# Employee engagement surveys for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "employee engagement survey platform" and as "employee pulse survey tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/experience/employee-engagement-surveys/smb

**Standing:** Workleap Officevibe leads with 27% of first choices; verdict contested. 56 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Workleap Officevibe](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/workleap-officevibe/index.md) | 27% | 10% | 48 |
| 2 | [15Five Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/15five-engage/index.md) | 21% | 6% | 53 |
| 3 | [ThriveSparrow Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/thrivesparrow-engage/index.md) | 14% | 0% | 23 |
| 4 | [FeedbackPulse](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/feedbackpulse/index.md) | 9% | 0% | 15 |
| 5 | [SurveyMonkey](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/surveymonkey/index.md) | 4% | 20% | 15 |
| 7 | [Culture Amp](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/culture-amp/index.md) | 4% | 63% | 35 |
| 8 | [Bonusly](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/bonusly/index.md) | 2% | 6% | 18 |
| 11 | [Google Forms](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/google-forms/index.md) | 2% | 27% | 11 |
| 17 | [Lattice Engagement](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/lattice-engagement/index.md) | 2% | 48% | 31 |
| 18 | [Leapsome](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/leapsome/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 20 |
| 121 | [Qualtrics EmployeeXM](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/qualtrics-employeexm/index.md) | 0% | 80% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 121 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: SurveyMonkey; alternatives SurveyLegend, TINYpulse, Workleap Officevibe
- GPT-5.4 mini: Incogneato, Wotter; alternatives Benepik
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives 15Five Engage, BambooHR, Gusto, Leapsome
- Perplexity Sonar: 15Five Engage; alternatives Workleap Officevibe
- Grok 4.20: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives FeedbackPulse, ThriveSparrow Engage
- Mistral Small: SurveyMonkey; alternatives PeopleGoal, Teamflect, Workleap Officevibe
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: 15Five Engage; alternatives SurveyMonkey, ThriveSparrow Engage, Workleap Officevibe
- Llama 4 Maverick: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives 15Five Engage, Leapsome
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: 15Five Engage; alternatives Leapsome, Workleap Officevibe
- Kimi K2: 15Five Engage, FeedbackPulse; alternatives SurveyMonkey, Workleap Officevibe
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives 15Five Engage, Lattice Engagement, Motivosity, ThriveSparrow Engage
- MiniMax M2.5: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives SurveyMonkey
- GPT-6 Luna: 15Five Engage; alternatives Culture Amp, Lattice Engagement
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Workleap Officevibe; alternatives 15Five Engage, Bonusly, ThriveSparrow Engage

## Sources the answers cite

72 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- thrivesparrow.com: 30 answers, 42 citations
- leadchangegroup.com: 24 answers, 40 citations
- feedbackpulse.com: 23 answers, 38 citations
- firsthr.app: 23 answers, 24 citations
- fitsmallbusiness.com: 22 answers, 23 citations
- peoplemanagingpeople.com: 14 answers, 15 citations
- matterapp.com: 12 answers, 14 citations
- culturemonkey.io: 11 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://fitsmallbusiness.com/employee-engagement-tools (22 answers)
- https://firsthr.app/compare/performance/employee-engagement-platform (20 answers)
- https://thrivesparrow.com/blog/employee-pulse-survey-tools (16 answers)
- https://thrivesparrow.com/blog/employee-engagement-survey-vendors (14 answers)
- https://betterworks.com/magazine/best-employee-engagement-software (11 answers)
- https://leadchangegroup.com/employee-engagement-software/small-business (11 answers)
- https://feedbackpulse.com/resources/affordable-employee-surveys-tools (10 answers)
- https://paycor.com/resource-center/articles/best-employee-pulse-survey-tools (10 answers)
- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-employee-engagement-software (9 answers)
- https://formgrid.com/blog/employee-engagement-survey-tools (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Lattice Engagement: 15 of 31 labels negative. "What to avoid on a tight budget: Lattice Engagement at $4 per seat per month but with a $4,000 annual minimum spend." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- Culture Amp: 22 of 35 labels negative. "Avoid: Platforms that only offer "quote-based" pricing or large annual commitments (like Culture Amp or Lattice at very low headcounts)" (Kimi K2, comparative prompt)
- Qualtrics EmployeeXM: 12 of 15 labels negative. "avoid starting with enterprise-oriented platforms such as Culture Amp or Qualtrics" (Perplexity Sonar, direct prompt)
- Quantum Workplace: 4 of 5 labels negative. "What to avoid on a tight budget: ... Workleap / Quantum Workplace flat platform fees e.g. $4,999/yr minimum." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Workleap Officevibe at 27%.

- Workleap Officevibe: 41% to 27%, −14. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 121, unchanged.
- ThriveSparrow Engage: 0% to 14%, +14. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 41 → 3 of 121.
- FeedbackPulse: 21% to 9%, −12. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 2 → 4 of 121.
- 15Five Engage: 14% to 21%, +7. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 3 → 2 of 121.
- Culture Amp: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 125 → 7 of 121.
- Bonusly: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 8 of 121.
- Google Forms: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 11 of 121.
- Lattice Engagement: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 119 → 17 of 121.
- SurveyMonkey: 4% to 4%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 4 → 5 of 121.
- Leapsome: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 112 → 18 of 121.
- Connecteam: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 17 → 19 of 121.
- TINYpulse: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 16 → 22 of 121.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.