Modern performance management systems do more than record annual manager/employee reviews. They include 360-degree feedback, intermittent check-ins, goal setting and management, and more.
To find the best performance management systems, we evaluated over a dozen solutions and narrowed the list down to our top five recommendations:
- AssessTEAM: Best overall performance management software for small companies
- PerformYard: Best for ease of use
- Lattice: Best for performance-based compensation planning
- Zoho People: Best for growing HR responsibilities
- BambooHR: Best for HR integrations
I have over 5 years of experience evaluating payroll and HR software for Fit Small Business and 10 years of experience in human resources and handling HR systems. As a result, I am deeply familiar with the needs of business owners and the HR solutions available on the market.
See our full methodology below.
- Strict, unbiased editorial policy
- Evaluated alongside 17 performance management solutions across 22 data points
- Regularly updated and fact-checked
Performance management is the process by which a supervisor or manager monitors, evaluates, and improves an employee’s work. It includes communicating responsibilities and expectations, setting goals, and providing feedback.
Need to know more? Check out our guide: What Is Performance Management?
Best Performance Management Software Compared
Our Score (Out of 5) | Monthly Pricing ($/User) | Plan Requirements | Performance Review Tools in Base Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 4.53 | $3-$5 (for up to 500 users) | None | ✓ |
 | 4.27 | $5-$10 | ✓ | |
 | 4.13 | Billed annually; plan cost of at least $4,000 per year | ✓ | |
 | 4.09 | At least five users | Upgrade to the Premium plan ($3.50 per user monthly) | |
 | 4.01 | None | Upgrade to the Advantage plan | |
All the performance management systems we reviewed offer performance review templates, automated reminders, goals tracking, 360-degree feedback, and software integration options. Reporting and analytics tools are also available, enabling you to gain insight into your workers’ performance and identify employees with development needs.
AssessTEAM: Best Overall Performance Management Software
Pros
- Customizable evaluation tools, feedback templates, workflows, and performance ratings
- Free support includes HR advisers and guided system rollout
- Has a library of pre-configured key performance indicators
Cons
- Analytics and reporting options aren’t robust
- Lacks a nine-box matrix for assessing high/low performers
Overview
Who should use it:
We find AssessTEAM is best overall because it supports any small business that wants to conduct employee reviews with a huge range of features at a competitive price. AssessTEAM offers online tools that assess new hires during their probation period, allow 360-degree feedback, and let you evaluate projects as well as people. It also offers free implementation support and has HR advisers on hand to help you with evaluation strategies.
Why we like it:
AssessTEAM makes conducting performance reviews easy with its customizable review templates and rating scales. It has affordable plans (monthly fees start at $3 per user) and doesn’t have plan requirements like Lattice, Zoho People, and PerformYard do. However, report customization is limited and it has a bit of a learning curve. For a more user-friendly platform, consider either PerformYard or BambooHR.
Plan requirements: None
For businesses with up to 500 employees
- Basic: $3 per user monthly
- Includes 360-degree evaluations, continuous feedback, evaluation forms, goal setting for individuals and teams, software integrations, reporting tools, a library of key results areas (KRAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for employees, and mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.
- Premium: $4 per user monthly
- Basic + project time tracking and project performance evaluation by managers and peers
- Enterprise: $5 per user monthly
- Premium + project profitability computations, project time and cost budgeting with configurable risk alerts, individual productivity analysis, and team profitability analysis.
For businesses with over 500 employees: Call for a quote
Discounts: 20% off if you commit to an annual plan (yearly fee is paid as a lump sum and upfront)
With AssessTEAM, you can schedule performance reviews and choose whether peer, upward, or downward evaluations are needed. (Source: AssessTEAM)
- Multilanguage platform supports over 50 languages (more than the others on our list).
- Run employee evaluations weekly or monthly, after new hire onboarding (eg., 30-, 60- and 90-day check-ins), for projects, or for any other reason or time frame.
- Create evaluation forms with your own results areas based on job responsibilities or goals. You can also choose results areas from over 3,000 pre-configured employee KPIs to build custom evaluations for specific positions.
- Employees and managers can electronically sign performance review forms (the other providers on our list, except BambooHR and Zoho People, don’t have this feature).
- Set project goals and assign values to the project and the people working on it. Then, the software will analyze its success versus the effort and expense put into the project to measure its success concretely.
- Access to online timesheets where employees can input their time ins/outs while working on company or client projects.
PerformYard: Best for Ease of Use
Pros
- Intuitive dashboard
- Customizable forms and reports
- Allows feedback from individuals or stakeholders outside your organization
- Dedicated customer support
Cons
- Pricing is transparent but you still need to call for a quote to get actual fees for your plan
- Lacks a mobile app
- Has plan requirements (annual billing and minimum pricing)
Overview
Who should use it:
PerformYard is not the highest-ranked employee performance management software on our list but is one of the highest-rated by real-world users (earning an average score of 4.8 out of 5 on G2 and Capterra, as of this writing), mainly due to its intuitiveness and overall ease of use. Its platform is simple to learn, highly customizable, and intuitive, with features that are easy to navigate.
Why we like it:
With PerformYard, you get essential tools for running regular performance reviews, peer evaluations, and informal check-ins. Its nine-box matrix for ranking employees makes it easy to find high performers and potential leaders. However, while its fees are generally reasonable, users have to sign up for an annual plan and meet a minimum cost requirement (pricing is undisclosed, so you have to call the provider to get more details). This is unlike AssessTEAM and BambooHR, which don’t have plan minimums.
Plan requirements: Plans are billed annually; minimum pricing applies (call to get pricing details)
Plan
- Performance management: $5-$10 per user monthly
- PerformYard has transparent pricing, but you still need to request a quote. Pricing can vary depending on the number of employees you have.
- Includes goal management, continuous feedback, 360-degree reviews, custom questions, nine-box grids, reporting and analytics, setup and implementation help, and dedicated support
Add-on
- Employee engagement: $1-$3 per user monthly
- Includes anonymous surveys, an employee engagement trends dashboard, and employer net promoter score (eNPS) tracking to help you measure worker satisfaction
Discounts: Discounted rates available for enterprises (call for a quote)
PerformYard allows you to create custom evaluation forms and review timelines. (Source: PerformYard)
- PerformYard incorporates feedback from reports, managers, self-assessments, and peer reviews—even people outside your organization.
- Develop your own review forms and cycles from its list of templates and sample questions.
- Build and monitor employee performance improvement plans (PIP) via a secure dashboard that lets applicable workers track progress and share feedback. This streamlines the process of managing and creating a PIP to help an underperforming employee succeed at work.
- PerformYard stores performance histories and allows you to filter your performance data to create custom reports, find trends, compare departments, and add employee performance data to a nine-box talent assessment tool.
- It assigns a dedicated customer support specialist (the other providers on our list don’t offer this) to its clients and even provides free system setup and new user training—services that cost extra with BambooHR.
Lattice: Best for Performance-based Compensation Planning
Pros
- Customizable review cycles, templates, and goal weighting tools
- Offers employee development solutions, such as career tracks, competency matrices, and development analytics
- Compensation module includes market benchmarking data
Cons
- Can get pricey depending on the modules/features you want
- All plans are billed annually and require a minimum annual contract of $4,000
- Has a bit of a learning curve
Overview
Who should use it:
Lattice may be one of the most expensive solutions on our list of best performance systems for small business owners, but it makes monitoring goals, business objectives and key results (OKRs), and work performance easier for users. It offers customizable templates, 360-degree and continuous feedback, and even employee development tools under its Grow module. Best of all, Lattice has a compensation solution, enabling you to plan performance-based merit increases and bonus payouts to reward eligible employees.
Why we like it:
Lattice has customizable performance review solutions that can adapt to your business needs. It can handle employee evaluations and project-based reviews and even lets employees create individual development plans to help support their professional development roadmap to improve their work skills and competencies.
However, its platform isn’t as easy to learn and use as PerformYard or BambooHR. Plus, Lattice isn’t a good option for budget-constrained businesses because it requires an annual contract of at least $4,000. AssessTEAM is a better option if you want an affordable performance management solution without any plan minimums.
Plan requirements: Plans are billed annually; minimum annual agreement of $4,000
Plan
- Performance management + OKRs and goals: $11 per user monthly
- Both modules are also available as standalone solutions, each costing $8 per user monthly
- Includes 360-degree and peer performance reviews, custom question templates, competency-based review questions, goals and OKRs tracking, customizable goal weighing, real-time feedback, employee praise and recognition, and progress-tracking integration with JIRA and Salesforce
Add-ons
- Engagement: $4 per user monthly
- Includes employee engagement and eNPS surveys, research-backed question bank and survey templates, automated pulse surveys, and reporting/analytics
- Grow: $4 per user monthly
- Includes competency matrices, competency-based review questions, and employee development and career pathing tools
- Compensation: $6 per user monthly
- Includes compensation reviews, pay cycle progress tracking, access to benchmarking data, and manager/supervisor approvals
Discounts: Special enterprise pricing available for multi-product and volume purchases (call for a quote)
With Lattice, you can integrate OKRs into performance reviews to create alignment and drive goal achievement against business priorities. (Source: Lattice)
- Customizable review cycles, templates, and question options, allowing you to run performance evaluations based on your business’ needs.
- Create development assessment forms based on a competency matrix to help workers understand what they need to do to grow in their current position and advance in their chosen career path.
- Online tool for recognizing and praising employees for work achievements.
- Compensation module allows you to access employee performance data to plan your company’s merit, promotion, and bonus budgets.
- Access to benchmarking data if you want to compare your compensation plan with market rates (the other providers we reviewed don’t have this feature).
- Aside from a nine-box evaluation tool to help you identify low- and high-performing employees, Lattice has career tracks, development analytics, and individual development plans that you and your employees can use.
Zoho People: Best for Growing HR Responsibilities
Pros
- Multilanguage support
- Feature-rich HR software with a wide range of solutions—from hiring to time tracking and learning management
- Inexpensive for the toolset
Cons
- Need at least the Premium plan for performance management
- Email assistance is free; 24/5 phone support available only in paid support plans
- Requires at least five users
Overview
Who should use it:
Zoho People has a terrific set of performance management tools and offers more HR tools than the other providers (except BambooHR) on our list. It’s even on our buyer’s guides for the best HR software and best HR information system (HRIS) because of its versatility and solid HR features. Thus, if you’re a small business that is growing your HR department or looking to add software to help automate HR processes, Zoho People is worth considering.
Why we like it:
Zoho People’s price point is excellent, especially for the rich feature set it offers. Its HR tools cover a wide range of employee management functions, from hiring to paying and developing workers. However, if you don’t need all the HR functions, you may find it too complex for your needs. It also has a slightly high learning curve, and you’ll have to pay extra if you want phone support. AssessTEAM is the best performance management software if you need an affordable solution.
Plan requirements: At least five users are required for all plans and add-on modules
Plans
- Free: $0 for up to five users
- Includes time off and employee information management tools
- Essential HR: $1.50 per user monthly
- Free + onboarding, workforce and document management, multi-level approvals, reports, and access to Zia, Zoho’s artificial intelligence tool and HR chatbot
- Professional: $2.50 per user monthly
- Essential HR + time tracking, shift and job scheduling, timesheet management, and integration with billing and invoicing solutions
- Premium: $3.50 per user monthly
- Professional + performance reviews, goals and KRAs tracking, 360-degree feedback, nine-box matrix, employee engagement tools, and access to a skills set matrix to help you and your employees track work skills proficiency
- Enterprise: $5 per user monthly
- Premium + training course management, self and blended learning sessions, course feedback, employee query management, and a discussion forum
- People Plus: $10 per user monthly
- Enterprise + expense management, talent acquisition, collaboration tools, and software password management
Add-ons
- Employee Profiles: Starts at 23 cents per user monthly; pricing varies according to chosen plan
- Zoho Recruit: $60 per recruiter monthly
- Learning Management: $2 per user monthly
- Premium Support: $114 per month or a minimum of $1,128 per year or 20% of the recurring license fee, whichever is higher
- Enterprise Support: 25% of the recurring license fee
Discounts: Annual paid plans have discounted pricing but require full payment of all fees in advance
Zoho has a bright interface with a complex toolset. (Source: Zoho People)
- Like others on our list, Zoho lets you schedule regular appraisals, set key result areas (KRAs) and goals, and allows for 360-degree reviews including from multiple raters.
- Zoho People allows you to tag specific skills for jobs and lets employees tag themselves for specific skills. This is a great tool when building a team for a project.
- Create competencies and skill sets for positions so employees know the capabilities and skills needed to perform specific jobs. These can also be mapped to employees to assess their work performance.
BambooHR: Best for HR Tools Integration
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Offers a seven-day free trial
- Feature-rich HR platform; has applicant tracking, onboarding, surveys, payroll, and time tracking tools
- Customizable performance review cycles with automated reminders
Cons
- Non-transparent pricing; you have to call the provider to request a quote
- Can get pricey as you add more features
- Performance management is not included in the starter plan
- Implementation can take four to six weeks, depending on the employee count
Overview
Who should use it:
BambooHR capitalizes on its user-friendly platform by providing a straightforward yet engaging performance management tool. It lets you create and track employee work goals using automated notifications, reminders, and built-in reporting tools. It’s best for organizations already using other HR solutions as it integrates easily with popular payroll, applicant tracking, time tracking, and learning management tools. AssessTEAM can connect to 200+ apps, but it has limited support for HR apps.
Why we like it:
Similar to Zoho People, BambooHR offers a wide range of HR functionalities for managing the entire employee lifecycle. While you need to upgrade to its Advantage plan to access performance management features, you can negotiate for better rates depending on the size of your workforce. Plus, BambooHR automatically applies volume discounts as your employee count rises. However, if you already have an HR software and only need easy-to-use performance review tools, PerformYard is a good option.
Plan requirements: None
Plans
- Essentials: Call for a quote
- Includes hiring, onboarding, employee data management, time off management, benefits tracking, software integrations, and reporting tools
- Advantage: $8.75 per employee monthly for businesses with 20 employees*
- Essentials + performance management, engagement surveys, and employee community tools for sharing company updates and events
Add-ons
- Time tracking: Call for a quote
- Payroll: Call for a quote
- Benefits administration: Call for a quote
Discounts: Volume discounts based on headcount; discounts for bundled products (HR, benefits, and payroll modules in one bundle); additional 15% off for registered non-profits
*Pricing is based on a quote we received
BambooHR’s user-friendly interface lets you access performance management tools easily. (Source: BambooHR)
- Run double-blind assessments, wherein the system hides all identifiable information from review forms so you and your managers can rate employees without bias (the other providers we reviewed don’t offer this).
- Easily customizable review cycles so you can provide feedback to employees on a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly basis.
- Create custom performance evaluations for specific groups, allowing different teams in your business to measure accomplishments and growth differently.
How to Choose the Best Performance Management Software
In choosing the right solution to handle your company’s performance tracking needs, consider the following factors:
- Size of your workforce
- Your budget (note that performance management software can cost anywhere from $3 to more than $10 per user monthly)
- Essential performance management features, such as goal setting, customizable evaluation templates, automated reminders, reporting tools, and various feedback options (peer, manager, and 360-degree)
- Ease of use
- Integration with HR solutions (such as payroll)
- Support services (such as 24/7 assistance and dedicated support)
Methodology: How We Evaluated the Best Performance Management Systems
For this guide, we considered over a dozen different systems, most of which are not part of a full HR system. We looked for features to help users conduct performance reviews, manage employee goals, keep track of manager and peer feedback, and provide actionable reports. Lastly, we checked pricing, ease of use, integration options with HR systems, customer support, and feedback from actual users.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria.
25% of Overall Score
Many performance management and HR systems require quotes or annual minimums. We considered those aspects as well as the per-employee price and the availability of a free plan.
40% of Overall Score
We looked at the breadth of tools, from online evaluation forms and goal tracking to 360-degree feedback and mobile app functionality. We also checked if the software offer unique features, such as nine-box assessments, review scheduling, and an e-signature solution.
10% of Overall Score
This looks at real-world user feedback found on third-party review sites like Capterra and G2. We considered not only the overall score but also how many people gave reviews.
10% of Overall Score
Preference was given to software with built-in basic performance reporting tools, analytics, and form/report customization options.
15% of Overall Score
We considered interface, customer support, online guides, HR software integration options, and learning curve when compiling this score.
Best Performance Management Systems Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Performance management software helps monitor employee performance in a consistent and measurable way. It’s designed to be collaborative—with employees and managers working together in setting expectations, identifying goals, and defining performance measurement. It also allows users to share performance reviews and provide feedback.
Performance management systems come with several benefits—these help organizations to track continuous feedback, work goals, and employee performance. Most performance management software also come with analytics solutions for assessing your company’s high/low performers and recognition tools to praise workers for their achievements.
Any organization that has employees, big or small, regardless of industry, should use performance management software.
The short answer is yes. Aside from improving workplace productivity, supporting better employee engagement, and reducing turnover, a performance management system can also give valuable insights that will help support human resource management decisions.
Bottom Line
Gone are the days of the annual performance report. Performance management has grown to include goal setting, frequent feedback, and peer evaluation. The best performance management software works with these changes, providing you with options for developing programs that help in employee management and molding workers into the best they can be.
For a standalone performance management system, we rated AssessTEAM as the top software. It has the goal-setting and performance review features you need not only to assess teams and new employees during their probation period but also to evaluate projects.
Sign up for an AssessTEAM plan today.