5 Best Qualtrics Alternatives for Mid-Size Companies

Qualtrics Employee Experience (EX) is the gold standard for enterprise-grade employee listening programs. When you need to survey 50,000 employees across 30 countries with advanced statistical analysis, custom dashboards, and a team of dedicated analysts, Qualtrics delivers. It is the Ferrari of employee experience platforms.

But most mid-size companies do not need a Ferrari. They need a reliable, capable vehicle that gets them where they need to go without a six-figure investment and a dedicated pit crew.

Qualtrics pricing for employee experience typically starts at $10-15 per employee per year for basic survey functionality, but most organizations end up spending significantly more once they add modules, analytics, dashboards, and implementation services. Annual contracts commonly land in the $30,000-$100,000+ range for mid-size companies, with implementation taking 2-4 months. For a 200-person company that needs engagement surveys, performance reviews, and basic analytics, this level of investment is hard to justify.

If you are exploring Qualtrics for your employee experience program or looking to migrate to something more appropriately sized, here are five alternatives that deliver the insights you need without the enterprise complexity and cost.

Why Mid-Size Companies Look Beyond Qualtrics

The most common reasons mid-size organizations choose alternatives to Qualtrics:

• Enterprise pricing, enterprise complexity: Qualtrics is built for large enterprises. The pricing, implementation timeline, and ongoing administration requirements reflect that.
• Overkill for most use cases: Advanced statistical modeling, conjoint analysis, and multi-language survey design across dozens of locales are powerful capabilities that most mid-size companies never use.
• Survey-centric architecture: Qualtrics EX started as a survey tool and expanded from there. Performance reviews, 360 feedback, and goal tracking are either limited or require separate products (Qualtrics 360, which is priced separately).
• Requires dedicated resources: Getting full value from Qualtrics typically requires a dedicated people analytics team or expensive consulting engagements.
• Slow time to value: Between sales cycles, contract negotiations, implementation, and configuration, it can take 3-6 months before you run your first survey.

The 5 Best Qualtrics Alternatives for Mid-Size Companies

1. Unmatched

Best for: Mid-size companies that want Qualtrics-level engagement insights plus full performance management, powered by AI instead of a dedicated analytics team.

Unmatched represents a fundamentally different approach to employee experience. Where Qualtrics gives you powerful survey tools and expects you to build the analytics layer, Unmatched builds the intelligence directly into the platform. Its AI agents do the analytical work — identifying themes, surfacing risks, generating action plans — that Qualtrics requires a people analytics team (or expensive consultants) to produce.

The platform combines engagement surveys, pulse surveys, performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, one-on-one meeting support, goal tracking, well-being monitoring, exit surveys, and predictive analytics into a single system. For mid-size companies that want to understand and act on their employee experience without hiring a data science team, Unmatched delivers the insight-to-action loop that Qualtrics promises but requires significant investment to achieve.

Key features:

• Engagement surveys and pulse surveys with AI-powered analysis
• Open-text response theme extraction using natural language processing
• eNPS tracking with automated trend analysis
• Performance reviews with AI-assisted writing from multi-source data
• 360-degree feedback with anonymous aggregation
• Well-being tracking and burnout risk detection
• Predictive turnover analytics that flag at-risk employees before they resign
• AI chat for querying people data conversationally
• Automated action plan generation for managers based on survey and performance data
• Exit surveys with retention pattern analysis
• Agentic workflows for automating survey cycles, reminders, and follow-ups

Pricing: $3/employee/month (Essentials: surveys, reviews, 360, goals, well-being). $5/employee/month (Intelligence: adds AI agents, predictive analytics, AI chat, advanced reporting). No minimum contract. No implementation fees. 14-day free trial.

For perspective: a 200-person company on the Intelligence plan pays $12,000/year for the complete platform. The same company would typically spend $30,000-$60,000 on Qualtrics for surveys alone.

Pros:

• AI replaces the need for a dedicated people analytics team
• Complete platform covering surveys, performance, feedback, and well-being
• 80-90% cheaper than Qualtrics for mid-size companies
• Fast setup — launch your first survey in under an hour, not 3 months
• Transparent pricing with no hidden fees, implementation costs, or minimums
• Combines quantitative survey data with performance and behavioral data for richer insights

Cons:

• Does not match Qualtrics's depth in advanced statistical analysis (conjoint, MaxDiff, etc.)
• Benchmarking library is smaller than Qualtrics's 15+ year dataset
• Not designed for companies with 5,000+ employees across many countries
• Lacks Qualtrics's research partnerships and academic backing

Why choose Unmatched over Qualtrics: For mid-size companies, Unmatched delivers 90% of the insight at 10-20% of the cost, with AI doing the heavy analytical lifting. You also get full performance management capabilities that Qualtrics does not offer, creating a single platform for the entire employee experience.

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2. Culture Amp

Best for: Mid-size companies that want research-backed survey design and industry benchmarking, and have the budget for a premium platform.

Culture Amp is the most direct alternative to Qualtrics for organizations that prioritize survey science and benchmarking. Founded by organizational psychologists, Culture Amp offers research-validated question libraries, extensive industry benchmarks, and a strong methodology for driving action from survey data.

Key features:

• Engagement surveys with research-backed question libraries
• Industry benchmarks for contextualizing scores
• Driver analysis to identify what matters most
• Performance reviews with calibration
• Goal tracking
• Skills and development tools
• Manager effectiveness reporting

Pricing: Custom pricing. Annual contracts typically starting at $10,000/year for smaller teams, scaling to $25,000-$45,000+ for mid-size companies.

Pros:

• Research-backed survey methodology with strong validity
• Extensive benchmarking library built over 10+ years
• Driver analysis helps prioritize actions that matter most
• Growing performance management capabilities
• Strong customer success and implementation support

Cons:

• Expensive for SMBs with opaque, custom-only pricing
• Performance review features are not as strong as dedicated performance platforms
• Requires more HR sophistication to fully leverage the analytics
• Implementation can take 4-8 weeks
• AI capabilities are developing but lag behind AI-native platforms

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3. Lattice

Best for: Companies that want a single platform for performance, engagement, goals, compensation, and HRIS.

Lattice has evolved into one of the most comprehensive people platforms in the market. It covers performance reviews, engagement surveys, OKRs, compensation management, and HRIS functionality. For companies that want to consolidate their people stack, Lattice offers significant breadth.

Key features:

• Performance reviews with calibration and analytics
• Engagement and pulse surveys
• OKR and goal management
• Compensation review cycles
• HRIS, payroll, and time tracking
• 360-degree feedback

Pricing: $11/person/month (core). $22/person/month (full suite). $4,000 annual minimum.

Pros:

• Most comprehensive platform in the mid-market
• Strong performance review and calibration workflows
• Compensation management is a differentiator
• HRIS consolidation reduces the number of tools
• Large customer base and integrations ecosystem

Cons:

• Expensive at full-suite pricing, especially vs. Unmatched
• Survey analytics are not as deep as Qualtrics or Culture Amp
• Platform has become complex as features have been added
• $4K annual minimum is a barrier for smaller teams

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4. 15Five

Best for: Manager-centric organizations that prioritize coaching and structured check-ins over survey analytics.

15Five takes a fundamentally different approach from Qualtrics. Where Qualtrics is data-and-analytics-first, 15Five is manager-and-coaching-first. Its structured weekly check-ins, coaching framework, and manager training program (Transform) make it the best choice for organizations that believe better managers are the primary lever for better engagement.

Key features:

• Weekly check-ins and structured feedback
• Performance reviews with competency assessments
• Engagement surveys and eNPS
• OKR tracking
• Manager coaching and training (Transform)
• One-on-one meeting tools

Pricing: $4/user/month (Engage: surveys only). $16/user/month (Total Platform). Transform priced separately.

Pros:

• Best-in-class check-in and coaching framework
• Manager training program is unique
• Good engagement survey design
• Reasonable entry point at $4/user for surveys
• Integrates with popular HRIS and communication tools

Cons:

• Total Platform is $16/user/month, which is expensive for mid-size teams
• Survey analytics are not comparable to Qualtrics or Culture Amp
• Well-being and predictive analytics are limited
• Transform (manager training) is an additional cost

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5. Leapsome

Best for: European mid-size companies that need GDPR compliance and want performance, engagement, OKRs, and learning in one platform.

Leapsome is a strong contender for mid-size companies, particularly those based in Europe. It combines performance reviews, engagement surveys, OKR management, learning, and compensation in a single platform with robust GDPR compliance and multi-language support.

Key features:

• Performance reviews and 360 feedback
• Engagement surveys with driver analysis
• OKR management with visual alignment
• Learning management system
• Compensation and promotion management
• GDPR-compliant with EU data residency

Pricing: From approximately $8/user/month. Module-based with annual contracts.

Pros:

• Comprehensive platform covering the full employee lifecycle
• Strong GDPR compliance for European organizations
• Good balance of features and usability
• OKR management is well-implemented
• Learning module adds development capabilities

Cons:

• Less analytically deep than Qualtrics for survey analysis
• Annual contracts reduce flexibility
• AI features are still catching up
• Pricing increases with additional modules

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Comparison Table

Feature	Unmatched	Culture Amp	Lattice	15Five	Leapsome
Annual Cost (200 employees)	$7,200-$12,000	$15,000-$45,000	$26,400-$52,800	$9,600-$38,400	~$19,200-$36,000
Engagement Surveys	Advanced + AI	Advanced	Yes	Yes	Yes
Performance Reviews	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
360 Feedback	Yes	Basic	Yes	Limited	Yes
AI-Powered Analysis	Advanced	Basic	Basic	Basic	Basic
Well-being Tracking	Yes	No	No	Basic	No
Turnover Prediction	Yes	No	No	No	No
Benchmarking	Growing	Extensive	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Implementation Time	< 1 day	4-8 weeks	2-4 weeks	1-2 weeks	2-4 weeks
Minimum Contract	None	~$10K/year	$4K/year	Annual	Annual

The Qualtrics Migration Playbook

If you are currently on Qualtrics and evaluating a switch, here is how to approach the transition:

1. Audit Your Actual Usage

Qualtrics is a vast platform. Before migrating, document which features you actually use. Most mid-size companies use a fraction of Qualtrics's capabilities. The features you use regularly should drive your alternative selection.

2. Export Historical Data

Your historical survey data is valuable for trend analysis. Export raw response data, aggregate scores, and key benchmarks before your contract ends. Most alternatives can import historical data to maintain continuity.

3. Preserve Your Key Metrics

Identify the metrics that matter most to your organization (eNPS, engagement index, specific question scores) and ensure your new platform can track these consistently. The question banks in our engagement survey templates are designed to be compatible with standard engagement frameworks.

4. Plan for a Clean Break

Unlike migrating from one HRIS to another, switching survey platforms does not require complex data migration. Your next survey cycle simply runs on the new platform. Historical trends can be maintained through imported baseline data.

5. Evaluate Total Cost of Ownership

When comparing costs, include implementation fees, training costs, ongoing administration time, and any consulting or analytics services you currently pay for alongside Qualtrics. Many organizations find that the total cost of Qualtrics is 2-3x the license fee alone.

The Bottom Line

Qualtrics is an exceptional platform for enterprises with large, complex employee listening programs and dedicated analytics teams. But for mid-size companies (50-500 employees), the cost, complexity, and implementation overhead are rarely justified.

Unmatched offers the most compelling alternative for mid-size companies: AI-powered survey analysis that replaces the need for a people analytics team, plus full performance management capabilities, at a fraction of Qualtrics pricing. You can start a free trial and launch your first engagement survey today — not in three months.