HR AI Index
Index › Performance and talent management › September 2026 Edition

Performance management

Asked as “performance management software”, and as “performance review tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Lattice
Clear leader
41% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessEffy AI19%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketLattice41%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseWorkday32%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Lattice41%12%51endorsed leader
02PerformYard9%7%28accepted challenger
0315Five7%6%47accepted challenger
04HiBob7%0%23accepted challenger
05Small Improvements7%9%11accepted challenger
06Betterworks4%10%31accepted challenger
07Leapsome2%6%31accepted challenger
08Culture Amp2%10%21accepted challenger
09Teamflect2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14SAP SuccessFactors0%67%12criticized challenger
13Workday0%48%23criticized challenger
12BambooHR0%30%33criticized challenger
11Rippling0%13%15accepted challenger
10Profit.co0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Lattice vs PerformYardLattice vs 15FivePerformYard vs 15Five

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Lattice41%
02PerformYard9%
0315Five7%
04HiBob7%
05Small Improvements7%
06Betterworks4%
07Leapsome2%
08Culture Amp2%
09Teamflect2%
10Profit.co0%
11Rippling0%
12BambooHR0%
13Workday0%
14SAP SuccessFactors0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
BambooHR
30%
10 of 33 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Reviews frequently cite "limited features"... Verdict: Avoid if you need actionable data, detailed analytics, or a flexible review process.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Workday
48%
11 of 23 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“(Avoid enterprise monsters like Workday Performance unless you are already fully committed to the broader Workday ecosystem, as they are often too rigid and expensive” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
Lattice
12%
6 of 51 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Watch Out For: Minimum seat requirements (e.g., Lattice requires $4,000/year minimum)” Kimi K2, budget prompt
SAP SuccessFactors
67%
8 of 12 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Steep learning curve, poor UI, rigid customization | Non-technical HR teams. Avoid unless you have consultants on retainer.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 810 links across 184 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

forbes.com
41 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
betterworks.com
vendor site · Betterworks31 answers · 45 citations · 11 models
okrstool.com
vendor site · OKRs Tool26 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
learn.g2.com
25 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
g2.com
19 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
workhuman.com
vendor site · Workhuman19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People18 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
teamflect.com
vendor site · Teamflect17 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
hrtechsaas.com
vendor site · HRTechSaaS14 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner13 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
effy.ai
vendor site · Effy13 answers · 16 citations · 10 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-performance-management-software
38 answers · 10 models
okrstool.com/blog/performance-management-software
26 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-performance-management-software
24 answers · 9 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/performance-management-software
23 answers · 10 models
betterworks.com/magazine/best-performance-evaluation-software
20 answers · 10 models
betterworks.com/magazine/best-performance-management-software
17 answers · 8 models
workhuman.com/blog/best-performance-management-software
17 answers · 9 models
teamflect.com/blog/hr-tech/best-performance-review-software
14 answers · 9 models
hrtechsaas.com/blog/best-performance-management-software-mid-market
13 answers · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/performance-management-tools
13 answers · 6 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best performance management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which performance review tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top performance management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best performance management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a performance management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which performance management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, HiBob, Leapsome, PerformYard
HiBobChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, Namely, ThriveSparrow
no first choice
Eight alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Lattice, Leapsome, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PerformYard, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Zoho People
Three alternativesEffy AI, Small Improvements, Teamflect
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, ThriveSparrow
GPT-5.4 miniLattice
One alternativeMitratech Perform
15FiveChanged
Two alternativesCulture Amp, PerformYard
no first choicePerform
One alternativePerformYard
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashLattice
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, HiBob, Leapsome
against: SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayLatticeHeld
Five alternatives15Five, HiBob, Leapsome, Rippling, Teamflect
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard, Teamflect
Teamflect
Five alternatives15Five, EvalFlow, Odoo, PerformYard, Sentrifugo
against: Culture Amp, Lattice15Five, Culture Amp, Lattice, Leapsome, PerformYardagainst: Workdayagainst: Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Perplexity SonarLattice
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, HiBob, Leapsome
LatticeHeld
Four alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, PerformYard
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Leapsome, PerformYard, Workday
Effy AI
Three alternativesProfit.co, Small Improvements, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: 15Five, BambooHR, Lattice, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Grok 4.1 FastLattice
Four alternatives15Five, HiBob, Leapsome, Paylocity
against: Workday15FiveChanged
Four alternativesLattice, Leapsome, PerformYard, ThriveSparrow
no first choiceAssessTEAM, Performance Pro
Three alternativesSmall Improvements, WebHR, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, UKG Pro, Workday
Mistral SmallLattice
Two alternatives15Five, Culture Amp
PerformYardChanged
Two alternativesBetterworks, Trakstar
no first choiceSmall Improvements
Three alternatives15Five, Effy AI, Trakstar
no first choiceagainst: Culture Amp, HelloTeam, Namely, Reflektive
DeepSeek V4 FlashLattice
Five alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard
LatticeHeld
Five alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Culture Amp, HiBob, Leapsome
Lattice
Seven alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Culture Amp, HiBob, Leapsome, Rippling
Effy AI
Three alternativesPerformYard, Small Improvements, WebHR
against: BambooHRLattice
Two alternatives15Five, Betterworks
against: SAP, Workdayagainst: AssessTEAM, BambooHR, Cornerstone OnDemand, Gusto, Keka, Lattice, Leapsome, Mitratech Perform, PerformYard, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickBetterworks, HiBob, LatticeHiBobChanged
Three alternativesBetterworks, Engagedly, Trakstar
no first choiceSmall Improvements
Two alternativesTrakstar, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: 15Five, Lattice, Leapsome, PerformYard
Qwen 3.7 FlashLattice
Three alternatives15Five, Betterworks, HiBob
BetterworksChanged
Three alternativesHiBob, Lattice, Trakstar
Lattice
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
against: BambooHRSmall Improvements
Four alternativesAssessTEAM, Effy AI, Profit.co, Zoho People
no first choice
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Divalent, Lattice
against: SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: BambooHR, Betterworks, Gusto, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors
Kimi K2Lattice
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard
PerformYardChanged
Two alternatives15Five, Lattice
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Culture Amp, Leapsome, Rippling, Workday
Effy AI
Five alternativesEvalFlow, OrangeHRM, Profit.co, Synergita PMS, Zoho People
against: Lattice, Small Improvementsno first choice
Three alternativesBetterworks, Lattice, PerformYard
against: 15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Lattice
GLM 4.7 FlashXLattice
Five alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, HiBob, Leapsome, Rippling
against: SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayLatticeHeld
Five alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Leapsome, Rippling, Teamflect
no first choiceEffy AI
Three alternativesPerformYard, Profit.co, Small Improvements
Lattice
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, ClearCompany, Leapsome
against: BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: BambooHR, Betterworks, Deel, Mitratech Perform
MiniMax M2.5Lattice
Two alternativesEngagedly, Paylocity
PerformYardChanged
One alternativeLattice
Lattice, ThriveSparrow
Two alternativesBetterworks, Rippling
Effy AI
Three alternativesBambooHR, Profit.co, Small Improvements
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:50yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:10yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes1956 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:08yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:18yes4018 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:13yes1511 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:37yes911 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:12yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:09yes1440 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:28yes1338 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:39yes1280 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:04yes517 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:55yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:15yes27 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:03yes850 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:35yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:16yes3215 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:27yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:23yes811 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:54yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:13yes524 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:34yes1018 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:10yes13354 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:30yes1530 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:01yes1611 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:20yes912 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:53yes1747 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:35yes2014 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:50yes3216 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:46yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:03yes1621 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:13yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:59yes1040 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:45yes1540 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:23yes959 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:39yes516 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:14yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:54yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:36yes2322 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:11yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:54yes4117 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:56yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:42yes811 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:12yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:28yes527 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:36yes1021 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:11yes1646 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:57yes923 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:55no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:44no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:00no014 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:18yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:05yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:10no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:50yes1017 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:25yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:32no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:38yes2537 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:11yes1455 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:04no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:47yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:27no03 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:46yes1821 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:26yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:14yes3620 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:07yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:00yes2571 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:35yes84 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:14yes944 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:53yes2329 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:01yes1832 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes1735 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Bob (HiBob) read as HiBob
Deel HR read as Deel
HiBob / Bob read as HiBob
HiBob HRIS read as HiBob
Odoo Appraisal read as Odoo
Oracle HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Workday HCM read as Workday
Workday Talent Management read as Workday
Unresolved, counted raw
HelloTeam
Perform
Synergita PMS
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in performance and talent management

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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