Head-to-head

CLEAR Talent vs Culture Amp

Culture Amp is best known for engagement surveys and people analytics, with performance and development alongside. CLEAR Talent has no survey product and puts its depth into the rating itself. That split usually decides the shortlist.

See the Comparison Book a Tailored Demo

Culture Amp and CLEAR Talent overlap on performance — review cycles, 360° feedback, development — but they start from opposite ends. Culture Amp is best known for employee engagement surveys and people analytics, and its performance and development products sit alongside them. CLEAR Talent has no survey product at all; it starts from the competency framework and the evidence behind each rating.

That makes the first question unusually clear-cut. If engagement surveys are part of this purchase, CLEAR Talent cannot cover them, and you are either buying a platform that does or running a survey tool beside a performance layer. If surveys are already handled, or out of scope, the comparison becomes how much structure you want behind a rating, how goals feed it, and whether the people being reviewed can complete the cycle in their own language and on a phone.

How Culture Amp describes itself

Culture Amp positions itself as an employee experience platform, best known for engagement surveys and people analytics, with performance management — including reviews and 360° feedback — and development products alongside. Products and packaging change, so confirm which ones your quote includes, and how they are priced together, directly with Culture Amp.

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 Culture Amp.

Choose CLEAR Talent when

Performance and development is the purchase, and surveys are handled elsewhere or not needed. CLEAR Talent is a performance layer built to run beside the tools you keep.
Competencies are the framework, not a tag: behavioural indicators at every proficiency level, scales from three to seven levels that can differ by job family, and role profiles carrying required competencies and target levels.
A rating has to hold up to a sceptical reader later. Self, assessor and final ratings are stored separately with their own comments, and competency ratings can be configured to require written evidence before submission.
Goals carry weight in the rating. Strategic Linked Goals requires every individual goal to connect to a parent objective, a KPI library holds role-aware metric templates with performance bands, and the weighting between goals and competencies is configurable per level.
Reviews run in more than one language: 16 languages, with AI-generated summaries and recommendations delivered in each employee’s preferred language, and native iOS and Android apps with offline support from the Pro plan.

Consider Culture Amp when

Engagement surveys are part of this purchase. CLEAR Talent has no survey product, and surveys are what Culture Amp is best known for.
You want survey results and performance data analysed together by one supplier, rather than read side by side from two tools.
You already run Culture Amp surveys, and adding its performance product is simpler for your team than introducing a second vendor. Familiarity is a legitimate adoption advantage.
Your competency model is deliberately light, and gating ratings behind written evidence would be more process than your organisation wants.

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 Culture Amp compared requirement by requirement
Requirement	CLEAR Talent	Culture AmpWhat 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.	Confirm Ask how goals are set and tracked in the performance product, whether an individual goal can be required to link to a company objective, and whether weighted KPIs with performance bands 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 Performance reviews are part of the performance product Culture Amp presents. Ask to see a multi-stage cycle built with your own stages, templates and rating scale, and which product it requires.
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.	Strong / native 360° feedback is part of what Culture Amp presents alongside its performance product. Ask how rater groups are configured, what the anonymity and minimum-rater rules are, and whether input is structured against your competency model.
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 sit in the products you are quoted, 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 any AI writes or summarises, what it reads to do so, whether its output is labelled and editable, whether it can be disabled per team or cycle, and what is logged 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 employees can complete a review and a 360° in, and have them complete a full review on a phone in front of you rather than describing it.
Scope boundaries
Employee engagement surveys and people analytics	Not core Not a CLEAR Talent capability. Reporting covers performance data at individual, team and organisation level; if engagement or pulse surveys are a required part of this purchase, you would need a second tool.	Strong / native Engagement surveys and people analytics are what Culture Amp is best known for. Confirm which survey products your quote includes and how survey results connect to the performance record.
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 Culture Amp 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.
Culture AmpConfirm: Ask how goals are set and tracked in the performance product, whether an individual goal can be required to link to a company objective, and whether weighted KPIs with performance bands 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.
Culture AmpStrong / native: Performance reviews are part of the performance product Culture Amp presents. Ask to see a multi-stage cycle built with your own stages, templates and rating scale, and which product it requires.

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.
Culture AmpConfirm: 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.
Culture AmpStrong / native: 360° feedback is part of what Culture Amp presents alongside its performance product. Ask how rater groups are configured, what the anonymity and minimum-rater rules are, and whether input is structured against your competency model.

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.
Culture AmpConfirm: Ask which of development planning, calibration, 9-box and succession sit in the products you are quoted, 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.
Culture AmpConfirm: Ask what any AI writes or summarises, what it reads to do so, whether its output is labelled and editable, whether it can be disabled per team or cycle, and what is logged 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.
Culture AmpConfirm: Ask which languages employees can complete a review and a 360° in, and have them complete a full review on a phone in front of you rather than describing it.

Scope boundaries

Employee engagement surveys and people analytics

CLEAR TalentNot core: Not a CLEAR Talent capability. Reporting covers performance data at individual, team and organisation level; if engagement or pulse surveys are a required part of this purchase, you would need a second tool.
Culture AmpStrong / native: Engagement surveys and people analytics are what Culture Amp is best known for. Confirm which survey products your quote includes and how survey results connect to the performance record.

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.
Culture AmpConfirm: Confirm what sits inside Culture Amp 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.

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.

Culture Amp

Check directwith the vendor

Read Culture Amp’s current pricing information, then confirm which products — engagement, performance, development — your quote covers. A quote that bundles surveys with performance and one for performance alone are not the same purchase, so compare the performance scope like for like.

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, and the survey analytics built on them.
A learning management system. Development plans link to learning; delivering courses 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 Culture Amp.

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

Does CLEAR Talent run engagement surveys like Culture Amp?

No. CLEAR Talent has no engagement or pulse survey product. It covers the performance side — goals and KPIs, review cycles, 360° feedback, competency assessment, development and calibration. If surveys are part of this purchase, you need either a platform that bundles both or a dedicated survey tool beside CLEAR Talent, and we would rather you knew that here than in the third demo.

Can we keep Culture Amp for surveys and use CLEAR Talent for performance?

Yes. CLEAR Talent is built to run beside the tools you keep, and the two answer different questions: a survey describes how a group feels about the organisation, while the performance record describes how one person is doing and what happens next. There is no prebuilt connector between them, and survey results are not imported into CLEAR Talent. People and organisation structure come in by CSV or Excel bulk import or API access, and performance records go out as CSV, Excel or PDF. Confirm with Culture Amp whether its surveys can be licensed without its performance product.

We review people in several countries and languages. Which handles that better?

Test it with the people who will use it rather than taking either vendor’s word. CLEAR Talent supports 16 languages, with AI-generated summaries and recommendations delivered in each employee’s preferred language, and native iOS and Android apps with biometric sign-in, push notifications and offline support from the Pro plan. For data protection it provides DSAR exports, right-to-be-forgotten workflows and a data processing agreement you can request. Ask Culture Amp which languages employees can complete a review in, and have both vendors show the same review completed on a phone.

How would we move our performance process from Culture Amp?

Scope the move before you set a date. CLEAR Talent supports API access plus CSV and Excel bulk import for structured data such as goals, ratings, and organisation structure including departments, locations, roles and reporting lines, and a guided onboarding wizard is tailored to organisation size, industry and performance-management maturity. Ask Culture Amp which review, goal and feedback data it can export and in what format, and decide whether surveys stay with Culture Amp. What transfers cleanly depends on how your data is shaped, so migration scope is confirmed during discovery, and there is a free 1-month trial to run one team through a cycle first.

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 Culture Amp, ask for a written quote and write down exactly which products it covers. If it bundles engagement surveys with performance, it is a wider purchase than CLEAR Talent alone, so compare the performance scope like for like and convert both to a monthly cost at your own headcount and term.