The short version: 15Five is a horizontal continuous-performance platform built around manager-led weekly check-ins, 1-on-1s and OKRs, while Survey Research Associates (SRA) is a legal-specialist managed service built around confidential upward reviews, 360s and engagement surveys. 15Five wins on continuous feedback cadence, manager effectiveness and transparent per-user pricing. SRA wins on legal-specific confidentiality, independent third-party administration and fit for partnership structures. The choice comes down to whether you want an always-on manager tool your team runs, or a confidential review program run for you. This guide explains the underlying difference, works through where each fits, and concedes what each does better.
Before comparing features, it helps to understand that these two tools answer different questions. 15Five asks "how do we keep feedback flowing between managers and their people every week." SRA asks "how do we collect honest evaluation, including of the partners in charge, without fear shaping the answers." A firm can need both answers, and confusing them is the most common mistake buyers make.
What is continuous feedback, and how does it differ from periodic review?
Continuous feedback is an ongoing rhythm: short, frequent touchpoints, often weekly, where managers and team members exchange updates, coaching and recognition in near real time. Periodic review is a structured evaluation run at set intervals, typically annually or twice a year, that produces a formal rating and a documented record. Neither is better in the abstract; they do different jobs. Continuous feedback keeps small course-corrections happening before problems grow. Periodic review produces the defensible, comparable evaluation that feeds compensation and promotion.
15Five is built for the first job and SRA for the second. That single distinction explains almost every difference in the rest of this guide, from who runs the tool to how confidentiality works.
What is the core difference between SRA and 15Five?
15Five is software your managers operate; SRA is a service run for your firm. 15Five's model is continuous: weekly check-ins, ongoing feedback, 1-on-1 agendas and OKR tracking, all driven by managers day to day. SRA's model is periodic and independent: confidential upward reviews, 360s and engagement surveys designed for law firms and administered by a neutral third party.
The word doing the heavy lifting is "independent." One tool builds a feedback habit inside the management line; the other collects candid evaluation from outside it. In a law firm, the people being evaluated upward are the same partners who control assignments, bonuses and career progression, and that power dynamic is exactly why the source of administration matters so much.
Why does independence matter so much for upward feedback?
This is the concept most worth understanding, because it is where a general tool structurally struggles. Imagine an associate asked to rate a partner's leadership inside a platform that the partner's own management chain administers, where the associate is not certain who can see the response or trace it back. The rational move for that associate is caution. They soften criticism, cluster their scores in the safe middle, and keep the genuinely useful feedback to themselves. The result looks like data but behaves like noise, and worse, it can make a real problem look solved.
Independent administration changes the incentive. When a neutral third party collects and aggregates responses, applies a minimum-respondent threshold before anything is shown, and reports themes rather than traceable comments, the associate can answer honestly because candor is safe. The feedback improves not because the questions are better but because the fear is removed. A manager-run continuous tool is excellent at many things, but by its nature it cannot offer that separation, because the manager is inside the loop. This is not a knock on 15Five; it is a structural feature of who administers the data.
Where does 15Five genuinely win?
15Five is a well-built platform and does several things better than a periodic review program. Its strengths include:
- Continuous feedback cadence through weekly check-ins that build a real feedback habit
- Strong manager-effectiveness tooling and structured 1-on-1 frameworks
- OKR and goal tracking tied to ongoing performance rather than an annual event
- Transparent, public per-user pricing across three tiers (15Five pricing, 2026)
- A mature, high-rated product used by thousands of companies across industries
If your firm wants an always-on rhythm of manager-to-associate check-ins and has the internal ownership to sustain it, 15Five does that well. Its strength is breadth and cadence. Its limit for legal is that it is built for the general mid-market, not for confidential upward evaluation of partners, and it depends on sustained manager participation to deliver value, which is a real operational commitment.
Where does a legal specialist like SRA fit better?
SRA is built only for US law firms, which shows up wherever 15Five has to be generic:
- Confidential upward reviews administered independently, so associates can evaluate partners candidly
- Instruments calibrated to law firm competency frameworks, PQE cohorts and partnership structures
- Anonymity thresholds designed specifically for small practice groups
- Fully managed administration, so the firm needs little internal admin time
- US law firm benchmarks rather than cross-industry averages
- SOC 2 and ISO-aligned, US-based data handling
The trade-off is cadence and control. SRA is not a daily manager tool, and it is a service relationship rather than a login your team drives. For the specific job of honest upward and 360 feedback in a firm, though, independence is the feature, not a limitation, and it is the one a manager-driven platform cannot structurally provide.
How do SRA and 15Five compare at a glance?
How do the two compare on pricing?
The models differ in shape, not just amount. 15Five uses transparent per-user tiers, roughly $4 per user per month for engagement, about $11 for performance and around $16 for the full platform in 2026, billed annually, with AI coaching and other add-ons priced separately (15Five pricing, 2026). Because it is per-user, the cost scales directly with headcount, so a 400-lawyer firm pays several times what a 100-lawyer firm pays for the same tool.
SRA uses fixed-tier pricing with no per-user cost, folding design, administration and analysis into one program fee that does not multiply as the firm grows. For a firm without internal survey staff, the managed model often carries lower all-in cost once you count the hours a self-run tool would require to configure, operate and report on. The honest way to compare is to build both out fully: per-user license plus add-ons plus internal hours for 15Five, against the fixed program fee for SRA. We break the numbers down further in our guide to what a law firm performance review service costs.
How should a firm decide between them?
Work through three questions in order:
First, what job are you actually hiring the tool for? If it is a weekly manager-and-team feedback habit with goals and check-ins, that points to 15Five. If it is honest upward, 360 or engagement data that feeds compensation and retention decisions, that points to a specialist.
Second, do you have the internal capacity to run a platform? Continuous tools deliver only if managers sustain the cadence and someone owns configuration and reporting. If that capacity does not exist, a managed service removes the dependency.
Third, how sensitive is the feedback you most need? The more your priority is candid evaluation of the partners who hold power, the more independence outweighs cadence, and the more a neutral third party earns its place.
Most firms find the honest answer to those three questions is not the same tool for every job, which leads directly to the next point.
Can a firm use both?
Yes, and it is often the sharpest setup rather than a compromise. A firm can run 15Five for continuous, manager-led check-ins and day-to-day goal tracking, and use SRA for the confidential, independent work that a manager tool cannot do well: upward reviews of partners, 360s and firm engagement surveys. The two are not really competing for the same job. One keeps feedback flowing inside the management line; the other collects the candid signal from outside it.
A practical tell: if you already run a continuous tool and keep getting cautious, middle-clustered upward feedback that never quite explains your attrition, that gap is exactly where an independent program fits. You do not have to replace the tool you like. You add the capability it structurally lacks.
Why the choice matters more in 2026
The stakes around getting feedback right have risen sharply. Thomson Reuters Institute analysis published in July 2026, drawing on 736 law firm professionals, found that AI tooling has become a talent issue, with nearly one in four professionals saying they would refuse a job offer from a firm that lacks professional-grade AI tools, and only about half saying they can see their firm's AI strategy reflected in their daily work (Thomson Reuters, 2026). BigHand's 2025 research put the cost of losing a third-year associate above $1 million (BigHand, 2025).
Read together, those figures make the same point. Associates increasingly judge firms on signals that leadership cannot see from the inside, and the cost of missing that signal until an exit interview is enormous. A continuous tool and an independent review program each capture part of the picture, which is why, for many firms, the real answer is not choosing one but using each for the job it does best.
Frequently asked questions
Is 15Five good for law firms? 15Five works well for continuous, manager-led feedback and goal tracking, and its per-user pricing is transparent. Its limit for law firms is that it is a general mid-market tool, not built for confidential upward reviews of partners or law firm-specific structures.
Does SRA replace 15Five or work alongside it? Either. Some firms use SRA as their full evaluation program; others keep 15Five for day-to-day check-ins and use SRA for confidential upward reviews, 360s and engagement surveys that need independent administration.
What is the main weakness of a continuous-feedback tool for upward reviews? Independence. When the manager being evaluated also sits inside the tool's management chain and controls assignments, associates tend to answer cautiously. Independent, anonymous administration is what produces candid upward feedback.
How much does 15Five cost versus SRA? 15Five runs roughly $4 to $16 per user per month billed annually, so cost scales with headcount. SRA uses fixed-tier pricing with no per-user cost. Which is cheaper depends on firm size and how much internal time you can spend running a tool.
Which is better for confidentiality in a small practice group? A specialist program with built-in anonymity thresholds is safer, because it is designed so results from a small team cannot expose individual answers. In a self-run platform, your team has to configure that correctly.
Do both offer engagement surveys? Yes, but different kinds. 15Five includes engagement and pulse surveys benchmarked across industries; SRA runs engagement and eNPS surveys benchmarked against US law firms specifically.
Is continuous feedback better than annual reviews? They serve different purposes. Continuous feedback catches small issues early and builds coaching habits; periodic review produces the comparable, documented evaluation that decisions rest on. Most firms benefit from having both rather than treating it as a choice.
About Survey Research Associates (SRA) Survey Research Associates (SRA) has designed and administered upward reviews, 360-degree evaluations, engagement surveys and exit surveys exclusively for US law firms since 1987, with clients across New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Houston, Boston and Atlanta. Pricing is fixed-tier with no per-user cost. Book a fit assessment or get our monthly law firm evaluation brief in your inbox.
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