15Five gets you started. Confirm gets you results.
15Five built its reputation on weekly check-ins and continuous feedback. But check-ins capture what employees choose to share, not how they actually collaborate, influence decisions, or drive results. When you need to make defensible calls on promotions, reorgs, or who your real top performers are, self-reported data leaves you guessing.
The problem with weekly check-ins
15Five pioneered continuous feedback. But self-reported data has a fundamental flaw: people report what they want you to see, not what's actually happening.
Self-reporting bias
Employees naturally highlight wins and downplay struggles. Your quiet contributor who saved three projects? They probably wrote "made progress on tasks" while the self-promoter wrote a novel.
Recency bias
Weekly check-ins capture what happened this week. They miss the patterns, who's consistently the go-to person, who's burning out, who's building (or breaking) team cohesion.
Performance theater
When updates are visible to managers, some employees optimize for looking busy rather than being impactful. The check-in becomes a marketing exercise.
Add-ons add up fast
15Five's base tiers start at $4–$16/user/month. But AI coaching (Kona) runs $19/manager/month extra. Add the meeting assistant ($2/employee/month) and compensation module ($9/user/month), and your per-seat cost can easily double. Confirm includes AI in the base price.
What makes Confirm different
Confirm uses Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to see who actually drives results, based on real collaboration data, not self-reported updates.
ONA: Actions speak louder than check-ins
ONA analyzes actual collaboration patterns, who people go to for help, who drives decisions, who connects teams. This reveals true impact that self-reported updates miss.
- Identify hidden high-performers (the ones too busy to self-promote)
- Spot underperformers who write great check-ins but don't deliver
- See team dynamics and collaboration health in real-time
- Make promotion decisions based on evidence, not narrative
Active ONA surveys
~90 seconds per employee per review cycle. Confirm's active ONA asks brief, research-tested questions — not open-ended forms. Employees report who they rely on and who is making outstanding impact, surfacing network data that no single manager can see.
Pattern recognition over snapshots
While check-ins show point-in-time updates, Confirm reveals patterns: who's consistently valuable, who's trending down, who's at flight risk.
AI-powered coaching
Confirm doesn't just show you data, it helps managers act on it with AI-generated coaching recommendations based on each employee's actual impact.
Feature comparison
When to choose Confirm over 15Five
You suspect hidden talent
If you have a feeling some of your best people are flying under the radar, maybe they're introverts, or in less visible roles, ONA will find them.
Check-in fatigue is real
If employees are burned out on filling out weekly updates, or the quality has declined, Confirm's brief ONA survey (once per review cycle) removes the burden of continuous check-ins.
You need defensible decisions
If you're making high-stakes decisions (promotions, layoffs, reorgs), ONA provides objective evidence that self-reported data can't match.
Remote/hybrid visibility issues
If managers can't "see" what remote employees are doing day-to-day, ONA reveals their actual collaboration and impact patterns.
Which platform is right for you?
Use this guide to decide, no sales call required.
Common questions
We've just signed a 15Five annual contract. Can we still evaluate Confirm?
Yes. We offer a pilot with a subset of your team. Many customers run both in parallel during their 15Five contract year, then migrate fully at renewal.
We're a 150-person company. Are we too small for Confirm?
Our sweet spot is 200–2,000 employees, but we have customers in the 150–200 range who found the ONA and calibration capabilities immediately valuable as they scaled. Book a demo and we'll give you an honest answer.
Is 15Five's weekly check-in format better than Confirm for employee engagement?
Both platforms support continuous feedback. The difference is Confirm's AI proactively surfaces what matters, rather than waiting for employees to self-report. Engagement survey tools are also included in Confirm.
How does Confirm's pricing compare to 15Five?
15Five's base tiers run $4–$16/user/month. But if you want AI coaching (Kona at $19/manager/month), the meeting assistant ($2/employee/month), or the compensation module ($9–$11/user/month), the real cost climbs fast. Confirm includes AI in the base price with no feature gating. Contact us for a custom quote.
How is ONA different from 360 reviews?
360 reviews ask people to rate colleagues, creating gaming and bias. ONA analyzes actual collaboration patterns through brief survey questions about who people work with and go to for help, more objective and less burdensome than continuous 360 feedback.
Hear from teams achieving true talent density
"We launched on a Monday, and by Saturday morning we had 98% of performance reviews done. I don't know that I've ever seen that level of completion in that amount of time."
"We reviewed Lattice, Rippling, and Culture Amp. Confirm was the only platform designed to be light-weight, fast, and easy to use."
"You don't realize how much you miss until you have a tool like Confirm."
"With Confirm, reviews were super quick, accurate and easy to edit. Probably saved me 80% of my time typically used in writing reviews."
"Confirm is the first tool that lets me see the behavioral side with holistic evidence. I can quickly get the information to make decisions."
"For the first time in my 10+ years in People/HR, 100% of team members completed their self evaluations."
"Confirm has transformed the way we do performance reviews, and helped us become a more data-driven HR organization."
"Confirm is a VITAL part of how we operate as a company. It helps us keep our team more engaged than they already were."
Your team has outgrown weekly check-ins. It's time for AI that actually knows your people.
Book a 30-minute demo. We'll show you ONA in action, walk through how our AI agents work, and give you a realistic picture of what the transition from 15Five looks like for a company your size.
Already decided? How to switch from 15Five → | Full migration guide →