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At 40 employees, you’re at a useful inflection point: you probably don’t need a heavyweight enterprise HR suite, but you’ve outgrown spreadsheets because you need repeatable workflows, reminders, employee history, goal tracking, and a single source of truth.

There are several good directions.

The main options

*Pricing changes frequently and can depend on modules, contracts, and minimums, so I'd treat these as ballpark figures rather than quotes. Current 2026 comparisons put the market broadly around $4–15+ per employee/month for many SMB/mid-market products. ^[1]

1. Lattice

Lattice is worth looking at if you want to build a real performance-management program, rather than simply digitize your existing forms.

It connects reviews, goals, feedback, 1:1s and development, so a manager can see an employee's goals and ongoing feedback when completing a review. It also has more sophisticated capabilities such as calibration. ^[2]

Good fit if: you expect your company to grow significantly and want a system you won't immediately outgrow.

Potential downside: it can be more platform than a 40-person company actually needs, and its reported $4,000 annual minimum makes the economics worth examining at your size. ^[3]

2. 15Five

15Five takes a somewhat more continuous-coaching approach.

It's particularly centered around regular check-ins, 1:1s, feedback and manager effectiveness rather than making the annual review the centerpiece. It also supports goals and formal reviews. ^[4]

Good fit if: your biggest problem is "our managers aren't having consistent conversations with employees," rather than simply "we need better review forms."

3. PerformYard

PerformYard is an interesting option for a 40-person company because it's focused specifically on performance management rather than trying to become your entire HR system.

It supports reviews, goals, feedback, meetings and engagement surveys, and its review workflows are highly configurable. Its current pricing page lists Performance at $5–15/person/month depending on configuration. ^[5]

Good fit if: you already have an HR/payroll system and want a dedicated performance-management layer without buying a giant HR platform.

4. BambooHR

BambooHR is a different proposition: instead of buying performance software separately, you can make performance part of a broader HRIS.

That can be attractive if your spreadsheets are also creeping into onboarding, employee records, time off, reporting, etc. Current comparisons identify BambooHR as particularly oriented toward SMBs that want HR and performance together. ^[6]

Good fit if: you're starting to think, "We need to replace our HR spreadsheets generally," not just the performance-review spreadsheet.

5. Culture Amp

Culture Amp combines performance management with employee engagement and people analytics. ^[7]

Good fit if: you want to understand not just how people are performing, but also engagement, employee sentiment and organizational trends.

For only 40 employees, though, I'd investigate whether you're actually going to use its broader analytics/engagement capabilities before paying for them.

6. Leapsome

Leapsome is another broader people-management platform. It combines performance reviews and goals with competencies, development, learning and engagement. ^[8]

Good fit if: you're trying to establish a more comprehensive employee-development program, rather than just replacing your review documents.

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What I'd evaluate at your size

I wouldn't start by comparing 30 feature checkboxes. I'd define your desired process first.

For example:

Every employee should have:

• 3–5 annual goals
• A manager check-in every 1–2 months
• Ongoing employee/manager feedback
• A formal review twice a year
• A self-review
• Manager review
• Optional peer feedback
• Goal progress automatically pulled into the review
• A development plan
• A permanent history of previous reviews/goals
• Automatic reminders when something is due

And HR should be able to answer questions like:

"Who hasn't completed their review?"

"Which employees haven't updated their goals?"

"Show me everyone's goals."

"What did this employee's last review say?"

"What feedback has been recorded for this employee?"

That's the point where software becomes substantially better than a collection of Google Docs and spreadsheets.

For a 40-person company, I'd shortlist 4

I'd probably put these four through demos:

1. PerformYard — if you want a focused, configurable performance system.
2. Lattice — if you want a more sophisticated performance/goal system and expect to grow.
3. 15Five — if manager coaching, check-ins and ongoing feedback are the priority.
4. BambooHR — if you're really looking for an HR system that also handles performance.

The important distinction is whether you're buying performance-management software or using this opportunity to replace your broader HR infrastructure. That decision will narrow the field considerably.

If you tell me (1) what HR/payroll system you currently use, (2) whether reviews are annual/semiannual/quarterly, (3) whether you use OKRs or simple goals, and (4) roughly what you'd like to spend, I can narrow this to 2–3 options and give you a practical comparison for a 40-person company.

^[9]