Assembly Expert Review, Pricing, Alternatives - 2024

Written by
Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast
March 18, 2024
Contributing Experts
No items found.

Assembly

4.7 (74)
Assembly
Assembly

Introduction

We spend hundreds of hours researching the best HR and recruiting software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on practitioners and experts to help us recommend the right software. However we may earn a small fee if you click on vendor links on this page.

Learn More

Assembly Versus the Competition

Built for SMBs that want to boost employee recognition, Assembly is one of the most cost-effective solutions in the rewards and recognition space. It’s free for up to five members per month, and very moderately-priced afterwards.

If you're ready to get a Assembly demo, we suggest getting in touch for a look at the product and quote. Otherwise, read on!

Ratings

4.9

Ease of Use

Best For

Key Differentiator

Price

Starts at $2.80/employee

Free Trial

Yes

PROS

  • Explore the platform for free, no need for a credit card or demo
  • Great set of features for the price point
  • Make your own rewards and even set up a points system with automated incentives
  • You have the option to go with a month-to-month plan or a long-term contract. For the latter, you can reach out to their team for a custom deal if it’s a larger team. However, keep in mind that the minimum agreement is 12 months. 

CONS

  • Coins and points do expire, so sometimes they’ll expire by the end of the month before you can use them, although you get more the next period.
  • SSO is only included with some plans. For others, it can be purchased as an add-on.
Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast

Need Help? Get Custom Recommendations for Best Employee Rewards Programs

Talk to An Advisor
Over 3 million HR leaders trust our advice

Assembly Review

While best known for their rewards and recognition software, Assembly have expanded into offering more, making them a rather complete employee engagement suite. As of mid 2022, they have a communication productivity and automation tool. This is packed with features like team retrospective templates (and templates for other similar processes), employee surveys, and an intranet-like digital HQ.

As to their flagship product, Assembly's employee recognition and rewards software enables HR teams to build stronger cultures with more engaged employees through various forms of recognition. 

Specifically, employees use Assembly to recognize their co-workers for accomplishments large and small. In turn, these recognitions can be broadcasted to the rest of the company, who can in turn react to them like on a social media network. 

Of course, recognition aligns with company values which are set by you. Employees who are recognized typically are also given points by their peers which they can then turn into various rewards.

Furthermore, Assembly stood out to us among the dozens of companies we demoed in this space because of their customizable rewards. Apart from letting employees pick rewards from a curated catalog, you can also set up your own rewards, such as team building events, sleep-in days, choose office music for the day, etc, or other stuff you and your team can think of. 

Then, there’s the price point. Assembly offers a free tier for smaller companies, or small teams within an organization that want to give this a try before implementing it at large. Now, if you were to move to the paid version, it’s good to know that it’s rather moderately priced if we compare it to other solutions. Their monthly plan starts at $2.50 - $4.00 per employee per month. 

Among their clients, it’s typical for around 90% of the employees at each company to use it on a monthly basis. This is evidence that there is a self-sustaining feedback loop of employees being recognized, and giving recognition.

Who shouldn't buy Assembly

Small companies that have more than 10 employees but are still looking for a free product, or are wary about signing up for a year, might not be a good fit for Assembly. That being said, many companies do start by simply implementing the tool amongst a smaller team within, then expanding if the rewards and recognition program is a success at that smaller scale.

Assembly Customers

Coca Cola, Goodside Health, StubHub, Amazon, Keck School of Medicine, Quest Nutrition

Assembly: Great Recognition Software for SMBs
visit Assembly

Assembly Key Features

  • Curate rewards: HR can create rewards that relate to your culture (team building events, sleep-in days, choose office music for the day, etc.)
  • Automated recognition: You can let the product run on autopilot for birthdays and work anniversaries. 
  • Network recognition: Employees can react to and comment on recognition, as well as do peer-to-peer acknowledgments. It doesn’t stop at managers recognizing employees. 
  • Benchmarking analytics: These let you know how well your program is doing relevant to peer companies.

  • Assembly also features: 

    • Points system
    • Automated incentives 
    • Employee surveys

    Assembly Key Integrations

    Assembly is Part of the BambooHR app Marketplace. It also integrates natively with Zenefits, the payroll software company.

    Assembly Pricing

    Assembly offers a free version for up to 10 employees. Paying customers are charged $2.80 - $4.50 per employee per month depending on the features you're looking for and if you choose an annual vs monthly plan.

    Assembly is Best For

    With a free plan if you have 5 employees or less, Assembly is arguably best for small teams. However, their pricing plans are just as reasonable as you go up the employee count scale. As of the pandemic, the folks at Assembly have also focused more on hybrid workplaces.

    How has Assembly Changed Over Time?

    Assembly Implementation

    If you use software that they already integrate with (like Slack or Teams), then it's fairly simple to get setup.  Typically implementation takes less than a week.

    Assembly Customer Success

    All customers get access to 24/7 chat support, in addition to a dedicated account manager. Both their support team and customer success reps are known to go above and beyond to help the clients, sharing best practices and trying to help you truly make the most out of the platform. However, be advised that if you want custom onboarding support, this service starts at $5,000.

    Further, the team at Assembly are also known to gather feedback from their users and use it to create new features, even taking time to let them know how they’ve incorporated said feedback. Arguably, this is something that the best vendors do in any software space.

    About Assembly

    Founded in 2017, Assembly have been rapidly making a name for themselves in the employee recognition space. From their headquarters in California, and with a modest team of under 50 employees, they’ve managed to become a key player in the rewards and recognition software category thanks to their comprehensive set of features offered at a very reasonable price, all built upon a bedrock of remarkably good (based on interviews and user reviews) customer service and support.

    Fueled by this, they’ve managed to keep expanding, incorporate user feedback, and develop into a fuller employee engagement tool. Some remarkable aspects of their trajectory are the amounts they’ve raised in funding, their ever-growing client list, and perhaps more importantly to you, dear reader, their reputation among their customers.

    Company HQ

    Santa Monica, California

    Number of Employees

    11-50

    Year Founded

    2017

    Amount Raised

    4.500.000,00 US, backed by the likes of Homebrew and Wonder Ventures.

    FAQ

    • Do rewards within Assembly cost extra?
      Naturally, rewards like gift cards do present additional costs, but this is only paid at the time of redemption. This means, when employees exchange points for a paid reward. The good thing is that you pay exactly what the rewards costs. Let’s say it’s a $50 gift card; you pay $50. 
    • Do I have to set up rewards to use Assembly?
      Not at all. Rewards are not required. You simply have access to their catalog if you need it, but you can use the tool without having to set up these rewards. Although they do recommend it as a best practice for high adoption, many companies choose to offer internal culture rewards only in order to keep the costs down. 
    • Is peer-to-peer recognition a set feature with Assembly? Not either. While they do have that feature and recommend it to every customer, each company is free to set up the tool however they deem fit. You can limit who can give or receive recognition right from the admin panel and change it whenever you decide.

    Assembly Alternatives

    Bucketlist

    Rewards platform with a massive catalog

    Popularity score
    4.9 / 5
    user score
    4.8 / 5
    Product score
    4.4 / 5
    Bonusly

    Rewards platform with a clear redemption process

    Popularity score
    4.7 / 5
    user score
    4.8 / 5
    Product score
    4.2 / 5
    Awardco

    Gift cards, curated memory books and keepsakes

    Popularity score
    4.6 / 5
    user score
    4.7 / 5
    Product score
    4.4 / 5
    WorkTango

    Rewards and incentives to boost experience and performance

    Popularity score
    4.8 / 5
    user score
    4.5 / 5
    Product score
    4.4 / 5
    Motivosity

    Rewards platform focused on community building

    Popularity score
    4.7 / 5
    user score
    4.7 / 5
    Product score
    4.6 / 5
    Kudos

    Rewards platform for companies with 500+ employees

    Popularity score
    4.6 / 5
    user score
    4.8 / 5
    Product score
    4.2 / 5
    Cooleaf

    Manager empowerment and team building rewards platform

    Popularity score
    4.9 / 5
    user score
    4.9 / 5
    Product score
    4.2 / 5
    Guusto

    Rewards platform for frontline employees

    Popularity score
    4.9 / 5
    user score
    4.9 / 5
    Product score
    4.2 / 5
    Vantage Circle

    Rewards platform in over 100 countries

    Popularity score
    / 5
    user score
    4.4 / 5
    Product score
    4.1 / 5
    Workstars

    Affordable rewards platform for US and UK businesses

    Popularity score
    4.8 / 5
    user score
    4.7 / 5
    Product score
    4.1 / 5

    Review Methodology

    We take our research process seriously and want to make sure we are presenting our readers with the very best solutions in a given software category. Check out this guide to learn how we evaluate vendors before featuring them in our buyer guides.

    Learn More