Whether it’s peer-to-peer or top-down and bottom-up recognition, top employee recognition programs can handle it all via personalized messages, custom peer-nominated awards, automated milestone celebrations, and more.

We picked over 50 of the most promising vendors in the market and put them to the test. Our favorites are effective in their own right. Whether you’re looking for the best employee recognition platforms for your small business or global company, this guide has all the options for every type of organization.

Employee recognition tools have many features to help build a strong company culture and employee engagement including:

• Peer-to-Peer Recognition: Allows employees to recognize each other’s contributions, creating a supportive and collaborative work environment. Nectar is, for example, one of the top employee reward and recognition program companies for peer recognition through personal employee awards and appreciation quotes.
• Manager-to-Employee Recognition: Gives managers the tools to recognize their team members’ achievements, reinforce positive behaviour and boost morale. Platforms like Reward Gateway and Bucketlist let managers offer timely and meaningful recognition with many options to choose from.
• Social Recognition: Publicly recognizing achievements helps form an appreciation culture. Motivosity’s social recognition, for instance, creates a community-focused environment where peers can view and engage with recognition.
• Customizable Rewards Catalog: This allows employees to choose the perks and rewards that mean something to them, from custom eCards to charitable donations. For example, Guusto offers extensive reward options, including company merchandise and experiences you can redeem at over 60,000 stores worldwide.
• Automated Milestone Celebrations: Automated milestone celebrations are a way to celebrate significant events like work anniversaries and birthdays. Nectar is one of the employee recognition vendors that make milestone celebrations easy with native automated service awards and birthday recognitions.
• Integration with Team Collaboration Tools: Recognition can be integrated into daily workflows through platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Matter serves as a perfect illustration—the employee recognition tool lets employees recognize others directly within Slack and Teams, so they can acknowledge them in real-time.
• Mobile Accessibility: Employee recognition programs are accessible to remote or deskless workers through mobile-friendly platforms. Kudos is one of many vendors that have mobile-optimized apps for on-the-go recognition program participation.
• ‍Reporting and Analytics: Gives you detailed insights into program performance so you can measure impact and adjust. For instance, Motivosity has real-time analytics and dashboards to see engagement and recognition trends, all of which combines to empower your rewards and recognition strategy.

Employee recognition platforms generally cost between $3–$7 per employee per month or a flat annual fee of $2,500–$4,000 for smaller teams, with many vendors offering free starter tiers and custom pricing for larger enterprises. Overall, most organizations can expect annual costs to range from a few thousand dollars for small teams to tens of thousands at scale.

Regarding pricing models, most employee recognition vendors resort to either the marketplace pricing model (you pay a percentage of your total annual spending) or the per-use-per-month (you pay a flat rate per employee each month).

However, before you choose a recognition platform, be sure to ask vendors about extras beyond base subscription costs. Some vendors may charge rewards fees and markups, as in they add a percentage on gift card or merchandise redemptions.. Additionally, many require a minimum monthly or annual fee as a minimum commitment. Examples include:

• Nectar: $4,000 annual commitment, with per-employee pricing in the $5–$6 range.
• Guusto: Lite plan at $125/mo; Essential starts at $2.50 per seat (P2P) and $5 per seat (Top-Down), with a $200/mo minimum; Premium starts at $3.50–$7 per seat, with a $560/mo minimum.
• Terryberry: Starts at ~$3 per rewarded employee, plus setup fees and an annual admin fee based on employee count and redemption volume.
• Kudos: Starts at $3.25 per user/mo but requires at least 500 employees.