Lattice vs Culture Amp (September 2026): an independent comparison

Lattice or Culture Amp: the verdict

Lattice vs Culture Amp: comparison table

Compare all fields side by side, including certifications and hosting →

Lattice vs Culture Amp: what it costs per year

What Lattice and Culture Amp look like

Pricing: Lattice publishes per-seat prices, Culture Amp quotes

Lattice lists its prices per seat per month (as of September 2026): Performance costs $10, Goals & OKRs $8 and Engagement $4, with Compensation (+$6) and Grow (+$4) as add-ons. Analytics, integrations and the AI agent come with every base product. Lattice bills all contracts annually, in US dollars only, with a minimum annual agreement of $4,000.

That minimum sets the price for small teams. At $10 per seat per month, Performance alone passes $4,000 a year only at 34 seats, so a 15-person company pays the same as a 33-person one. Our Lattice profile keeps the full price list.

Culture Amp publishes no prices. Its pricing page says the cost depends on the number of employees, the products chosen and the service tier, that all products are billed annually, and that the enterprise tier starts at 1,000 employees. Neither vendor advertises a free trial or a free plan.

AI features: Lattice bundles an agent, Culture Amp bundles a coach

Lattice AI Agent is included with every base product. The Lattice AI page lists coaching for managers and employees, review drafts built from one-on-ones, feedback and goals, meeting notes, analysis of people data and help with writing. Engagement adds AI analysis of survey trends, and Grow adds AI-suggested growth areas. The features run on OpenAI models with zero data retention.

In Culture Amp, AI Coach is part of every plan at no extra charge. It turns engagement results into action plans, helps managers draft balanced reviews and lets them rehearse difficult conversations as role play. Survey reports add Comment Summaries, Comment Comparison and Sentiment Analysis, and performance reviews add Suggest Improvements and Highlights & Opportunities. The features run on Google Vertex AI, admins can switch them on or off, and Culture Amp says customer data does not train third-party models.

Both vendors now connect their data to assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT through a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector, and both gate access. Lattice MCP was in early access for current customers as of June 2026. Culture Amp announced its MCP on August 24, 2026, but existing customers have to register first. Lattice features announced for fall and winter 2026, such as AI notes for every calendar meeting, were not yet generally available when we checked.

Where they diverge: certificates, hosting regions and Lattice's exit from HRIS

Culture Amp shows more third-party certificates. Its trust center lists ISO 27001, ISO 42001 for AI management systems, SOC 2 and CSA STAR; the ISO 42001 certificate was announced on October 22, 2025. The Lattice trust FAQ lists a SOC 2 Type II report and names no ISO certificate.

Hosting differs by region. Culture Amp hosts data on AWS in one of three regions, the US, the EU or Australia; the region is set in the contract before the account is created and defaults to the US. Lattice offers US or EU hosting (Frankfurt, with backup in Dublin), but the EU option is for new customers only, and Lattice says EU-hosted data is still transferred outside the EU for processing. In our performance and feedback category, 7 of 19 tools can keep data in the EU.

Lattice also narrowed its product line. It launched an HRIS in fall 2024 and added payroll, then told customers it would close both: payroll access ended on March 31, 2026, and HRIS access on July 31, 2026, according to HR software advisory firm Outsail. The Lattice pricing page now lists only talent products, so buyers need a separate HR system of record with either vendor; Culture Amp connects to one through HRIS integrations included in all plans.

Country fit: Culture Amp adds Australia, Lattice stays US-first

Our directory lists the United States as the strong market for Lattice, and the United States and Australia for Culture Amp. TechCrunch reported in 2021 that about two-thirds of Culture Amp's revenue came from the United States. Its Australian hosting region is its clearest local advantage over Lattice.

In the United States, California's privacy law has covered employee and job applicant data since January 1, 2023. The state's rules on automated decisionmaking technology took effect on January 1, 2026, and businesses must meet the requirements specific to that technology by January 1, 2027, including for employment decisions. In New York City, Local Law 144 requires a bias audit within the past year, a public summary and notices before an automated tool is used for hiring or promotion decisions, so check both rules if AI-drafted reviews feed promotions.

Australia's Privacy Act exempts a private employer's handling of employee records that relate directly to the employment relationship, according to the regulator OAIC; unsuccessful job applicants are treated differently. In the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, fully in force since February 5, 2026, requires safeguards such as human intervention for significant decisions made solely by automated means. In the EU, the AI Act lists AI that evaluates the performance and behavior of workers or informs promotions as high risk, with duties applying from December 2, 2027. Culture Amp says that, to its knowledge, its AI features are not high risk under the AI Act and not meant for promotion or termination decisions; we found no such statement from Lattice.

Who should pick Lattice and who Culture Amp

The bottom line

Choose by what drives your program and where your data must sit. If reviews and goals drive it and you want a published price, start with Lattice and check whether the $4,000 minimum fits your headcount. If surveys drive it, or you need Australian hosting or ISO certificates, start with Culture Amp and request a quote for the same modules. For performance tools inside an HR suite, compare Personio vs HiBob.