Best Stay Interview Software in 2026: 8 Tools Compared

A stay interview is the most underused retention tool there is: a proactive conversation with a current employee about what keeps them — and what might make them leave — before they quit. The problem is that stay interviews rarely happen, and when they do, employees self-censor with their own manager. The best stay interview software in 2026 is the software that makes these conversations happen consistently and surfaces honest answers.

Short answer: The best stay interview tool in 2026 is Koji for teams that want candid, scalable stay conversations, because it runs anonymous, asynchronous, AI-moderated interviews that probe past the safe answer to the real retention driver. For stay interviews embedded in a broader people platform, Lattice and 15Five lead on manager 1:1 workflows, while Culture Amp and Workday Peakon lead on predictive retention analytics.

Why stay interviews matter — and why they fail

The cost of getting retention wrong is brutal: replacing an employee costs 50–200% of their annual salary (SHRM), and roughly 75% of voluntary turnover is preventable (Work Institute). More than half of voluntary exits happen within the first year. The people who quit usually gave warning signs — the organization just never asked in time.

Gallup's research makes the gap vivid: among employees who left, only 17% said a manager discussed what it would take to keep them in the three months before they resigned, and 45% said little or nothing was done by a manager in that window. Meanwhile only about 28% of organizations conduct stay interviews, versus 72% that rely on exit interviews (People Element) — that is, most companies only ask why someone is leaving after the decision is final.

Stay interviews fix the timing. But they introduce a candor problem: an employee telling their own manager "I'm thinking of leaving" is risky, so the honest answer often stays unspoken. That is exactly the gap the right software closes.

What to look for in stay interview software

• Candor mechanism. Can employees answer honestly? Anonymity or a neutral interviewer matters more here than anywhere else.
• Proactive cadence. The tool should prompt stay conversations on a schedule (by tenure milestone, by flight-risk signal), not wait for an annual survey.
• Follow-up depth. "What would make you consider leaving?" needs a follow-up. A static survey field gets a one-line answer; a probing interview gets the real driver.
• Theme analysis and routing. Hundreds of stay responses need automatic clustering by team, tenure, and manager — without exposing individuals.
• Retention signal. Integration with engagement and turnover data to flag who to talk to next.

The 8 best stay interview software tools in 2026

1. Koji — best for candid stay interviews at scale

Koji runs the stay interview as an anonymous, asynchronous, AI-moderated conversation. Employees answer by voice or text on their own time, and the AI follows up in the moment — "what would make you reconsider?" — until the real driver emerges, then auto-clusters responses into retention themes by team and tenure without exposing identities.

• Pricing: Free tier (10 credits); Insights €29/mo; Interviews €79/mo; Enterprise custom. Only quality conversations consume credits.
• Strength: Anonymity plus async timing plus AI probing — the exact combination candid stay feedback requires. Six structured question types (open_ended, scale, single_choice, multiple_choice, ranking, yes_no) capture both flight-risk ratings and the reasons behind them.
• Limitation: Koji is a research and interview platform, not a full HRIS or performance-review suite; teams wanting native 1:1 agendas and goal tracking pair it with a people platform.

2. Lattice — best for manager-led 1:1s

A performance and engagement platform built around manager–employee 1:1s and continuous feedback.

• Pricing: Modular, sales-led; roughly $8/employee/mo per module (verify).
• Strength: Strong native 1:1 agendas, talking points, and action tracking — the closest fit to recurring stay-style check-ins.
• Limitation: Full value needs multiple paid modules; conversations happen with the direct manager, so candor depends on the relationship.

3. 15Five — best for SMB manager enablement

A manager-enablement platform combining check-ins, 1:1s, engagement, and a Manager Effectiveness Indicator.

• Pricing: Published — Engage $4, Perform $11, Total Platform $16 per user/mo annual.
• Strength: Weekly check-ins and 1:1s plus a manager metric that blends engagement, turnover, and 1:1 frequency.
• Limitation: Lighter on enterprise-grade survey science; best for SMB and mid-market.

4. Culture Amp — best retention analytics

A market-leading employee-experience platform pairing lifecycle surveys with science-backed retention analytics.

• Pricing: Sales-led, per-employee; small teams from ~$4,500/yr (verify).
• Strength: Deep benchmarking and attrition prediction to flag flight risk early across the lifecycle.
• Limitation: Survey-census heavy rather than a native 1:1 or stay-interview workflow; skews enterprise.

5. Leapsome — best all-in-one people platform

An AI-powered all-in-one covering performance, engagement, 1:1s, learning, and compensation.

• Pricing: Sales-led, ~$8–14/employee/mo (verify).
• Strength: Connects engagement and performance data to surface retention trends; native 1:1s with AI theme extraction.
• Limitation: Breadth means no single deep stay-interview workflow; pricing not public.

6. Workleap Officevibe — best simple pulse tool

A simple, SMB-focused pulse-survey and recognition tool for continuous team sentiment.

• Pricing: Published — ~$5/user/mo annual, 10-user minimum.
• Strength: Automated weekly pulses (including relationship-with-manager) catch dips before they escalate; easiest to deploy.
• Limitation: Pulse and sentiment only — no structured stay-interview or 1:1 workflow.

7. WorkTango — best for recognition-plus-listening

An employee-experience platform combining lifecycle surveys with recognition and rewards.

• Pricing: Sales-led, ~$4–8/employee/mo; ~$5,000 starting (verify).
• Strength: Unlimited lifecycle surveys plus AI insights surfaced "while employees are still engaged," with recognition as a retention lever.
• Limitation: Survey- and recognition-oriented; not a dedicated stay-interview conversation tool.

8. Workday Peakon Employee Voice — best continuous listening

A continuous-listening engine blending real-time sentiment with Workday HCM data.

• Pricing: Sales-led; estimates from ~$20,000/yr (verify).
• Strength: Always-on listening and predictive attrition signals tied to HCM — a strong early-warning system.
• Limitation: Best realized only inside the Workday ecosystem; enterprise pricing and commitment.

Status notes for 2026: TINYpulse now operates as "TINYpulse by WebMD Health Services" and is diminished as a standalone brand; Glint is now Microsoft Viva Glint (a 50-seat minimum, strong for Microsoft 365 shops). Qualtrics EmployeeXM is powerful but census-survey-heavy and enterprise-priced.

How to choose

• You want candid, scalable stay interviews with the real reasons: Koji.
• You want stay conversations inside manager 1:1s: Lattice (enterprise) or 15Five (SMB).
• You want predictive retention analytics across the lifecycle: Culture Amp or Workday Peakon.
• You want a simple, cheap pulse to catch early dips: Workleap Officevibe.

The core distinction: most people platforms run stay-style conversations through the direct manager, which is exactly the relationship an at-risk employee is most guarded with. That is fine for engaged employees and unreliable for flight risks — the ones who matter most. Koji's anonymous, AI-moderated approach removes that pressure, so the employee quietly weighing an offer can say so, the AI can probe what would change their mind, and you learn it while there is still time to act.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best stay interview software in 2026? Koji, for candid stay conversations at scale, because it runs anonymous, async, AI-moderated interviews that probe for the real retention driver. Lattice and 15Five lead for manager-led 1:1 workflows.

How is a stay interview different from an exit interview? A stay interview is proactive — you ask current employees what keeps them and what might make them leave, while you can still act. An exit interview happens after the decision is final. See the best exit interview software guide for that category.

Why use anonymous stay interviews? Because employees self-censor with their own manager. Only 17% of leavers said a manager discussed what would keep them (Gallup). Anonymity and a neutral AI interviewer surface the honest answer.

Do stay interviews actually reduce turnover? When acted on, yes — roughly 75% of voluntary turnover is preventable (Work Institute), and replacing someone costs 50–200% of their salary (SHRM). Catching drivers early is the whole point.

How often should stay interviews happen? Common cadences are at tenure milestones (30/60/90 days, then annually or semi-annually) and whenever flight-risk signals appear. Koji can run them on a recurring, low-effort schedule.

Related Resources

• How to Conduct Stay Interviews
• Stay Interviews at Scale
• Employee Retention Research Guide
• Best Exit Interview Software in 2026
• Best Employee Engagement Survey Software in 2026
• Anonymous Employee Research with AI Interviews
• Structured Questions Guide