The 20 Best Employee Engagement Software Tools of 2025

Lattice’s engagement suite lets you build everything from onboarding to engagement to exit surveys using their validated templates or your own fully customized question sets.

You can tweak anonymity settings, apply skip logic, and automate recurring surveys, making Lattice a versatile tool for HR teams ready to get serious about feedback. If you’ve used platforms like Leapsome or Culture Amp, you’ll find Lattice offers similar survey-building control, but with added options for importing historical survey data and configuring group-level anonymity thresholds.

One nice feature is Lattice’s analytics engine. With this feature, you can filter data by tenure, location, department, or custom fields, such as manager or parental status. The heatmap view helps you visualize engagement trends across the org, while the AI Insights tool summarizes open-text feedback into common themes (think sentiment scores around “leadership,” “growth,” or “workload.”) It’s a feature we’ve seen work well in ThriveSparrow and Leapsome, but in Lattice’s case, you’ll need to have eNPS enabled to unlock the complete driver analysis.

Where Lattice lags is the user experience. The HR admin app is surprisingly limited, with key tasks like managing surveys or reviewing dashboards still desktop-only. Compared to mobile-first tools we’ve evaluated like Connecteam or Mo, Lattice feels somewhat dated in this regard.

We also noticed that survey exports to PowerPoint are restricted to agree/disagree formats only, which may frustrate teams that rely on more complex reporting. And unlike Motivosity or Workleap, there’s no self-serve free trial, meaning you’ll need to book a demo to get started.

Although we appreciate that the action plan tool helps turn insights into accountability by assigning follow-ups and pulse check-ins, some managers we surveyed find the UI clunky when toggling between survey data, goals, and performance reviews. For example, a few have requested a side-by-side comparison view for self versus manager feedback—something other platforms, such as Leapsome, already include.

5,000+ companies, including Olo, Strike Graph, Cutover, and Sendle.

Lattice’s Engagement module is available as an add-on for $4 per user per month, billed annually. It requires the core Talent Management suite ($11 per user per month), totaling $15 monthly. There are no setup fees, but a $4,000 annual contract minimum applies.

Connecteam offers a comprehensive suite of employee-centric tools that cover communication, training, recognition, and operations in a mobile-friendly format, designed for deskless teams. After trialing the platform, we found a lot to like, especially for organizations looking to connect and engage employees on the go.

Let’s start with the Communication Hub. The surveys and live polls functionality allows you to quickly collect input from your team, whether it’s feedback on a new policy or pulse-checking morale. The Updates module is another strong point. It provides managers with a streamlined way to share company news, best practices, or shout-outs, ensuring frontline staff stay informed in real-time.

Another thing that excited us about Connecteam is its commitment to recognition, which is not often seen in deskless workforce platforms. Managers can use built-in tools to highlight top performers, celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries, and issue digital rewards and shout-outs. This helps reinforce positive behavior and foster a culture of appreciation even in highly distributed workforces.

Connecteam also supports professional growth with features that span the employee lifecycle, from digital onboarding to mobile-first training courses. Employees can complete skill modules from their phones, access SOPs, and keep up with certifications through a centralized knowledge hub. This all-in-one approach helps boost productivity and engagement while reducing administrative burden.

Beyond engagement, this vendor also offers task and shift scheduling tools for day-to-day ops. Managers can assign work based on availability, approve time-off requests, and promote team events to build camaraderie. Consulting some HR professionals who have been using these features, one trend we noticed was that Connecteam is quite popular among teams working in retail, logistics, hospitality, and other mobile-first industries.

One anticipated drawback of this employee engagement platform, however, is that it can take time to fully get the hang of it due to its breadth of features. Connecteam is divided into multiple hubs (Communication, HR & Skills, Operations), allowing it to accommodate different scales. However, that also means that if you opt for just surveys, training, and recognition, you may end up paying more than one hub subscription with a few features unnecessarily plugged in.

Connecteam is used by 36,000+ businesses, including Subway, Hilton, and Volvo.

Connecteam offers three hubs: Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills. Each hub has various plans from $29 to $99 per month for 30 users, and a free plan for under 10 users.

Leapsome has long been known for its rich feature set covering engagement surveys, performance management, learning, and goal tracking. But in our most recent hands-on review, it was the August 2025 product updates, particularly the Unified Inbox and AI-powered Manager Assistant, that really stood out.

The unified inbox brings clarity and efficiency to manager workflows. Instead of switching between modules, all feedback, reviews, and survey responses now arrive in one centralized place. It significantly cut down time-to-action in our testing. Meanwhile, the new AI assistant helped generate quality drafts for review feedback and pulse survey replies, which is a welcome aid for people managers balancing high-volume work.

Beyond the AI and UX improvements, Leapsome still excels at data-driven engagement. Users can segment survey results by team, location, or tenure, then use sentiment analysis to track patterns and performance correlations. Optional anonymous follow-ups help managers understand underlying issues and build psychological safety.

One major differentiator we noted is Leapsome’s multilingual reach. With the platform available in 32 languages and support offered in both English and German, it’s a good fit for global organizations. Their Success Center is filled with how-to guides, videos, and best practices. It’s also available to all users, regardless of contract size.

However, hands-on help from the Customer Success team is only provided to customers on annual contracts of $6,000 or more. For smaller teams, this paywall can feel limiting.

Another point to consider is pricing. While it starts at $7 per user per month, the final cost depends on your company's size, contract length, and selected modules. Special rates are available for startups and NGOs, but you’ll need to speak with the sales team to find out if you qualify. Also, although Leapsome now offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required, it’s only available after you’ve gone through a demo with sales.

Over 1,500 companies use Leapsome, including Mercedes Benz, Spotify, Trivago, Eventim, and Babbel.

Starts at $7 per user per month with annual billing, varying based on employee count, contract length (minimum 1 year), and modules, with special rates for startups and NGOs. A $6,000+ annual contract is required for Customer Success, and a 14-day free trial is available after a demo without a credit card.

While Deel is best known for its global payroll capabilities, the platform has recently expanded into employee experience, adding tools that support engagement, connection, and community across time zones. After testing these features, we found that they aren’t as advanced as what you’d get from established platforms like Motivosity or Leapsome, but they’re quite promising, with a gentle and meaningful touch.

One of the standout features is Connections. If you’re a remote-first organization like ours, you’ll see what we mean. With this tool, you can help employees form relationships through structured 1:1s, group chats, and shared interest spaces. You can even use Connections to introduce new hires, spark mentor pairings, or create virtual watercooler moments.

Deel also integrates tightly with Slack to deliver pulse surveys and engagement nudges in the flow of work. Surveys launched via Slack tend to yield higher response rates, and Deel uses the results to suggest curated interest groups, bringing together like-minded colleagues around shared hobbies, which we found pretty cool.

Obviously, Deel’s engagement functionality is still relatively new, so when compared to established platforms in the space, its feature set is fairly limited. For example, there’s no standalone engagement dashboard, no in-app survey creation outside of Slack, and no mobile app for recognition or survey feedback on the go. As a result, teams who want deeper analytics, advanced feedback workflows, or in-app engagement tools may find the current capabilities too lightweight.

Over 15,000 businesses use Deel, including Nike, Shopify, Redbull, and Zapier.

Deel’s employee engagement tool starts at $20 per employee per month.

Workleap (formerly Officevibe) is a cloud-based platform built to help managers drive engagement, growth, and team connection. We’ve tested its engagement features firsthand and figured this platform would offer an excellent solution to surface honest employee sentiment and guide managers toward meaningful action.

The pulse surveys and anonymous feedback tools are Workleap’s core strengths. Managers can schedule recurring check-ins to assess team morale, and the platform provides suggested talking points, analytics, and coaching tips based on real-time feedback. For client-based organizations, we liked that you can compare engagement across different accounts or departments through Workleap’s team and agency-level reporting dashboards.

More recently, Workleap has introduced tools to strengthen employee recognition. Its Good Vibes feature lets team members send appreciation e-cards to one another, while managers gain insight into recognition trends, such as who is consistently being celebrated and what types of contributions are driving praise. One limitation here, though, is that recognition is private by default, visible only to the sender, recipient, and team manager. There’s no option (yet) to showcase recognition company-wide, which could limit its cultural impact.

Workleap also includes manager tools for hosting 1-on-1s and tracking OKRs, but we found these features less polished than others. Some verified users told us they found the 1-on-1 scheduling clunky and noted that resetting OKRs mid-cycle can be unintuitive.

Another caveat to keep in mind is that personalized onboarding is only available for teams with 100 or more users, and a dedicated success manager is included with 500 or more seats. So while Workleap scales well for larger teams, smaller organizations may need to self-navigate the setup and onboarding process.

WeTransfer, Dyson, Bose, PayScale, and Trivago are some of their 20,000 Workleap customers.

Workleap Engagement is now priced at $5 per user per month, billed annually, with no minimum headcount requirement. A free trial is also available. This replaces the old Essential and Pro plan structure we covered in our last review.

Mo’s platform takes on employee engagement through meaningful rewards and recognition. At its core, you’ll find Moments and Boosts - which are simple yet effective features engineered to fuel morale. Managers can easily create Moments to praise team or individual accomplishments, pairing the shout-outs with gift cards or custom rewards. Boosts, on the other hand, are automations that ensure day-to-day kudos are never forgotten.

We appreciate Mo’s attention to different preferences through its varied and customizable reward options. We also like how straightforward their rewards program is; if a user puts in $5 to recognize someone, the recipient gets $5 to redeem. Having a clear dollar value to rewards is great for a few reasons: it’s simpler for users to understand (as opposed to confusing point-based systems), and it also makes budget tracking infinitely easier.

Mo also promotes inclusiveness in its peer-to-peer nomination features, which give employees the ability to actively recognize one another. This not only makes employees feel more empowered but also contributes to a positive and supportive company culture.

To complement its core offering, Mo recently introduced its AI-powered Assistant tool, which provides customized recommendations on actions leaders can take to boost engagement further. For example, it will automatically remind managers of upcoming employee milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries. Or if someone hasn’t given praise to a deserving co-worker in a while, the Assistant will gently prompt them to send some appreciation.

However, we were disappointed to learn that Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations may require additional implementation fees. HRIS integration isn’t included in the base plan either, which could be a blocker for teams looking to sync data automatically.

Customer support also comes with caveats: it’s only available during UK business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. GMT, weekdays only). Take note, North American-based users, because that’s going to be a considerable gap for you guys, especially those who may need help outside of those windows.

Finally, Mo doesn’t currently offer a free plan or trial. That means you’ll need to commit before getting hands-on with the product—something to keep in mind if you’re comparing multiple tools.

Mo counts over 58,000 users using its platform, including SGN, The O2, NHS, Aspen, William Hill, and SHL.

Mo’s pricing starts at $2.25 per user per month. More specifically, the employee engagement tool offers 3 plans: Appreciate at $2.25/user/month for basic recognition, Engage at $4.5/user/month adding awards and advanced reporting, and Transform with custom pricing for large companies including full features, program design, and premium support.

Terryberry's engagement platform stands out for its cohesive and well-rounded approach to employee experience, combining recognition, rewards, and wellness initiatives in one system. During our recent 2024 demo, we observed how the platform effectively unites multiple engagement tools while maintaining clear visibility into program participation and cultural impact.

The platform's survey capabilities for gathering employee feedback impressed us during our evaluation. The manager dashboards provide comprehensive insights into recognition program adoption and value alignment, a feature that particularly resonated with HR leaders we consulted. We found the built-in wellbeing features effectively support both physical and mental health through team challenges and activity tracking, complemented by flexible reward options that can be tied to wellness achievements.

In our conversation with their product team, they highlighted how the platform's analytics suite has evolved to provide deeper insights into engagement metrics. We observed how organizations can track the correlation between recognition activities and employee satisfaction, providing actionable data for program optimization. The pulse survey functionality, complete with template libraries and demographic filtering, enables companies to gather targeted feedback and measure engagement trends over time.

We were also particularly impressed by how the platform integrates milestone programs with broader engagement initiatives. The system automatically triggers communications and recognition moments while maintaining personalization through configurable workflows. Lastly, while the interface could be modernized, the mobile-first design facilitates engagement across hybrid and remote workforces.

Terryberry serves over 40,000 clients worldwide, including notable names like Tesco, Epsilon, General Motors, and Trilogy Health.

Terryberry’s basic subscription plans start at approximately $3 per employee receiving an award.

Terryberry has significantly enhanced their engagement platform over the past year with several key improvements:

• Enhanced analytics suite with advanced engagement metrics and demographic filtering
• Integration of comprehensive wellness features including mental health resources
• Improved mobile experience for better accessibility and participation
• Expanded survey capabilities with custom pulse surveys and template library
• Strategic measurement tools for tracking engagement impact on key business metrics
• Enhanced automation features for milestone programs and recognition workflows

If you’re eyeing a solution that effectively engages employees within Teams or Slack, you wouldn’t want to miss out on Matter. With this tool, you can deliver your Pulse Surveys right within Slack or Teams so your employees can finish them within either of these communications platforms—no need to log in to or learn a separate app.

But that’s only part of the reasons we love this employee engagement tool. Another reason is its unique approach to encouraging survey participation. Matter is the first solution we've found that rewards completed surveys with "Matter coins," which can be redeemed for gift cards, donations, or custom company rewards. We can imagine a notable difference in how team members engage with surveys with this feature contribution.

Another big plus we found was how it handled feedback and updates. We could choose who to give anonymous feedback right away, and there's a weekly digest of company stats shared privately through Slack or Teams, which is a great way to stay connected and informed.

Matter’s Pulse Surveys provides a library of 100 questions across multiple engagement categories; however, we're hoping for a bit more flexibility here. As of now, there’s no way to edit the questions. You’ll have to stick with what the system has built out instead.

Also, a word of caution for those considering the free plan of this engagement tool: the plan barely touches the survey element and focuses mostly on recognition. It also limits historical analytics data to only 30 days. To access Matter’s pulse surveys, you'll need to upgrade to the highest-priced plan.

4,700+ organizations, including SIEMENS, Microsoft, and Sephora.

Matter pricing ranges from $0 to $5 monthly, with a 30-day free trial (no credit card required).

CA Short is better described as a recognition and rewards solution rather than a true employee engagement platform by modern standards. While recognition is a key pillar of engagement, the system does not collect or analyze employee feedback via surveys. That said, it excels in what it does offer: formal, informal, and day-to-day recognition.

As a manager user, we could send personalized e-cards (with or without points), and employees could then redeem points for rewards ranging from branded company merchandise to event tickets. The platform’s on-the-spot recognition cards add a tangible, face-to-face element, while automated campaigns ensure timely acknowledgment of milestones, such as work anniversaries or onboarding.

We particularly liked the custom kitting and fulfillment services, which are not offered by all. For example, onboarding packages or milestone gifts can be curated, branded, and shipped internationally with no added customs hassle.

The company’s “white glove” approach also deserves a shout-out. Every client gets a dedicated account manager, customer service rep, and even an executive sponsor to ensure the program is built for long-term success. Rather than just handing over software, this vendor partners with clients to design recognition strategies that fit their culture. For organizations that want more than a self-service tool, this level of support is hard to beat.

As much as we appreciate C.A. Short, we can’t escape the fact that it lacks employee survey features, sentiment analysis, or anonymous feedback collection, all of which are now standard in many engagement platforms. Consequently, the platform can’t offer the same insights into employee sentiment or workplace trends that pulse surveys and analytics do, so teams looking to measure engagement holistically would need to pair it with another tool. Further, while C.A. Short enables admin users to create and download custom reports, it currently doesn’t house these analytics natively but requires integration with Power BI.

Compared to modern competitors like Nectar or Guusto, we also felt that C.A. Short’s interface could use an update. The good news is, UI enhancements are already on the vendor’s roadmap. We’ll be sure to keep you informed and watch for any improvements.

Penske, Sysco, and Old Dominion Freight Line are among C.A. Short Company's clients.

Pricing is fully custom.

Profit.co's employee engagement module is designed to complement their flagship offering for OKR and performance management. We’ve given it a go and liked how easy it was to create and run pulse surveys. You can have these surveys be in different languages and choose to make them anonymous so employees feel at ease giving honest feedback. Once submissions are in, the built-in dashboards help you get quick insights into the results, while the export functionality allows for deeper analysis in external tools.

Profit.co also emphasizes the importance of regular 1:1 meetings between managers and their direct reports to stay connected and course-correct as needed. The platform facilitates this by allowing managers to schedule and define an agenda framework and employees to plan discussion points, review their work and results, and openly discuss any roadblocks they're facing.

Recognition is well-integrated across the platform, especially with the Awards feature. Managers can celebrate wins tied directly to OKRs or milestones, and the new approval workflow ensures only vetted nominations show up in public feeds. This adds structure to what’s often a chaotic process in other tools. Plus, the leaderboard brings a bit of gamification to performance, which some teams may find motivating.

The tradeoff, though, is that you can't use the engagement features without buying into Profit.co's broader OKR or performance suite. And with no published pricing, it’s hard to gauge fit for smaller orgs without booking a demo. Additionally, the platform’s depth is a double-edged sword: it offers a lot but comes with a mild learning curve.

Over 1,000 businesses use Profit.co, including SunTec, Altheo, and CWB Financial Group.

Profit.co offers a 30-day free trial and pricing starts at $7 per user per month, billed annually.

Quantum Workplace’s employee engagement software is easy to navigate and is highly flexible in terms of customization. You can design surveys using the platform's library of validated, research-backed questions that employ a standardized Likert scale to ensure high-quality results. Open-ended questions are also integrated to gather examples of what employees think your company should start, stop, or continue doing.

Once survey data is collected, the built-in reporting and analytics provide insights into overall trends as well as breakdowns by team and demographic. Additionally, Quantum Workplace provides unparalleled benchmark data from over 10,000 organizations to add context to results.

Beyond measurement, the platform enables you to take action on engagement data through features like the action planning library, personalized employee engagement reports with recommendations, and lightweight one-on-one tools for managers. The platform also makes it easy to collect data through multiple access options like desktop, kiosk, and SMS text surveys. This allows you to reach every employee, including dispersed and deskless teams.

There are also lots of neat automation in place: the automated invitations and reminders significantly reduce survey administration work for HR teams, while the AI-powered Narrative Insights quickly analyzes employee comments to uncover themes, sentiments, and sensitive topics needing follow-up.

However, navigation can be confusing, especially when trying to retrieve past survey responses or track historical feedback. If you’ve had experience with platforms such as Matter and Mo, we think you’ll agree that Quantum Workplace’s recognition module feels like an afterthought, with a basic interface that isn’t exactly exciting. The level of customization is also not very impressive. Several users we surveyed noted they wanted more control over how goals and feedback workflows are set up, especially in larger enterprises.

Quantum Workplace is used by over 10,000 companies, including Fossil Group, DSW, BKD, and Getty Images.

Quantum Workplace pricing is on an annual basis and starts at $7,500 per year.

Bonusly remains a top pick for organizations serious about building everyday employee engagement through peer recognition. We revisited the platform recently and found a well-rounded tool that blends fun, flexibility, and automation to boost morale, promote visibility, and make appreciation part of the employee experience.

At its core, Bonusly turns recognition into a habit. Employees award points to coworkers using emojis, hashtags, and shoutouts, which show up in a company-wide feed. That feed, visible across teams, creates a daily rhythm of public praise that supports culture and engagement beyond annual reviews or manager check-ins.

Redeeming those points is easy, too. Bonusly offers over 1,200 gift cards in more than 200 countries, plus options to donate to nonprofits, redeem via PayPal or prepaid Visa, or cash in for company swag through AXOMO. You can even add custom experiences like “Lunch with the CEO” or “extra PTO” under the HR admin user.

Recent updates make Bonusly even more employee engagement-friendly. The Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations now support instant recognition with one-click messages, previews, and real-time feedback loops. Admins gained more control over recognition budgets and content moderation, down to restricting certain emojis or hashtags. We also appreciated the improved support for provisioning and the growing list of integrations with platforms like Paylocity, Rippling, and Workday.

For hybrid and global teams, Bonusly has made strides in accessibility. The mobile experience now supports dark mode, and screen reader compatibility has improved. Still, some global users report a more limited reward catalog and stricter redemption thresholds outside the U.S.

We’d also like to see Bonusly push its analytics capabilities further. While you can monitor high-level engagement trends, deeper reporting feels somewhat basic compared to platforms with advanced engagement dashboards.

Among Bonusly’s 3000+ customers are Hulu, InVision, SurveyMonkey, Headspace, and more.

Bonusly provides three annual subscription tiers:

• Appreciate: Focuses on manager-led recognition and celebrating milestones.
• Connect: Builds upon Appreciate by adding peer-to-peer recognition and people analytics.
• Achieve: Includes AI-generated insights, real-time feedback, and goal tracking.

Pricing information is not publicly available. Interested teams can request a demo or begin a 14-day free trial.

Reward Gateway provides a robust yet user-friendly employee engagement solution that can help you boost morale, retention, and productivity. It centers on employee surveys, including its proprietary four-question Engaged Index that benchmarks engagement. You can use this Index to identify at-risk areas for turnover and presenteeism, then conduct follow-up surveys on specific topics to dig deeper. Surveys can be created from existing templates or customized as needed.

A major advantage of Reward Gateway is how effectively it turns survey insights into impact. The platform makes acting on feedback easy with digestible analytics tied to engagement drivers. Leadership teams can clearly see potential areas for investment and how interventions may influence key metrics like retention. This proves the ROI on employee engagement spend and lends credibility when proposing new programs.

That said, we ran into a few issues that are worth flagging. For starters, the reporting feature isn’t the most intuitive. While the data is there, the layout requires extra clicks and filters to get to meaningful visualizations, which may frustrate less tech-savvy users.

Also, some functionality gaps show up in day-to-day admin work. Employees can’t edit their own profiles or create new recognition entries. They have to rely on customer support, which slows things down unnecessarily.

Another limitation is around availability. Reward Gateway for Small Business (a more streamlined and budget-friendly version) is only offered in the UK, Australia, and Ireland. U.S. small businesses looking for a lightweight entry point won’t be able to use it. To make things trickier, the free trial is only available for that small business version, so enterprise teams must go through a full sales process before getting hands-on with the product.

Reward Gateway has over 4000 customers, including Ikea, McDonald's, Unilever, and Heineken.

Reward Gateway costs £6 (around $7.5) per employee per month for an annual subscription for companies under 100 employees. Larger teams receive custom quotes.

Culture Amp provides organizations with an effective system to regularly pulse their workforce, dig into key drivers of engagement, and take proven steps to create a thriving culture.

One of Culture Amp's greatest strengths is its library of 40+ customizable survey templates designed by experts in organizational psychology. You can leverage these prescriptive questionnaires to glean actionable insights around engagement, inclusion, onboarding, company events, and more. The software also benchmarks results against over 1 billion survey responses, allowing you to understand your engagement levels compared to top-performing companies.

Another feature worth highlighting is Culture Amp’s Retention Insights, which gives you early warning signs around employee flight risks. It doesn’t stop there, though, Retention Insights also gives you suggestions on what you can do to bring these employees around.

The insights Culture Amp gives you aren't just comprehensive for leadership - they empower each employee to feel heard while driving change at an individual level. Both managers and employees appreciate the customized reporting and focused recommendations that translate feedback into clear steps forward. The platform is thoughtfully designed for each stakeholder, providing leaders with a bird's-eye view of engagement while giving teams and individual employees visibility into areas requiring their input. This connectivity fosters a culture of accountability at all levels.

A tradeoff we noticed, however, is in customization. While the survey templates are strong, customization of reviews and ratings, especially within performance modules, is somewhat limited. You can tailor some workflows, but compared to more modular platforms, the flexibility isn’t quite there.

We also found that getting fully up to speed takes time. Culture Amp is a feature-rich platform, and it took us a few sessions to understand where everything lived and how all the pieces connected, from lifecycle surveys to team dashboards to action plans. It’s not hard to use, but it is deep, and that learning curve is worth factoring into rollout plans.

One final point: pricing isn’t disclosed publicly. To get a quote, you’ll need to book a demo and speak with a rep. While that’s not unusual at the enterprise level, it can make early comparison shopping harder for smaller or mid-market teams.

Culture Amp is used by over 6,500 companies, including SoulCycle, Canva, McDonalds, Etsy, and Bombas.

The annual subscription for Culture Amp starts at $4,500, and they only accept yearly billing.

After hearing the exciting news about Kudos being revamped, we couldn't help but feel curious about what's changed and whether it’s genuinely better than the versions we’ve explored over the years. So, we took a full walkthrough of this engaging platform, and it turned out it doesn’t aim to replace advanced survey tools like Culture Amp or Qualtrics. Instead, it’s thoughtfully designed to answer a different question: what’s happening with our culture right now?

That question is answered through a set of lightweight tools we did test directly, particularly the Sentiment Survey, which appears monthly as a single-question check-in, where employees select from five emojis to describe how they feel about work. Responses are anonymous and fed into a sentiment index, allowing HR to monitor emotional tone and spot shifts early. This low-friction format felt accessible, and we appreciated that participation could be tracked without compromising privacy.

Sitting on top of that is the Culture Insights Dashboard, which aggregates five indicators: recognition reach, participation, churn, morale, and loyalty. We saw this in action during the demo, and while it’s not built for deep analysis, it does help you see patterns across departments or time. The idea is that if people aren’t recognizing each other, if sentiment dips, or if churn spikes, you should know early, not once your exit interviews pile up.

We didn’t get to test Pulse Surveys live, but the platform documentation spells them out in detail, and we verified their usage with a few real-world users. You get a set of prewritten questions across categories like communication, manager relationships, and wellness, plus open-ended and quantitative formats (eNPS, Likert, Boolean). Admins can segment audiences and schedule surveys ahead of time. Results feed into a trendable dashboard, and an AI-generated executive summary distills the findings into something C-level stakeholders might actually read.

One limitation we did confirm is that only Admin users can create or schedule surveys, meaning there is no self-service option for managers or team leads, which may reduce agility for decentralized organizations. Also, the Culture Dashboard depends heavily on recognition activity. If teams underuse recognition features, some engagement indicators may offer an incomplete view.

That aside,  Kudos does not offer a free trial or sandbox, meaning a product demo is necessary to evaluate the complete platform. Additionally, we are concerned that the mobile experience may not meet current standards, as it appears it has not been updated since mid-2024 and currently holds an average user rating of 3.2/5.

Kudos is used in over 80 countries. Some of their customers include KidsPeace, Kronos, DHL, Chewy.com, and Make-A-Wish.

Kudos pricing starts at $3.25 per user per month with a minimum requirement of 500 employees.

Empuls provides organizations with a host of tools to listen to, diagnose, and act on employee feedback to boost engagement. Central to its offering are anonymized pulse surveys which can help you elicit honest input. You can customize these surveys or choose from existing templates, thoughtfully created in partnership with HR experts at SHRM.

Another powerful tool is Empuls’ simplified eNPS surveys, which help you identify brand promoters, passives, and detractors with a single score. The detailed classification, coupled with guidance on how to engage each segment, enables you to convert detractors and passives into loyal promoters.

Once feedback is in, Empuls makes it easy to diagnose problem areas through cross-linkage insights between engagement, performance, culture, and more granular analytics. The platform detects interconnections that highlight priorities for improvement. These data-backed insights inform Empuls’ Act phase, where you are given action plans and change management recommendations tailored to addressing each engagement obstacle.

The ability to capture feedback across the employee lifecycle is another thing we like about Empuls. Right from onboarding to exit interviews, Empuls’ conversational surveys help you uncover how employees feel at each touchpoint. These staged insights, along with data from pulse and 360-degree surveys, allow you to craft targeted strategies that elevate the experiences of your employees.

However, we noticed some performance lag while testing the mobile app, with screens occasionally freezing or taking several seconds to load. And while the engagement platform offers points-based recognition, employees can’t transfer or share those points with others, which limits the social dimension of peer-to-peer rewards.

A few users we spoke to also flagged limited reward options in the redemption catalog. Specifically, they were hoping for more locally valid Amazon gift cards in regions outside the U.S. Custom rewards can help fill that gap, but it’s worth noting, especially if you’re a global team with specific vendor needs in mind.

Another important consideration is pricing flexibility, or the lack thereof. Empuls doesn’t offer monthly billing, so you’ll need to commit annually. Once you set your company’s subdomain during setup, it can’t be changed later. A small detail, but it can be quite troublesome in rebranding or M&A scenarios.

Empuls has over 1,000 global customers, including Prodevans, Magzter, KPIT, Quixy, and more.

Empuls pricing starts at $1 per employee per month (annual billing) depending on your chosen module:

• Reward and Recognize: $3 per employee per month
• Surveys: $3 per employee per month
• Social Intranet: $1 per employee per month
• Perks and Benefits: $2 per employee per month

Assembly originally started as an employee rewards product but rapidly evolved into a comprehensive platform that facilitates employee listening, recognition, and collaboration. With the help of its customizable workflows and templates, companies large and small are able to celebrate their employees’ achievements, drive engagement among their teams, and streamline their daily operations.

Among the key workflows Assembly offers is one dedicated to engagement surveys. Designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of employee sentiments, this workflow lets you craft concise surveys, collect actionable feedback, and establish a consistent benchmark for measuring engagement over time. Another valuable workflow is centered around employee recognition. Whether it's acknowledging exceptional work, celebrating milestones, or simply expressing gratitude, the Recognition workflow can help you convey heartfelt recognition effortlessly.

Assembly also facilitates transparency and open communication through its Executive Updates and News Feed workflows. These features allow executives to share strategic decisions, company milestones, and important announcements, keeping employees informed and fostering a sense of connection to the organization's goals and successes.

There’s a lot to like about Assembly’s platform; it is user-friendly, customizable and affordable. There’s lots of other workflows you can customize and deploy within as well. If you’re an SMB looking for a flexible and budget-friendly employee engagement platform, we think Assembly is worth checking out.

Over 4,000 companies use Assembly’s solutions, including Coca-Cola, Quest Nutrition, Nesco Resource, HelloTech, and Amazon.

Assembly has four plans that are priced as follows:

• Recognition: Packs all the employee rewards and recognition features for $2 per user per month, billed annually.
• Engagement: For $4 per member per month, billed annually, this plan is designed for teams that want to maximize their employee engagement.
• Digital HQ: For $6 per member per month, billed annually, this plan packs all the necessary features for businesses to amplify cross-functional engagement, without any limits on the number of members on board.‍
• ‍Custom: Designed for large organizations that need a custom and unique program, the Custom plan can accommodate unlimited members. Contact Assembly’s Sales team for a price quote.

Motivosity product’s philosophy is that engagement and recognition should come from the bottom up, not from the top down, which explains why the software is designed to be simple for employees to access via their mobile devices, Slack/Teams, and also easy to use with an interface that looks like a social platform vs. enterprise software.

Motivosity’s solution is based on three pillars: Building Community, Employee Recognition, and Manager Relationships. The platform enables employees to interact with their entire team via a Facebook-like social feed and recognize and reward peers for a job well done, while managers engage with their team members, see where their employees are going above and beyond, and understand and track employee engagement.

What’s also great about Motivosity is that it’s scalable. Users can upgrade plans and add additional products or team members as they grow.

With Motivosity, all recognition rewards are backed by real incentives: every employee is given a small monthly dollar budget to reward peers. This approach aligns with Motivosity’s own internal research, which suggests that dollar rewards are more meaningful, but it also means that it may not be the best fit for those who prefer points-based systems.

Another trade-off is reward governance. Employees receive a monthly budget to reward others, but the platform lacks controls over who can reward whom or how often. While this open structure promotes trust, it also invites “reward cliques” unless companies put internal policies in place.

Instructure, University of Michigan, WGU, Cotopaxi, HealthEquity, DF Credit Union.

Motivosity costs $4 per person per month for the Recognition & Rewards package and $2 per person per month for the Employee Insights product.

WorkTango’s Surveys & Insights module is all about helping businesses measure and improve employee engagement. We like that users can customize and deploy an unlimited number of surveys to gather feedback across the entire employee lifecycle. Survey creation is made even easier with WorkTango’s library of expert-designed questions, ready to be used as needed.

Once responses are collected, WorkTango's dashboards and reporting features kick in. The sophisticated analytics help identify key themes and trends from both quantitative data and open-ended comments. Features like the Sentiment Cloud summarize the overall positive and negative sentiment within employee feedback, while easy benchmarking shows how your company compares to other players in your industry. These insights are presented through highly visual, easy-to-grasp dashboards tailored to different roles.

But WorkTango isn't just about measuring engagement. The software offers predictive recommendations and suggested actions based on survey results. Leaders can then turn these recommendations into accountable action plans with progress tracking. For developing leaders' capabilities, WorkTango even suggests relevant learning resources to build skills in areas needing improvement.

However, we must admit that the employee engagement software’s interface can feel like a lot at first, especially for teams new to analytics-heavy platforms. And buyers should know upfront: all plans require a 12-month commitment, billed annually. There’s no monthly billing or free trial. That makes it harder for smaller companies to test-drive before making the leap.

Over 1,000 companies use Worktango’s solutions, including Kia Motors, HUB International, Rexall, and Accruent.

WorkTango starts at about $8,000 per year with an annual commitment.

ThriveSparrow’s employee engagement tool offers a highly customizable, AI-powered approach to gathering and acting on employee feedback.

During testing, we found its survey system particularly well-designed, featuring pre-built templates for engagement, leadership, and culture, along with flexible customization options. Organizations can adjust anonymity settings, select distribution channels (Slack, MS Teams, email, SMS), and automate check-ins on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis—whatever suits them best.

One of our favorite features is its AI-powered sentiment analysis, which processes open-ended responses and categorizes them into key themes like leadership, communication, and workload. In our test, negative feedback on “management style” was automatically flagged, helping us quickly pinpoint leadership concerns. The heat map visualization made it easy to spot trends by department, location, or tenure, a functionality that compares well with platforms like Quantum Workplace, which also offers AI-driven sentiment tracking.

For organizations that struggle to turn feedback into action, the Action Plans feature provides a structured approach to engagement efforts. We tested this by setting up a plan to improve leadership communication, assigning tasks to managers, and setting deadlines. The system tracked action items in an interactive dashboard, making it easy to monitor progress and ensure accountability.

However, ThriveSparrow is relatively new in the market, (founded in February 2020), which may mean they might not have the same level of experience as more established companies such as TerryBerry (1918) or Quantum Workplace (2002).

Another thing we noticed is that ThriveSparrow actually does offer a free trial, but it wasn't immediately clear from their pricing page. We only found it after doing a quick search for “ThriveSparrow free trial” on Google, which led us right to their sign-up form. Also, it's worth mentioning that some integrations might cost extra, depending on your contract, so definitely double-check that before signing up.

Lastly, while employees can easily complete surveys on mobile devices, on-the-go usability is not available for HR users just yet. They still get to rely on a desktop to access the engagement dashboard.

ThriveSparrow's client list includes major companies such as Tropicana, Tesla, and Ikea, though the total number of companies using the software remains undisclosed.

ThriveSparrow's Engage module costs $3 per employee per month, billed annually. It includes automated survey scheduling, multilingual support, AI-driven text insights with sentiment analysis, action plans, and eNPS analytics.

If you're on the hunt for an employee engagement tool that feels personal, intelligent, and genuinely designed for modern organizations, Eletive is worth a closer look.

Unlike most pulse surveys we’ve tried before, Elective’s is AI-supported—it can tailor the employee survey-taking experience by asking questions based on each individual's previous responses.

To test how this feature works, one of our editors scored a question low, and interestingly, they received a follow-up on that topic in the next survey. We can see how valuable this is for managers who want to understand their employees' feelings more deeply without spending hours reviewing responses to previous surveys in order to personalize the next ones.

Considering how important privacy is today, we were pleased to see how Elective integrated anonymity into its platform. The Chat feature, for example, enables any team member to respond to a manager’s question without revealing their identity unless they choose to do so. Moreover, allowing users to comment on any survey question, not just the open-ended ones, is a thoughtful way to collect nuanced feedback.

Unsurprisingly, as the brand is from Sweden and primarily targets the European market, it is more renowned in the U.K. and the E.U than in the U.S. Pricing-wise, Eletive’s is undisclosed and varies from user to user, but from what we've gathered, it’s pretty much in line with what you'd expect from other platforms like Profit.co or Quantum Workplace.

We like the abundance of HRIS integrations Elective offers—over 40 options. What we don’t like, though, is that these aren’t free. You must opt for their priciest plan or an integration add-on to access them. And while we’re on the topic, features like 1-on-1s, OKRs, and 360 feedback cost extra, too.

Undisclosed number. Some brands that have used Eletive include Halton, Orka, and Purmo.

Eletive has 3 plans: Essential, Standard, and Professional. All are quote-based.

We tested AdvantageClub.ai’s employee engagement product, and it quickly became clear that it offers a robust suite of features designed to enhance employee participation, well-being, and feedback collection.

Our experiences with the web and mobile apps were both enjoyable. While the former offers a full range of features, the latter holds its own, covering everything from corporate benefits and wellness to dining, education, gyms, entertainment, and more. We especially liked how we could filter savings and offers based on relevance and location right in the app. This made it so convenient to access key benefits on the go.

Another thing we always prioritize when assessing staff engagement tools is integration capabilities, and on this front, AdvantageClub.ai didn’t disappoint. It integrates with nearly every HRIS, LMS, and communication app we’ve known, which is a nice touch to ensure employee participation and easy data sharing across your company’s existing tools.

For those curious about this software’s real-time employee sentiment features, it has plenty to offer. The Mood-O-Meter instantly gauges employee well-being, while Polls provide an open and transparent way to gather feedback.

And we loved that for more structured engagement, there are interactive quizzes and survey tools, which support various question types, randomized answer choices (to reduce bias), and even branching logic for personalized survey experiences. This AI-driven approach allows each participant to follow a tailored survey path based on their responses, which truly sets AdvantageClub.ai apart from competitors.

However, despite its abundant features, AdvantageClub.ai isn’t very affordable, especially for teams on a budget. We’re also not fans of its pricing approach: it’s undisclosed with no free trial offered.

Additionally, while the analytics and reporting tools are robust, we found that fully leveraging them often requires extra support from the vendor. Customizing dashboards and interpreting engagement trends might take some learning, especially for teams that aren’t as data-savvy.

1,000+ companies, including TARGET, EY, Concentrix, and BCG.

AdvantageClub.ai has custom pricing only, and no free trial is offered.