Matter: Employee rewards system inside Slack and MS Teams

Matter fits seamlessly into Slack and MS Teams: setup took minutes, the UI is clean, and it handles rewards, birthdays, anniversaries, and surveys all in one place, with a built-in Rewards Calculator that made budgeting effortless. At $3/month with a free plan and 30-day trial, it's a low-risk try for small teams. That said, it's a non-starter if your team isn't on Slack or MS Teams, the free plan caps analytics at 30 days, and it doesn't match Connecteam's breadth of free HR tools, but for SMBs wanting a dedicated rewards experience inside their existing communication stack, it delivers.

Cooleaf: Great point-based employee rewards system for global enterprises

Cooleaf handles global fulfillment of both physical and digital rewards in-house, offers 700+ brands, and gives HR leaders solid analytics on redemption trends by team, location, and role. The catch is that this is firmly an enterprise platform. Setup requires onboarding support, the configuration depth can feel like overkill for teams under 500, and there's no free trial, free plan, or even disclosed pricing. For global organizations with 2,000+ employees looking for a strategically integrated rewards program, Cooleaf delivers; for everyone else, it's likely more than you need.

Reward Gateway: Reward system for employees with excellent mobile experience

Reward Gateway impresses with a broad catalog spanning Amazon products and personalized ecards, plus modular add-ons like surveys and employee discounts so you only pay for what you need. Their 24/7 support across chat, email, and phone was consistently responsive throughout our testing. The drawbacks are that mobile experience is a weak spot, as users must log in separately rather than accessing rewards through existing tools and reporting lacks the depth needed to effectively measure program ROI. Pricing tends to start at £6 per employee per month. Best suited for mid-size companies of 51–500 employees wanting a retailer-rich rewards experience with strong admin flexibility.

Matter: Employee rewards system inside Slack and MS Teams

Matter fits seamlessly into Slack and MS Teams: setup took minutes, the UI is clean, and it handles rewards, birthdays, anniversaries, and surveys all in one place, with a built-in Rewards Calculator that made budgeting effortless. At $3/month with a free plan and 30-day trial, it's a low-risk try for small teams. That said, it's a non-starter if your team isn't on Slack or MS Teams, the free plan caps analytics at 30 days, and it doesn't match Connecteam's breadth of free HR tools, but for SMBs wanting a dedicated rewards experience inside their existing communication stack, it delivers.

Cooleaf: Great point-based employee rewards system for global enterprises

Cooleaf handles global fulfillment of both physical and digital rewards in-house, offers 700+ brands, and gives HR leaders solid analytics on redemption trends by team, location, and role. The catch is that this is firmly an enterprise platform. Setup requires onboarding support, the configuration depth can feel like overkill for teams under 500, and there's no free trial, free plan, or even disclosed pricing. For global organizations with 2,000+ employees looking for a strategically integrated rewards program, Cooleaf delivers; for everyone else, it's likely more than you need.

Reward Gateway: Reward system for employees with excellent mobile experience

Reward Gateway impresses with a broad catalog spanning Amazon products and personalized ecards, plus modular add-ons like surveys and employee discounts so you only pay for what you need. Their 24/7 support across chat, email, and phone was consistently responsive throughout our testing. The drawbacks are that mobile experience is a weak spot, as users must log in separately rather than accessing rewards through existing tools and reporting lacks the depth needed to effectively measure program ROI. Pricing tends to start at £6 per employee per month. Best suited for mid-size companies of 51–500 employees wanting a retailer-rich rewards experience with strong admin flexibility.

A well-run rewards platform lifts engagement and retention, encourages better performance, takes recurring admin off HR’s plate, and reinforces the values you want your culture built on.

• Improved Employee Engagement and Retention: Recognition is one of the clearest drivers of whether people stay. Gallup and Workhuman tracked the career paths of nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024 and found that employees who received high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to have turned over after two years and 65% less likely to be actively looking or watching for another job ^[2] Peer-to-peer programs matter here too. Recent research suggests that peer recognition points systems increase engagement and motivation by meeting employees’ psychological need for recognition ^[3]. In our testing, the platforms that made peer recognition easiest to give, such as Matter and Assembly inside Slack and Teams or Guusto by SMS for frontline staff, were also the ones where participation was easiest to sustain.
• Increased Productivity and Innovation: Specific recognition improves performance. Gartner research found that recognizing high-performance actions increas[es] the likelihood of employees achieving optimal performance 5.7 times ^[4]. The key word is specific: the recognition has to name the action, not just offer general praise. This is why we favored platforms that let you tie recognition to company values or goals, such as Workstars, Kudos and Assembly. Just as important is frequency. Research from Achievers, one of the vendors reviewed in this guide, found that employees who receive monthly vs. quarterly recognition are 36% more likely to say they are productive and engaged ^[6]. The automated nudges in Mo, AdvantageClub.ai and Nectar help keep recognition on a monthly rhythm without anyone tracking it by hand.
• Higher HR Efficiency: Too often, HR professionals wear many hats and have multiple aspects they need to attend to, so any opportunity to streamline the processes should be seized. The best solutions have all manner of automation options to ensure that rewards programs are implemented consistently and fairly. These tools can automate everything from milestone celebrations, work anniversaries, and birthdays to onboarding—all in one user-friendly interface.
• Strengthened Company Culture and Employer Brand: Implementing a well-planned rewards strategy with the help of employee rewards software is a surefire way to build positivity around your company brand. Rewards don’t have to be financial, either: Plenty of well-known companies have received positive press coverage for the non-monetary incentives they offer to reward staff.

Most rewards fall into two groups, and most platforms support both.

• Monetary rewards have a direct cash value. They include performance bonuses, sales commissions and spot bonuses for hitting a target. In rewards software, they usually take the form of points or dollars employees convert into gift cards, prepaid cards or cash-like options. Bonusly offers PayPal and prepaid card redemptions, and Guusto and Motivosity use real dollar values instead of points.
• Non-monetary rewards recognize people without direct financial compensation. Examples include award titles, peer nominations, extra paid time off, wellness perks, training opportunities, and experiences like lunch with the CEO. Kudos, Bonusly and Nectar let you add custom rewards like these to the catalog, and Achievers’ concierge service can source requests outside the catalog.

You can use either type or combine them. Whatever you choose, rewards should be meaningful to the people receiving them and aligned with your company’s values.

A note on taxes: In the U.S., cash and cash-equivalent rewards are taxable to the employee no matter how small. The IRS states that cash and cash equivalent fringe benefits (for example, gift certificates, gift cards, and the use of a charge card or credit card), no matter how little, are never excludable as a de minimis benefit ^[9]. That includes the gift cards most platforms offer, so ask each vendor how it handles tax reporting and check the rules in every country where you’ll issue rewards.