Comparison

Harmny vs Culture Amp: Features, Pricing & Fit (2026)

By Harmny Editorial Team · Last updated June 2026

Bottom line

Harmny now matches Culture Amp on engagement analytics depth and adds something Culture Amp cannot offer: a behavioral engagement layer built on daily activity signals (pulse + behavior divergence + Manager Coaching AI). Culture Amp's remaining edge is its external benchmark database — if comparing your engagement scores against industry peers is a board-level requirement, Culture Amp wins that specific use case. For everything else — performance management, career pathing, continuous engagement measurement, and manager coaching — Harmny is the stronger all-in-one choice for teams under 500.

What each tool is actually for

Harmny

Performance management platform

Harmny's primary products are performance reviews, OKRs, 1:1 meetings, competency frameworks, career pathing, and development plans — the infrastructure for ongoing performance and development. Engagement (pulse surveys, recognition) is a secondary layer.

Primary user: Managers, employees, founders, HR generalists running performance cycles

Culture Amp

Employee engagement analytics platform

Culture Amp's primary products are engagement surveys, organizational health analytics, and benchmark data — the infrastructure for measuring how employees feel about their work, manager, and company. Performance management (reviews, goals) is a secondary product added later.

Primary user: People Analytics teams, CHROs, HR business partners measuring organizational health

This distinction matters for the comparison. When these tools overlap — in engagement surveys and performance reviews — the question is which is primary and which is secondary for your organization's needs.

Feature comparison

Pricing as of June 2026.

	Harmny	Culture Amp
Starting price	Free / $8/user/mo	Enterprise quote
Free tier	✓ Up to 10 users	✗
Self-serve	✓ No sales call	✗ Demo required
Seat minimum	None	Enterprise (~150+ seats)
Performance reviews	✓ Full cycle + calibration	✓ Module (secondary product)
Goals / OKRs	✓ Cascading goals	✓ Goal module (secondary)
1:1 meetings	✓ Shared agendas + history	✓ Basic
Competency frameworks	✓ Employee-visible career paths	Limited
Career pathing	✓ Live gap analysis, self-serve	✗
Development plans	✓ Connected to career framework	✗
Engagement surveys	✓ Engagement index + driver analysis + heatmap	✓ Best-in-class + benchmarks
Exit / attrition classification	✓ Regrettable vs. involuntary exit	✓ Regrettable exit classification
Action uptake + outcome deltas	✓ Action library + before/after impact	✓ Admin action dashboard
Behavioral pulse analytics	✓ Survey×behavior divergence (unique)	✗ Survey-only data
Industry benchmark data	✗ (internal trends only)	✓ Largest benchmark dataset
Org health analytics	✓ Exit classification, action uptake, flight signals	✓ Flight risk, mgr effectiveness, DEI
Manager Coaching AI	✓ Async pre-1:1 brief from behavioral data	Focus Agent (top-3 action items)
9-Box talent calibration	✓ Built-in	✓ Performance module
AI assistance	✓ Org Brain + coaching briefs (BYOK/hosted)	✓ AI Assist + Focus Agent
HRIS integrations	Core (Slack, Google, SSO)	✓ Deep (BambooHR, Workday, etc.)
Best team size	10–500	200–10,000

Where Harmny wins

The behavioral engagement layer Culture Amp cannot replicate

Culture Amp measures what employees say about their engagement — quarterly or bi-annual surveys, pulse check-ins, eNPS. Harmny measures what employees actually do: daily recognition activity, streak cadences, goal movement, 1:1 completion rates. The weekly behavioral pulse score and the survey×behavior divergence signal — where someone reports being engaged but their behavioral data tells a different story — are unique to Harmny. Culture Amp has no gamification exhaust to mine; this is a structural capability gap, not a feature gap.

This also powers Harmny's Manager Coaching AI: an async, per-direct-report coaching brief generated before each 1:1, synthesizing pulse trends, divergence signals, talking points, and flight-risk indicators. Culture Amp's Focus Agent recommends your top-3 org-level focus areas. Harmny tells a manager what to say to a specific person on Thursday.

Engagement analytics depth (now matched)

Harmny has shipped a full engagement analytics suite: a 5-factor engagement index, statistical driver analysis with significance testing, favorability scoring, a continuous heatmap with metric toggle and segment picker, exit and regrettable-attrition classification, an action uptake dashboard tracking which interventions were opened and acted on, and action→outcome delta tracking showing whether actions actually moved the metrics. The gap that existed a year ago — where Culture Amp had deeper engagement analytics — has closed. What Culture Amp retains is the benchmark advantage, not an analytics-depth advantage.

Career frameworks and career pathing

Harmny's career pathing is a year-round, employee-facing system — every employee can see their current competency ratings vs. next-level requirements, explore alternative paths, and create development goals directly from career gaps. Culture Amp has no equivalent feature. For teams where "employees can see their career path" is an objective, Harmny is the only option in this comparison.

Price and accessibility

Harmny is free up to 10 users, $8/user beyond that, no sales call, no contract. Culture Amp is enterprise-only — not accessible to most teams under 150–200 people, and requires a procurement process even for teams that qualify. For companies growing from 20 to 200 people, Harmny scales with them; Culture Amp is not available until they're bigger.

Where Culture Amp wins

External benchmark data

Culture Amp's most irreplaceable advantage: a benchmark dataset built from millions of survey responses across thousands of companies, enabling statistically valid comparisons against industry peers. "Our eNPS is 42 — is that good?" is a question Culture Amp can answer credibly by company size, industry, and geography. Harmny's engagement analytics measure what's happening inside your company with precision; they cannot contextualize your numbers against the external market. If "how do we compare to peers" is a board-level reporting requirement, this matters.

Who should choose each

Choose Harmny if:

✓ Performance reviews, goals, and career frameworks are the primary need
✓ Team is under 500 people
✓ No sales call — want to start today
✓ Employees should see their career path and growth gaps
✓ AI-assisted reviews, development plans, and pre-1:1 coaching briefs are valuable
✓ You want behavioral engagement data, not just survey scores
✓ Budget is a real consideration

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Choose Culture Amp if:

• 200+ employees and "how do we compare to industry peers" is a board-level deliverable
• External engagement benchmark data is your primary requirement
• Already in a Culture Amp enterprise procurement process
• Willing to add a separate tool for performance reviews and career frameworks

For more options: 8 Culture Amp alternatives and Lattice alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Is Harmny a Culture Amp alternative?

Yes, for most teams. Harmny now covers the full engagement analytics stack — engagement index, statistical driver analysis, favorability, continuous heatmap, exit/regrettable-attrition classification, action uptake dashboard, and action→outcome deltas — plus a behavioral engagement layer Culture Amp structurally lacks. The one genuine Culture Amp advantage is its external benchmark database (industry-normalized eNPS and engagement scores). For teams where 'how do we compare to industry peers' is a board requirement, Culture Amp retains that edge. For the other 90% of use cases — including full performance management, career pathing, and continuous engagement measurement — Harmny is a complete alternative.

Is Harmny cheaper than Culture Amp?

Yes, significantly. Harmny starts free (up to 10 users) and costs $8/user/month at scale with no seat minimums. Culture Amp is enterprise-priced — no public pricing, requires a sales call, and is not accessible to teams under approximately 150–200 people or without a dedicated HR budget. The cost difference for a 100-person team is substantial: Harmny would be ~$800/month; Culture Amp would require an enterprise contract negotiation.

Does Culture Amp do performance reviews?

Yes, but it's not the primary product. Culture Amp added performance reviews as a module, but the feature set is less developed than dedicated performance management tools like Harmny, Lattice, or Leapsome. Teams that use Culture Amp primarily for engagement surveys and need a separate performance review tool often add Harmny or Lattice for the review/goals layer.

Can I use both Harmny and Culture Amp?

Yes — and some teams do. Culture Amp for bi-annual engagement surveys and organizational health benchmarking; Harmny for continuous performance management (reviews, goals, 1:1s, career frameworks). The tools don't significantly overlap when used this way. That said, for most teams under 300 people, running two people platforms simultaneously adds more complexity than it solves.

See Harmny in action

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Pricing and feature data sourced from each vendor's public website. Competitor information reflects what was publicly available at time of publication; verify current details directly. Harmny maintains this page and is one of the vendors reviewed.