Bonusly Expert Review, Pricing, Alternatives - 2022

Bonusly is a mainly gift-card oriented platform. They’re notable for being available in dozens of countries, which is reflected in their varied and international rewards catalog.

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Regardless of where you or your employees are based, it’s likely that you’d be able to find a desirable reward within Bonusly’s global offering. By focusing on gift cards, the platform makes it very easy to send rewards worldwide. 

For instance, when choosing a reward, you can choose the country from the drop down menu, and pick something suitable from a wide range of partners like Amazon, Uber, Home Depot, and even local establishments or even home & garden services. There are also cash-out options and nonprofit donations. 

Within the platform, you also get a public feed where rewards are made visible. The entire team, or a selection, can see what was recognized and why. This adds to the recognition component, while making others aware of the work that their colleagues are succeeding at. 

For managers, the platform lets them assign a monthly allowance for each worker, which they use to recognize their colleagues. Using shortcuts, managers can also do team-wide rewards or set up recurring events like birthdays and anniversaries. A recent addition to the Bonusly platform is employee feedback. They refer to this module as Bonusly Signals. One of its main features is building surveys, either from scratch or by using one of their templates. You can then send them to a single employee, all departments, or anything in between. A noteworthy thing about Signals is that the surveys can be as complex as an end-of-the-year engagement questionnaire, or as simple as a multiple option question that is sent casually to the whole company on a Tuesday.

Those looking for a larger variety of rewards like in-person experiences or physical goods would have to look elsewhere.

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• Customers from over 100 countries
• Used by over 2,400 companies
• Over 16 million bonuses given
• 89% of Bonusly users participate within their first month
• 79% receive recognition at least once a month

• Social media style-interface: Add gifs, images, links, & emoji to recognitions. 
• Accessibility: Web-based version accessible on most browsers, plus iOS and Android mobile apps
• Monthly allowance: Employees get a stipend to give small bonuses to their colleagues each month. 

Bonusly also has capabilities for: 

• Employee feedback
• Analytics 
• Personalized bonus feeds 
• Shortcuts for team rewards
• Open API

• Chat & Collaboration Software: Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Chat, and Slack integration
• Human Resource Information System (HRIS): BambooHR, Workday, Namely, Zenefits‍
• Custom Tools: Open API & Widget

The pricing details of Bonusly are as follows:

• Core: This plan costs $2.70 per user per month when billed annually.
• Pro: This plan costs $4.50 per user per month when billed annually.
• Custom: This plan is designed for large organizations and has custom pricing.  

‍Note: Free trials and demos are available

Bonusly is cloud-based, so you can sign up and start using it almost immediately. However, as your employee recognition program gets more complex, they can help with a launch strategy, manager resources, and training, which will certainly streamline your implementation process.

• Help center
• System status site
• Typical response under 24 hours
• Contact support is done through an online form
• Customer support teams are based in Seattle, Boulder (HQ), and New York.

Although headquartered in Colorado, some of their teams can also be found in Seattle and NYC. They’ve been around since 2012, which along with their client list and track record, makes them one of the household names in the employee rewards and recognition software space.

The company was founded by current CEO Raphael Crawford-Marks. Speaking to Crunchbase, Crawford-Marks said that his previous work experience at several startups made him realize that employee experience would become an integral part of business success, and software was likely the way to measure and improve said experience.

Interestingly, ​​Crawford-Marks was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, and an instructor for Year Up. He dropped out of High School to work as a software engineer in the mid-nineties. He did eventually go back to school, getting a BA in Cognitive Science at Hampshire College. 

Bonusly has been named one of the most successful companies in America in 2019, according to Inc. Magazine. In the same year, they were also named as one of the top 50 places to work in the US by Outside Magazine.