Head-to-head

CLEAR Talent vs 15Five

15Five is built around a weekly rhythm and better managers. CLEAR Talent is built around what a rating is made of. Which matters more depends on which problem you actually have.

See the Comparison Book a Tailored Demo

15Five’s design starts from a habit: a short weekly check-in, a regular 1-on-1, and managers trained to run both well. Goals, reviews and engagement hang off that rhythm. It is a coherent answer to a real problem — most performance processes are an annual event attached to nothing that happens in between.

CLEAR Talent starts somewhere else: with the standard people are assessed against, and the evidence behind each rating. It supports continuous feedback and check-ins between formal cycles, but the centre of gravity is the competency framework, the goal and KPI streams, and a review record that can be interrogated afterwards. If your managers already meet their people regularly and the problem is that ratings do not hold up, that is the difference that matters.

How 15Five describes itself

15Five positions itself around continuous performance and manager enablement: weekly check-ins, 1-on-1s, OKRs, performance reviews, engagement surveys, and manager coaching and training content. A substantial part of its value proposition is behavioural — building a cadence and developing managers — rather than purely functional. Packaging changes, so confirm what your quoted tier includes directly with 15Five.

The short answer

Which one fits the problem you actually have.

Most shortlists are decided by one requirement, not twenty. These are the requirements that point to CLEAR Talent, and the ones that point to 15Five.

Choose CLEAR Talent when

Competency assessment is the core requirement: behavioural indicators at every level, scales from three to seven points that can differ by job family, and role profiles carrying required competencies and target levels.
Ratings need evidence attached. Competency ratings can require written evidence, and self, assessor and final ratings are held separately with their own comments.
You need a composite rating whose parts stay visible — goals and KPIs as one stream, competencies as another, weighted per level.
The workforce is not desk-based or not English-first: 16 languages, native iOS and Android, offline support and push notifications.
Calibration, 9-box and succession are part of this purchase rather than a later phase.

Consider 15Five when

The real problem is manager capability. 15Five’s manager training and coaching content is a substantive part of what you are buying, and CLEAR Talent is not a course library.
Employee engagement surveys are in scope. CLEAR Talent has no survey product.
A weekly check-in habit is the outcome you want, and you would rather buy the cadence than build it.
Your competency model is intentionally light, and structured assessment against behavioural indicators would be more process than the organisation will absorb.

Capability comparison

What we do, and what to ask them.

Requirement by requirement, with the specific question that settles each one in a demo.

We can describe CLEAR Talent precisely, because we build it. We cannot describe another vendor’s current packaging with the same authority, and pretending otherwise would make this page useless to you. So the CLEAR Talent column states what the platform does today, and the other column gives you the question to put to them — never a claim about a gap.

CLEAR Talent and 15Five compared requirement by requirement
Requirement	CLEAR Talent	15FiveWhat to ask them
Performance depth
Organisation goals, OKRs and weighted KPIs	Strong / native Strategic Linked Goals cascades organisation objectives to team and individual level and requires every individual goal to connect to a parent, so orphaned goals cannot quietly accumulate. A KPI library holds reusable, role-aware metric templates with performance bands, weightings and guardrails.	Strong / native OKRs are a core 15Five capability. Ask how an individual objective is tied to a parent, whether that link can be enforced, and whether weighted KPIs with performance bands and guardrails can be modelled.
Review cycles and configuration	Strong / native Configurable self, manager, peer and multi-stage cycles, with configurable review templates and rating scales. Each stage carries its own deadline and automated reminders, quarterly and annual cadences can run side by side, and a closed period stays closed.	Strong / native Review cycles are part of the product. Ask to see your own cycle stages, templates and rating scale configured live, and confirm how quarterly and annual cadences run together.
Competency frameworks and evidence	Strong / native A central library with behavioural indicators at every proficiency level, scales configurable from three to seven levels that can differ by job family, and role profiles carrying required competencies and target levels. Ratings can be configured to require written evidence before submission.	Confirm Ask whether competencies carry behavioural indicators at each proficiency level, how many levels a scale supports, whether scales differ by job family, and whether evidence can be required before a rating is submitted.
360° multi-rater feedback	Strong / native Rater groups are configurable across managers, peers, direct reports and cross-functional stakeholders, raters are anonymised within their group and minimum-rater thresholds apply. Input is structured against the competencies in the role profile rather than collected as open text.	Confirm Ask how rater groups are configured, what the anonymity and minimum-rater rules are, and whether the input maps to a competency model or is collected as open text.
Development, calibration and succession	Strong / native Skills-gap analysis feeds individual development plans, calibration runs before ratings go final, and 9-box, readiness and succession workflows sit on the same record. Individual, team and organisation reports export to PDF or Excel in one click.	Confirm Ask which of development planning, calibration, 9-box and succession are in your tier and which are separate, and what a completed report looks like at team and organisation level.
Reach and governance
AI assistance and its governance controls	Strong / native Ava drafts review narrative, summarises multi-rater input into themes, generates competency frameworks and prompts reviewers on possible rating patterns. Output is labelled, editable and approved by a person, every edit is logged, and it can be disabled per cycle, team or module.	Confirm Ask what the AI drafts, whether the output is labelled and editable, whether it can be disabled per team or per cycle, and what is recorded when someone changes it.
Mobile and multilingual participation	Strong / native Web plus native iOS and Android apps with biometric sign-in, push notifications and offline support for sites where the signal drops, and 16 languages — with AI-generated summaries and recommendations delivered in each employee’s preferred language.	Confirm Ask which languages are supported, and have them complete both a check-in and a full review on a phone in front of you rather than describing it.
Scope boundaries
Manager training and coaching content	Limited CLEAR Talent gives managers coaching context assembled from goals, ratings and structured feedback, and Ava can prompt on possible rating patterns. It is not a course library and does not deliver training content.	Strong / native Manager training and coaching content is a substantive part of what 15Five sells. Confirm whether it is included in your tier or priced separately, who it is licensed for, and how completion is tracked.
Payroll, attendance and applicant tracking	Not core Not a CLEAR Talent capability, deliberately. The platform is built to run alongside the HRIS or payroll system you already have rather than replace it, which is what keeps the implementation narrow.	Confirm Confirm what sits inside 15Five and what you would still need from your HRIS or payroll platform, so the two quotes cover the same ground.

Performance depth

Organisation goals, OKRs and weighted KPIs

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Strategic Linked Goals cascades organisation objectives to team and individual level and requires every individual goal to connect to a parent, so orphaned goals cannot quietly accumulate. A KPI library holds reusable, role-aware metric templates with performance bands, weightings and guardrails.
15FiveStrong / native: OKRs are a core 15Five capability. Ask how an individual objective is tied to a parent, whether that link can be enforced, and whether weighted KPIs with performance bands and guardrails can be modelled.

Review cycles and configuration

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Configurable self, manager, peer and multi-stage cycles, with configurable review templates and rating scales. Each stage carries its own deadline and automated reminders, quarterly and annual cadences can run side by side, and a closed period stays closed.
15FiveStrong / native: Review cycles are part of the product. Ask to see your own cycle stages, templates and rating scale configured live, and confirm how quarterly and annual cadences run together.

Competency frameworks and evidence

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: A central library with behavioural indicators at every proficiency level, scales configurable from three to seven levels that can differ by job family, and role profiles carrying required competencies and target levels. Ratings can be configured to require written evidence before submission.
15FiveConfirm: Ask whether competencies carry behavioural indicators at each proficiency level, how many levels a scale supports, whether scales differ by job family, and whether evidence can be required before a rating is submitted.

360° multi-rater feedback

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Rater groups are configurable across managers, peers, direct reports and cross-functional stakeholders, raters are anonymised within their group and minimum-rater thresholds apply. Input is structured against the competencies in the role profile rather than collected as open text.
15FiveConfirm: Ask how rater groups are configured, what the anonymity and minimum-rater rules are, and whether the input maps to a competency model or is collected as open text.

Development, calibration and succession

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Skills-gap analysis feeds individual development plans, calibration runs before ratings go final, and 9-box, readiness and succession workflows sit on the same record. Individual, team and organisation reports export to PDF or Excel in one click.
15FiveConfirm: Ask which of development planning, calibration, 9-box and succession are in your tier and which are separate, and what a completed report looks like at team and organisation level.

Reach and governance

AI assistance and its governance controls

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Ava drafts review narrative, summarises multi-rater input into themes, generates competency frameworks and prompts reviewers on possible rating patterns. Output is labelled, editable and approved by a person, every edit is logged, and it can be disabled per cycle, team or module.
15FiveConfirm: Ask what the AI drafts, whether the output is labelled and editable, whether it can be disabled per team or per cycle, and what is recorded when someone changes it.

Mobile and multilingual participation

CLEAR TalentStrong / native: Web plus native iOS and Android apps with biometric sign-in, push notifications and offline support for sites where the signal drops, and 16 languages — with AI-generated summaries and recommendations delivered in each employee’s preferred language.
15FiveConfirm: Ask which languages are supported, and have them complete both a check-in and a full review on a phone in front of you rather than describing it.

Scope boundaries

Manager training and coaching content

CLEAR TalentLimited: CLEAR Talent gives managers coaching context assembled from goals, ratings and structured feedback, and Ava can prompt on possible rating patterns. It is not a course library and does not deliver training content.
15FiveStrong / native: Manager training and coaching content is a substantive part of what 15Five sells. Confirm whether it is included in your tier or priced separately, who it is licensed for, and how completion is tracked.

Payroll, attendance and applicant tracking

CLEAR TalentNot core: Not a CLEAR Talent capability, deliberately. The platform is built to run alongside the HRIS or payroll system you already have rather than replace it, which is what keeps the implementation narrow.
15FiveConfirm: Confirm what sits inside 15Five and what you would still need from your HRIS or payroll platform, so the two quotes cover the same ground.

Status legend

Strong / nativeA clearly positioned core or native capability.

LimitedPublic information indicates narrower coverage than specialist or enterprise alternatives.

Not coreNot currently positioned as a core capability.

ConfirmScope, module, localization, or availability should be confirmed with the vendor.

Price and commercials

Compare quotes, not headline prices.

Per-seat figures are only comparable once both quotes cover the same modules, the same headcount and the same term.

CLEAR Talent

$39per month, Basic plan

CLEAR Talent publishes a list price rather than quoting from scratch: the Basic plan is USD 39 per month and covers 1 admin user and 10 staff users, with each additional staff user at USD 3 per month and each additional admin user at USD 9, up to the maximums stated on the plan. The Pro plan is USD 295 per month and covers 3 admin users and 50 staff users. Past those limits the Enterprise plan is quoted. A final quote is confirmed at demo; modules, localisation, implementation scope, taxes and commercial terms all move the number.

15Five

Check directwith the vendor

Read 15Five’s current pricing page, then confirm whether manager training and every other capability you need sits inside the tier you are quoted or is priced separately. Compare the module lists before you compare the per-seat figures.

Put these questions to every vendor

Which modules are inside the quoted price, and which are licensed separately?
Is the price per employee, per active user, or per licence — and how are leavers treated mid-term?
What is the minimum seat count, and what happens to it if headcount falls?
What is the implementation fee, what does it cover, and what is billed hourly afterwards?
What is the contract term, and what is the uplift at renewal?

CLEAR Talent’s figure is the published list price of its entry plan, not a quote for your headcount — the plan covers a fixed allocation of users and adds a published per-user rate above it. No competitor price is stated on this page, because published vendor pricing changes and a figure repeated here would be out of date before you read it.

Where we stop

What CLEAR Talent does not do.

A comparison page that lists no limits is a brochure. These are the boundaries most likely to matter in this particular decision.

Employee engagement or pulse surveys.
Manager training courses or a learning management system. Development plans link to learning; delivering the content is not a CLEAR Talent capability.
Payroll, time and attendance, or leave administration.
Recruitment and applicant tracking.

CLEAR Talent is a performance and development layer. It is designed to run alongside the HRIS or payroll platform you already have, and that boundary is what keeps the rollout measured in weeks.

Buyer questions

Questions buyers ask about 15Five.

The answers a shortlist actually turns on, rather than the ones a feature grid covers.

Does CLEAR Talent support weekly check-ins?

Yes. Continuous feedback, check-ins and coaching context run between formal cycles, and quarterly and annual cycles can run side by side with cadences mixed per department or level. What CLEAR Talent does not ship is the manager training programme 15Five wraps around that habit — so if the cadence and the coaching curriculum are what you are buying, weigh that carefully.

We already run 1-on-1s well. What would CLEAR Talent add?

Structure behind the rating rather than around the conversation: competency frameworks with behavioural indicators at each level, role profiles carrying required competencies and target levels, evidence attached to ratings, calibration before ratings go final, and skills-gap analysis feeding development plans. If your managers already meet their people, that is where the remaining value is.

Which is better for a distributed or deskless workforce?

Compare the mobile experience directly, with the people who will use it. CLEAR Talent provides native iOS and Android apps with biometric sign-in, push notifications and offline support for sites where the signal drops, and supports 16 languages, with AI-generated summaries and recommendations delivered in each employee’s preferred language. Ask 15Five to demonstrate the same completion journey on a phone.

Can both platforms run 360° feedback?

Both offer multi-rater feedback; the question is how it is structured. In CLEAR Talent, rater groups are configurable across managers, peers, direct reports and cross-functional stakeholders, raters are anonymised within their group, minimum-rater thresholds apply, and input is collected against the competencies in the role profile rather than as free text. Ask each vendor to show a completed 360° report built from your own competency model.

How do the two compare on price?

CLEAR Talent publishes a list price you can plan against before the first sales conversation: USD 39 per month for the Basic plan, covering 1 admin user and 10 staff users, with each additional staff user at USD 3 per month, and USD 295 per month for Pro. Past what those plans cover, the Enterprise plan is quoted. For 15Five, read their current pricing page and confirm whether manager training and the other capabilities you need are inside the tier you are quoted. Then compare like for like: convert both to a monthly cost at the same headcount, over the same term, covering the same module list — a plan fee with per-user add-ons and a per-seat quote are not comparable as headline figures.