Honest comparison
Timbre vs Lattice
Which is right for your team? Here’s the straight answer — including when Lattice is the better choice.
Lattice is an all-in-one people management platform: performance reviews, goals/OKRs, compensation, HRIS, and engagement. If you are shopping for a complete performance-management stack, it is one of the strongest products in the category.
Lattice does sell Engagement on its own — $4 a seat a month, no performance suite required — so the old "buy the platform to get the survey" criticism no longer holds. What a small team runs into instead is the floor. The minimum annual agreement is $4,000 whatever your headcount, so a 30-person company pays $4,000 for something its own seat count prices at $1,440.
Where Lattice genuinely shines
- Best-in-class performance review and OKR workflows
- Compensation and HRIS modules — a genuine all-in-one people stack
- Strong manager tooling: 1:1 agendas, praise, updates
- Large ecosystem of integrations and consultants
Pricing, side by side
Timbre
- •$49/month or $470/year, flat — up to 50 people (larger teams: email or a call, priced individually)
- •Every feature included: 360° and pulse surveys, Conductor, the AI reports, branding, exports, single sign-on (OpenID Connect)
- •A person to help you set it up — a question, a working session, or a setup coach
- •Price locked for 12 months from signup
- •14-day free trial, no credit card · self-serve, no sales call
Lattice
- •Engagement (pulse, onboarding/exit surveys, AI analysis): $4/seat/month — sold on its own
- •Performance, where 360-style reviews live: $10/seat/month
- •Goals & OKRs $8; Compensation +$6; Grow +$4
- •$4,000 minimum annual agreement regardless of headcount, billed annually
Lattice list prices from lattice.com/pricing, verified September 2026. Engagement no longer requires the performance suite; the $4,000 annual minimum is what a small team actually pays. Last verified September 2026. Found something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.
Feature by feature
| Timbre | Lattice | |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous 360° feedback | Included | Performance, $10/seat/month |
| Pulse surveys + eNPS | Included | Engagement, $4/seat/month |
| AI-generated insights & recommendations | Included | Included |
| Describe a 360 in plain English and it drafts the rater matrix, questions and timing | Conductor | Templates; AI reads the results |
| A report on feedback you already have, on day one | Included | Run their survey first |
| Performance reviews / OKRs / comp | Not offered | Included |
| Buy surveys standalone | Included | Yes — Engagement is sold on its own |
| Transparent public pricing | Included | Published, sales-led |
| Self-serve signup (no sales call) | Included | Not offered |
| A person to help you set it up | Included, trial too | Onboarding with contract |
| Free trial | 14 days | Demo only |
| Minimum commitment | None — $49/mo, cancel any time | $4,000/year floor, whatever your headcount |
| Single sign-on | OpenID Connect | Included |
Choose Lattice if…
- →You want performance reviews, goals, comp, and engagement in one system
- →You want performance, goals and engagement together — $14–22 a seat a month, over a $4,000 annual floor
- →HRIS consolidation is part of the project
Choose Timbre if…
- →You need employee listening without buying a performance-management suite
- →A team of 50 pays $470 a year on Timbre. The same team on Lattice pays the $4,000 annual minimum even though 50 seats of Engagement list at $2,400 — and $8,400 if you want 360s as well
- →You want to start on a monthly plan and cancel anytime
- →You already have (or don't want) performance review software
Common questions
Can I use Timbre if I already use Lattice for performance reviews?
Yes, and it is a common pattern: keep Lattice (or any performance tool) for reviews and goals, and run anonymous 360° feedback and pulse surveys in Timbre. Because Timbre is one flat $49 a month with no seat count and no annual minimum, adding it alongside an existing stack is inexpensive.
How much does Lattice engagement actually cost?
Engagement is $4 a seat a month and can be bought on its own — that changed, and you no longer need the performance suite to run a survey. The number that bites a small team is the floor: the minimum annual agreement is $4,000 whatever your headcount, so 30 seats listing at $1,440 still cost $4,000. Adding 360-style reviews means Performance at $10 a seat on top, which is $8,400 a year for 50 people. Timbre is $470 a year for up to 50, everything included.
Does Timbre do performance reviews or OKRs?
No — deliberately. Timbre is purpose-built for anonymous feedback and culture measurement. Teams that need reviews and goal tracking pair Timbre with a dedicated performance tool.
See it for yourself
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