European Alternatives to 15Five

Why people leave 15Five

15Five is a San Francisco performance management company, and its contract is with 15Five, Inc. It sells three plans, Engage for surveys, Perform for reviews, goals and 1:1s, and a Total Platform plan that adds manager training.

It also has an AI layer: a coach called Kona, an insights dashboard and a connector that lets an outside AI assistant query performance data. For a company that wants manager check-ins and review cycles in one place, it is a reasonable product with a clear price list.

The reasons to look elsewhere are mostly about the data and the contract rather than the features. A performance system holds ratings, written manager opinions, goals, career plans and, with the compensation module, pay decisions. That is personnel data of the most sensitive kind, and under the 15Five terms any dispute about it goes to the courts of San Francisco County under California law. The privacy policy says personal data may be transferred to and stored in the United States.

None of that makes 15Five unusable in Europe. The company says it will sign a data processing agreement with standard contractual clauses on request. But a works council, a data protection officer or a German or Dutch HR director often asks for a European counterparty instead of a transfer mechanism, and the tools below are built for that conversation.

• The contract is Californian The 15Five terms state that you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in San Francisco County and that California law governs any claim, without regard to conflict of law rules. If a dispute over review data ever arises, a European customer litigates on another continent. Leapsome, Small Improvements and Perdoo contract under German law, with courts or arbitration in Berlin.
• Data may be stored in the United States The privacy policy allows personal information to be transferred to and stored in the United States, the United Kingdom or wherever a customer or user is. For EU customers 15Five offers a DPA and standard contractual clauses on request. That works legally, but it leaves a transfer assessment on your desk, which Perdoo (AWS Frankfurt, named in its DPA) or Lucca (OVHcloud in France and Germany) avoid.
• Three plans, priced per user, in dollars Engage costs $4, Perform $11 and Total Platform $16 per user per month on annual billing. Surveys and reviews are sold separately, so a company that wants both pays $15 or moves to the $16 plan. Small Improvements lists $3, $6 and $9, and Perdoo lists EUR 6.40 and EUR 8.00 with a free plan for five users.
• Compensation and AI features add more data flows The 15Five menu lists a compensation product that ties pay to performance data, plus an AI coach, AI-assisted reviews and a connector for external AI tools. Each of those is a further processing purpose to describe in your records of processing. Teams that only need reviews and 1:1s can pick a tool with a smaller footprint.

What you have to replace, not just match

Moving off 15Five means replacing a cycle, not a feature list. The Perform plan holds AI-assisted reviews, OKRs and goals, 360 feedback, a talent matrix and career paths, and the platform is used by managers weekly. Before you shortlist, write down which of those you actually ran in the last twelve months. A company that only runs one annual review and quarterly goals needs far less than the full platform, and that changes which of the European tools fits.

The second thing to replace is the survey side. Engage is a separate plan with engagement surveys, targeted assessments, action planning, heat maps and benchmarking. Leapsome, Small Improvements, Perdoo and Dialog include pulse or engagement surveys, but benchmarking against other companies is a data asset that a smaller vendor may not match. Ask each vendor what comparison data you would get, and over what sample.

Finally list the connections. 15Five lists HRIS integrations and Slack or SMS notifications, so employee records and reminders flow from other systems. Whatever you pick has to take over the same sync from your HR system, or the review cycle will start with stale reporting lines. If the European tool is part of an HR suite such as Lucca, Factorial or Bizneo HR, that sync disappears, because the employee record is already there.

The alternatives compared

How each alternative compares to 15Five

What actually breaks when you switch

The practical problem is history. A year or two of 15Five review text, goals and 1:1 notes is the evidence base for promotions and for any later employment dispute, so export it before the contract ends and store it under your own retention rules.

Check with the vendor which formats are available and whether closed review cycles can be exported at all. Do not assume a new tool will import them; most will start with an empty history, which means managers lose context in the first cycle.

The second break is training and timing. Managers who have used one weekly check-in format will push back on a new interface, so switch between cycles, not during one. Annual contracts on both sides can leave you paying twice for months, so put the cut-over date next to the 15Five renewal date in your calendar. Also re-point integrations: the HR system feed, Slack reminders and any survey calendar need to be rebuilt in the new tool before the first campaign.

Can we keep using 15Five legally in the EU?

Probably yes. 15Five says it signs a data processing agreement and standard contractual clauses for customers in the EU, Switzerland and the UK. That gives a legal basis for the transfer, and many European companies run on it. What it does not change is the contract venue, which stays California, or the fact that review data may sit in the United States.

The practical question is who has to sign off. A works council or a data protection officer can accept the transfer, but you will document the assessment and revisit it when transfer rules change. If that work is the reason you are reading this page, a vendor that contracts in the EU or UK removes it rather than managing it.

Which tool replaces 15Five with the least change for managers?

Leapsome is the nearest match: reviews, 360 feedback, goals and OKRs, 1:1 meetings and engagement surveys, plus compensation and learning modules that 15Five also touches. Managers who use 15Five for weekly check-ins and 1:1 agendas will recognise the pattern, and the Berlin vendor sells it as modules with per-employee prices.

Small Improvements is the lighter choice if your managers mainly want review cycles, 360s, objectives and 1:1s without a large module list. Dialog fits where continuous feedback and manager coaching are the point, and it comes with Visma integrations if your payroll already runs there.

Which one to pick

If you want the same scope under a European contract, choose Leapsome, and use Small Improvements if the scope is just reviews, 360s and 1:1s and you have between 50 and 750 people. Choose Dialog if your payroll already runs on Visma and coaching conversations matter more than review forms. Choose Perdoo if goals and OKRs are what you actually manage, particularly for a team of up to five that can start free.

If performance is one feature of a bigger HR change, pick the suite whose other modules you need: Lucca for French infrastructure, Cezanne HR for certified UK hosting, Bizneo HR or Factorial for Spanish suites, Sesame HR if time recording comes first, and CharlieHR for a small team on flat pricing. Stay with 15Five if its benchmarking and AI features are why you chose it, and your data protection officer has accepted the DPA and standard contractual clauses.