Choosing the right employee recognition platform is critical for fostering engagement and building a strong company culture. Bonusly and Awardco are two leading platforms in this space, each offering unique features that cater to different types of businesses. While Bonusly focuses on creating a fun social recognition experience ideal for small to midsized companies, Awardco provides a more comprehensive, enterprise-level solution with the world's largest reward network through its Amazon Business partnership.
In this unbiased comparison, we'll explore the core features, integrations, pricing, customer support, and reviews for both Bonusly and Awardco. Additionally, for those looking for Bonusly alternatives or Awardco competitors, we'll introduce Matter, a flexible and user-friendly platform that can enhance employee engagement in a more personalized way.
Let's dive into how these platforms compare and determine which might best fit your organization.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Overview comparison
Both platforms provide unique strengths catering to different business needs when choosing between Bonusly and Awardco for employee recognition and rewards.
Bonusly is designed for small to midsized companies seeking a simple, engaging peer-to-peer recognition system. Employees can simply provide recognition through points, which can be swapped for rewards such as gift cards, donations, or unique company-branded merchandise. Bonusly focuses heavily on social, fun recognition experiences, with seamless integrations into popular workplace tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. It is best known for encouraging frequent, real-time recognition that aligns with company values.
Awardco is a more robust, enterprise-level solution, offering a vast rewards network in partnership with Amazon Business. It provides access to millions of rewards with no markups, which sets it apart from many competitors. Awardco's platform is also highly customizable, allowing businesses to automate milestone recognitions such as work anniversaries and birthdays. Awardco is an excellent choice for large companies looking for a highly scalable and cost-effective recognition platform with extensive global reach.
While Bonusly excels at creating a fun, interactive recognition experience for smaller teams, Awardco is better suited for larger enterprises seeking flexibility, customization, and access to a global rewards marketplace.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Features
Both Bonusly and Awardco offer robust features designed to enhance employee engagement and streamline recognition programs, but they differ in scope and flexibility, catering to different organizational needs.
Bonusly features:
- Peer-to-peer recognition: Bonusly's core feature is its peer-to-peer recognition system, which encourages employees to give points to one another for a job well done. The platform is built around fostering fun and frequent recognition through social interactions, helping to strengthen team dynamics.
- Customizable rewards: Bonusly offers a wide variety of rewards, including gift cards, charitable donations, and branded items, allowing businesses to personalize the experience for their employees.
- Seamless integrations: Bonusly integrates with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, enabling employees to recognize each other directly within these platforms, making recognition an organic part of the workflow.
- Actionable insights: Bonusly provides basic analytics to track employee engagement trends, allowing managers to measure recognition's impact on productivity.
Awardco features:
- Global rewards network: One of Awardco's standout features is its partnership with Amazon Business, offering zero-markup access to millions of rewards, from gift cards to experiences and branded swag. This makes it appealing for businesses seeking an extensive and customizable rewards program.
- Automation and custom programs: Awardco excels in automating milestone celebrations like birthdays and work anniversaries. It also offers custom recognition programs tailored to an organization's unique needs, allowing businesses to automate incentive programs, employee onboarding, and spot recognition.
- Advanced analytics and reporting: Awardco provides in-depth reporting and budgeting tools that permit businesses to track the success of their recognition programs and manage expenses efficiently.
- HRIS integrations: Awardco integrates with leading HRIS platforms like BambooHR and Workday, making it easier to sync employee data and streamline recognition processes.
Summary of differences: Bonusly is focused on social, peer-to-peer recognition, rendering it an optimal selection for smaller teams seeking a user-friendly and enjoyable platform. Awardco, by contrast, offers more customization and automation, with a global rewards network and enterprise-grade features, making it better suited for larger companies with more complex recognition needs.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Integration options
Both Bonusly and Awardco offer robust integration options that enable businesses to connect their recognition programs seamlessly with the tools employees use daily. However, they differ in terms of the platforms they integrate with and the flexibility they provide.
Bonusly integration options:
- Slack and Microsoft Teams: Bonusly integrates effortlessly with Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing employees to give recognition without leaving their communication platforms. This encourages frequent recognition and keeps employees engaged in real time.
- HRIS and workflow tools: Bonusly also integrates with popular HRIS systems like BambooHR and ADP, enabling businesses to sync employee data and create a seamless recognition experience across various workflows.
- Open API: For companies with more specific integration needs, Bonusly offers an open API that enables developers to create bespoke integrations customized to the specific needs of their business.
Awardco integration options:
- HRIS and enterprise tools: Awardco integrates with several major HRIS systems, such as Workday, BambooHR, and Paylocity, making it a great option for larger organizations connecting their recognition programs to their core HR tools.
- Collaboration tools: Like Bonusly, Awardco integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams, enabling real-time recognition and easy access to rewards. This helps teams stay connected and motivated.
- Custom integrations and API: Awardco offers custom integrations to meet specific business needs. With its flexible API, businesses can connect Awardco to various internal systems and platforms, ensuring a smooth, tailored recognition experience.
Summary of differences: If you’re comparing Bonusly competitors and Awardco alternatives, keep in mind that both Bonusly and Awardco offer strong integration capabilities, but Awardco excels with its deeper connections to enterprise-level HRIS platforms and more flexible custom integration options. While Bonusly is a great choice for smaller teams looking for simple and effective integrations with communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Awardco is more appropriate for bigger companies with intricate integration requirements.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Pricing and plans
Pricing is an important consideration when picking an employee recognition and rewards platform. Both Bonusly and Awardco offer flexible pricing models that accommodate businesses of all sizes but differ in structure. Bonusly follows a subscription-based pricing model, while Awardco offers customizable plans for enterprises needing a more tailored recognition and rewards approach.
Bonusly pricing:
- Appreciate: $2/user/month, billed annually
- Connect: $5/user/month, billed annually
- Achieve: $7/user/month, billed annually
Here's a more detailed overview of Bonusly's plans and pricing.
Awardco pricing: Pricing is not listed on the website. You'll need to schedule a demo/sales call with Awardco to learn more about pricing.
Summary of differences: While both platforms provide robust pricing options, Bonusly may be better suited for small to midsized businesses that prefer straightforward, predictable pricing. Awardco, with its customizable enterprise pricing and access to Amazon's global rewards marketplace, is ideal for larger organizations that require scalability and flexibility. For companies seeking even more customization, Matter offers a competitive alternative that blends the advantages of both pricing models, ensuring a tailored recognition experience.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Customer support
When choosing an employee recognition platform, customer support is critical in guaranteeing a seamless user experience. Bonusly and Awardco offer different levels of support, with each platform providing unique benefits based on the size and needs of the business.
Bonusly customer support:
- Email and chat support: Bonusly provides email and live chat support for all users, allowing businesses to resolve issues quickly. However, some users have noted that response times for more complex problems can be slower.
- Help center and resources: Bonusly has a comprehensive help center where users can find FAQs, guides, and articles to troubleshoot common problems independently. This makes it easier for smaller teams to manage minor issues independently.
- Basic customer support for smaller businesses: While Bonusly's support options are effective for small to mid-sized companies, they may lack the depth needed for larger organizations that require dedicated, personalized assistance.
Awardco customer support:
- Dedicated customer success manager: Awardco offers enterprise clients a dedicated customer success manager. This level of support ensures that businesses have a direct point of contact for assistance with onboarding, implementation, and ongoing management.
- 24/7 global support: Awardco provides 24/7 support, ensuring global teams can receive help whenever needed. This is especially beneficial for large companies with employees across multiple time zones.
- Extensive onboarding and training: Awardco offers comprehensive onboarding and training programs, including live online training, webinars, and documentation, making it easier for large enterprises to fully utilize the platform.
Summary of differences: Bonusly offers reliable support through email and chat, which is sufficient for smaller teams looking for quick and accessible help. Awardco excels with its 24/7 global support and dedicated customer success managers, making it a better fit for large organizations that need hands-on assistance and support at all times.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Customer reviews
Real-world user experiences provide vital insights into how each platform operates in practical business scenarios. Let's explore what users say about Bonusly and Awardco based on reviews from G2, a trusted software review platform.
Bonusly customer reviews
G2 review: Bonusly holds a G2 score of 4.7/5 based on over 1,000 reviews.
- Bonusly is praised for its simplicity and ease of use. Many users appreciate the platform's peer-to-peer recognition system, which helps foster a culture of appreciation and engagement within teams. However, some users have noted that the reward options could be expanded, especially for larger organizations.
- "We've used the service for years until it has slowly diminished in both quality and usability. We used to have a wider variety of rewards available, which has significantly shrunk to the point where we have one or to options available which are constantly in and out of service. At the time of writing the service is almost unusable and the Bonusly support team have done nothing in terms of informing or providing a clear path to a resolution." - Verified User in Marketing and Advertising (Customer G2 Review).
- "Much like tipping, this system shifts the responsibility of compensation from the employer to someone else (patron for tipping, employee for Bonusly). I don't know the full details of the financials behind this program, but there's no way management would have gone for it if it were MORE expensive than handing out bonuses to everyone yearly. Instead of cutting or doing away with bonuses, ownership has now implemented social media, subject to the same whims and cliqueness found in standard social media, to take the place of direct financial compensation. Instead of people/families looking forward to little boost for the holidays etc, now you have to worry about office politics and how popular you might be with others to score some extra cash. And by extra, I mean a pitiful amount. 5000 nuggets will get you the same $500 bonus as before, which will take most people well over a year to acheive. And that's if you know to use the cash out option, which is buried amongst all the charitable contributions you can make or the gift cards you can redeem." - Verified User in Hospital & Health Care (Customer G2 Review).
- "It's a nice concept and a positive way to incentivize people, quite easy to use, and customer support responded prompty, but without an actual solution." - Alexandru M., Digital Marketing Operations Circle Lead.
Awardco customer reviews
G2 review: Awardco holds a G2 score of 4.8/5 based on over 1,500 reviews.
- Awardco is well-regarded for its partnership with Amazon Business, which offers a wide range of reward options with zero markups. Users appreciate the platform's extensive rewards catalog and its ability to manage global recognition programs, but some mention that the setup process can be complex, especially for new users.
- "They promise to investigate and reply the next day and after that, you hear nothing from them. It took 3 months to process my request. During this time a war has started in my country and now the certificates are useless. They can't refund them or send compensation. All I can hear is that they are sorry or ask the vendor. Also one of the certificates is not the one I ordered." - Anton A., Onboarding Tech (Customer G2 Review).
- "My company just switched to Awardco. It sounds good in theory. But it's not used to reward hard work or going above and beyond like they pitch it. Most of the managers don't know how to give extra points. Yes, there's a lot of options for redeeming points, but it's near impossible to get points outside of a predetermined points schedule." - Verified User in Facilities Services.
- "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).
Summary of differences: Bonusly is widely appreciated for its ease of use and fun approach to recognition, making it ideal for smaller teams or companies looking for a simple solution. However, some users have mentioned that it could benefit from more diverse reward options. Awardco, on the other hand, stands out for its Amazon Business integration and global reward options but may present a steeper learning curve for new users, especially in larger organizations.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: Which is the right tool for you?
Choosing the right employee recognition platform depends on your company's size, goals, and specific needs. Both Bonusly and Awardco offer excellent solutions but cater to different types of organizations and priorities.
When to choose Bonusly:
- Small to mid-sized businesses: Bonusly is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses that want an easy-to-use social platform to boost employee engagement. Its focus on peer-to-peer recognition makes it an optimal choice for teams that wish to cultivate a recognition culture that is both interactive and enjoyable.
- Budget-friendly solution: With per-user pricing and flexible billing options, Bonusly is cost-effective for companies that need predictable pricing without large upfront investments.
- Integrations with popular tools: Bonusly integrates seamlessly with Slack and Microsoft Teams, making it an excellent alternative for businesses that depend on these tools for daily communication and collaboration.
Check out our Bonusly vs. Matter guide for a full comparison.
When to choose Awardco:
- Large enterprises: Awardco's robust feature set and Amazon Business partnership make it a powerful tool for large organizations that need scalability and global reach. Its ability to handle complex recognition needs, like custom rewards catalogs and global fulfillment, makes it ideal for multinational companies.
- Customizable rewards: Awardco offers the world's largest reward network, including zero-markup Amazon rewards, which can be a cost-saving advantage for companies looking for flexible, global employee rewards.
- Advanced analytics and automation: If your company needs deeper insights into employee engagement and automated milestone celebrations like birthdays and service anniversaries, Awardco provides advanced reporting tools and the ability to automate these processes.
Check out our Awardco vs. Matter guide for a full comparison.
If your business is smaller or focused on building a fun, social recognition environment, Bonusly is likely the best fit. Its simplicity, affordability, and seamless integration with communication tools make it a strong choice for companies that want a quick-to-implement solution. On the other hand, Awardco is ideal for large enterprises looking for a global recognition platform with extensive reward options and more advanced features, such as detailed analytics and customizable programs.
Matter offers a competitive alternative for businesses looking for even more flexibility and customization. It blends the social features of Bonusly with the scalability and customization of Awardco, providing a robust solution for all business sizes.
Matter: The best alternative to Bonusly and Awardco
While both Bonusly and Awardco are strong platforms for employee recognition, Matter stands out as a flexible and user-friendly alternative. It offers a combination of the best features from both platforms, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes looking for a tailored recognition and engagement experience.
Matter integrates seamlessly with tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, making it simple for employees to give and receive peer-to-peer recognition through customizable kudos cards. Unlike other platforms focusing on specific rewards, Matter allows businesses to customize recognition programs to align with company values and employee preferences. Whether you're looking to boost engagement through fun, frequent recognition like Bonusly or want to automate milestone celebrations and offer a broader reward selection like Awardco, Matter provides a balanced solution that can adapt to your needs.
Why Matter is the best alternative:
- Flexible peer recognition: Matter offers a fun and easy way for employees to recognize each other's achievements with customizable kudos cards that reflect your company's culture and values. This ensures that recognition remains meaningful and engaging for all team members.
- Automated milestone celebrations: Like Awardco, Matter automates important celebrations like birthdays and work anniversaries, helping managers ensure no milestone goes unrecognized.
- Seamless integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams: Matter works effortlessly with the communication tools your team already uses, allowing for real-time recognition without disrupting workflows.
- Custom rewards: Matter allows businesses to create personalized reward systems, offering options like digital gift cards, charitable donations, or even branded merchandise. This flexibility ensures that employees feel truly appreciated for their hard work.
- Simple setup and maintenance: Matter's easy installation process takes only minutes, and once it's up and running, the platform automates much of the recognition process, making it a low-maintenance but highly effective tool for employee engagement.
In summary, Matter combines the social recognition features of Bonusly with the automation and customization capabilities of Awardco, offering a comprehensive solution that enhances employee satisfaction and fosters a stronger workplace culture. Whether looking for an Awardco alternative or Bonusly alternatives, Matter delivers a perfect blend of simplicity, scalability, and flexibility to suit your organization's unique needs.
Bonusly vs. Awardco: FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions to help you determine whether Bonusly or Awardco is the best fit for your company's employee recognition program.
Q: How do Bonusly and Awardco compare in terms of features?
A. Bonusly focuses on peer-to-peer recognition, offering a social, engaging platform that encourages employees to give points for recognition. It integrates with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams and provides customizable rewards such as gift cards and charitable donations.
Awardco, on the other hand, stands out for its global rewards network powered by its partnership with Amazon Business, offering millions of rewards with zero markups. It also automates milestone celebrations such as birthdays and work anniversaries.
Q: Which platform is better suited for large, global organizations?
A. Awardco is better suited for large enterprises with international teams, thanks to its global rewards marketplace and robust integrations with HRIS platforms like Workday and BambooHR. It provides comprehensive automation for recognition programs at scale.
Bonusly focuses on small to midsized businesses, offering a simpler, more social recognition platform that helps companies boost employee engagement through frequent peer-to-peer recognition.
Q: How do Bonusly and Awardco handle tracking and performance management?
A. Awardco offers advanced analytics and performance management features, helping organizations track employee recognition trends and align rewards with company goals. This makes it an excellent option for businesses looking for detailed employee productivity and engagement insights.
Bonusly also provides basic analytics but focuses more on encouraging frequent recognition to boost productivity and engagement rather than offering deep performance management tools.
Q: How do the platforms integrate with existing tools?
A. Both platforms integrate seamlessly with Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing employees to give recognition directly within these communication tools. Awardco integrates more deeply with HRIS systems like Workday and BambooHR, making it a more comprehensive solution for large enterprises.
Bonusly is easier to implement for small and medium-sized businesses, offering smooth integrations with fewer setup complexities.
Q: How do Bonusly and Awardco handle customer support, and do they offer a live rep?
A. Awardco provides robust customer support, including a dedicated customer success manager for larger clients, and offers 24/7 global support for critical issues, making it a reliable option for large companies.
Bonusly offers email and live chat support, which is suitable for smaller businesses, though it may not provide the same level of hands-on assistance as Awardco.
Q: How do these platforms handle recognition automation?
A. Awardco provides full automation for milestones like birthdays, work anniversaries, and performance milestones. It also automates reward distribution through its Amazon Business partnership, reducing manual tasks for HR teams.
Bonusly offers real-time, peer-to-peer recognition, which employees can manually control, but it lacks the extensive automation capabilities of Awardco.
Q: Are there any Bonusly alternatives or Awardco competitors?
A. Yes, if you're looking for Bonusly alternatives or Awardco competitors, Matter is a fantastic option. Matter integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams to offer peer recognition through customizable kudos cards. It automates milestone celebrations and uses a flexible point system that resets weekly to encourage frequent participation, making it an excellent alternative to Bonusly and Awardco.
Q: How do these platforms manage user interaction and engagement?
A. Awardco simplifies user interaction by providing a user-friendly interface for global reward distribution, allowing employees to redeem rewards from an extensive catalog. It automates the tracking and verification of rewards across multiple systems.
Bonusly focuses on making recognition fun and social, encouraging frequent interactions through peer-to-peer recognition tied to company values.
Both Bonusly and Awardco offer excellent employee recognition solutions. However, they cater to a variety of company needs. Awardco is perfect for large enterprises seeking automated recognition and global rewards, while Bonusly is ideal for smaller businesses looking to boost employee engagement through fun, peer-driven recognition. For companies seeking flexibility, Matter balances the strengths of both platforms, offering customization, seamless integrations, and a user-friendly interface. Get started with Matter for free today!
