9 Best Employee Recognition Tools for 2021

What is employee recognition software?

Employee recognition software is a tool that helps you manage employees’ satisfaction and by giving them recognition like praises and rewards with the purpose of increasing the employees’ working efficiency.

Employee recognition software is great for you to use as a medium, because you’ll be able to track employees’ achievements and thereafter, benefit from it greatly.

But you might ask, “How is employee recognition really beneficial?”

Well, in fact, it is beneficial for a company to give employee recognition.

Need more evidence to back this claim?

Statistics have confirmed that the benefits of giving recognition to employees are:

Basically, employee recognition can greatly benefit a company.

That’s why it is beneficial for the company to employ (no pun intended) the necessary employee recognition tool.

But do you know the right tool for you and your company?

Don’t worry because we’ve managed to research and gather the 9 best employee recognition tools for you to choose from and use.

  1. Bonusly
  2. Assembly
  3. Nectar
  4. Blueboard
  5. Guusto
  6. Motivosity
  7. Bucketlist
  8. Vantage Circle
  9. HeyTaco

1. Bonusly

Bonusly - Logos, brands and logotypes for employee recognition

Free/paid

Bonusly is not a free employee recognition software.

However, they offer a free trial and a demo for you to try out.

Pricing Plan

Bonusly has 3 pricing plans each designed for different company sizes and for unlocking additional features.

The Core plan costs $2.70 per user per month (not including the cost of rewards) which includes the basic features of an engaging employee recognition tool.

Pro, their most popular plan, costs $4.50 per user per month for a more comprehensive recognition and additional features besides the ones in the Core plan.

And the last one is the “Custom” plan that has a varied range of prices according to your customisation that fits the need of your organization.

Users

Bonusly can accommodate around 50 users in the Core plan and more than 100 users in their Custom plan.

Features

  • Available on mobile (Android/iOS)
  • Integrated chat tool
  • Analytics and detailed report
  • Automated rewards for work anniversaries and birthdays
  • Extensive rewards in gift cash or donations/charities
  • HRIS integrations
  • Customer support

Score: 4.5/5

2. Assembly

assembly employee recognition logo

Free/paid

Assembly has a free plan intended for a small team with a limited number of 20 members.

But if you have a bigger team, Assembly can offer you a paid plan to accommodate your organization members.

Pricing Plan

For the pricing, Assembly offers 3 plans:

  • Lite with a limited 50 members maximum and costs $2.50 per user per month
  • Standard that has an unlimited number of members and costs $3.50 per user per month
  • Custom for large organisations who need customisation with a price negotiated by the sales.

Users

As the pricing plan states, Assembly can fit from 20 users to an unlimited number of users whether it is 100 or 1,000.

Features

  • Feedback management
  • Peer-to-peer recognition
  • Manager-to-peer recognition
  • Performance management
  • Analytics and engagement tracking
  • Rewards points and management
  • Employee reward programs with extensive rewards catalog

Score: 4.4/5

3. Nectar

Employee Recognition and Rewards Made Simple - Nectar

Free/paid

Yes, Nectar is free to use and has no limits. If you want additional features, you can also have the paid plans.

Pricing Plan

Other than the free plan, Nectar offers 2 pricing plans.

One is the Standard plan that costs $2.50 per user per month with additional features like create-your-own rewards and intranet integration.

Another plan is the Plus plan that costs $3.75 per user per month which includes every feature in the Standard and a free plan with more additional features like custom branding and a dedicated account manager.

Users

Nectar can accommodate any amount of employees ranging from small companies of 10 to more than 1,000.

Features

  • Unlimited users
  • 100+ gift card options
  • Leaderboard
  • Peer-to-peer recognitions
  • Corporate discounts
  • Available on mobile apps
  • Analytics
  • Slack or Teams integration
  • HRIS integrations

Score: 4.7/5

4. Blueboard

Meet Blueboard Employee Rewards | Blueboard.com

Free/paid

Blueboard is not free but if you want to get started, you can request a demo from their team.

Pricing Plan

Blueboard doesn’t specify a certain price or plans on its website because it focuses on custom pricing that already adds your reward costs.

If you want to get started, all you need to do is request a demo.

Users

Blueboard can accommodate any amount of users but it is best intended for a large organization with more than 200 members.

Features

  • Automated reward delivery with Anniversary Engine
  • Slack and Teams integrations
  • Real-time reports and analytics
  • Automated surveys to get employees’ feedback
  • Rewards for any occasion: Anniversary awards, President’s club, wellbeing gifts, sales incentives, employee referral incentives, and spot recognition.

Score: 4.1/5

5. Guusto

Free/paid

Guusto has a free version for you to use freely.

But if you want more unlimited features, you can try the free trial of the non-free version.

Pricing Plan

Aside from the free Basic plan, Guusto offers 2 pricing plans for you.

The Premium plan costs $1.50 per user per month and the Custom plan’s price depends on your organization’s needs.

Users

Guusto can accommodate any number of employees in your organization from freelancers, small businesses, mid-size companies, to large companies.

Features

  • Goal management
  • Manager-to-peer recognition
  • Peer-to-peer recognition
  • Mention management
  • Rewards catalog
  • Social recognition
  • Performance management
  • Recognition tracking
  • eCards
  • Gift card management

Score: 4.2/5

6. Motivosity

Motivosity - #1 Employee Engagement & Recognition Software

Free/paid

Motivosity isn’t a free employee recognition tool, but it has a reasonable price in its pricing plan that you can check out below.

Pricing Plan

Motivosity has a wide range of four pricing plans that you can choose from.

First is the basic plan, Connect, which costs $1 per user per month.

The second one is the Listen plan costs $2 per user per month that focuses more on understanding team sentiment.

The third one is the Recognize plan that costs $3 per user per month that has more comprehensive and complete reward programs.

Lastly, there’s the Lead plan that costs $6.50 per user per month that includes performance coaching and 1 on 1s.

All the three pricing plans above Connect also include features on Connect.

Users

Motivosity can accommodate any number of people you have in your organization as it’s unlimited and charges based on users’ numbers.

Features

  • Nominations
  • eCards
  • Goal recognition
  • On-going performance tracking
  • Manager-to-peer recognition
  • Peer-to-peer recognition
  • Analytics
  • Organizational charting
  • Skills assessment
  • Rewards points and rewards catalog, and many others.

Score: 4.3/5

7. Bucketlist

Bucketlist Employee Recognition and Rewards Program

Free/paid

Bucketlist is not a free employee recognition tool.

You can request a demo to test out the free trial version for 14 days from their website.

Pricing Plan

Depending on your needs and customization as well as your company size, Bucketlist will offer the best price for you.

Bucketlist also offers a 90-day refund if you’re not satisfied with using the tool.

Users

Bucketlist can accommodate any number of employees in your organization.

But it is most suited to smaller and mid-sized company that ranges from 50 to 5,000 employees.

Features

  • eCards
  • Goal management
  • Performance management
  • Rewards catalog and rewards points
  • Nominations
  • Peer-to-peer recognition
  • Manager-to-peer recognition
  • Recognition tracking
  • Third-party integrations (Office, Teams, Gmail, and Slack)

Score: 4.1/5

8. Vantage Circle

Vantage Circle Guwahati Recruitment 2021 - 7 Finance Manager and Other  Posts Vacancy, Job Openings - Sentinelassam

Free/paid

Vantage Circle is a non-free employee recognition tool, but you can get the free trial from their website to try out.

Pricing Plan

Their website doesn’t publicly disclose the pricing, but they do have a form to fill on their website.

By filling the form about your company’s details and business size, you can get a custom quote from Vantage Circle.

Users

Vantage Circle can accommodate any number of employees but it is best suited for small companies that have 3 to 50 employees.

Features

  • Real-time analytics
  • Employee segmenting
  • Peer recognition
  • Third-party integrations
  • Corporate discounts
  • Employee engagements
  • Rewards available in many countries

Score: 4/5

9. HeyTaco

A new look for Heytaco

Free/paid

HeyTaco doesn’t offer a free plan for now.

But if you want to try it out, you can use the free trial version for 30 days.

And if you need a trial extension, you can contact them over to their website.

Pricing Plan

HeyTaco offers only one pricing plan because they claim that they don’t want to make any complicated tier-based plans.

It costs $3.00 per user per month, and you can customize the people who can use HeyTaco in your team.

Users

HeyTaco can accommodate as many people as you want in your Slack team.

Because HeyTaco is integrated into Slack, you just need to add HeyTaco to your team.

Features

  • Leaderboard
  • Different rewards for different achievements
  • Peer-to-peer recognition by giving tacos, emoji, and supporting messages

Score: 4/5

And that’s the 9 best employee recognition tools that you can use to improve your employee’s satisfaction and engagement in your organization.

Remember that employees’ position is not below the company and they don’t simply work for the company.

But they’re equal to the company because they bring you customers and keep the company going.

So they need to be given recognition and rewards too.

If you’re not giving them recognition, then who will?

Also if you’re an employee who’s looking for companies that offer employees recognition, you can check out our career platform: 9cv9.

You might also want to read:

Top 11 HRIS Apps or HR Software in 2021

10 Best Language Learning Apps for 2021

7 Best Programming Languages for Blockchain Projects in 2021

Was this post helpful?

Jessy Ye
Jessy Ye
Jessy Ye is an aspiring content writer and a fresh graduate majoring in English Literature. With passion and ambition, she strives to excel in content writing. Join her in her journey of creating influencing, creative content.

Related Articles