A ranking tells you what is most prominent in a person. A percentile tells you how they compare with people in general. The first is better for a development conversation and the second for a decision.
A CliftonStrengths or Gallup StrengthsFinder alternative is an assessment and workflow that answers a different question from Gallup’s assessment. CliftonStrengths ranks a person’s prominent themes for strengths-based development. HyperPersonal uses IPIP-300 Big Five dimensions and role context to support hiring and management decisions in small companies.
CliftonStrengths is Gallup’s assessment, long established and very widely used. Gallup describes it as measuring ‘your unique talents — your natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving’. It reports 34 themes grouped into 4 domains, with results presented as themes ranked by prominence — commonly a Top 5 report or a full 34 report. The assessment takes about 30 minutes and is bought self-serve online. Gallup also offers role-specific reports and a network of Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches who can be engaged.
That is a strong answer when the work is development. It gives a team a shared, affirming vocabulary for what people are good at. It fuels coaching conversations without starting from deficiency. If that is the job, many teams should stay with CliftonStrengths.
HyperPersonal is simple to set up, making it ideal for SME and mid-sized companies. In a small company, a new joiner may own an entire function on day one. The question is not just, “What does this person do well?” It is also, “Where will this role strain them, and how should we manage that risk?”
The three pieces are described in full on the product page, including how one profile is shared across them. See how HyperPersonal works
If you are comparing several assessment tools rather than one named product, start with the wider map. Compare hiring assessment alternatives
CliftonStrengths reports themes ranked against each other. That is an ipsative, within-person ordering: it tells you what is most prominent in this person. It does not, by itself, state where this person sits compared with people in general. For a development conversation, that ranking is often the more useful thing. It gives the person and manager a compact language for attention, practice and coaching.
HyperPersonal places a person on each of five domains and thirty facets relative to a reference population. Scores are continuous dimensions, never types or categories. A percentile tells you how this person compares with people in general. That is often the more useful thing for a hiring or role-fit decision, because the manager is comparing a person with the demands of a role.
For the assessment itself, read the plain explanation of what is measured and what is not. See the IPIP-300 Big Five personality test
A strengths frame is deliberately affirming. That is a real virtue in coaching and team development. It is also a real limit when a manager needs to know what is likely to be hard for someone. HyperPersonal reports both ends of every dimension neutrally, with no good or bad end. One role may need repeated follow-through in quiet conditions. Another may need comfort with ambiguity and daily context switching. Neither pattern is moral. Each creates different support needs.
HyperPersonal is AI-native, but in a narrow way. It is a subscription, not a report you buy once and file. The Hub carries an assistant a manager can ask about one specific person, as often as needed. It answers only from that person’s own assessment, record and colleague notes. Decision support, never automated decisions. The human makes the decision.
The candidate profile is theirs. An organisation sees it only through an explicit, revocable grant. The product is entirely online and self-serve. There is no coach to engage and nothing to schedule. Pricing is published at USD 10 per employee seat.
| Dimension | CliftonStrengths | HyperPersonal |
|---|---|---|
| What is reported | 34 themes grouped into 4 domains; commonly a Top 5 report or a full 34 report. | 5 domains and 30 facets from the IPIP-300, read against a role the company has defined. |
| How the result is expressed | Themes ranked by prominence. | Positions on continuous dimensions relative to a reference population; never types or categories. |
| What the frame emphasises | Unique talents and prominent themes for an affirming coaching conversation. | Neutral trade-offs across the whole dimension for hiring, role fit and management conversations. |
| How it is delivered | About 30-minute assessment, bought self-serve online; role-specific reports and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches can be engaged. | Free iPhone app for the assessment; online organisational portal for the company; self-serve subscription. |
| Whether pricing is published | Not published | USD 10 per employee seat. |
| What happens after the report | Role-specific reports are offered; Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches can be engaged. | The Hub assistant can be asked about one person using assessment, record and colleague notes; the manager still decides. |
| Candidate permission | Not published | Profile shared only through an explicit, revocable grant. |
HyperPersonal is built on the public-domain IPIP-300 item pool, developed and studied by psychologists in the published literature. Anyone can inspect the items, the scoring and the norms we use, and we improve the model continuously against that open base. That does not mean our software is validated. Our interpretation layer and workflow tools inherit no validation from the item pool. We do not claim predictive validity for job performance. Outcome validation with pilot partners is in progress. That distinction is part of the product, not small type under it.
The practical test is what a manager does with the profile after the hire. Use personality data in day-to-day management
If you want a facilitated team offsite, a coaching culture built on shared strengths language, or an established coach network, Gallup is the better answer and we are not trying to be it. HyperPersonal is built for small and medium companies that need self-serve role decisions and day-to-day manager support.
Not for every use. If you want a shared strengths language, a facilitated team offsite, or access to an established coach network, CliftonStrengths is the better fit.
Because hiring compares a person with a role, not just with themselves. A ranking shows what is most prominent inside one person; a percentile helps a manager discuss how that person compares with people in general.
No. The IPIP-300 item pool is research-based, but HyperPersonal’s interpretation layer and workflow tools do not inherit validation from it.
No. The output is decision support, and a human makes the decision with the CV, interview, references and role context in view.
No. A candidate shares a profile only through an explicit, revocable grant, and the profile remains theirs.
HyperPersonal costs USD 10 per employee seat. Gallup does not state a price on the public page used for this comparison.
The seat price is published before you speak to anyone. See HyperPersonal pricing
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