Betterworks for goal tracking: pros, cons and an alternative
Betterworks is enterprise performance management that began as OKR software. Clearahead is goal tracking a startup leadership team can run this afternoon
The short answer
Betterworks is enterprise performance management software. It started in 2013 as one of the first OKR and goal-setting tools and now covers goals and OKRs, feedback, 1:1s, engagement surveys, calibration, succession and skills, with AI for HR, sold mainly to HR leaders at large organisations. Clearahead is goal tracking software for startups and companies up to 200 people: each goal, the constraints holding it back and the moves that clear them, kept current by AJ, its AI. If you’re a large enterprise modernising performance management, Betterworks is built for you. If you’re a leadership team that wants to get aligned on what’s in the way, Clearahead fits better.
Weighing up other options too? See Lattice alternatives compared.
What is Betterworks?
Betterworks is performance management software for large organisations. Its platform covers goals and OKRs, continuous feedback, 1:1 conversations, engagement surveys, calibration, succession planning and skills intelligence, and it describes its approach as performance enablement: helping employees and managers do their best work rather than just rating them once a year.
Goals were where Betterworks started, and they’re still central. Companies set goals at every level, align them to the company’s priorities and track them through regular check-ins and conversations. Newer AI features answer questions across performance and talent data and turn meeting transcripts into insights for managers and HR.
Betterworks is sold mainly to HR leaders in big companies. It reports hundreds of thousands of active users and names enterprise customers such as Intuit. It appears in AI answers about Lattice alternatives because, like Lattice, it combines goals with performance management, but it sits at the enterprise end of the market.
Where Betterworks came from
Kris Duggan co-founded Betterworks in Silicon Valley in 2013, as one of the first software products built for OKRs. That was the moment OKRs were moving out of Intel and Google and into the wider tech industry. Venture investor John Doerr, who had introduced OKRs to Google and later wrote Measure What Matters, joined its board through Kleiner Perkins.
As the market changed, Betterworks moved from goal-setting software to a broader continuous performance management platform, adding feedback, conversations, engagement and talent tools for enterprise HR teams. That journey, from OKRs to people management, is a common one in this category, and it explains why goals in these tools end up so closely tied to performance.
Betterworks pros and cons
What Betterworks does well, and where it struggles.
Where Betterworks shines
- A pioneer of OKR software, with over a decade of experience in goals.
- Built for large, complex organisations and their HR teams.
- Goals connect to feedback, 1:1s, calibration and talent decisions.
- AI features that turn meetings and performance data into insight.
- Used by well-known enterprises, with hundreds of thousands of active users.
Where Betterworks struggles
- Enterprise software: sales-led buying, onboarding and a rollout project.
- Sold to HR leaders; company goals sit inside performance management.
- Goals tied to performance tend to become safe, individual targets.
- Shows whether goals are on track, not what’s holding the company back.
- Pricing isn’t published.
Betterworks vs Clearahead: side by side
| Betterworks | Clearahead | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Enterprise performance management: goals and OKRs, feedback, 1:1s, surveys, calibration, talent | AI goal tracking software for startups and companies up to 200 people |
| Who buys it | HR leaders at large organisations | Founders, CEOs, COOs and heads of growth |
| Whose goals | Company, team and individual goals, cascaded and aligned | The company’s goals, one per workspace, worked on by everyone |
| The question it answers | Are people aligned to goals, and how are they performing? | What is holding each goal back, and who is clearing it? |
| Getting started | Sales-led, with implementation support | Sign up free and build the first model with AJ the same afternoon |
| Keeping it current | Goal updates, check-ins and conversations, with AI insight | Owners tell AJ in a sentence; AJ updates the model and writes a weekly brief |
| Cost | Enterprise pricing on request | Free for up to 3 people and 1 workspace; £297/month or £2,997/year for the whole company |
How Betterworks differs from Clearahead in practice
Betterworks and Clearahead started from a similar place, helping companies focus on goals, and went in opposite directions.
Performance management, or company alignment
Betterworks grew towards HR: goals became a way to manage, develop and assess people at scale. Clearahead stays with the company’s goals. It’s used by the leadership team and the people who own the work to agree what matters, see what’s in the way and keep moving on it. It doesn’t rate anyone.
Cascades, or constraints
Enterprise goal tools cascade: company goals break into department goals, then team goals, then individual goals, all aligned in a tree. That makes sense for ten thousand people. For a startup it usually means weeks of goal-writing and a tree no one reads. Clearahead gives each goal its own workspace, with a short list of what’s holding it back, in the order your team chooses, and the moves that clear each one. We explain why in How to set company goals in 2027.
A rollout, or an afternoon
Betterworks is bought through a sales process and implemented with support, which is normal for enterprise software. Clearahead is free for up to three people, and most teams build their first model with AJ the same afternoon. There are no consultants and no training days.
AI for HR, or AI for the leadership team
Betterworks’ AI serves HR and managers, answering questions about performance and talent. AJ, the AI inside Clearahead, serves whoever is working on the goal. Owners tell AJ what happened in a sentence; AJ updates the model, keeps the evidence and writes This week from AJ, with up to three things that need a decision.
Goals that rate people, or goals that move the company
When goals become part of performance management, they change. People write goals they know they can hit, because their rating depends on it. Progress gets reported carefully. Ambitious goals quietly turn into safe ones. That’s a reasonable trade-off for an enterprise that needs fair, consistent reviews across thousands of employees, and Betterworks has done a lot of thinking about how to balance it. But a startup trying to hit an ambitious goal needs the opposite: people who’ll say early and plainly that something is stuck. Clearahead isn’t connected to anyone’s review. A stalled move is information the leadership team needs, not a mark against the person who owns it, and AJ will raise it in the weekly brief when it needs a decision.
What Clearahead doesn’t do
Clearahead has no reviews, calibration, feedback, engagement surveys, succession planning or skills data. It doesn’t offer single sign-on or cascade goals through a large organisation. If you need those, you need an enterprise performance platform.
Should you choose Betterworks or Clearahead?
Choose Betterworks if
- You’re a large organisation replacing annual reviews with continuous performance management.
- You need calibration, succession planning and skills data alongside goals.
- Your HR team will own the rollout and the process.
- You need enterprise integrations and security reviews.
Choose Clearahead if
- You’re a startup or a company of up to 200 people.
- You want the leadership team aligned on a few company goals, not a goal for every employee.
- You want to see what’s in the way of each goal, not just whether it’s on track.
- You want to be running today, without a sales process or a rollout.
- You want a published price for the whole company.
Our honest read
If you’re a large organisation modernising performance management, Betterworks is a serious, proven option, and its long history with goals is a real strength. Clearahead doesn’t compete for that job.
If you’re a startup leadership team, or a company of up to a couple of hundred people, an enterprise performance platform is very likely more than you need, and it won’t solve the problem most growing companies actually have: the leadership team isn’t aligned on what’s holding the company back.
That’s the problem we built Clearahead for. For other options, see our Lattice alternatives roundup and our list of goal tracking software for startup leadership teams.
Questions about Betterworks
What is Betterworks?
Betterworks is enterprise performance management software, founded in Silicon Valley in 2013 by Kris Duggan. It started as goal-setting and OKR software and now covers goals, feedback, 1:1s, engagement surveys, calibration, succession and skills, with offices in Menlo Park and New York.
Is Betterworks OKR software?
It began as one, and goals and OKRs are still at its core, but today Betterworks positions itself as performance management for enterprises, with goals as one part of a wider talent platform.
Is Betterworks right for a startup?
Usually not. It’s built and priced for large organisations with HR teams. Startups that want OKRs tend to choose lighter tools like Perdoo or Tability; those that want the leadership team aligned on what’s in the way choose Clearahead.
Is Clearahead an alternative to Betterworks?
Only for company goals, and only for smaller companies. Clearahead has no reviews, calibration, surveys or talent tools, and isn’t built to cascade goals through a large enterprise.