Employee recognition software…is it beneficial?
The short answer is “absolutely.”
Brace yourself for a list of questions:
- How many times did you provide valuable recognition, let’s say, 2 months ago?
- How many employees did you recognize?
- How many employees recognize one another regularly?
- Does this recognition impact your mission or revenue?
Employee recognition software can help you answer these questions. We know you’re wonderful at making employees feel valued, but expertly designed software can help make your feedback more strategic, consistent, and measurable.
What is employee recognition software?
Employee recognition software programs are the technology that helps you manage abstract human concepts—like employee satisfaction and relationships—with as much purpose and efficiency as you use to manage project deadlines and sales goals.
In the hands of thoughtful peers and managers, employee recognition software can enhance your company culture.
Luckily, there are plenty of employee recognition software options out there. We made this roundup of reward programs to help you find one appropriate for your team, your goals, and your budget. Keep browsing our list of employee recognition apps to take the first step in optimizing your workplace culture.
Best Employee Reward Programs And Recognition Software In 2022
1) Nectar
Best for: Teams of 50 – 2,000
Nectar helps organizations celebrate great work – anytime, anywhere. Its top-rated 360 recognition & rewards platform for companies enables every team member (peer to peer & manager to employees alike) to send meaningful recognition rooted in core values. Streamline your incentives and maintain a connected culture regardless of whether your workforce is centralized or distributed.
Why we love it: It’s very intuitive and is known for having the most extensive rewards selection including Amazon products, company swag, gift cards and donation options. Best suited for teams of 50 to 2,000.
Standout features:
- Connect Slack, Microsoft Teams, and your other software to increase engagement and make recognition easier than ever! Also integrates with your HRIS/HCM and SSO provider
- Create a custom swag storefront as a reward option. Swag is “on-demand” and shipped directly to the end-user once ordered with zero admin overhead
- Recently partnered with Amazon Business to offer millions of rewards with quick shipping.
- Incorporate wellness initiatives or challenges that reward employees for participating
Notable companies using Nectar:
- CRM
- MLB
- Heineken
- Teachable
- Redfin
Pricing options:
- Standard: $2.75 per user/month
- Plus: $4.00 per user/month
- No contracts or implementation fees
- Visit here for more details
One happy user wrote the following review on G2.com:
“Not only does Nectar encourage employees to do better, but it also encourages employees to show their gratitude, creating a team-based culture where hard work is noticed. It also is a way to get some insight into who is working together and what hard work is being done throughout departments that I didn’t much about before.”
2) Assembly
Assembly is peer-to-peer employee recognition, rewards, and engagement software that’s designed to boost internal culture and retention. Assembly has helped thousands of companies achieve 95% employee engagement through fun and seamless workflows. Assembly works great for teams of all sizes and is FREE for up to 10 users.
Why we love it: It “closes the recognition loop,” making something everyone wants to do into something everyone can easily do.
Standout features:
- An extensive catalog of rewards with gift cards, custom swag, culture rewards, and charity donations
- Powerful additional engagement features such as 1:1’s, surveys, games and icebreakers, employee nominations, and more (all of which are included in the cost of the platform)
- Automated birthday and anniversary celebrations
- Seamless integration into Slack and Microsoft teams as well as 40+ Hris integrations (ADP, BambooHR, Ceridian, Workday, Zenefits, Rippling, UKG, and many more)
Notable companies using Assembly:
- FTD
- Coca-Cola
- Pods
- Stubhub
- Harry & David
Pricing options:
- Free forever until 10 employees
- Team: $2.80/mo/seat
- Business: $4.50/mo/seat
- Talk to Assembly for additional details
One pleased participant loves creating unique awards and animated gifs. Here’s the full review from G2.com:
“This program is so much fun for the team. I searched for an affordable way to build team morale through awards and peer/manager recognition, with rewards the team would want. It’s fun to watch the team interact with each other and give kudos to their teammates. It’s really made a huge impact on the the relationship building with our employees.”
3) Bonusly
Best for: Teams of 50 – 10,000
Bonus is an online platform for rewarding, recognizing, and generally celebrating awesome employees. It enables everyone to recognize anyone. Peers can recognize each other, managers can recognize direct reports, and so on. (The good vibes are endless.
Why we love it: It makes recognition fast and legitimately fun for everyone.
Standout features:
- Social features make recognition visual and interesting
- Analytics point out team members’ strengths
- Monthly allowance features ensure everyone can give recognition
- Automate birthday and work anniversary celebrations
- Let employees choose their rewards
Notable companies using Bonusly:
- Chobani
- Headspace
- ZipRecruiter
- Gilt
- TripIt
Pricing options:
- Request a demo to get custom pricing and a free trial
One happy user wrote the following review on G2.com:
“The opportunities that employees have to recognize their peers for various ways that they have gone above and beyond has been invaluable to the morale of the company! Morale and camaraderie have increased significantly.”
4) Kazoo
Best for: Teams of 100 – 250
Kazoo is the all-in-one employee experience platform that connects employee recognition and rewards with continuous performance management to create an amazing employee experience. By bringing Recognition, Rewards, Incentives, Goals & OKRs, Conversations, and Feedback into one place, Kazoo motivates employees to grow and develop — and love doing it.
Why we love it: It makes appreciation, continuous feedback, and growing part of day-to-day work — not something restricted to annual performance reviews.
Standout features:
- Real-time employee recognition feed drives morale and connection
- Global Rewards catalog offers meaningful rewards for everyone
- Trackable, stackable goals keep teams aligned and productive
- Insights help managers make data-driven decisions
Notable companies using Kazoo:
- Habitat for Humanity
- Hitachi
- Kia
- Kaiser Permanente
- Meredith
Pricing options:
- Growth (100-250 employees): Starting at $5.00 monthly per employee
- Standard (250-1,000 employees): Starting at $4.25 monthly per employee
- Enterprise (1,000+ employees): Customizable solution that scales to your company’s needs
- Visit the Kazoo pricing page for details on different plan options and volume discounts
In a review posted on G2.com, one customer says peer-to-peer recognition can even lead to supervisor recognition:
“I enjoy the conversations that are started by recognizing fellow employees. It’s nice to be able to bring to light that you appreciate them, but also to show to their Supervisors, as well!”
5) WeGift
Best for: Teams of 25 – 100
Give employees the rewards they want with WeGift—a virtual gift-giving platform that allows recipients to choose from a vast catalog of rewards. The platform can accommodate peer-to-peer gifting, bulk gift sends virtual gifts, and so much more.
Why we love it: It provides companies with their very own flexible rewards portal that ensures employees get items they love.
Standout features:
- Real-time thank you notes indicate reward success
- Automations make recurring annual rewards a snap
- Campaign-based gifting helps track ROI for different reward types
Notable companies using WeGift:
- Apple
- Amazon
- Nike
- Starbucks
- Uber
Pricing options: Request a complimentary Amazon gift card to talk to the WeGift team about your needs
One customer posted this review on TrustPilot:
“I have used WeGift on several occasions through employee offers. It is a simple process and great value. It is easy to buy gift cards and to exchange for goods or give as a present. It is delivered by email. I have also had to contact the customer services department for an error on my part. They resolved the issue quickly and efficiently. Highly recommended.”
6) Gusto
Best for: Teams of 200+
As a top-rated employee recognition software on G2 and Capterra, Gusto helps leaders to recognize great work and shape amazing culture through modern service awards and real-time recognition programs. Companies can assign budgets, send gift cards, and track all gifting initiatives from a helpful command center. Gusto also partners with the One Drop Foundation to donate one day of clean drinking water for every gift sent!
Why we love it: It’s a gift-based recognition program you know will align with employee interests. That means Guusto is not a points program. All the gifts within the platform are real dollar value with no minimums, markups, shipping, or hidden fees.
Standout features:
- Send rewards with the pay-forward feature empowers recipients to pass a gift to someone else
- Claim periods allow companies to recoup expenses for unused gifts
- Recipients choose a gift they truly value from over 60,000 merchant locations
Notable companies using Gusto:
- Harvard University
- Marriot
- Toronto Raptors
Pricing options:
- Free: Single users just pay for rewards!
- Essential: Starts from $2.25 USD per member/month
- Premium: Starts from $3.50 USD per member/month
- Visit the Gusto pricing page for details
Customers posting on G2.com love how easy Gusto is. Check out this glowing review:
“How easy it is to use ! Simple and user friendly and you can make kind gestures towards colleagues to thank their tireless efforts. Even better is the fact that you can choose what type of gift card you’d like from a few dozen partners in different areas. Payment options are pretty easy to choose from and the merchants are pretty abundant.”
7) Empuls
Best for: Teams of 25 – 100
We know that HR has its hands full. Managing all their responsibilities while fostering employee engagement can be an uphill battle. Luckily, Empuls helps businesses rise to the challenge with their holistic employee engagement solution that promotes a positive company culture.
Empuls has features for workplace intranet and communication, social rewards and recognition programs, employee lifecycle surveys, and employee wellness – all in one place. This recognition app helps organizations put a cap on employee absenteeism and attrition, and improves productivity, manager effectiveness, and team motivation.
Why we love it: It is a holistic platform for all things engagement. Offering functionality that can make it possible to build out your own culture of recognition.
Standout features:
- Simple admin DIY controls for white-labeling, awards, workflows, access, surveys, notifications, and more.
- Research-based engagement surveys and pre-built templates can be readily used.
- Readily integrates with HRIS/HCM systems, Collaboration tools, and SSO providers.
Notable companies using Empuls:
- SAG-After
- RealPage
- Evolent Health
- Innovate
- Cleartrip
Pricing options:
- Free Trial: 30 days
- Small & Medium-sized business: $3 per user / month
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
- Request a demo to learn more pricing information
One of their happy customers, RealPage, testifies how effective Empuls has been for them:
“Our employees just love the software! Many appreciations, congratulations, awards are shared almost every day. This keeps them motivated. The numerous options to choose from in the rewards catalogue – makes it even more lovable.”
8) Blueboard
Best for: Teams of 200+
Blueboard is the world’s top all-in-one experiential rewards and recognition platform that enables companies to recognize their employees at scale. They make it easy to quickly send employees unique and personalized in-home or out-in-the-world experiences for anniversary awards, employee referrals, spot recognition, sales incentives, President’s Club, and more.
Additionally, Blueboard’s employee rewards program is paired with a member of the Blueboard Concierge team, who personally handles all logistics and details necessary for them to fully enjoy their experience. Talk about service
Why we love it: Blueboard is a high-value, lower-frequency experiential rewards and recognition platform that consists of a native catalog with a worldwide selection of experiences across 12 major categories to wow your employees and helps you build a strong culture of recognition.
Standout features:
- The dedicated Concierge Team provides high-end, white-glove service to help employees pick meaningful and personalized experiences
- A hands-on client success team helps companies develop recognition programs
- Story capture helps build excitement and engagement
- Experiential wellness incentives bring added health benefits
- Encourages employees to create unforgettable memories that are bucket list-worthy
Notable companies using Blueboard:
- Salesforce.org
- GoPro
- Boeing
- Guidewire
Pricing options: Request a demo to get custom pricing
Blueboard users appreciate how the team takes care of all the details. Check out this glowing review:
“Great customer service. Fast, friendly account managers. Makes it very easy. We simply send the reward and Blueboard takes care of everything else. If you’re doing a big batch of rewards at the same time, Blueboard can help with a bulk import.”
9) Fond
Best for: Teams of 500+
Fond makes company-wide recognition easier than ever. With a social feed that can be accessed from any device, any time, anywhere, this employee reward system supports virtual, global recognition for diverse teams. Plus, users have access to a massive catalog of rewards and exclusive discounts all over the world.
Why we love it: It supports a unified company culture that transcends different offices, countries, and continents through gratitude.
Standout features:
- Custom recognition occasions help keep communication focused on what matters most
- Cost of living adjustments, language translations, and an international rewards catalog to support global workforces
- Detailed analytics that offers managers deep behavioral and budgetary insights that can help better support employees
Notable companies using Fond:
- Visa
- Salesforce
- Lyft
- WW International
- Hard Rock
On G2.com, a reviewer comments on the value Fond provides across program administration, positively enabling managers, and effectively showcasing employee accomplishments:
For a small company, this is simply a great way to streamline recognition and rewards. But for a larger company, Fond would be hugely beneficial. It allows management to spotlight accomplishments and thank employees, for the whole company to see.
10) Giftogram
Best for: Teams of 5 – 50
The histogram is your streamlined platform for tons of gift cards from tons of brands your employees love. Easily send personalized physical or virtual gift cards to reward your employees for any special occasion or achievement.
Why we love it: It helps you put a personal touch on the fuss-free, classic gift card.
Standout features:
- A massive design library makes cards feel special
- Logo upload helps you brand each gift
- In-house designers can create fully custom designs
Pricing options: Giftogram charges no monthly fees and their classic Giftogram gift cards carry no cost. Visit the Giftogram pricing page for details
11) Bucketlist
Best for: Teams of 100 – 1000
Bucketlist is a reward program for businesses looking to craft their company culture around rewards that employees will connect with. Rather than offering just one type of reward via gifts, redeemable points, or experiences — Bucketlist is committed to offering a variety of awards to help employees feel great about their contribution to the company.
Why we love it: Their commitment to strengthening the connection between recognition and employee retention. In today’s work landscape, employee retention tools need to offer rewards that employees want. Not just cookie-cutter options that don’t have much value.
Standout features:
- Customizable rewards make it easy to add unique options for employees. Create and share these rewards with employees with ideas like “take a Friday off” and “Lunch on the company.”
- They also operate a productivity tool that can help to motivate using team and individual rewards
- Setting team goals is easy and can help boost company morale when teams set and reach goals together
Notable companies using Bucketlist:
- Orlando Magic
- Chick-fil-A
- Royal Bank of Canada
- BuildDirect
Pricing options:
- Offers a free trial
- Request a demo to find more accurate pricing
One happy user wrote the following review:
“Its amazing for getting to know the people within our organization and providing us with opportunities to reward them with what matter to them. We’ve been able to support our team members with stuff thats meaningful to them. Everything from travel, singing lessons, whale watching, volunteering and many things in-between. I find it much more fulfilling that giving someone a coffee card or something like that (although we still do those).”
12) Awardco
Best for: Teams of 100+
Award offers a huge selection of employee rewards designed to make recognition, appreciation, and celebration a staple of your company culture. They also created a seamless integration with Amazon Business which means the potential employee rewards will make your head spin. Perfect for finding the right gift or experience based on your individual employees’ interests.
Why we love it: Their reward network is vast and they make it easy to customize your reward program based on your budget, your company culture, and what matters most to your employees.
Standout features:
- Incentivizes employees by letting them earn points by contributing to your organization in new ways
- Employees choose their awards from the world’s largest reward platform
- Automates birthdays, service awards, and other milestones with rewards
Notable companies using Awardco:
- Zillow
- JP Morgan Chase
Pricing options: Contact Awardco for details
One user was particularly impressed with Awardco’s variety and ease of use:
“Awardco is the perfect platform for our employee recognition program. It supports our unique employee culture and community.”
13) Motivosity
Best for: Teams of 10 – 500
Motivosity aims to maximize the net benefit of recognition by linking it to specific goals and performance. Teams of all sizes have found this goal-centric approach to boost productivity, engagement, and retention.
Why we love it: It keeps morale and engagement high as employees receive peer recognition that’s meaningful to their priority goals.
Standout features:
- Personal culture coach
- Remote team training
- Customized dashboards for tracking the success
- Feedback requests empower employees to seek input on key issues
Notable companies using Motivosity:
- Chick-fil-A
- Cotopaxi
- Fujifilm
- University of Michigan
- Adobe
Pricing options: Request more information on Motivosity’s page for employee recognition
What users say about Motivosity:
“Motivosity allows the people in my department to give and receive thanks/recognition for individual and group contributions. It’s a versatile tool. I like how my organization has been able to tweak the user interface so that we can offer kudos according to our six company values (Service, Professionalism, Leadership, Innovation, Community, and Excellence). I like the Badges capability, although we don’t use it as much as we could. The Interests and Personality widgets add a even more usefulness. I also appreciate the option to send the recognition in a public or private message.”
14) Telling
Best for: Teams of 3 – 25
Telling makes story-centric greeting cards, each one as unique as each one of your employees. This remote work software is perfect if you’re looking for sentimental gifts that employees will cherish. Telling will take your story and photos and turn them into illustrated masterpieces.
Why we love it: It’s about as thoughtful and unique as employee recognition can get.
Standout features:
- Story length options accommodate your content
- On-staff artists hand-draw each story
- A library of existing stories provides plenty of inspiration
Notable press on Telling:
Pricing options:
- One Day Card: $9.99
- One Week Story: $22.99
- Two Week Story: $39.99
- One Month Story: $69.99
- Visit the Tellinga pricing page for more details
Tellinga’s customers are delighted by the quality artistry of their cards. Check out this glowing review:
“I am so impressed with the quality of work these artists put out. They really took the time to read what I wanted, and then transformed it into something amazing! This is definitely a great idea for a gift, and I can’t wait to see more of my own story through their detailed artwork!”
15) HeyTaco!
Best for: Teams of 3 – 25
HeyTaco is a Slack integration focused on verbal recognition and acts of kindness. The service gets your entire team using a taco icon as a universal symbol of gratitude and props. Employees can hand out as many tacos as needed to acknowledge someone awesome.
Why we love it: It focuses on the powerful relationship-developing aspect of recognition.
Standout features:
- Taco’s “budget” gives everyone plenty of props to hand out
- The gift unlock feature spotlights extra-special achievements
- The team reward feature lets users turn in tacos for custom activities and treats
Notable companies using HeyTaco!:
- Boys and Girls Club of Hood County
- Shopathome
Pricing options:
- Team and Workspace: $3 per person per month
- Enterprise: Price dependent on needs
- Visit the HeyTaco pricing page for details
Reviewers love how HeyTaco provides immediate feedback:
“HeyTaco allows me to give my coworkers a small token (well, up to five small tokens) of gratitude in coordination with the event in which they earned it. This is immediate feedback. No more waiting for peer reviews (that may not even occur), or losing track of reasons to thank them.”
16) Preciate
Best for: Teams of 3 – 50
Preciate’s model is based on what they call Culture Nirvana,™ the balance between cognitive culture and emotional culture. This staff recognition app helps companies find and recalibrate any out-of-balance culture touchpoints.
Why we love it: It promotes an emphasis on balance that feeds healthy, holistic workplace cultures.
Standout features:
- Activity feeds may be displayed to applicants and customers
- Portraits feature makes recognition personal and shareable
- Trending strengths reports give managers a big-picture view
Notable companies using Preciate:
- Allegis Group
- Amazon
- American Airlines
- Aramark
- Mission Wealth
Pricing options:
- Free
- Preciate +: $1.00 /mo/per user
- Premium: $1.50 /mo/per user
- View the Preciate pricing page for details
One happy reviewer loves how Preciate makes it easy to feel connected:
“A quick and easy way to share appreciation and feedback in the moment! Love the ability to “scroll” the wall and see all the amazing things happening throughout the company. In a company with multiple locations it helps feel more connected to the buzz.”
17) Bonfyre
Best for: Teams of 3 – 50
Bonfyre is a one-touch platform for communications, recognition, idea exchange, and even event management. By giving employees what they need to connect, Bonfyre aims to enhance the holistic employee experience.
Why we love it: The events integration adds engagement value away from the desk.
Standout features:
- Live polling for events and speakers
- Quick polls produce valuable feedback fast
- The broadcast feature gets your key messages noticed
Notable companies using Bonfyre:
- Commerce Bank
- Marriott
- Southwest
- Teach for America
Pricing options: Request a quote on Bonfyre’s pricing page
Here’s what users love about Bonfyre:
“Bonfyre” is a great social networking app that allows you to share your photos and videos, as well as group chat with what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. It’s simply picture messaging that ties in with how you live your life: one moment at a time.”
18) Bravo
Best for: Teams of 3 – 25
The Bravo platform aims to optimize, as well as enable, employee recognition. An intelligent interface offers suggestions for who to recognize and tips for making the most impact through your recognition.
Why we love it: It helps everyone learn how to provide truly meaningful recognition.
Standout features:
- Bravo lens helps employees snap pictures of recognized employees in action
- Augmented writing helps everyone best craft recognition messages
- Machine learning algorithm provides recognition suggestions based on emails and other interactions
Pricing options: Request more information on Bravo’s get-in-touch page
One reviewer loves how Bravo makes peer recognition easy:
“It’s maintaining proper data of all my company members, I can easily select the peer whom I want to appreciate, we can choose recognition from multiple categories.”
19) Reward Gateway
Best for: Teams of 200+
The Reward Gateway platform helps companies incentivize positive behaviors to cultivate long-term business growth and solid relationships. By facilitating behavior-based awards, Reward Gateway empowers employees to better understand company values and expectations.
Why we love it: Behavior-based rewards help boost employee-employer harmony.
Standout features:
- Team challenges provide healthy competition
- Machine learning technology provides specific recommendations
- Team-, location-, and role-based analytics point out trends
Notable companies using Reward Gateway:
- Discovery Channel
- Pepsi
- Accenture
- Nexus
- Peoplecare
Pricing options: Request a demo to learn more about Reward Gateway’s pricing structure
Here’s what one reviewer likes best about Reward Gateway:
“We are really enjoying using this (the recognition tool). With multiple locations and staff so spread out, it’s difficult to help them feel like they are a part of our organization. This has helped our staff become more unified.”
20) Vantage Circle
Best for: Teams of 500+
Vantage Circle is a one-stop employee engagement and employee benefits platform that strives to celebrate your workforce. This comprehensive yet cost-effective solution is designed with the intent to help organizations in attracting and retain their top talents.
Why we love it: It comprises four different aspects of making people feel engaged in one single suite of solutions.
Standout features:
- Delivers 3 seamless integrations including chat collaboration
- Gift cards are available in 55+ countries
- Real-time data analytics for Admins to check engagement levels
Notable companies using Vantage Circle:
- HCL
- Accenture
- Infosys
- WIPRO
- Aricent
Pricing options: Vantage Circle offers a free trial and 3 paid version plans. For any further details, visit the Vantage Circle pricing page.
One happy user wrote the following review on G2.com:
“I appreciate this platform where the contributions of self and colleagues are recognized, which leads to self-satisfaction. Vantage Circle provides a sense of oneness in the team and improves our engagement”.
21) Credly
Best for: Teams of 3 – 25
Credly is a digital credentialing platform company can use to celebrate employees for their demonstrated skills and talents. Teams can create their digital credentials and then start recognizing employees who achieve them.
Why we love it: Employees will love receiving recognition for specific skills.
Standout features:
- Promotion tools let employees show off their credentials on other platforms
- Metadata options allow users to add testimonials to their creds
- Analytics pinpoint employee interests as well as achievements
Notable companies using Credly:
- IBM
- Dell
- Adobe
- Oracle
- Pearson
Pricing options: Request information to learn more about Credly’s pricing structure
This quote from a case study explains why IBM started a digital credentialing program:
“IBM will always attract the world’s best and brightest. With our digital credentials program, we want to shift mindsets in our industry and make tech more diverse and inclusive. We want to bring in people with non-traditional backgrounds, attract people re-entering the workforce or relaunching their careers. We want to create more jobs for people where tech jobs are scarce to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce.”
