Performance Reviews

What are the best performance review software options available, and how do you pick the right one?

Discover the best performance review software options available and use our free scorecard to choose the right tool for your team’s growth and engagement.

Fabien Pinel

10 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Use our free scorecard to decide.

The performance review process is crucial for understanding the results employees are achieving and determining the next steps to help them cultivate a performance mindset.

With AI technology entering almost every sphere of business, HR professionals have a unique opportunity to improve this process, providing modern teams with a platform that delivers accurate, data-driven, consistent, and easy-to-use performance metrics.

However, with numerous platforms promising to streamline or enhance your employee performance process, selecting the right one can feel like a daunting task.

We’ll help you cut through the noise by highlighting top-rated employee performance management software and providing you with a free scorecard that will help you evaluate your options side-by-side.

What should performance review software offer your business?

According to a report by SHRM, 95% of managers are unsatisfied with the current employee evaluation process. This leaves plenty of room for improvement, but a process overhaul with the same outdated tools will only get you so far.

95% of managers are unsatisfied with the current employee evaluation process

What you need is a solid process driven by a dynamic and highly customizable employee performance review software. Why? Because it's going to cut through all the time-consuming tasks required to track employee performance, and free you up to have awesome employee development discussions. Here are further benefits that you should get out of the software you choose:

Accurate, unbiased performance data.
Real-time data based on performance metrics that provide employees with continuous feedback.
AI data-driven insights into historical performance, and predictive analytics vs. organizational objectives.
Automate tedious tasks, reminders, and evaluations.
Ability to send out a 360-degree assessment and other evaluative surveys.

In a nutshell, the performance management program should simplify performance management by gathering important information and helping you keep your employees fully engaged.

Further helpful information: AI in Performance Management: Strategic Use, Not Hype

Common features of the best performance management tools?

Not all employee performance software is created equal. A handful of powerful performance management features can make significant improvements to your process, and if you’re going to go down this road, you should include these features:

Feature	Why it matters
Automated 360-degree feedback	It collects feedback from managers, peers, and direct reports on a cyclical basis, eliminating the need for HR to circulate surveys, collect them, and analyze the results.
Goal tracking	Every performance management system must have the ability to track and analyze performance data, providing both employees and managers with progress reports. These progress reports should be easily compiled and customizable. Real-time feedback not only allows for improvement but keeps employees engaged and focused on reaching their goals.
Automated workflows	Once you’ve set up the right performance review software, it should integrate seamlessly into your HR workflow. This eliminates the need for email reminders, manual review scheduling, and nudges for people to participate. For most HRs, this part of the process is soul-destroying and a waste of valuable time that should be plowed into improving the performance appraisal process
Customizable templates	A good rule of thumb when making your final decision is: If the HR software doesn’t work with your existing process, it’s not for you. Managers and HR don’t have the time to revamp processes because the templates offered by the software sound ‘foreign’ to their culture, terminology, and job roles.
Integration with existing HRIS	Nothing frustrates managers and employees more than having multiple systems that gather information, and yet they’re not integrated. The number of man-hours lost on retrieving and consolidating data from independent systems is a huge drain on resources, and one that should be avoided if possible.

Best performance review software options available: A shortlist

1. BuddiesHR

If HRs got together and designed a software that closed performance gaps and ran according to actual HR workflows, then the result would be Simpleperf by BuddiesHR. The system is simple to use and customize, allowing you to set up your first performance review in minutes. You stay in control with a lightweight process that works in favor of employee development with these key features:

Built for small teams without compromising on powerful features such as goal tracking, data analytics, and real-time performance tracking.
Smart scheduling and reminders ensure you’re always gathering key information at the right time and providing feedback to keep your employees engaged in their work.
Automates performance management process in a simple, but helpful way - even first-time managers love it.
Highly customizable, keeping up with the changing needs of your environment and giving the system an ‘in-house’ feel.
Automated 360-degree feedback that provides powerful insights into how your employees are performing. This greatly reduces performance review bias, which employees appreciate.

Go with Simpleperf from BuddiesHR if you want a simple yet powerful system that is highly customizable and helps automate your entire performance review process. Improve employment engagement quickly and keep your top talent motivated by having meaningful conversations about their progress, without burdensome processes. If you like the idea of setting up a system in minutes and getting started without a fuss, you’ll love BuddiesHR.

Yes, BuddiesHR sounds like what I need

2. Deel

Catering to the needs of SMBs, Deel offers a solid HR performance management software without unnecessary frills. Bringing everything together under one roof, it promises to help you build high-performing teams with half the work. To do this, they offer the following features:

Fair and meaningful 360-degree reviews that eliminate the need for scattered spreadsheets.
Customize settings, feedback types, questions, and reports.
Receive performance data in real-time with suggestions about employee growth opportunities.
Identify high-performing team members, spot toxic or troublesome culture issues, and improve employee engagement.
Connect performance with compensation data to reward and retain top performers.

Go with Deel if you are looking for long-term digitization of your entire HR process, but only need a performance review module for now.

3. Workleap

Tapping into performance management best practices, Workleap has found a way to automate the employee review process by bringing engagement, recognition, performance trends, and employee feedback into one connected flow. Run your performance review cycle seamlessly with these features:

Surface key trends, highlights and challenges with AI summaries of engagement.
Spot disengagement early with pulse surveys and address feedback with AI-supported recommendations.
Celebrate wins and keep spirits high with built-in recognition.
Consistently collect team information with a 360-degree performance review.
Customize performance criteria to align with business goals.
Intelligent performance summaries keep managers focused on the performance discussion, increasing employee satisfaction.
Automate notifications for self, peer, and manager review.
Share the review with others.

Go with Workleap if you are dreaming of streamlined, automated, measurable, and trackable review cycles that build your company's values while increasing employee engagement.

3. Lattice

Strongly focused on analytics as a way to enhance employee engagement, Lattice provides HRs and managers with a software that combines performance reviews and employee engagement surveys to provide a complete performance management picture. Company objectives are at the forefront of the system design, as well as a transparent process.

Flexible review cycles, 360° feedback, and goal setting—designed to fit your unique workflows.
Strong OKR integration enables you to directly tie individual performance to company priorities.
Real-time feedback, praise, and manager tools create a rhythm of ongoing development, rather than just annual check-ins.
Built-in analytics and calibration tools help remove bias and increase fairness in evaluation.
Scalable from startups to enterprises with seamless integrations and a clean user experience.

Go with Lattice if you want to avoid using multiple platforms to collect real-time performance data and receive multi-rater feedback consistently, while also maintaining a sharp focus on meeting company performance criteria.

📥 Performance review software: Free Scorecard

Criteria	Why should your performance review software have this?
Automation	Saves time by eliminating manual steps (e.g., reminders, approvals, deadline tracking) so HR and managers can focus on high-value tasks.
Customizable workflows	Let you design your ideal review process—annual, quarterly, project-based, or continuous—to match your team’s needs and structure.
Customizable templates	Ensures reviews reflect the right competencies, values, and job roles without needing to build from scratch each time.
Goal tracking and performance insights (individual and team)	Aligns employees with company goals and provides visibility into progress at both the individual and team levels.
Real-time performance progress	Allows managers and employees to view updates, goal status, and feedback instantly, promoting accountability and agility.
Automated feedback collection	Collects peer, upward, and 360-degree feedback through scheduled prompts, making the process consistent, inclusive, and timely.
Data analytics	Surface trends in performance, engagement, and skill gaps—helping HR teams make informed decisions around promotions, L&D, or restructuring.
Ease of use	A clean, intuitive interface ensures higher adoption among employees and managers, reducing the need for training or IT support.
Cost	Software should provide transparent pricing that aligns with your budget and team size, with no hidden fees for upgrades or admin access.
Support	Responsive customer support (via email, live chat, and onboarding help) makes setup smoother and keeps your team moving if something goes wrong.
Integrations	Should connect easily with tools like Slack, Gmail, HRIS, payroll, and goal-tracking software to avoid duplicate work and maintain data consistency.

👉 Download Performance Review Scorecard PDF

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buddieshr_performance_review_scorecard.pdf

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Performance review software: The future of employee engagement

It's time to throw out everything about your performance review process that doesn’t work and introduce cutting-edge AI technology to help you make this process work for you, finally!

It can’t come soon enough, and thanks to top-rated performance review software that’s easy to integrate into your existing systems, you can join the thousands of businesses that are turning performance management from being a powerless and annoying process into being a powerful and highly engaging one.

Top-rated software providers like BuddiesHR, Deel, Workleap, and Lattice are working tirelessly to support great businesses around the globe. Which one will you pick?