Lattice vs Culture Amp (2026): Reviews or Surveys First?
Lattice suits teams buying performance reviews and goals: $13 per seat a month, $4,000 a year minimum. Culture Amp suits teams buying engagement surveys with benchmarks, at an estimated $5-$9 per employee and a Vendr median of $23,270 a year. Neither sells an HRIS now; Lattice retired its HRIS in July 2026.
Lattice vs Culture Amp: which is better for Performance Management teams?
Choose Lattice if performance reviews, goals and 1:1s are the main purchase: Foundations is $13 per seat, so a 50-person company pays $7,800 a year at list. Choose Culture Amp if engagement surveys and industry benchmarks come first.
Don't buy Lattice expecting an [HRIS](/glossary/hris) or [payroll](/categories/payroll-software): Lattice switched off payroll in March 2026 and its HRIS in July 2026. Don't buy Culture Amp mainly for OKRs; reviewers rate its performance module below its survey product.
If you want both at 200 employees, compare Lattice Foundations plus Engagement ($40,800 a year at list) with a Culture Amp Engage and Perform quote (estimated $30,000 to $55,000). Ask each vendor for the renewal cap in writing before signing.
Lattice vs Culture Amp: what each tool does
Lattice is the performance management platform that mid-market and enterprise HR teams reach for when they want reviews, goals, engagement, and compensation tied together in one system.
- Starting price
- $4 per seat/mo (Engagement)
- Deployment
- Cloud
- Free trial
- No free trial (demo and free interactive product tour)
Culture Amp is the employee engagement and performance platform that people and culture teams reach for when employee experience becomes a strategic priority rather than an annual checkbox.
- Starting price
- ~$4,500/yr minimum (est.) (est.)
- Deployment
- Cloud
- Free trial
- No free trial listed (demo and quote only)
Lattice vs Culture Amp: side by side
Rows are grouped by the decision they belong to, and a row is marked where the two products answer differently. Rows they answer the same way stay visible: that is an answer too.
| Pricing | Lattice | Culture Amp |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $4 per seat/mo (Engagement) | ~$4,500/yr minimum (est.)Estimated, quote-based |
| Typical cost | $13 per seat/mo (Foundations), $4,000/yr min | $5-$9 per employee/mo for Engage (est.)Estimated, quote-based |
| Billing unit | per seat per month, billed annually | per employee, billed annually |
| Free trial | No free trial (demo and free interactive product tour) | No free trial listed (demo and quote only) |
| Price transparency | Prices published by vendor | Quote only (range from third-party sources) |
Prices verified Sep 2026. Sources: Lattice pricing page, Lattice: Vendr Lattice pricing data (updated Feb 2026), Lattice: ClonePartner: Lattice HRIS shutdown guide, Culture Amp pricing page, Culture Amp plans and pricing page, Culture Amp: Compono: Culture Amp pricing guide 2026 (updated Sep 11, 2026), Culture Amp: Vendr Culture Amp pricing data (updated Feb 2026), Culture Amp: Spendflo: Culture Amp pricing (Mar 2025).
Full plan tables: Lattice pricing, Culture Amp pricing.
| Criteria |  Lattice |  Culture Amp |
|---|---|---|
| Commercials | ||
| Starting priceDiffers | $4 per seat/mo (Engagement) | ~$4,500/yr minimum (est.) (estimated, quote-based) |
| Pricing modelDiffers | Per-seat pricing | Custom quote |
| Free trialDiffers | No free trial (demo and free interactive product tour) | No free trial listed (demo and quote only) |
| Typical costDiffers | $13 per seat/mo (Foundations), $4,000/yr min | $5-$9 per employee/mo for Engage (est.) |
| Who it fits | ||
| Best forDiffers | People ops leaders connecting goals to performance ratings | People leaders at 100 to 5,000-person firms benchmarking engagement scores |
| Rollout & platform | ||
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Supported platformsDiffers | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS |
Lattice vs Culture Amp: key differences
Start from the problem you are paying to fix
Lattice started with performance reviews; Culture Amp started with engagement surveys. Each has built the other half since, and the starting point still shows.
- Managers skip reviews and goals live in spreadsheets: Lattice. Reviews, goals, 1:1s and feedback ship together in Foundations. See performance management software.
- Leadership wants engagement scores benchmarked against similar companies: Culture Amp. Its benchmarks draw on 7,800+ organizations.
- Under 50 people and one survey a year: check whether Lattice's $4 Engagement product (within the $4,000 minimum) or Culture Amp's ~$4,500 floor is overkill.
- You need EU or Australian data hosting for survey data: Culture Amp lets you choose a US, EU or AU data center at contracting.
Lattice and Culture Amp cost at 50 and 200 employees
| Bundle | 50 employees / year | 200 employees / year |
|---|---|---|
| Lattice Foundations ($13/seat) | $7,800 | $31,200 |
| Lattice Foundations + Engagement ($17/seat) | $10,200 | $40,800 |
| Lattice Engagement only ($4/seat) | $4,000 (minimum applies) | $9,600 |
| Culture Amp Engage (est.) | ~$4,500-$9,000 | ~$20,000-$35,000 |
| Culture Amp Engage + Perform (est.) | Not reported | ~$30,000-$55,000 |
Does Culture Amp's performance module match Lattice's?
For most reviewers, not yet. Culture Amp's surveys get the praise; its goal and OKR tracking draws the most criticism.
| Feature | Lattice | Culture Amp |
|---|---|---|
| Performance reviews | Core product: reviews, calibration, talent reviews, succession, PIPs | Perform module: reviews, goals, feedback, 1:1s, calibration |
| Goals and OKRs | Cascading goals with Salesforce and Jira integrations ($8/seat alone) | Included in Perform; reviewers call OKR tracking its weaker area |
| Engagement surveys | Pulse, onboarding, exit surveys and eNPS ($4/seat) | Core product: engagement, pulse and lifecycle surveys with benchmarks |
| Benchmarks | Not a focus | 7,800+ organizations in its benchmark data |
| AI features | Lattice AI agent in Slack, Teams and meetings (2025) | AI Coach in surveys for all Engage customers (Oct 2025) |
| Data hosting | Not stated | US, EU or AU data center, fixed after setup |
| HRIS integrations | ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, HiBob, Personio, Rippling, UKG, Workday and more | BambooHR, Gusto, HiBob, Namely, Personio, Workday, Ceridian; others by SFTP |
What changed at Lattice and Culture Amp since 2025
- Lattice dropped HRIS and payroll. Announced November 2025; payroll ended March 31, 2026 and HRIS July 31, 2026. Former HRIS customers need a new system of record.
- Lattice raised Foundations from $11 to $13 per seat in July 2026, per a pricing-page tracker.
- Culture Amp added historical performance uploads in July 2025, which makes switching from Lattice easier.
- Culture Amp changed CEO and cut staff. Caroline Rawlinson became CEO in January 2026; the company cut about 6% of jobs in November 2025 and about 9% in mid-2026.
Renewal, exit and data terms for Lattice and Culture Amp
| Feature | Lattice | Culture Amp |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Annual, $4,000 minimum | Annual, invoiced in advance, net 30 |
| Renewal | Auto-renews unless cancelled in advance (third-party report) | Auto-renews for 12 months unless notice is given 90+ days before term end |
| Mid-term growth | Seats billed per contract | Extra fees if users exceed your tier |
| Data after you leave | Export only while subscribed; deleted 180 days after expiry | Export for 30 days after termination |
| Support | AI bot 24/7; live chat Mon-Fri 1am-5pm PT; email; no phone | AI agent first; human chat target 20 minutes; email 24-72 hours; no inbound phone |
Culture Amp's 90-day notice window is the one buyers miss. Put the non-renewal date in your calendar on signing day.
Moving review and survey history between them
- 1Export review responses per cycle as CSV from Lattice, or per survey from Culture Amp, before you give notice. Lattice exports stop when the subscription ends.
- 2Into Lattice: past reviews go in as PDFs, goals as CSV, and engagement history as overall scores only, not question-level results.
- 3Into Culture Amp: past reviews go in as CSV in a ZIP; comments on self-reflections and manager reviews do not import. Employees must already exist with matching emails.
- 4Culture Amp's full survey import takes 2 to 6 weeks for 1 to 5 surveys and does not cover onboarding, exit or 360 surveys. A lighter scores-only comparison takes 2 to 3 business days.
- 5Keep the old exports in your own storage. Neither tool will rebuild your trend lines exactly.
Recurring complaints from Lattice and Culture Amp users
Themes from G2, Capterra, GetApp and TrustRadius, checked October 2026. Review sites blocked direct reading, so these come from summarized review text.
- Lattice, price rises over time and auto-renewal that catches teams out (TrustRadius; CostBench).
- Lattice, rigid review-cycle templates and click-heavy setup for each cycle (GetApp; Capterra).
- Lattice, shallow reporting, such as finding which managers have not finished reviews (Capterra).
- Culture Amp, performance module behind its surveys, especially OKR tracking (Capterra; SoftwareReviews).
- Culture Amp, admin effort for custom cycles and pricing that favors larger buyers (RFP.wiki review summary).
- Culture Amp, usability and missing features are the most-cited cons on G2's comparison pages.
Related: 15Five vs Lattice, 15Five vs Culture Amp, and our employee engagement software pricing guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lattice or Culture Amp cheaper?
For small teams, usually Lattice for performance and Culture Amp for surveys alone. Lattice publishes $13 per seat for Foundations with a $4,000 annual minimum, so 50 seats cost $7,800 a year. Culture Amp does not publish prices; buyer reports put Engage at about $5 to $9 per employee, or roughly $4,500 to $9,000 a year at 50 employees.
Does Lattice still have an HRIS?
No. Lattice told customers in November 2025 that it would retire its HRIS and payroll products. Payroll access ended on March 31, 2026 and HRIS access on July 31, 2026, according to OutSail's reporting. Lattice now sells its talent suite: performance, goals, engagement, compensation and growth, which connects to HRIS tools such as BambooHR, HiBob, Rippling and Workday.
Can you run Culture Amp and Lattice together?
Yes. Some companies run Culture Amp for engagement surveys and Lattice for performance reviews and goals. Both sync employee data from the same HRIS, including BambooHR, HiBob, Personio and Workday, so the org chart stays aligned. Paying for two tools only makes sense if each team uses its half; otherwise Lattice's $4 Engagement add-on or Culture Amp Perform covers the gap.
Can I move review history from Culture Amp to Lattice?
Partly. Lattice accepts past reviews as PDFs, uploaded by admins or in bulk by its support team, and goals by CSV. For engagement history it only accepts overall scores, not question-level results. Moving from Lattice to Culture Amp keeps more structure: Culture Amp imports past reviews from CSV, though comments on self-reflections and manager reviews are not supported.
Which has better customer support, Lattice or Culture Amp?
Both start with an AI agent and hand off to a person on request, and neither offers inbound phone support. Lattice runs live chat Monday to Friday, 1am to 5pm Pacific, plus email. Culture Amp targets a human chat reply within 20 minutes and email within 24 to 72 hours. Lattice also assigns an onboarding manager during setup.
Is Culture Amp good for small companies?
It works, but the minimum spend is the hurdle. Buyer reports put Culture Amp's floor near $4,500 a year, and reviewers say its pricing suits larger buyers. A 30-person company paying that minimum spends about $12.50 per employee per month. Lattice's $4,000 minimum is similar, so under about 30 people a lighter survey tool may cost less than either.