What is mentoring software?

Mentoring software is an application that helps companies assign, manage, and analyze the success of their mentorship programs. Most of these software products use algorithms to match mentors with suitable mentees, with customizable elements to help organizations make values-driven matches. Mentoring software also aligns with learning management to centralize mentor and mentee resources and performance management capabilities to track the success of the mentoring program.

We reviewed 14 top onboarding software solutions and narrowed our list to the best of the best:

  • mentorcliQ is best for user experience.
  • Together is best for flexible mentee management.
  • Qooper is best for customization.
  • Chronus is best for diversity and inclusion.
  • PushFar is best for career progression.

Jun. 13, 2024: Kaiti Norton updated the formatting to improve readability.

Apr. 25, 2023: We added our expert recommendations and made stylistic changes for simpler page navigation.

Jul. 28, 2023: We restructured the page to put our expert recommendations front and center. We also added dynamic design elements to improve the visual flow of information.

We picked our choices with you in mind.

First, we evaluated 14 mentoring software solutions based on current options and the reviews of customers like you. We then narrowed our selections to the platforms that best addressed your top-of-mind concerns, such as mentor/mentee matching, goal setting, 1:1 meetings, and metrics to demonstrate its effectiveness.

We researched the following platforms when narrowing our choices:

  • Qooper
  • Ten Thousand Coffees
  • MentorcliQ
  • Chronus
  • Guider
  • MentorCloud
  • Torch
  • PushFar
  • Mentorloop
  • Growth Mentor
  • Together
  • MentorCity
  • Mentorink
  • Clarity

As the market changes, we reevaluate our choices so you always receive the best insight for your purchasing decision.

TechnologyAdvice is able to offer our services for free because some vendors may pay us for web traffic or other sales opportunities. Our mission is to help technology buyers make better purchasing decisions, so we provide you with information for all vendors — even those that don’t pay us.

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What is the best mentoring software?

mentorcliQ: Best for user experience

Pros

  • Mentor-mentee matching algorithm.
  • Customizable and scalable.
  • Comprehensive data and reporting tools.
  • High customer satisfaction ratings by users.

Cons

  • Non-transparent pricing.
  • Designed for enterprises, so its feature set may be too much for small businesses.
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MentorcliQ is a user-friendly enterprise software system that was developed to align with the needs of its users. It has impressive global capabilities for IT connectivity and integrations through the use of its system API.

Its automatic matching system saves time for users by connecting employees with suitable mentors based on their matching algorithm. Mentors can then easily review their employees’ participation using customized milestones, and the software comes with a reporting and expertise guide for tracking and analyzing progress to help users meet expectations.

Furthermore, the software systems protect users with a high level of data security. Employee reward systems are a great feature of this software as well and can help improve employee satisfaction.

Learn more about mentorcliQ →

  • Flexible matching models.
  • Support for multiple program formats (one-on-one, reverse mentoring, and group).
  • Accessibility options, such as multiple language support, closed captions, and image descriptions.

MentorcliQ stands out for its configurable mentorship cadences, accessibility tools, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) support. If you’re looking for fully customizable mentorship software that offers white-glove implementation and design, MentorcliQ delivers this while creating mentor-mentee relationships that last for years.

Together: Best for flexible mentee management

Pros

  • User-friendly reporting.
  • Customizable report features.
  • Automated emails to streamline mentorship onboarding.
  • Free trial available.

Cons

  • Non-transparent pricing.
  • Users report some glitches integrating with meeting platforms, like Zoom or Google Meet.
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Together uses a flexible smart matching algorithm to select suitable mentors and mentees based on factors like skills, goals, and user preference. It offers different mentorship programs based on learning goals, such as onboarding, internal mobility, manager changes, and employee resource groups. Mentors can then change the curriculum content to better serve organizational needs and even scale their mentoring based on skills and goals.

The platform supports flexible cohort sizes, and it has options for one-on-one mentorship and group mentorship. It works across all devices with single sign-on and has calendar and email integration. Employees can schedule sessions with mentors through the self-service portal, and the system provides reminders regarding goals, reports, and communication.

Learn more about Together →

  • Mentor-mentee pairing algorithm.
  • Mentee-led matching option.
  • Customizable mentee session agendas.
  • Employee resource group (ERG) support.

Together gives mentees control over their mentorship journeys by having them lead the search for their mentors so that they can find someone who aligns closely with their professional objectives. At the same time, Together can help you measure your mentorship program’s return on investment with reports covering session completions, feedback scores, and goal progress.

Qooper: Best for customization

Pros

  • Integrates with dozens of third-party software like ADP, Workday, BambooHR, GSuite, and Microsoft Teams.
  • Access to professional trainers and resources.
  • Mobile app.
  • Supports various mentorship cadences, including career development, succession planning, coffee chats, or intern training.
  • 24/7 tech support.

Cons

  • No free trial available.
  • Learning curve.
  • No native video conferencing tool.
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Qooper provides many options for customization so users can feel confident about the system’s functionality. The software offers a basic outline of a positive membership program, allowing the users to choose specific options that would be most helpful for their ideal organization. Users can choose between their mentorship program templates based on their goals and target population.

Its mentor-matching algorithm can provide various suggestions for matching mentors to mentees, such as self-matching, auto-matching, manual matching, and bulk mentor suggestions. The algorithm can even be customized further to suit the needs of its users. The mentorship platform and app provide a virtual place for users to connect with fully integrated features like calendars and content.

Learn more about Qooper →

  • Company training lesson plan creation.
  • Professional trainers and training resources.
  • Company-specific branding.

Qooper lets you choose between AI-led, administrative-led, or mentor/mentee-led mentorship matches. You can also select your mentorship style, from casual conversations to goal-driven professional development.

Additionally, Qooper supports several third-party integrations so that you can seamlessly transfer important employee mentorship data into your HR software of choice. These customizable options make Qooper a flexible solution to support multiple mentorship cadences for your business.

Chronus: Best for diversity and inclusion

Pros

  • Real-time alerts to address dips in engagement or satisfaction with the program.
  • Dedicated customer success partner.
  • Support in 20 languages.

Cons

  • Must pay extra for multi-language and other global functions.
  • Single sign-on, virtual mentoring integrations, and custom branding as paid add-ons.
  • Learning curve.
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Chronus is a mentoring software tool meant for midsize to large businesses and organizations to humanize the work experience for its users through its many program types.

This system provides training focused on exceeding the organization’s innovation while saving its staff members time and effort. It does this by minimizing the administration time through its activity dashboard, where staff members can easily access reports and surveys. This feature can give users a practical idea of their progress and workflow, and the system uses alerts/notifications to constantly keep its users on track.

As for mentoring programs, the company offers multiple programs in various formats, such as diversity mentoring, career mentoring, and peer mentoring, to provide the best training experience possible through personalized flexibility. In addition, Chronus’ corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives help users promote a healthy and welcoming work environment.

Learn more about Chronus →

  • Flexible mentoring formats (one-on-one, groups, and circles).
  • Automated mentor-mentee match suggestions through MatchIQ.
  • On-demand mentoring resources.

Chronus includes DEI-centered tools, such as hiding unanswered profile fields, to minimize unconscious bias and promote equitable, supportive mentorship relationships. DEI dashboards also allow you to see mentorship program outcomes by varying demographics so you can adjust accordingly and improve your DEI initiatives.

PushFar: Best for career development

Pros

  • Free to use for individual mentees.
  • Global support and GDPR compliance.
  • Single sign-on support.
  • 48-hour setup.

Cons

  • Lacks analytics and reporting.
  • Video integrations limited to Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
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PushFar is a cloud-based mentoring software and career progression platform. The mentoring software provides customizable mentor-matching software and customizable data-capturing fields to help attune the system to its user’s objective.

A perk of this software is how many options it has for connection between mentors and mentees, including goal setting, meeting scheduling, direct private messaging, and even built-in video calling, a feature that is not common among all mentorship software systems. Through PushFar, global mentorship programs can be set up and made available on the web and mobile apps to keep its users connected.

Additionally, the software supports calendar, Outlook, GSuite, and HRIS integrations. The career progression features of this software are unique, as they provide event recommendations and organizational conversation feeds for workforce team member development.

PushFar also provides account managers to clients for ongoing mentorship support. Some examples of this continued support include updates on system features, training for leadership, launching webinars, and support email accounts for users.

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  • White-label branding.
  • Mentor matching.
  • Goal creation and tracking.

Mentees worldwide can sign up for PushFar for free, meaning they can take advantage of professional mentorship even if they are not employees of a paying organization. However, paying to implement PushFar throughout your organization allows you to pair employees with internal mentors and implement company-focused career development.

Find your new mentoring software

How to choose a mentoring software for your organization

When it comes to determining which mentoring software tool is best for your organization’s needs, you should first decide what factors should be prioritized to reach your organizational objectives. For example, if your organization needs to refine its member onboarding, it can be helpful to go with a system with features that can assist in the recruitment process. If your organization would benefit from improving its employee retention, then software systems with engagement-tracking features can be helpful.

Software systems can allow you to track the progress of many different aspects and help you gain insight into what decisions should be made to promote the growth and improvement of an organization. By determining an improvement focus area for facilitating your organization’s development, you can decide what features would be most helpful and which software tools would provide them.

What are the major features of mentoring software?

Mentoring software comes with various features that help you plan, track, and analyze the progress of your mentorship strategy and ensure the success of each mentee. Some of the key features of the best mentoring software include goal setting and tracking, reporting and analytics, content libraries, engagement tracking, and third-party integrations.

Goal setting and tracking is a feature that allows users to create clear primary objectives for mentees and grants mentors the ability to view their progress. It is provided with many mentoring software systems. Mentees and Mentors can work together to communicate and set achievable goals for mentee development. Users can then access these goals through the system, and mentors determine mentee progress based on how close they are to reaching them. While most mentoring software systems have goal management that lets users set goals, goal tracking is an important feature as it can give mentors a clear idea of where their mentee is in the process of reaching their goal.

Skills can be a part of goal setting and tracking as well. For example, Together Enterprise Mentoring’s goal-achievement tool has a unique feature that assesses and reports upon skills throughout the mentorship to track the mentee’s skill-building progress.

Reporting and analytics tools are a feature that provides a comprehensive way to measure the progress of a participant’s training through a mentoring relationship. Many mentoring software systems use analytics to measure individual progress based on factors like goal progress and surveys. Additionally, HRIS integration reporting can be provided through this feature to allow the exchange of human resources information across platforms and more data for precise reporting and analytics. By regularly reviewing the reporting and analytics provided by their mentorship tool, users can quickly determine the success of their program and what areas may need improvement.

While not all of the products mentioned in this piece use analytics, all of them use information gathered through their software to provide valuable statistics and reporting.

Content libraries are mentoring software features that provide areas within a software system where information and resources can be stored. Mentors and mentees can plan their sessions around information accessible in the content library, and having this information available for all members to access can help save time. Content libraries can also make it possible for mentees to learn through these resources whenever they want.

Mentors can also benefit from content libraries. For example, Chronus provides users with a library that includes resources on effective mentoring practices to help mentors refine their programs and provide a better mentoring experience. If you currently have a learning management system (LMS) in place in your organization, you will want to check that your mentoring software of choice will integrate with your LMS.

Engagement tracking features can help mentors determine their mentee’s level of engagement through their actions tracked by the system. In addition, engagement Tracking can help determine how well mentees are receiving the mentorship through the software system and how involved the mentee is in the organization’s practices. Mentors can track engagement activities through systems, such as messaging, attending meetings, and more. By monitoring engagement levels, users can gain helpful information for increasing mentee engagement and mentorship effectiveness.

Third-party integrations allow systems to access additional data through external applications or export data across systems. This feature can be helpful for user experience and organization, as it can connect platforms so all of their tools can be used and accessed easily through the software system. An example of how third-party integrations can be beneficial is through calendar tool integration, which allows users to update their schedules and access important event information through their mentoring software system. Additionally, third-party integrations enable teams to export their mentoring software data to their business intelligence software to draw conclusions through reports and analytics.

The business impact of workplace mentoring programs

Whether through formal programs or informal coaching, mentoring guides and provides valuable information to members of an organization. Effective mentoring involves a more knowledgeable or experienced group or individual guiding other individuals and helping them reach their goals by providing advice or training. Many different organizations often utilize this practice to promote personal or career development, such as with educational institutions or workplaces.

Mentoring can benefit the development of the mentor, the mentee, and the organization as a whole. However, proper mentoring involves strategic planning and resources, and the incorrect implementation of these factors can be detrimental to the organization. It is possible to gain the full benefits of mentoring in an organization by using virtual mentoring programs.

Jessica Dennis Avatar
Jessica Dennis
Lead Writer
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Jessica Dennis is the HR lead writer at TechnologyAdvice. She has B.A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan and over six years of experience in onboarding, payroll, benefits, compliance, and workforce management as an HR generalist. Since joining TA, she’s covered additional topics like DEI, engagement, training, communication, hiring, and performance management best practices. Her expertise, in-depth research, and hands-on experience with HR software ensures she provides the best people operations and technology insights to readers. When she’s not writing, you can find her obsessing over her labrador retriever, crocheting, or jumping into the nearest body of water.