# Factorial — Talent Management

Factorial by Factorial HR S.L. holds a panel rating of 0.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2/5), as of 2026-10-14. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Factorial HR S.L. (https://factorialhr.de)
- Category: [Talent Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/factorial
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/factorial/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/factorial/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-20 · evaluated 2026-10-14 · oldest source captured 2026-10-03

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Factorial HR S.L.
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

Factorial HR S.L. of Barcelona markets performance, OKR, learning and skills modules, but its captured pages confirm almost nothing behind them. Codetermination and privacy scored 1 to 3 on the strength of general security assurance — internal single sign-on, least privilege, logging and access monitoring are confirmed on the trust page — but with no public information on visibility rules for review data, a minimum group size for anonymous results, retention settings or what any AI feature processes, the judges who scored it highest say a works agreement could not be drafted from these pages. Core modules — performance reviews, goals and feedback, learning and development — scored 0 to 2: judges crediting the pages' existence scored 2, judges scoring only confirmed detail scored 0. Pricing transparency ranged 0 to 2: the pricing page yields no confirmed figure, basis, tier mapping or minimum term, so no annual invoice is computable. Sovereignty's 1-to-3 spread splits on the Barcelona entity versus unconfirmed residency and subprocessors; integrations and portability ranged 1 to 2 with no public information on a named HR-system sync, API or export.

**Speaks for it:**
- General security controls — internal single sign-on, least privilege, logging, access monitoring and data backups — are confirmed on the vendor's trust page.
- The vendor publishes a recovery time objective of 1 hour, a recovery point objective of 1 day, and application penetration testing among its controls.
- The privacy policy names the contracting entity, Factorial HR S.L. of Barcelona.
- Dedicated pages market the full module set — performance management, 360-degree feedback, OKR, training management, an LMS and skill management — alongside integrations and pricing pages.
- Customer-support and platform service-level agreements and a vulnerability-reporting channel are published.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on rating scales, calibration, check-ins feeding the year-end review, learning paths with completion tracking or succession plans.
- We found no public information on a named HR-system sync, a documented API, SCIM provisioning or bulk export of review, goal and feedback history.
- We found no public information on visibility rules for review data, a minimum group size for anonymous results, retention or deletion settings, or AI features that summarise or score and how to switch them off.
- The captured pricing page confirms no price figure, pricing basis, module-to-tier mapping, minimum term or VAT treatment, so no annual invoice is computable from public material.
- Hosting is named as Amazon Web Services and Azure with no hosting region stated on the captured pages, and we found no public information on a subprocessor list, AI providers included.

**Best for:**
- You are assembling a shortlist of EU-presented vendors and will test the marketed module set through demos and written questions, since the public pages leave the details open.
- You weigh a vendor's own security posture — internal single sign-on, least privilege, logging, backups, a recovery time objective of 1 hour — as a starting point before deeper due diligence.
- You prefer what the vendor presents as an EU vendor with a German-market presence and are ready to negotiate data residency, subprocessors and export terms in the contract.

**Avoid if:**
- You must compute an annual cost from public pricing before contacting sales — the pricing page confirms no figure, basis or minimum term.
- You need to give a works council concrete terms to sign — we found no public information on visibility rules, anonymity minimums, retention settings or AI-feature disclosure.
- You depend on a named HR-system sync, a documented API or export of your review, goal and feedback history at contract end.
- You need evidence of review, goal or learning workflows — rating scales, check-ins, completion-tracked learning paths — from documentation alone.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The Head of HR | The Managing Director | The People Analyst | The Works Council Member | The HR IT Integrator | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Performance reviews & calibration | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Goals, OKRs & continuous feedback | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Learning, skills & succession | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Works council, visibility & AI disclosure | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 |
| HRIS sync, integrations & data portability | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **0.5/5** | **1/5** | **0.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **0.5/5** | **0.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Head of HR** (v1.0): Runs the annual review cycle for four hundred people and has to defend every rating in it. Wants criteria fixed before the cycle starts, calibration across departments, reminders that chase managers so HR does not have to, and a review history the employee can see and sign.
- **The Managing Director** (v1.0): Runs a sixty-person company without a talent team and wants goals everyone can see, regular one-to-ones that actually happen, and a yearly conversation that is prepared rather than improvised. Has no patience for a suite that needs a consultant before the first review goes out.
- **The People Analyst** (v1.0): Owns the skills model, the succession bench and the training budget. Wants skills profiles with gaps against role requirements, learning tied to those gaps rather than to a course catalogue, talent reviews per key role, and data that can be exported and analysed outside the tool.
- **The Works Council Member** (v1.0): Has to sign the works agreement before any of this goes live. Asks who can read a manager's private note, how small a team may be before survey results stop being anonymous, how long ratings are kept, and whether any AI feature summarises or scores colleagues without a human deciding.
- **The HR IT Integrator** (v1.0): Connects the tool to the HR system and the identity provider and will be asked for the data when the contract ends. Wants org chart and manager relations synced from the HRIS, SSO and SCIM, a documented API, and a full export of reviews and goals rather than one PDF per person.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has heard "high-performance culture", "bias-free reviews" and "AI-powered growth" from every vendor. Reads for the anonymity threshold behind the anonymous survey, what the AI review summary was built from, whether the "skills engine" is more than a tag list, and whether five years of reviews leave with the customer.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- AI overview: AI Overview · AI Feature · AI Training Data [S4]
- DPA: yes [S4]
- Faqs: uptime guarantee · AI-generated outputs · employee security protocols · SSO · MFA [S4]
- Security grades: A · ImmuniWeb · B+ · MDN Observatory · A+ · Qualys SSL Labs [S4]
- SOC 2 type2: yes [S4]
- Soc3: yes [S4]

**Hosting**
- Providers: Amazon Web Services · Azure [S4]

**Product**
- Access control: Internal Single-Sign-On (SSO) · Least Privilege · Logging [S4]
- App security: Application Penetration Testing · Credential Management · Software Development Lifecycle [S4]
- Bcdr: Business Continuity Plan (BCP) · Contingency Plan Testing/Lessons Learned · Critical Assets [S4]
- Endpoint security: Anti-Malware · Disk Encryption · Endpoint Detection & Response [S4]
- Network security: Data Loss Prevention · Distributed Denial of Service Protection (Anti-DDoS) · Security Information and Event Management [S4]
- Recovery point objective: 1 day [S4]
- Recovery time objective: 1 hour [S4]
- Security capabilities: Access Monitoring · Data Asset Classification · Data Backups [S4]
- Trusted by companies: Customer logos/list present (e.g. eg technology Ltd, Freepik, Rock in Rio) [S4]

**Support**
- Channels: Contact support · Report issue · yes [S4]
- Slas: Customer Support SLAs · Platform SLA [S4]

## Questions

### Is Factorial European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies Factorial as EU-Made.

### Where does Factorial store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does Factorial have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Factorial?

As of 15 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Culture Amp (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/culture-amp), [Small Improvements (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/small-improvements) and [Leapsome (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/leapsome) highest among the other 15 Talent Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Small Improvements](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/small-improvements) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Factorial alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/factorial/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- We could not confirm any pricing information on the vendor’s own pages as captured, so this page shows none rather than a statement we cannot stand behind.
- 206 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 36 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 25 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 21 subprocessors facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 13 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 9 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 7 data facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 hosting fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://factorialhr.de/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://factorialhr.de/preise (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Privacy policy — names the entity: https://factorialhr.de/datenschutz (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Security / trust page: https://factorialhr.de/sicherheit (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Performance management: https://factorialhr.de/performance-management (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Goals / OKR: https://factorialhr.de/okr-software (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Learning / training: https://factorialhr.de/schulungsmanagement-system (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Performance reviews & calibration — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/vorlagen/360-grad-feedback (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Goals, OKRs & continuous feedback — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/vorlagen/vorlage-zielvereinbarung (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Learning, skills & succession — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/lms (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S11] Learning, skills & succession — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/skill-management-software (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S12] Works council, visibility & AI disclosure — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/dsgvo (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S13] Works council, visibility & AI disclosure — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/datenschutz-app (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S14] HRIS sync, integrations & data portability — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/integrationen (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S15] HRIS sync, integrations & data portability — found from sitemap: https://factorialhr.de/schnittstellen (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Factorial — Talent Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-20. https://whats-best.ai/software/talent-management/factorial

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/676?target=page