Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards platform that specializes in gift cards. Available in dozens of countries, their international rewards catalog is impressive.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- Intuitive user interface.
- Available in German, English, French, and Spanish.
- Supports Android and iOS.
- Discounts for nonprofit and education organizations.
- 14-day, full-featured free trial.
CONS
- Analytics and reporting features are relatively underdeveloped.
- The reward catalog lacks in-person experiences and physical goods.
- All our plans are billed annually, and the vendor no longer discloses their pricing.
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Bonusly’s global offering makes it easy for multicultural teams to send gift cards to recognize excellence and reward their peers.
Users choose a reward, select the country from the drop-down menu, and pick gift cards from available partners. Options also include local establishments. Recipients can "cash out" and spend the money on services (housekeeping, for example) or donate their bonus.
In addition to streamlining the process for rewards, Bonusly also lets users recognize employee accomplishments by broadcasting to the entire company or with selected teams. When someone is singled out for doing good work, Bonusly will help users shout it from the rooftops (safely within the confines of the platform, of course).
Bonusly can make building rewards into the manager’s daily routine easier. Impromptu team-wide or individual rewards are easy to give, and users can set up goodies for "delivery" for recurring events like birthdays and work anniversaries. Additionally, each employee is provided with a monthly allowance for peer-to-peer recognition.
Along with all the revelry, Bonusly has also created a swag integration, namely AXOMO. Users choose the swag, connect to the AXOMO store to the Bonusly Reward catalog, and employees can directly redeem their points for company swag in addition to the usual reward choices.
- I use the flow of recognition through values to acknowledge colleagues for their positive actions
- I use the points exchange flow to receive rewards from partners.
- I use the dashboards to identify the recognition among my team and know where I stand in comparison to my colleagues
- the reports and dashboards are useful to identify which values I have received the most recognition for and which I have received the least recognition for.
- We can use the management flow to adjust the registrations and be able to give extra bonuses to employees if a specific policy is applied that allows this action.
- I really like the possibility to recognise colleagues and use the gifs which make everything much more fun.
- I like to change the rewards for several possible vendors
- I really like to see the Dashboards that indicate the best-placed teams globally.
- They have a cool interface and are very easy to work with
We had been looking for a tool that could reinforce our values through recognition and rewards and thought to give Bonusly a try.
Having been using it for over a year now, I can say that it provides a relaxed environment for recognition and appreciation of our internal actions. It promotes satisfaction with the possibilities of exchanging rewards for benefits among several suppliers of major brands and franchises.
It also helps our employees feel at ease to express their feelings of appreciation and gratitude regarding projects or small actions that require formal recognition.
- Limitation of exchange partners for some specific regions.
- Some partners require fees for the exchange of rewards such as "PayPal".
I think Bonusly is something very unique. I don't see many vendors with similar products and the biggest difference is the integration with other products such as Slack.
People buying this type of tool should check if it:
- is practical and easy-to-use tool.
- generates engagement between employees.
- has good customer service support.
- has a global performance and with very good partners to exchange rewards.
- is flexible so that Human Resources can adapt it to their reality in terms of points provided to employees.
They have sought to improve their service, implement new tools such as Analytics and Dashboards, and also include new partners to exchange rewards.
I see Bonusly suitable for companies with a young audience, as it is a tool that uses many gifs and emojis, which generally appeals to this type of audience.
I also see it for companies seeking to create greater engagement and recognition within employees.
Companies with very traditional processes and people who do not adapt to online tools for recognition.
Companies with bureaucratic and archaic methods may not adapt to the tool.
We created a slack channel so you can see who is receiving points every day. I give out points to coworkers about 5x a month until my allotted amount is used up. You can easily integrate with slack, use the browser, or the app. Anytime someone helps me out, I send a few points over to say thank you!
I like that I can recognize coworkers that help me out and that the whole company will see it. I also like that I can get a sense of what each department is working on and with. It allows you to see all that is being done in the company, not just the specific people you work with. Lastly, you can redeem your points for cash prizes which is a great benefit. It is a great engagement tool for the company!
Since going fully remote, our company struggled with building culture and engagement. We also wanted a way to show recognition for all the hard work being done on a daily basis. We started using Bonusly 6 months ago and have had a fantastic experience so far. Bonusly allows our team to stay engaged, have fun with each other, see the different projects going on all over the company, and feel valued for their work. It's easy to use and does exactly what we were wanting.
I really don't have any complaints about Bonusly. The Slack integration could use some slight improvements but nothing major. I have not found an auto-billing setting that would save me some time. There could be more email reminders to employees who are not engaging on Bonusly.
They have a competitive price, easy set-up, great customer service, an easy-to-use website, and awesome options for prizes to redeem your points for.
Be sure to budget for the subscription and points you want to give out. You will want to make sure your employees have an easy way to access it. It works well for us because everyone is working on their laptop all day. Decide if you want to give out cash rewards or experiences.
We have added more prizes to it and incorporated them into all of our cultural events. Anytime we want to reward someone or give a prize - we use Bonusly!
Companies that work primarily on a computer. Can be for in-person or remote settings.
Employees that do not have desk jobs would most likely not use it as much since they do not have easy assess to the website.
Motivosity
Motivosity
Nectar
Nectar
Awardco
Awardco
Achievers
Achievers
C.A. Short Company
C.A. Short Company
- Those looking for a wide variety of reward types, including in-person experiences or physical goods, should look elsewhere.
- A team with slumping morale, high attrition, bad reviews, or other widespread company culture problems should not use Bonusly. No single tool can "fix" a team with deep systemic issues.
The software has over 3,100 companies from 100+ countries. Some of them are ZipRecruiter, TOAST, SurveyMonkey, and Chobani.
- Peer-to-peer recognition: Employees can easily acknowledge each others’ contributions.
- Automated milestones: Automation of gifts for important dates (birthdays, work anniversaries).
- Incentive programs: Foster a positive culture with incentives.
- Rewards options: Employees can choose from gift cards, charitable donations, cash, or company swag.
- Integrations: Built-in integrations with numerous collaboration tools.
- Social media style interface: Add gifs, images, links, and emojis to recognition.
- Accessibility: Open API, web-based, and iOS/Android friendly.
- Recognition Analytics: Identify trends, monitor changes, and monitor the employee recognition program’s efficiency.
- Chat & Collaboration Software: MS Teams, Google Chat, and Slack integrations.
- Human Resource Information System (HRIS): BambooHR, Workday, Namely, Zenefits, Paycom, ADP, Gusto, and more.
- Custom Tools: Open API & Widget.
Bonusly offers three annual plans: Appreciate, Connect, and Achieve. Pricing for these plans is not publicly disclosed. A free trial is available for the Appreciate plan.
Small and large teams (50 to 5,000), and those who want to shape company culture with employee recognition. Also an excellent choice for peer-to-peer recognition in remote and hybrid work modes.
Bonusly is cloud-based, so companies can sign up and use it almost immediately. However, as the employee recognition program gets more complex, it can help with a launch strategy, manager resources, and training, resulting in streamlining the 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.
Headquartered in Colorado with teams in Seattle and NYC, Bonusly has been around since 2012, which, along with their client list and track record, makes them one of the first names in the employee rewards and recognition software space.
Current CEO Raphael Crawford-Marks founded the company in. Speaking to Crunchbase, Crawford-Marks said that his previous work experience at several startups made him realize that employee experience would become integral to business success. The software was likely the way to measure and improve the 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 eventually returned to school, getting a BA in Cognitive Science at Hampshire College.
Bonusly was named one of the most successful companies in America by Inc. Magazine and one of the top 50 places to work in the US by Outside Magazine in 2019.
Company HQ
Boulder, Colorado
Number of Employees
11-50
Year Founded
2012
Amount Raised
12.5M
FAQ
Does Bonusly have a free trial?
Yes, it gives access to all the features and their customer success team and doesn’t require users to provide any payment information to start.
Who uses Bonusly?
While most Bonusly customers are midsize and large corporates, such as Hulu, ZipRecruiter, and SurveyMonkey, their pricing plans make them very accessible to small teams.
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