Regarding employee recognition and engagement, Awardco and Kudos are two top contenders, each offering unique features to help organizations build a positive company culture and boost employee morale. Both platforms are designed to make peer-to-peer recognition and rewards easy, but they cater to different business needs depending on the organization's size and goals.
Whether you're looking for global reward options through Amazon Business or an intuitive platform for real-time recognition tied to company values, choosing the right employee recognition platform is essential to fostering an engaged workforce. In this guide, we'll compare Awardco and Kudos to help you make the best choice for your business. We'll also highlight Matter as a strong option that combines the best of both systems while providing even more flexibility and scalability.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Overview comparison
At first glance, Awardco and Kudos may seem similar in their approach to employee rewards, but each platform has a unique focus. Awardco is designed for mid-sized to large organizations that require a global rewards marketplace and extensive automation options. Through its integration with Amazon Business, Awardco allows employees to access millions of rewards with zero markups, ranging from gift cards to experiences and branded swag. The platform is ideal for businesses that want to automate rewards, track recognition through detailed analytics, and provide employees with various choices at scale.
Kudos, in contrast, focuses on creating a culture of peer-to-peer recognition. It offers features such as real-time recognition tied to company values, customizable awards, and a selection of global rewards. Kudos is a great option for small to midsized businesses prioritizing building a connected, value-driven company culture. Kudos also excels in providing insightful analytics to monitor employee engagement and assess the effectiveness of recognition initiatives.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Features
Both Awardco and Kudos offer robust features that enhance employee rewards and recognition, but they take different approaches to how businesses implement and use these features. Let's look at what each platform brings and how they can help you foster a culture of recognition.
Awardco features: Awardco offers an expansive selection of employee rewards, making it ideal for companies looking for variety and flexibility in their recognition programs. Here are some of the standout features that make Awardco a popular choice:
- Amazon Business integration: Awardco's partnership with Amazon Business gives employees millions of rewards, including gift cards, branded merchandise, and unique experiences.
- Global rewards marketplace: Awardco allows companies to reward employees globally with no markups and automated fulfillment, ensuring that recognition is scalable and cost-effective.
- Customizable programs: Organizations can tailor their recognition and rewards programs to align with company values and business objectives. This makes it easier to incentivize the behaviors and achievements that matter most to the company.
- Analytics and reporting: Awardco offers detailed reporting tools that allow managers to track recognition patterns, analyze engagement, and ensure that rewards are distributed fairly across teams.
Kudos features: Kudos focuses on peer-to-peer recognition and building a culture of appreciation within organizations. It's designed for businesses that want to emphasize value-based recognition.
Here are some of the key features that set Kudos apart:
- Real-time recognition: Employees can give instant recognition tied to core company values, making it easier to celebrate contributions as they happen.
- Customizable rewards: Kudos provides gift cards, merchandise, and experiences tailored to fit the needs of your team, as well as employee incentives. With Kudos Rewards, you can tailor your recognition program to meet your specific goals.
- Insightful analytics: Kudos provides in-depth analytics to track engagement levels and recognition trends. This helps managers identify top performers and ensure recognition aligns with business objectives.
- Automated milestone celebrations: Kudos automates key moments like work anniversaries and birthdays, ensuring no significant milestones are overlooked.
While both platforms offer excellent features to improve employee engagement, Awardco is better suited for companies looking for an extensive global rewards marketplace and customizable options. At the same time, Kudos fosters a culture of peer recognition tied to company values.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Integration options
Regarding connecting with current systems and applications, both Awardco and Kudos offer various options to help streamline employee recognition into your company's workflows. Let's dive into how each platform approaches integrations and how they can support your business's recognition needs.
Awardco integrations:
Awardco is built to integrate seamlessly with many popular tools, making it easy to embed recognition within everyday workflows. Here are some of the key integration options that Awardco provides:
- Slack and Microsoft Teams: Awardco allows employees to recognize each other directly through Slack and Microsoft Teams, helping companies build a culture of recognition in real-time communication channels.
- HRIS systems: Awardco integrates with several HRIS platforms like Workday, BambooHR, and ADP, ensuring employee data synchronization and automating recognition processes based on milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries.
- Amazon Business integration: A standout feature of Awardco is its integration with Amazon Business, allowing employees to redeem their recognition points for millions of products with zero markups.
- Single sign-on (SSO): Awardco supports SSO through providers like Okta and Azure, simplifying login processes and enhancing security.
Kudos integrations:
Kudos also provides flexible integration options that allow companies to easily incorporate recognition into their daily workflows.
Key integration options include:
- Slack and Microsoft Teams: Kudos directly integrates with Microsoft Teams and Slack, enabling employees to provide recognition without having to exit their communication tools.
- HRIS platforms: Kudos supports HRIS integrations with platforms like BambooHR, ADP, and Workday, allowing businesses to automate recognition based on employee data and performance. SSO providers: Kudos supports SSO integrations through Okta and other major providers, making it simple for employees to access the platform securely without multiple login credentials.
Both platforms provide integrations with the most common tools modern businesses use. Awardco shines with its Amazon Business integration for a wider range of rewards, while Kudos is ideal for companies looking to integrate recognition closely with their HRIS and communication platforms.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Pricing and plans
When choosing an employee recognition and rewards platform, pricing is often a major consideration. Both Awardco and Kudos offer flexible pricing models that cater to businesses of all sizes, but their approaches differ. Awardco uses a custom pricing model, while Kudos offers a more transparent, subscription-based pricing plan.
Awardco pricing: Pricing is not listed on the website. To learn more about pricing, you'll need to schedule a demo/sales call with Awardco.
Kudos pricing: Pricing is not listed on the website. To learn more about pricing, you'll need to schedule a demo/sales call with Kudos.
While both platforms provide strong pricing options, Awardco is suited for companies that need customized, enterprise-level solutions. Kudos offers a cost-effective solution for smaller teams with no long-term commitments.
For businesses seeking even more flexibility, Matter provides an alternative that blends customization with affordability, offering flexible pricing that scales with your company.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Customer support
Strong customer support is essential for ensuring smooth implementation and ongoing use of employee recognition platforms. Both Awardco and Kudos offer comprehensive support options tailored to different organizational needs.
Awardco customer support:
- Dedicated client success managers: Awardco assigns each client a dedicated Client Success Manager, ensuring personalized guidance from setup through ongoing use. This function is especially useful for larger businesses that require hands-on assistance.
- 24/7 support availability: Awardco provides round-the-clock customer service via phone and email, helping businesses resolve issues anytime. This global support ensures that companies across various time zones can access help when needed.
- Extensive admin resources: Awardco's Help Center includes detailed guides and articles to assist administrators in effectively configuring and managing their recognition programs. Additionally, Awardco offers customized support for more complex setups, such as integration with other HR tools.
Kudos customer support:
- Personalized onboarding: Kudos provides a tailored onboarding process, guiding companies through platform setup and integration with key tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and HRIS systems. This hands-on support helps companies of all sizes implement Kudos successfully.
- Engagement support: Kudos has a dedicated team of engagement experts who offer continuous support, helping businesses optimize their recognition programs and meet their culture goals.
- Comprehensive help center: Kudos provides a comprehensive online Help Center that enables users to submit support requests, browse troubleshooting articles, and find detailed guides on platform use and features. Real-time support through chat is also available for immediate assistance.
Both platforms offer robust customer support options, but Awardco excels with its 24/7 availability and dedicated success managers, making it a great fit for larger enterprises. Meanwhile, Kudos shines with its highly personalized onboarding and engagement support, which is ideal for businesses looking for a more hands-on approach to employee engagement.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Customer reviews
Real-world experiences provide valuable insights when comparing employee recognition platforms. A great way to assess if a platform fits your company's unique needs is by looking at reviews from real users. Here's what users say about Awardco and Kudos on G2, a trusted software review platform.
Awardco customer reviews
G2 review: Awardco holds a G2 score of 4.8/5 based on over 500 reviews.
Awardco is highly rated for its employee rewards platform that has seamless integration with Amazon Business. Users have praised the platform's flexibility in using goal-setting tools and tracking employee metrics. However, some reviews highlight issues with the customer support response times and limited customization options in recognition software reporting.
- "The system does provide a full selection of Amazon item - the ones that are really good aren't typically available. The biggest issue is with delivery and tracking the status on the UI is very poor on giving the shipping status. No email updates are provided so you need to log in and see that a poorly worded status has changed which may indiciate that an item has been delivered." - Verified User in Computer Software (Customer G2 Review).
- "The preload of money also doesn't let me know when we are low on funds, it just declines the automatic settings. there is no phone number to call when I need help or have questions. Only email and I have yet to figure out how to video call. The communication between our HR system and Awardco was never set up correctly. I still have to configure that. - Alena C. (Customer G2 Review).
- "It was very difficult to find out that Amazon options were available or have any questions answered about these products. The number of choices is limited and if something needs to be returned it's somewhat complicated. There is no phone number to speak with anyone." - Verified User in Education Management (Customer G2 Review).
Kudos customer reviews
G2 review: Kudos holds a G2 score of 4.8/5 based on over 300 reviews.
Kudos is well-regarded for its strong emphasis on social recognition and employee portals, making it easy for teams to share ideas and recognize each other's contributions. The platform also supports collaboration through features like badges and leaderboards, which help drive employee productivity. However, some users have expressed a desire for more variety in the available reward options.
- "It seems very social media-like, and we all have a lot of that in our lives. That makes it easy to use, but it's hard to drive engagement from inside the team. Integration into our other communication channels would be better. I also really dislike robot verification with the pictures. Sometimes it resets itself so many times I just give up. It also doesn't give an option for people with low vision." - Verified User in Oil & Energy (Customer G2 Review).
- "The user interface, although easy to use, needs to be limited as the page can continuously scroll in order to find specific results. ie there is a lack of a squick search function. The graphical representation of achievements is too bulky which takes up a lot of screen space. A suggestion would be to have a high level overview ( of statistical data) with the ability to drill down deeper into the results. Similar to Power BI. - Gavin D. (Customer G2 Review).
- "I love that I can still keep up with my former team mates and reward them. The notifications get pushed down quickly when I'm checking them or if I want to find a specific birthday for an agent, it's hard to search." - Verified User in Retail.
Both platforms are well-regarded by their users, though there are areas where each platform could improve. Awardco excels at tracking employee metrics and providing flexible goal-setting tools, while Kudos fosters a collaborative environment through social recognition and productivity features like badges and leaderboards.
Awardco vs. Kudos: Which is the right tool for you?
Choosing between Awardco and Kudos depends on your company's needs, workplace culture, and the type of employee recognition program you want to implement. Both platforms offer valuable solutions for improving employee engagement but cater to different business models and priorities. Here's a breakdown to help you decide which platform aligns best with your business goals.
Choose Awardco if:
- Your company requires a large selection of reward options through Amazon Business, enabling employees to redeem employee rewards from a global catalog of products, gift cards, and experiences.
- You need a platform that integrates with HRIS systems to automate recognition milestones like birthdays, work anniversaries, and service awards.
- You're looking for a platform that provides in-depth employee metrics to help track and reward performance.
- Your organization values detailed reporting and customization for recognition programs.
- You want a solution to scale with mid to large enterprises, offering robust features like goal-setting tools and performance-based rewards.
Check out our Awardco vs. Matter guide for a full comparison.
Choose Kudos if:
- You need a platform focusing on social recognition and peer-to-peer engagement to build a positive company culture.
- Your company prefers a solution with features like badges, leaderboards, and employee portals that encourage collaboration and friendly competition among teams.
- You're seeking an easy-to-use recognition system that fosters employee engagement through day-to-day social recognition rather than material rewards.
- You want to strengthen team dynamics with a flexible platform emphasizing collaboration and sharing ideas.
- You're looking for a recognition program ideal for small to mid-sized businesses, offering essential features at a manageable cost.
Check out our Kudos vs. Matter guide for a full comparison.
Both platforms are powerful tools for fostering a positive workplace culture and rewarding employees. However, the right choice depends on your company's size, goals, and the type of recognition system you want to implement. If you're looking for a Kudos alternative or an Awardco competitor, consider Matter, which offers a balanced solution featuring a customizable recognition program, seamless integration with tools like Slack and Teams, and the flexibility to scale with your business needs.
Matter: The best alternative to Awardco and Kudos
When searching for a Kudos competitor or an Awardco alternative, Matter offers a unique and innovative solution that integrates the advantages of both platforms with supplementary flexibility and user-friendliness. Unlike other platforms, Matter focuses on enhancing team engagement with its highly customizable recognition system and automated feedback features.
One of the standout features of Matter is its seamless integration into Slack and Microsoft Teams, making peer-to-peer recognition easier and more natural. Employees can recognize their colleagues through custom kudos cards without leaving their daily communication tools, creating a culture of recognition that fits directly into the workflow.
In addition, Matter automates key tasks like work anniversaries and milestone celebrations, offering a hassle-free solution that requires minimal setup. The platform's Feedback Friday feature encourages consistent recognition at the end of each week, reinforcing employee appreciation and improving team collaboration.
Its coin system truly sets Matter apart, which resets weekly and encourages more frequent, authentic participation in recognition activities. Matter supports diverse reward preferences across teams by providing options like digital gift cards, custom-branded rewards, and charity donations.
For organizations looking for a solution that balances social recognition, automated rewards, and customizable features, Matter is the ideal alternative to both Awardco competitors and Kudos. Its emphasis on easy setup, engagement tools, and seamless integration makes it perfect for companies aiming to foster a dynamic, engaged workforce.
Why Matter is the best alternative
Seamless integration with Slack and Teams: Matter is a Slack-first and Teams-first application, meaning recognition can happen right in the flow of work. This integration allows employees to send peer-to-peer recognition via kudos cards without leaving their primary communication tool, making the recognition process natural and engaging.
Customizable kudos cards: Matter allows companies to create customizable kudos cards that align with their unique company values, inside jokes, or even team-specific moments. This customization adds a personal touch to the recognition experience, making it more meaningful for employees. These cards are designed to make recognizing colleagues fun and visually engaging, improving participation and fostering a sense of connection across teams.
Fully automated system: Unlike many other platforms, Matter is designed to be mostly automated, making it extremely user-friendly. The platform can be installed in just two minutes, and it takes only 5-10 minutes to customize recognition settings. After that, companies can "set it and forget it," with Matter handling most recognition tasks, including automated birthday and work anniversary celebrations. Employees can self-serve by entering their milestone dates, making the entire process easy to manage.
Feedback Friday: One of Matter's standout features is Feedback Friday, which encourages employees to give kudos at the end of each week. This feature is entirely customizable and automated, helping teams end the week on a high note and reinforcing a culture of recognition and positivity.
Rewards with frequent resets: Matter offers various rewards ranging from digital gift cards to custom-branded rewards (such as company swag or unique perks like lunch with the CEO). One feature differentiating Matter from its competitors is its coin system, which resets weekly, encouraging more authentic and frequent employee participation. This system helps drive continuous engagement, ensuring that recognition remains at the top of everyone's mind throughout the week.
Automated surveys with incentives: Matter makes distributing employee surveys through Slack and Teams easy, incentivizing participation with rewards. This integration helps businesses collect valuable feedback while engaging employees in recognition.
Matter's versatile reward system: Matter offers flexible reward options, including charity donations, prepaid Visa/Mastercards, and digital gift cards. This variety allows employees to choose rewards that are most meaningful to them, which can lead to higher engagement and satisfaction. The platform's rewards are designed to cater to diverse teams with unique preferences, enhancing the recognition experience.
While both Awardco and Kudos offer strong features for employee recognition and rewards, Matter is the best alternative if you're looking for a solution that combines the power of peer-to-peer recognition, customization, and seamless integration with daily communication tools. With its automated processes, personalized kudos cards, and flexible rewards system, Matter helps companies boost employee engagement and build a stronger workplace culture with minimal effort.
Awardco vs. Kudos: FAQs
Q: Can employee recognition in Awardco be automated?
A: Yes, Awardco allows companies to automate key recognition milestones such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and other service awards. This automation helps streamline employee recognition and ensures that important events are never missed.
Q: Can employee recognition through Kudos be linked to company values?
A: Absolutely. Kudos makes it easy to tie recognition messages directly to company values, reinforcing the behaviors and actions that align with your organization's culture. This helps strengthen workplace culture and create a more engaged and motivated workforce.
Q: What type of rewards does Awardco offer?
A: Awardco integrates with Amazon Business, enabling employees to select from various reward options, including gift vouchers, merchandise, and experiences totaling millions. This integration provides a vast range of rewards without additional markups.
Q: Can Kudos support peer-to-peer recognition?
A: Yes, Kudos emphasizes peer-to-peer recognition, where employees can easily recognize each other's contributions. Kudos offers features like badges, leaderboards, and eCards to make recognition fun and meaningful.
Q: Does Awardco provide real-time recognition reporting?
A: Yes, Awardco offers real-time reporting and analytics, which allow HR professionals and managers to track recognition trends, monitor employee engagement, and measure the impact of their recognition programs.
Q: What integrations does Kudos offer?
A: Kudos integrates with popular tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and various HRIS systems (such as ADP, Workday, and BambooHR), making it easy for organizations to streamline the recognition process across different platforms
Both Awardco and Kudos offer excellent platforms for employee recognition, each catering to different business needs. Awardco is a top choice for larger enterprises seeking a robust rewards marketplace, thanks to its Amazon Business integration, automation of key milestones like birthdays and anniversaries, and detailed employee metrics tracking. On the other hand, Kudos is perfect for smaller to midsized businesses focusing on social recognition and team collaboration. With features like badges, leaderboards, and customizable recognition tools, Kudos emphasizes building a positive and engaging workplace culture.
However, if you're looking for a solution that combines the best of both worlds, Matter provides a compelling alternative. With seamless integration into daily communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Matter supports real-time, peer-to-peer recognition, making creating a culture of appreciation easy. Its customizable kudos cards, automated rewards, and Feedback Friday feature make it a perfect choice for fostering employee engagement with minimal setup.
Ready to boost your company culture? Get started with Matter for free today and see how it can transform your workplace into a hub of recognition and appreciation.
