Most of these tools are good at describing one person. The question that actually keeps an owner up isn't “what type is she?” — it's “how will she and I actually work together?” That's the column only one of these fills.
| FrequencyCompatibility & friction intelligence | DISC / 16PersonalitiesThe commodity default | Predictive IndexThe talent-optimization suite | Culture IndexThe CEO advisory | CrystalThe sales-intel tool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it reads | The chemistry between two people — plus the individual | One person, as a type | One person; the team as 1 of 9 types | One person, fit to a role | One person — often predicted from public data |
| Reads the friction between two specific people — named, with a Day-1 manual | ✓Scored dyad, named friction, operating manual | ✕Generic pairing tips at most | ~Two-person guides, but no scored dyad with named failure modes | ✕Person-to-role, not person-to-person | ~Generic per-pair “watch-outs,” not a scored read |
| Continuous scores, not a type-box | ✓Six 0–100 dimensions | ✕Four-letter / quadrant | ✕4 drives → 17 profiles | ~7 traits plotted (advisor-read) | ✕DISC type |
| Self-serve — no consultant, certification, or sales call | ✓15 minutes, swipe a card | ~Cheap, but DiSC is often facilitator-led | ✕Consultant-gated, sales-led | ✕Retained Executive Advisor | ✓Self-serve SaaS |
| The person assessed gets something they value | ✓Opt-in; keeps a profile they love | ✓It's about them | ~A corporate report | ~Advisor-mediated | ✕Often profiled without opting in |
| Transparent, self-serve pricing | ✓Free → $29 → $150/mo | ✓Free–~$80 / person | ✕~$9k–$50k/yr, quote-only | ✕Thousands/yr, quote-only | ✓~$49/mo |
| Predictive-validity evidence | ~Emerging — and we say so plainly | ✕Weak (especially MBTI) | ✓Strong — decades of studies | ~Published, but dated | ✕Public-data prediction is approximate |
Scroll the table sideways on mobile →
We left ourselves a “~” on validity on purpose. It's the one row we don't lead the page on — and the one we'll never fake.
A comparison you can't trust is worthless. So here's the honest cut: every one of these is genuinely good at something. None of them is good at the thing Frequency is built for.
If you're running high-volume hiring and need published, adverse-impact-audited selection validity, that tier is built for exactly that. We won't pretend to out-credential decades of peer-reviewed research. But it's individual-only, certification-gated, and priced for an enterprise HR department.
You have an HR function, you're hiring at scale, and you need a legally-defensible selection instrument with normative data.
You're an owner making a key hire without an HR team, and the question is how this person and your people will actually work together.
Everyone else describes a person, or rolls a team into a bucket. Frequency reads the space between two specific people — the only place a working relationship actually lives.
No certification, no five-figure contract, no sales call to get a price. Fifteen minutes and a card. The premium tools make you hire a person to read the report.
The person you assess opts in and walks away with a profile they value — the opposite of being screened or scraped. The rare assessment everyone's glad they took.
Free, fifteen minutes, and the most accurate read you've had from any tool on this page.