9 Best 15Five Alternatives

TL;DR

• 15Five is a comprehensive engagement platform with features like weekly check-ins, OKRs, performance reviews, and engagement analytics
• The top 15Five alternatives include: Suggestion Ox, Leapsome, BambooHR, ThriveSparrow, Qualtrics, Culture Amp, Workday, Betterworks, and Reflektive.
• Suggestion Ox is the best 15Five alternative for anonymous employee feedback. It has been built specifically for collecting anonymous feedback, private messaging, and case management.

Unsure about using 15five to manage employee experience? Wondering what other alternatives could work better for you?

Look – 15five is an incredible performance management platform. 

• It offers a robust feature set. 
• It can solve so many problems, like boosting employee engagement or improving performance. 
• It’s got a great UX, too.  

But at the same time, the platform definitely isn’t for everyone. 

It doesn’t do everything, and it might lack the features you seek. But also, the chances are that you need a tool that focuses solely on one of 15five’s core capabilities, and you don’t need the rest… 

The problem? What do you use instead? Which of the many 15five’s alternatives do you choose?

Well, you’ll find all that below.

Worth noting – All the tools on my list can replace 15five in one way or another. Some can act as a complete alternative while others could be a great substitute for a particular capability of 15five.

So, review them all. See which one delivers the functionality you’re after. And then sign up for its trial to test it out further. 

But before you do all that, let’s look at 15five one more time…

What is 15five?

15five is a performance management platform that provides features and capabilities to help companies (and their HR teams) to continuously:

• Improve employee performance. 
• Improve manager’s effectiveness.
• Boost employee engagement.
• Boost retention. 

I agree that delivering on all that is a bold promise, but 15five does include many features to help you achieve it.

15five – the most critical features

15five is a huge, all-in-one platform. As a result, it includes many features, capabilities, and tools. So let me just outline some of them:

HR Outcomes Dashboard. This capability can help you track and identify ways to improve team metrics, among other things.

Spark AI which is 15five’s AI-powered assistant that can help streamline several tasks, including:

• Summarizing open-text feedback into themes.
• Collating data from across the entire platform to help managers review performance and write reviews quicker. 
• Offering day-to-day recommendations to managers to help them be more effective. 

Weekly check-in capability that allows employees to provide regular updates on their work and keep everyone in the loop..

Templates for 1-on-1’s so managers can always maximize that unique time with their employees.

Real-time employee feedback tools to get the feel of what employees think about the workplace. 

Performance reviews, tools for setting and monitoring OKRs and goals for teams and the company, employee recognition programs, engagement surveys, career path planning tools, and much more.

All in all, 15five is one of the most robust performance management platforms on the market today. 

Yet, not all customers find 15five a good solution for driving their performance management and employee engagement programs. 

15five – pros and cons

Let’s start with what customers say the platform does well, though.

The Pros

15five customers praise the platform’s great UX and intuitive UI. For example:

They also value its feedback system. 

Not to mention that often, the company’s support gets nice shoutouts, too. 

What about the cons, then?

Many customers complain about the lack of flexibility and customization on the platform. 

Some users also raise questions about the lack of a monthly payment plan and other issues with the platform’s pricing and affordability. 

Now, it is worth noting that any software would have some flaws. These might not be actual bugs or program errors but just some quirks that affect your user experience. 

And if these are bothering you too much, it is time to look for an alternative. 

So, with that in mind, here are some alternatives to 15five.

11 Best 15five Alternatives for Boosting Employee Engagement

#1. Suggestion Ox – The Best Anonymous Feedback Software

Type: Anonymous employee feedback software

Description:

If you’ve ever sat in a meeting thinking, “I know my people have ideas, but nobody is going to say them out loud,” Suggestion Ox is for you.

Suggestion Ox is an anonymity-first employee suggestion box for leaders, HR teams, and managers who want candid employee input without exposing who submitted it.

The whole point of Suggestion Ox is to remove the “will this come back to me?” fear that stops honest feedback before it ever gets written down.

That’s why Suggestion Ox has been designed with anonymity first.

In Suggestion Ox submissions are collected without storing IP addresses, without collecting device fingerprints, and without showing personal data in the admin view.

But here’s the trap with most anonymous channels, they turn into a pile of vague messages and nobody knows what to do next. Suggestion Ox is built to help you handle feedback, not just collect it. You can triage submissions privately, assign owners, and resolve items in a secure workspace, so there’s a real workflow behind the box. Someone owns the issue. Someone follows it through. And you can keep the process private while you figure out what to do.

The part that changes everything is two-way anonymous conversations. You can ask follow-up questions and keep a thread going while still protecting the submitter’s identity. That means you can turn “this is a problem” into “here’s what’s actually happening” and then do something about it.

Getting started is deliberately simple. Create a box, share a link or embed it on internal pages, and you’re live. Boxes can be accessed from any device. Distribution stays flexible too, link sharing plus Slack and Microsoft Teams workflows. You can notify managers when new submissions come in and send scheduled reminders, because the fastest way to lose trust is to ask for feedback and then disappear.

And when you’re ready to close the loop, you can share selected suggestions and responses on a private, password-protectable web page, so people can see what was raised and how it was handled without turning sensitive feedback into a company-wide spectacle.

What it includes

• Anonymous submissions (no IP logging, no device fingerprints)
• Two-way anonymous follow-ups (Direct Replies)
• Private workflow to route, assign, and resolve
• Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications, reminders
• Private page to share selected suggestions and responses
• Custom form fields, logo, brand colors
• Tagging and exporting
• AI-assisted reply writing tools

Suggestion Ox is best for teams that need truly anonymous employee feedback and still want the ability to follow up with questions. It’s not for organizations that require IP addresses, device identifiers, or other submitter metadata stored with each submission.

If your goal is to collect anonymous ideas, concerns, and questions, then follow up, assign ownership, and close the loop with responses, Suggestion Ox is built to support that workflow without breaking anonymity to make it work.

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: No
• Goals & OKRs: No
• Engagement Surveys: No
• Anonymous Feedback: Yes
• Employee Feedback and Praise: No
• 1:1 Meetings: No

AI-features:

• Reply assistant to expand the answer or adjust the tone of voice.

Free trial: 14-day

What makes Suggestion Ox a good alternative to 15five: 

Suggestion Ox focuses on helping companies collect anonymous feedback, and is an ideal solution to replace similar features of 15five.

#2. Leapsome

Type: All-in-one HR platform

Description:

Like 15five, Leapsome is one of those all-in-one platforms encompassing several capabilities and tools. And Leapsome delivers an impressive set of features focusing on helping companies boost employee engagement and development. 

As a result, Leapsome offers everything you’d need to manage your teams—performance reviews, the ability to set and track goals, collect employee feedback, and more.

Key features:

• Performance Reviews
• Goals & OKRs
• Engagement Surveys
• Learning
• Feedback & Praise
• 1:1 & Team Meetings
• Competency Framework
• Compensation management

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: No
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-powered recommendations for feedback improvement
• AI-assisted response writing
• Sentiment analysis
• Turnover prediction

Free trial: 14 days

What makes Leapsome a good alternative to 15five: 

Leapsome provides comprehensive performance management, goals, and engagement tools similar to 15Five but expands that with additional AI-powered feedback and learning features.

#3. BambooHR

Type: All-in-one HR tool for people management, payroll, and employee benefits.

Description:

With 15five being a robust platform, it’s only natural that many tools on my list will work simlarly. And that’s exactly the case with BambooHR – a complex HR platform.

BambooHR focuses on employee engagement and offers many similar features to 15five. However, it also expands that with the ability to manage payroll, track employee time, and benefits, and manage hiring and onboarding.

Key features:

• Employee Database and Reporting
• Payroll, Time, and Benefits Management
• Hiring and Onboarding
• Performance Management
• Employee Experience Tools
• Mobile App
• Integrations

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: No
• Anonymous Feedback: No
• Employee Feedback and Praise: No
• 1:1 Meetings: No

AI-features:

No info available

Free trial: 7 days

What makes BambooHR a good alternative to 15five: 

Being a complete solution for employee management, BambooHR provides a broader set of functionalities that will also help HR teams manage payroll and benefits.

#4. ThriveSparrow

Type: Employee success platform

Description:

ThriveSparrow is a platform that empowers employee success. From understanding the employee experience, driving greater engagement, and boosting performance to celebrating achievements, ThriveSparrow delivers a comprehensive toolset to help you build a thriving workplace.

Key features:

• Recognition and rewards
• Engagement surveys
• 360 feedback
• Analytics

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Coming Soon
• Goals & OKRs: Coming Soon
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: No
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Coming Soon

AI-features:

• Sentiment analysis, 
• AI-based personal development plans

Free trial: 14 days.

What makes ThriveSparrow a good alternative to 15five: 

Similarly to 15five, ThriveSparrow provides robust engagement, recognition, and feedback tools enhanced by AI for sentiment analysis and personal development plans.

#5. Qualtrics

Type: Experience management software

Description:

Qualtrics is quite a unique 15five alternative in that it is an enormous platform for managing experience—customers, employees, and overall business strategy. Personally, I like to think of Qualtrics as three massive all-in-one platforms. 

But of course, for the purpose of this research, I’m focusing on the employee experience part of the platform. And needless to say, Qualtrics offers an impressive feature set always to know what your employees feel and think or what experience they have when working for you and how to improve that even further.

Key features:

• Employee Experience Management
• Product Experience Management
• Brand Experience Management
• Research Services
• Analytics and Reporting
• Survey and Feedback Tools

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: Yes
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-driven insights and recommendations
• Sentiment analysis
• Predictive intelligence
• Automated feedback categorization

Free trial: Free account available

What makes Qualtrics a good alternative to 15five:

Qualtrics focuses on experience management. From the HR point of view, it provides all the features to understand and know how to improve employee experience. What’s more, the tool uses AI to provide deep insights and actionable recommendations, making it an ideal choice for organizations aiming to enhance customer and employee experiences effectively.

#6. CultureAmp

Type: Employee experience platform

Description:

CultureAmp also focuses exclusively on improving employee experience and engagement: From uncovering what your employees think about the workplace, digging deeper into their overall experience, planning their development, evaluating performance, and more.

Key features:

• Employee Engagement Surveys
• Performance Management Tools
• Employee Development Plans
• Analytics and Reporting
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives
• Customizable Feedback Tools
• Benchmarks and Insights

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: Yes
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-powered analytics
• Sentiment analysis
• Turnover prediction

Free trial: Not specified

What makes CultureAmp a good alternative to 15five:

Just like 15five, CultureAmp is an incredible solution to uncover insights about your employee experience and understand how to drive meaningful action to improve it further. 

#7. Workday

Type: Human Capital Management Platform

Description:

Workday is an alternative to 15five if you’re looking to combine HR and finance together to raise the bar for employee experience in your business. It’s the tool to use to empower employees to do their jobs better, manage all aspects of their experience when working with you, and more. 

Key features:

• Human Resource Management
• Talent Management
• Payroll and Workforce Management
• Compensation Management
• Employee Experience Tools
• Analytics and Reporting

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: No
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-driven insights
• Sentiment analysis
• Predictive intelligence
• Automated feedback categorization

Free trial: Not specified

What makes Workday a good alternative to 15five:

Workday expands the usual set of HR and employee experience tools with capabilities to manage payroll and compensation.

#8. Betterworks

Type: Performance management platform

Description:

Betterworks focuses on simplifying employee performance management. It’s the platform for managers who want to use data and insights to become more effective, drive positive change in employees, boost engagement, and move the needle for their companies.

Key features:

• Goals
• Conversations
• 1:1 Meetings
• Feedback
• Employee Engagement
• Calibration
• Analytics and Insights

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: Yes
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-powered performance management
• Data-driven talent decisions
• Automated feedback categorization

Free trial: Not specified

What makes Betterworks a good alternative to 15five:

Betterworks is a very similar tool to 15five, both in its core focus as well as features and capabilities, and because of that, it might serve as a solid alternative to 15five.

#9. Reflektive

Type: Performance management platform

Description:

The final 15five alternative on my list is Reflektive, a platform that helps companies engage with their employees, and in turn, discover the best ways to boost productivity, engagement, and retention.

Key features:

• Goals
• Reviews & Check-ins
• 1:1 Meetings
• Feedback
• Recognition
• Surveys
• Performance and Talent Calibration
• People Analytics

Features similar to 15five:

• Performance reviews: Yes
• Goals & OKRs: Yes
• Engagement Surveys: Yes
• Anonymous Feedback: No
• Employee Feedback and Praise: Yes
• 1:1 Meetings: Yes

AI-features:

• AI-driven analytics
• Natural language processing for feedback
• Automated performance insights

Free trial: Not specified

What makes Reflektive a good alternative to 15five:

Reflektive provides a robust platform for performance management with continuous feedback and AI-driven insights, ideal for boosting productivity and engagement.

And that’s it…

These are the best alternatives to 15five that can either replace the entire platform or its core capabilities. 

All that’s left for you is to review them, see which ones suit your needs the most, and start testing them out. 

Good luck!