7 Best OKR Software For Result-Driven Leaders In 2023 (And How To Pick One)
If you’re looking for OKR (Objectives and Key Results) software to set, track, and hit your strategic goals faster, there are plenty of options out there.
But finding the best solution for your team isn’t always a straightforward process. Many organizations don’t know what to consider and often only discover problems after implementing a new platform.
To help you choose, we’ve compiled our top seven picks for the best OKR software in 2023 based on comparison sites like G2 and Capterra:
Below you can read our guide on how to choose the right OKR software or skip straight to our overview of the top vendors.
How To Choose The Best OKR Software For Your Organization?
If you’re getting lost in the sea of available OKR software solutions, picking the best platform can be overwhelming. What makes you confident that it will meet your needs before you commit? The last thing you want is to spend the company’s budget on a tool that doesn’t fit your needs and lands you in hot water with the CFO.
Before you commit to OKR software, consider the following:
1. Ease of use
OKR platform must be user-friendly to ensure employee engagement, rapid implementation, and adoption of the new tool. If using your OKR tool is a challenge or the UI looks like it’s from the late 90s, your team members won’t engage.
Some key questions you should ask:
- Is the platform’s design intuitive and easy to use? Is it easy to navigate?
- Does the OKR tool require my team to switch between different platforms?
- How long will it take my team to get up and running with this OKR tool?
2. Price
Investing in a particular OKR platform is a long-term commitment. Choosing a solution that offers tangible benefits for the price you’re paying is vital. Remember to weigh up the cost of the OKR tool against the features and functionality it provides. Determine how many team members will use the tool and the possibility of expanding your user base.
Some key questions you should ask:
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Does the platform offer a trial version, free plan, or demo? Can you try it out before you commit?
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How does pricing work? What is the cost of adding more users and features?
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Are there any hidden fees for extra customer support?
3. Reporting and tracking
Tracking and reporting are fundamental to keeping OKRs and strategy execution on track. Look at how you can use OKR software to present and view data. What other tracking and reporting functions does it offer? Does it have different use cases, or is it purely an OKR management tool?
Some key questions you should ask:
- What kind of metrics can we track? Can we add KPIs to OKRs and link them with other business tools for automated updates?
- How does it let me monitor, track, and report on results? Does it offer features like real-time dashboards, in-app updates, and notifications?
- Does it have customization options, filters, and drill-down capabilities?
- Can we automate the reporting process?
4. Performance
A buggy or slow platform will reduce the effectiveness of your planning, monitoring, and reporting. Your OKR tool must be reliable, fast, and empowering. Find out what other users say about the product before signing up.
Some key questions you should ask:
- Have users reported performance issues with the tool’s functionality or capabilities?
- What performance issues have they reported?
5. Integrations
You’ll want an OKR solution that integrates with your existing software stack. Go through the integrations listed on the website or contact the company to see what they offer.
Some key questions you should ask:
- Does the OKR tool integrate with our existing business tools?
- Is the process of integrating data from other sources straightforward? For example, do they offer native integrations, API-based integrations, or are they using Zapier?
- Are existing users complaining about integration capabilities?
6. Customer Support
Fast, responsive support is critical if an issue arises. Look at online reviews to see what people say about the type and quality of support with each OKR solution.
Some key questions you should ask:
- What level of support do they offer customers?
- Do they provide in-depth documentation, OKR templates, guides, training, and OKR coaching?
- Are the instructions clear?
In addition to the above criteria, you need to figure out if your team or organization is ready for OKR solutions. You should be fine if you’re already familiar with OKRs.
However, if the idea of OKRs is new to your team, you should take the training process into account and consider whether the OKR framework is best suited to your organizational culture.
Now, let’s dig into the top providers one by one.
1. Cascade
Cascade Cascade OKR and Strategy execution software
Cascade is the leading strategy execution platform that helps high-performing teams turn big goals into results. Its powerful features and focus on the user make it a great tool for setting OKRs, working together on shared goals, tracking performance, and reporting on results.
With Cascade, individuals or teams can set goals, track OKR progress, and adapt their OKRs to align with company objectives. Each team member can see how their efforts contribute to the company’s success.
On top of that, Cascade helps leadership teams deliver business results by giving them a top-level view of what’s happening across the organization and individual teams.
Around the world, teams of all sizes rely on Cascade, including Johnson & Johnson, McClaren, and American Express. Using the platform, they automate their workflows and improve business performance by executing strategies faster.
Pros
- Drive strategic alignment: You can create plans and sub-plans while staying aligned with the company’s strategy. Add team OKRs, individual OKRs, KPIs, and initiatives to each plan so you can track progress.
- Ease of use: Cascade’s intuitive user interface and functionality are a top selling point for many users. This simplicity makes it easy for anyone to leverage the potential of OKRs.
- Powerful automated reporting and tracking software: You’ll get live updates on the status of OKRs and KPIs to make crucial decisions faster. Save 10+ hours on manual reports through spreadsheets and PowerPoints with features like automated OKR tracking, customizable OKR dashboards, and drill-down reports.
- Committed to A+++ customer support: Cascade’s support team is dedicated to top-not customer service and user ratings on third-party site reviews prove this.
- Connect with other tools to visualize data in one place: With Cascade, you can integrate over 1,000 third-party apps directly into the platform, including:
- Collaboration tools: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Outlook
- Project management tools: Jira, Asana, Trello
- Other business tools: Tableau, SAP, Google Sheets, Excel, Salesforce
- Fully customizable to your specific needs: With Cascade, you aren’t limited to the OKR framework alone. You can choose from different strategy execution frameworks or combine different frameworks into one that suits your organization’s needs.
The Cascade platform supports the following strategy and goal-setting frameworks:
- Try it out before you commit: Simply give it a spin with a free account that you can cancel anytime. It’s more than enough to get you started without any sales talk.
Cons
- Not an HR performance management software: While it has some pretty cool performance management features, such as employee engagement insights and individual dashboards to use during 1:1 reviews, that’s not its main use case. Cascade is built to help you collaborate and stay focused on main objectives, goals, and projects.
Pricing (Per User)
- Free Forever Plan for smaller teams (up to 4 users)
- Teams: $24 per month (minimum 5 users)
- Enterprise: Contact Sales to receive a customized quote.
Want to see Cascade in action? 🚀
Sign up for a free account or book a free product tour with Cascade’s strategy experts.
2. Lattice
An example of a Lattice platform home page
Lattice is a people success platform that helps you track employee performance and engagement. For example, they offer some pretty powerful automation capabilities that help HR and people teams manage the compensation process. It also has survey templates, goal management based on OKRs, performance reviews, and analytics about performance in real-time.
Due to its primary focus on managing individual goals, Lattice is a good choice for companies that want to monitor individual performance.
Pros
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Good choice for HR and people management teams
- Boost employee performance with career plans: Build and track long-term career goals with their
: Build and track long-term career goals with their Growth Plan feature.
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Pre-built templates: You can save time with pre-built templates like Remote One-on-One questions, Stay Interview, and Performance Improvement Plan Template.
Cons
- Mixed reviews on ease of use: While some users love Lattice for its simplicity, there are also some voices complaining about its confusing navigation.
- Focus on OKRs and individual performance: Their goal management is restricted to OKR methodology and individual OKRs. This tool may not be the best fit for those who need to build strategic plans and assign OKRs for faster strategy execution.
Pricing (per user)
- Engagement plan: $4 person/month
- Grow plan: $4 person/month
- Performance management + OKR & Goals plan: $11 person/month
- Multi-product and volume purchases available: You need to contact their sales team
3. Weekdone
Via Weekdone
Weekdone’s OKR software provides leaders with a comprehensive toolkit to set goals, monitor team performance, and streamline workflows. Its key features include alignment and linking, OKR Dashboards, and weekly check-ins. As a result, Weekdone is a popular choice for mid- to large-sized companies to improve their collaboration and track OKRs.
Pros
- Tracking and reporting: People love Weekdone’s real-time feedback feature for team members, automated quarterly status reports, and live dashboards to monitor outcomes.
- Wide range of integrations: Weekdone integrates with popular workplace tools, such as Asana and Teamwork, to help teams manage and track different OKR metrics.
Cons
- Confusing to set up and use: While some users stated that Weekdone was easy to use,
: While some users stated that Weekdone was easy to use, some reviews mentioned it takes a lot of time to set it up and low team engagement as issues.
- May be missing key features: Several users
: Several users mentioned they’d like to see more features, such as the ability to email reports, set recurring tasks, and add bi-weekly check-ins.
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Expensive tool: If you have only 3 users on your team, you’ll be fine with the free version. However, its paid plans start at $90 per month (billed annually) which makes it one of the costliest solutions on the market.
Pricing:
- 3 User Package: Free.
- 10 User Package: $90.00
- 50 User Package: $350.00
- 100 User Package: $600.00
4. Profit.co
An example of a user interface screenshot via Profit.co
Profit.co OKR software offers businesses a highly customizable way of implementing OKR goal-setting for their organization. Profit.co is most popular with small businesses and mid-sized organizations in IT.
Profit.co’s tools and features are great for performance management, task management, and employee engagement.
Pros
- Value for money: Affordable plans combined with powerful functionality and features makes Profit.co a popular choice for smaller teams and mid-sized businesses.
- Support: Profit.co offers a high level of customer service to their customers. Several users have noted that customer support is fast, responsive, and knowledgeable.
Cons
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Steep learning curve
: Profit.co’s complexity may prevent people without OKR training and prior experience from using it properly. Due to its many additional features and options, team members will need extra training to understand and use it effectively.
Pricing (Per User):
- Launch (up to 5 users): Free.
- Growth: $7.00
- Enterprise: Contact Sales.
5. Perdoo
An example of an individual’s progress report and check-in via Perdoo
Perdoo is a simple OKR software solution that helps teams synchronize their long-term strategic goals and daily activities. Perdoo’s OKR software is popular among mid-sized organizations that operate in the pharmaceutical industry. However, any business looking to implement the OKR can use its features and capabilities.
Pros
- Purpose-built for OKRs: This makes Perdoo ideal for high-performing teams that want to plan objectives, track goals, and monitor progress by using OKRs.
- Support: Users of Perdoo rate the platform’s OKR documentation and client support as excellent.
Cons
- Performance issues: Users mention occasional bugs and issues with features as a downside to using the platform.
- Steep learning curve: It may take time and training to get up to speed with the platform’s features.
- Issues with reporting and tracking: Some users feel that Perdoo’s Roadmap feature is difficult to use and doesn’t provide enough information for a faster decision-making process.
Pricing (Per User):
- Free: $0.00
- Pro: $6.50
- Premium: $9.50
- Supreme: $17.00
6. Betterworks
A screenshot of the workspace in the Betterworks platform
Betterworks is an enterprise SaaS platform for OKR and employee management. The platform’s focus is to help large businesses achieve company goals by closing the loop between people and business results. Betterworks’ goal is the same as Lattice’s: to make an all-in-one performance management tool for HR professionals.
Pros
- Performance management: Betterworks helps HR teams do their job efficiently through features like performance reviews, employee feedback surveys, coaching conversation templates, and OKR goal setting.
- Support documentation: They provide comprehensive e-learning materials and OKR coaching to improve team engagement and onboarding times.
Cons
- Difficult to use: Some users have stated that the Betterworks user interface is not straightforward and that it may take time to get up to speed with its various functions.
- Lack of integrations: Some reviewers mention they would like the platform to support more integrations with third-party apps.
- Free trial unavailable
Pricing (Per User):
- Betterworks Team Edition: $8.00
- Engage Team Edition: $2.00
- Betterworks Enterprise Edition: Contact Sales
- Engage Enterprise Edition: Contact Sales
7. 15Five
via 15Five
15Five is a performance management platform for HR leaders. The platform is focused on helping HR managers run their performance programs and make decisions based on a full view of an employee.
Pros
- Employee performance management: This platform offers a full suite of features helping HR managers to create a 360 view of their employees.
- Manager Training and Coaching Hub: You can create a coaching plan for each manager and track their journey to becoming a true leader.
- OKR-based goal management: They provide some features that help you track OKRs progress, run 1:1 performance reviews, and weekly check-ins.
Cons
- Steep learning curve: Some users pointed out that the OKR structure is difficult to understand.
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Goal-setting is limited to OKR methodology: If your organization decides OKRs are not a good fit for your processes, you may incur higher costs in the long run.
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HR focus: You won’t be able to generate reports with key business metrics to evaluate how your company’s and teams’ OKRs are affecting the bottom line.
Pricing (Per User):
- Engage Plan – $4/per user per month (billed annually)
- Perform Plan – $8/per user per month (billed annually)
- Focus Plan – $8/per user per month (billed annually)
- Total Platform – $14/per user per month (billed annually)
Which OKR solution should you choose? 👀
Go for a tool that’ll grow with your organization’s needs and won’t lock you into the OKR framework if you decide it no longer fits with your processes.
Hopefully, we’ve provided some insights and tips to help you figure out which OKR tool is right for you.
Our recommendation? Cascade.
Yes, we might be biased since Cascade is our tool, but customer reviews back up our claims with 4.8-star ratings.
Its ease of use and features make goal management, progress tracking, and strategy planning easy for startups, mid-sized businesses, and enterprises.
Plus, thanks to its flexibility, you don’t have to stick with the OKR methodology if you choose to use other goal-setting and strategy execution frameworks.
Want to see Cascade in action? Sign up for a free account or book a free product tour with Cascade’s strategy expert.
Editor’s note: We’ve done our best to give an honest overview of all the great tools that are out there. If you spot a mistake, please let us know.