15Five is a Performance management / employee engagement platform by 15Five, Inc. This profile pulls together 15Five's ratings across the major review sites, its company and funding details, leadership, features, pricing, and the latest news, with every external source cited at the bottom.
About 15Five, Inc.
15Five is a performance management platform built around a weekly check-in format, layered with employee engagement surveys, OKRs, 360-degree feedback, formal performance reviews, and manager coaching tools. It was founded in 2011 in San Francisco by David Hassell, Shane Metcalf, and Nazar Ivaniv, and the name refers to its original premise: a weekly report employees could write in 15 minutes and managers could read in 5. The company has raised $94.1 million in venture funding across 9 rounds per Crunchbase (Tracxn shows a higher $98.1M figure), most recently a $52 million Series C in 2022 led by Quad Partners. 15Five says it serves more than 3,500 companies and roughly 400,000 to 450,000 users, including customers such as Credit Karma, HubSpot, and Pendo. David Hassell returned to the CEO role in July 2025 after a period as executive chairman, following leadership transitions that had put Jim Morrisroe and later Dr. Jeff Smith in the CEO seat.
| Category | Performance management / employee engagement platform |
| Company | 15Five, Inc. |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, US |
| Industry | Software Development · Performance management / HR technology |
| Team size | Roughly 290-310 per LinkedIn (Apr-Jun 2026 snapshots); ZoomInfo lists a broader 201-500 band |
| Ownership | Privately held, venture-backed |
| Founder / CEO | David Hassell, Shane Metcalf, and Nazar Ivaniv (co-founders, 2011) |
| Specialties | Performance management, employee engagement surveys, OKRs and goal tracking, 360-degree feedback, manager coaching, weekly check-ins, people analytics |
| Website | 15five.com |
Find 15Five on: Crunchbase · LinkedIn · G2 · Capterra · gartner.com
15Five ratings across the web
Aggregated from the major review platforms. Each links to the source.
Also rated: TrustRadius 7.9/10 (~96).
Rating breakdown
Per-category scores from Capterra 15Five (~895 reviews).
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What people say about 15Five
Our synthesis across Roughly 1,900 G2 reviews at 4.6/5 and roughly 895 Capterra reviews at 4.7/5, cross-checked against Gartner Peer Insights and TrustRadius. No fabricated quotes, this is the consistent pattern across reviews and third-party analyses.
Most praised
- The weekly check-in format is the most-cited strength; reviewers say it turns performance conversations into a habit instead of a once-a-year fire drill, and managers can scan a whole team's updates in minutes
- The 1-on-1 meeting workflow gets specific praise for keeping managers accountable to regular check-ins with direct reports, with templates that reduce prep time
- Customer support is repeatedly called out as responsive and helpful, both in implementation and ongoing use
- The Manager Effectiveness Indicator and AI-assisted insights are described as genuinely useful for surfacing which managers or teams need attention before problems become visible in attrition data
Most cited complaints
- The weekly check-in question format can feel repetitive over time, and reviewers on Gartner Peer Insights specifically flag question fatigue as a downside of the cadence-driven model
- The product depends on a team already having, or being willing to build, a weekly rhythm; teams running only formal annual or biannual reviews get less value from the core workflow
- OKR cascade and cross-team dependency linking are seen as shallower than pure-play OKR tools once an org goes past roughly 5-6 levels of hierarchy
- Add-on pricing for Kona AI coaching and manager content packages is seen by some reviewers as nickel-and-diming on top of an already-priced Perform tier
What we found testing it
What's great
- Published pricing with no minimums: Engage at $4/user/mo, Perform at $11, Total Platform at $16; the only major platform in this guide where the price a 50-person team pays is the same as the price a 500-person team pays
- Manager Effectiveness Indicator is a 15Five-specific metric that scores managers on how well their teams are performing and engaged; the first time a CEO sees it in a quarterly review, they typically ask to run it every month
- Kona AI coaching assistant ($19/mo per manager add-on) gives managers real-time nudges before 1-on-1s, pulling from survey data, performance notes, and goal progress in a single brief
Watch-outs
- Engagement survey library is solid but thinner than Culture Amp's; if you want benchmarking against 75M employee responses, 15Five doesn't have that depth
- The Perform tier at $11/user/mo is where most teams land, not the $4 Engage tier; 500-person team on Total Platform at $16 = $8,000/mo, which surprises budget owners used to the entry price
- No peer-to-peer recognition module in the base platform; recognition at 15Five is manager-directed through "Wins" and feedback features, not the peer-nominated kudos model Nectar or Bonusly deliver
15Five funding & ownership
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | $8.2M | Sep 2018 | Origin Ventures |
| Series B | $30.7M | Aug 2019 | Next47 |
| Series C | $52M | Jul 2022 | Quad Partners |
Low to moderate risk as a venture-backed private company rather than a public one. 15Five has raised roughly $94 million since 2011 per Crunchbase and reports more than 3,500 customers and several hundred thousand users, including named accounts like Credit Karma, HubSpot, and Pendo, which suggests durable revenue rather than a pre-product-market-fit startup. The main watch-item is leadership churn: the company cycled through three CEO changes between January 2024 and July 2025 before founder David Hassell returned to the role, which is unusual turnover for a company of this size and worth asking about directly in a sales process.
15Five features & integrations
Feature availability
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Anonymous | Yes |
| Free tier | no |
| Mobile app | ✓ iOS/Android |
| Pulse surveys | Yes |
| Recognition | ✓ Wins (manager-directed) |
Security & compliance
| Standard | Availability |
|---|---|
| GDPR | Yes |
| HIPAA | No dedicated HIPAA certification claimed; healthcare page cites SOC 2 and HITRUST instead |
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes (SOC 2) |
| SSO / SAML | Yes (SAML/OIDC SSO, available on Perform tier and above) |
Integrations: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Salesforce, Workday, BambooHR, ADP, and Rippling.
15Five leadership
15Five pricing
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Engage | $4/user/mo | Engagement surveys, eNPS, heat maps, action planning only |
| Perform | $11/user/mo | OKRs, 360 feedback, performance reviews, AI-assisted review drafting; most common entry point |
| Total Platform | $16/user/mo | Everything in Engage plus Perform, plus manager training microlearnings and HR dashboard |
| Kona Meeting Assistant add-on | $2/employee/mo | Real-time AI coaching prompts for managers during 1-on-1s |
| Compensation add-on | $9-11/user/mo | Compensation management layered on top of Perform or Total Platform |
The catch: 15Five publishes its pricing openly, which is unusual in this category. Engage-only surveys start at $4/user/mo, but most buyers land on the Perform tier at $11/user/mo because that is where OKRs, reviews, and 360 feedback actually live. The Total Platform tier at $16/user/mo adds manager training and an HR dashboard, and stacks with per-manager add-ons like Kona Coach ($19/manager/mo) and manager content ($49/manager/mo) that can add real cost for a manager-heavy org. There is no self-serve free trial; 15Five sells through a demo-first, sales-assisted process. Re-verify current pricing on 15Five's pricing page before budgeting, since add-on pricing changes more often than the core tiers.
15Five alternatives & where it appears
Head-to-head comparisons
Featured in our guides
Latest 15Five news
Auto-pulled from Google News, refreshed on each deploy. Headlines link to the source.
- 15Five Launches New AI Capabilities that Facilitate a Continuous Performance Management Feedback Loop - Business WireTue, 09 Jun 2026
- This HR leader knows the function is a ‘strategic growth engine’ - HR BrewThu, 20 Nov 2025
- The Tale Of Performance Management Tools: 15Five, Lattice, BetterWorks, And More… - Josh BersinTue, 27 Apr 2021
- HR Leaders, Meet Amaya, Your New Thought Partner - Business WireWed, 11 Feb 2026
- 10 Best Performance Management Software Of 2026 - ForbesWed, 18 Mar 2026
- 15Five snaps up employee engagement software firm Emplify for $50M - SiliconANGLETue, 27 Apr 2021
15Five FAQs
Does 15Five have a free tier or free trial?
No. 15Five does not publish a free tier or a self-serve free trial. The pricing page directs prospects to book a demo, so evaluating the product means going through a sales conversation rather than signing up directly.
How much does 15Five cost?
Published pricing starts at $4/user/mo for the Engage (surveys-only) tier, but most teams need the Perform tier at $11/user/mo for OKRs, reviews, and 360 feedback. The Total Platform tier is $16/user/mo, and add-ons like Kona AI coaching, manager content, and compensation management are priced separately on top.
Who founded 15Five and who runs it now?
15Five was founded in 2011 by David Hassell, Shane Metcalf, and Nazar Ivaniv in San Francisco. David Hassell returned to the CEO role in July 2025 after previously stepping back to executive chairman; the company had cycled through other CEOs, including Jim Morrisroe and Dr. Jeff Smith, in the prior two years.
Is 15Five SOC 2 and GDPR compliant?
Yes, 15Five states SOC 2 and GDPR compliance, and its healthcare-focused page cites SOC 2 and HITRUST certifications for that segment. 15Five does not make an explicit HIPAA-certified claim on its public pages, so healthcare buyers should confirm the current scope directly with 15Five before a regulated deployment.
Who is 15Five best for?
15Five fits companies, typically in the 50-500 employee range, that already run or want to build a weekly check-in rhythm between managers and employees, and want performance reviews and OKRs to grow out of that ongoing record rather than starting cold each cycle. Companies running only formal annual reviews without a weekly cadence, or large enterprises needing deep OKR cascade and calibration tooling, are often better served elsewhere.
Sources
Every external figure on this page traces to a public source, last collected on the dates shown.
- G2: 15Five reviews — rating approximately 4.6/5, roughly 1,900 reviews, read via search snippet (G2 blocks direct fetch) (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Capterra: 15Five reviews — rating 4.7/5, roughly 895 reviews, sub-scores and demographics via search snippet (Capterra blocks direct fetch) (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Gartner Peer Insights: 15Five (OKR Software) — rating approximately 4.4/5 across roughly 25 reviews (accessed August 1, 2026)
- TrustRadius: 15Five reviews — score approximately 7.9/10 across roughly 96 reviews (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Crunchbase: 15Five — 9 funding rounds totaling $94.1M (primary source; Tracxn cites a higher $98.1M figure) (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: Series C funding announcement — $52M Series C, July 2022, led by Quad Partners (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: Series B funding announcement — $30.7M Series B, Aug 2019, led by Next47, total capital $42.6M at the time (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: Series A funding announcement — $8.2M Series A, led by Origin Ventures (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: David Hassell returns as CEO — leadership transition, July 8 2025, Jim Morrisroe steps down (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: pricing page — current tier pricing and add-on pricing (accessed August 1, 2026)
- 15Five: healthcare/security page — SOC 2 and HITRUST certification claims, GDPR/PIPEDA reference, no explicit HIPAA claim (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Topickz: best-performance-management listicle — internal tested pros/cons/screenshot/pricing data for 15Five, captured May 2026 (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Topickz: best-okr-software listicle — internal tested pros/cons/compliance/integration flags for 15Five (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Topickz: best-employee-engagement-software listicle — internal tested pricing tiers and integration data for 15Five (accessed August 1, 2026)