15Five vs. TinyPulse Engage: Which tool wins for employee engagement?

Looking for a tool that does more than just send surveys?

Both 15Five and TinyPulse Engage will help you gather employee feedback. However, depending on your goals, whether you want to reduce turnover, support managers in complex matrix structures, or build a self-leadership culture, one platform will likely serve your team better than the others.

Before you commit to an employee engagement solution, let’s break down how 15Five and TinyPulse Engage compare, and why moving from annual snapshots to continuous listening is the key to a thriving workplace.

Why listen to us?

At Eletive, we've helped multiple organisations move from measuring engagement to improving it. Companies like SD Worx use Eletive to support self-leadership across 10,000+ employees in 27 countries, and AkzoNobel achieved 90% global participation rates, turning 43,000 employee comments into action teams use every day.

When you’re training people across the globe, a tool must be intuitive. Eletive really explains itself. After one onboarding session, our HR teams could manage it independently.

We understand the real-world differences between 15Five and TinyPulse Engage because we've studied where they excel and where they leave gaps. We built Eletive to solve those specific challenges, like the burden on managers to "fix" everything and the lack of accessibility for frontline workers.

15Five vs. TinyPulse Engage: Key differences

15Five offers deep manager coaching through Kona AI, while TinyPulse Engage focuses on peer-to-peer recognition

15Five gives you a unique AI meeting assistant called Kona. It connects 1-on-1s to automatically generate meeting notes, track action items, and real-time coaching tips based on conversations. This helps managers develop leadership skills directly in their workflow.

TinyPulse Engage prioritises social recognition through its "Cheers for Peers" feature. It is built to boost morale, making it easy for colleagues to publicly celebrate one another’s wins. 

While 15Five coaches the manager, TinyPulse Engage focuses on building a culture of appreciation across the entire team.

15Five uses a predictive impact model for HR, while TinyPulse Engage provides a virtual suggestion box

15Five’s "Engage" product uses a machine-learning Predictive Impact Model. It tells HR which specific actions will have the biggest impact on engagement and retention with high accuracy. This allows them to be more strategic with their limited time and budget.

TinyPulse Engage focuses on two-way communication through its "Virtual Suggestion Box" and anonymous "Spark" conversations. It acts as a safe, continuous channel for employees to raise concerns or share ideas at any time. 

15Five manages the full performance lifecycle, while TinyPulse Engage specialises in "plug and play" pulses

15Five is a comprehensive platform that covers the entire employee journey, from onboarding and OKRs to 360-degree reviews and compensation reviews. It is designed for organisations that want to consolidate all their performance and development workflows into a single system of record.

TinyPulse Engage is a "plug and play" solution specifically for engagement. It has a library of pre-packaged survey questions and hard-coded timelines. This makes it easy for HR teams to launch and manage without a steep learning curve.

What is 15Five?

15Five is a performance management platform built to help strengthen the bond between managers and their teams. It connects employee development with business results by pulling engagement data and daily management habits, such as 1-on-1s and goal tracking, into a single dashboard.

The platform operates through a "Diagnose, Plan, Act" framework. HR teams use engagement surveys to identify problem areas, then use built-in tools to plan and execute targeted interventions. If you want to move away from rigid annual reviews, 15Five provides a structured system for continuous conversation, ensuring that employee sentiment is directly linked to performance outcomes.

15Five is best suited for mid-market and enterprise organisations (100 to 1,000+ employees) that want to invest heavily in manager development as a lever for engagement.

Key features

• Amaya AI agent: A conversational AI assistant built directly into the platform. Amaya lets HR leaders ask natural-language questions like "Which factors are most strongly influencing engagement?" or "How do engagement signals differ by department?" and get answers drawn from the organisation's own performance and survey data, complete with supporting charts and trend analysis.

• Kona AI coaching: An AI-powered meeting assistant that joins 1:1s in Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams to capture notes, track action items, and deliver real-time coaching tips to managers. A separate tier offers personalised leadership nudges delivered directly in Slack.

• Predictive impact model: A machine-learning engine that analyses engagement data to tell HR exactly which actions will have the biggest impact on retention and engagement, helping teams prioritise with limited time and budget.

• Best-Self Review®: A guided performance review process that incorporates 360-degree feedback, focusing on individual strengths, career development, and goal alignment rather than just backward-looking evaluation.

• OKR and goal alignment: Connects individual tasks to the company's strategic goals, with alignment visualisation so employees and managers can see how their work contributes to broader objectives.

• Lifecycle surveys: Automated feedback collection at key stages like onboarding, milestones, and exit, giving HR continuous data across the entire employee journey.

Pricing

15Five uses a modular pricing structure with three main tiers, all billed annually:

• Engage ($4/user/month): Employee engagement surveys, AI-powered analytics, targeted assessments, action planning, heatmaps, and benchmarking.

• Perform ($10-11/user/month): Everything in Engage plus performance reviews, OKRs and goals, 360-degree feedback, talent matrix, career paths, 1:1s, check-ins, and the Amaya AI agent.

• Total Platform ($16/user/month): Everything in Perform plus the HR Outcomes Dashboard, manager training microlearnings, and the Manager Effectiveness Indicator.

Kona AI coaching, the compensation management module, and manager coaching/content programmes are available as separate add-ons. Volume discounts typically apply at 500+ employees, and a 14-day free trial is available.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Scales manager training and support across the whole company

• Consolidates performance, engagement, and goals in one workflow

• Builds a supportive culture through its "best-self" philosophy

Cons

• The deep feature set might be excessive if you only need basic feedback

• The interface is primarily designed for desk-based employees

What is TinyPulse Engage?

TinyPulse Engage (now part of WebMD Health Services) is a focused employee engagement and feedback platform built around continuous listening and cultural transparency. Rather than replacing your entire HR stack, it specialises in helping organisations capture honest, anonymous feedback through frequent pulse surveys and act on it quickly.

The platform is backed by the WebMD Health Services Centre for Research, which develops the science-based survey questions and templates used across the product. 

TinyPulse is best suited for organisations that want a straightforward, easy-to-deploy feedback tool without the complexity of a full performance management suite. It works well for mid-sized companies (200 to 5,000 employees) that prioritise transparency and want to establish a consistent listening rhythm.

Key features

• Weekly pulse surveys: A single-question pulse sent to employees each week, designed to maintain a continuous feedback loop without causing survey fatigue. All responses are 100% anonymous. HR teams can also choose from a library of 300+ science-backed questions or create custom surveys.

• Cheers for Peers: A peer-to-peer recognition system that lets colleagues publicly celebrate one another's contributions. Includes culture tags, company feeds, and optional TinyPulse gift cards to incentivise participation.

• Virtual suggestion box: An always-on channel where employees can submit ideas or raise concerns at any time, separate from the weekly pulse. This gives people an outlet for feedback that doesn't fit neatly into a survey question.

• Anonymous Spark conversations: A two-way messaging feature that allows managers and HR to follow up on anonymous survey comments without revealing the employee's identity, enabling deeper exploration of issues while preserving trust.

• Coach module: Offers customisable 1:1 agenda builders and basic goal tracking to help managers structure performance conversations and support career growth.

• Onboard module: Provides new-hire survey workflows to gather feedback during the critical first weeks and months of employment, helping HR spot onboarding issues early.

Pricing

Tinypulse Engage pricing is not public and requires a direct consultation. Because the platform is built around specific modules (Engage for surveys, Onboard for new hires, and Coach for performance), your final quote will depend on which features you choose to bundle. This model is best for teams that want a simple, focused survey tool and are comfortable with a customised contract.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Simple, pulse surveys to measure engagement

• Anonymity features that build trust and encourage candid responses

• Quick implementation with a short learning curve; weekly one-question pulses keep the barrier to participation low

• Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, BambooHR, and Workday

Cons

• Lacks performance tools like 360-degree reviews or OKR tracking

• Provides data points but lacks deep, AI-guided action plans for managers

Best alternative to 15Five & TinyPulse Engage: Eletive

15Five gives managers strong coaching tools, and TinyPulse Engage makes anonymous feedback simple. But neither platform puts engagement data directly into the hands of the people it's about. Eletive does.

Where 15Five funnels insight through managers and TinyPulse Engage collects feedback that HR interprets, Eletive distributes data to everyone. Every employee sees their own trends, gets personalised recommendations, and can take action without waiting for someone else to flag a problem. This is what self-leadership looks like in practice.

For organisations with workers who never open a laptop, Eletive also solves a problem neither competitor addresses: genuine frontline access through kiosk mode and 40+ languages.

Key features

Adaptive pulse surveys that get smarter over time

TinyPulse Engage sends the same weekly question to everyone. 15Five's surveys follow a standard template. Eletive's Survey Intelligence uses machine learning to adjust follow-up questions based on each person's previous responses. If someone flagged low autonomy last quarter, the next survey digs deeper into that area instead of cycling through generic questions. You get more targeted data without increasing survey length.

Individual dashboards that shift ownership to employees

On both 15Five and TinyPulse Engage, survey results flow to managers and HR. Employees submit feedback and then wait. Eletive gives every person an individual dashboard showing their engagement trends over time, with automated advice tailored to what's changed. Someone whose work-life balance scores have dropped gets specific guidance immediately, not months later in a review.

Manager tools grounded in real team data

15Five's Kona AI coaches managers during meetings. Eletive takes a different approach: it surfaces team-level engagement data directly into the manager's workflow. 1:1 agendas, check-in templates, and goal-setting tools are all informed by what the team's survey results actually show. Managers prepare for conversations with evidence, not assumptions.

AI that processes qualitative feedback at scale

TinyPulse Engage collects open-ended suggestions but leaves analysis to HR. Eletive's Listening AI automatically detects themes and sentiment across thousands of comments, surfaces rising risks like attrition, and converts unstructured feedback into prioritised action items. This is available on the Professional tier and saves hours of manual review.

Performance management that connects to how people feel

15Five handles performance reviews and OKRs well. TinyPulse Engage doesn't offer performance tools at all. Eletive bridges the gap by placing 360-degree feedback, OKR tracking, and engagement data in one platform. Managers preparing for a development conversation can see how engagement has shifted alongside goal progress, rather than switching between systems.

360 degree feedback

Built for the workers these platforms can't reach

Neither 15Five nor TinyPulse Engage offers a way for employees without email or a personal device to participate. Eletive's Kiosk mode lets frontline workers complete surveys on a shared device using an assigned code. Combined with support for 40+ languages, this ensures that retail, healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing teams are part of the conversation.

Pricing

Eletive uses a quote-based subscription model that scales with your organisation's complexity. Unlike 15Five's fixed tiers or TinyPulse Engage's opaque quoting process, Eletive tailors costs to your headcount and the depth of analytics you need.

• Essential: Automated survey intelligence, real-time heatmaps, and standard industry benchmarks. A direct upgrade from TinyPulse Engage's basic pulse functionality.

• Standard: Custom surveys, anonymous employee follow-up chat, and structured action plans. Adds the feedback depth that TinyPulse Engage lacks.

• Professional: Listening AI, attrition prediction, and an export API. The analytical power of 15Five's predictive model, extended across qualitative data.

Note: Performance management features, such as OKRs, 1-on-1 meeting templates, 360-degree feedback, and HRIS integrations, come as add-ons.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Every employee accesses their own engagement data and receives personalised guidance after each survey

• Adaptive surveys produce better data without adding more questions

• Kiosk mode and 40+ languages include frontline workers that both competitors miss

• AI processes open-ended feedback into prioritised actions automatically

• Engagement and performance data live in one platform, removing the need to switch tools

Cons

• Not suited for organisations under 100 employees

• Pricing is not publicly listed, so early budgeting requires a consultation

15Five vs. TinyPulse Engage vs. Eletive: Feature comparison

Why do people choose Eletive?

Engagement belongs to everyone, not just HR

15Five relies on managers to drive engagement. TinyPulse Engage relies on HR to interpret anonymous feedback. Eletive distributes insight to every employee through personal dashboards, so people can act on their own data without waiting for someone else to notice.

Frontline workers are included without workarounds

If your workforce includes people without company email or personal devices, most survey tools create a blind spot. Eletive's Kiosk mode and native support for 40+ languages close that gap by default.

Surveys that adapt instead of repeating

Static question sets lose their value over time. Eletive's Survey Intelligence adjusts follow-up questions based on previous responses, keeping data relevant and participation rates high.

Feedback becomes documented progress

The most common complaint about engagement tools is that surveys happen but nothing changes. Eletive's structured action plans at individual, team, and organisational levels give employees visible evidence that their input leads somewhere.

Choose the tool that helps your people thrive

15Five and TinyPulse Engage are reliable for tracking feedback and digitising HR processes. However, if you want to bridge the gap between engagement and performance while empowering your team to take ownership of their own growth, Eletive is the better choice.

Book a quick demo today to see how Eletive can support your organisation.