficient to implement.

Check out Mesh to see how it can support you in creating a feedback culture that drives performance.

What is the importance of real-time feedback tools?

Real-time feedback tools allow managers and peers to share input and praise in the moment, when it's most relevant and impactful, rather than waiting for a formal review cycle. This enables:

1. Timely recognition of success
2. Quick identification and correction of performance issues before they grow
3. Continual coaching, improvement, and growth
4. Stronger manager-employee relationships through frequent interaction
5. Improved employee engagement and motivation from regular feedback
6. More agile goal-setting and adjustment based on real-time insights

How efficient are AI-Powered employee feedback tools?

AI-powered feedback tools can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of performance enablement:

1. Automation of administrative tasks like scheduling, reminders, and form creation saves substantial time.
2. Natural language processing (NLP) can analyze written feedback, identify themes and sentiments, and provide actionable insights to managers, reducing manual analysis work.
3. Algorithmic nudges can remind managers to provide feedback at opportune moments, increasing the frequency of meaningful interactions.
4. Predictive analytics can identify employees at risk of turnover or disengagement based on feedback patterns, enabling targeted retention efforts.

However, AI-based feedback systems work best in tandem with, not as a replacement for, human judgment and in-person conversations. The efficiency gains from AI should be reinvested into higher-quality human interactions and relationships to get the best results.