An Expert Review of Nectar's Employee Recognition Tool - 2024

Written by
Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast
November 19, 2024
Contributing Experts
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Nectar

4.5 (2252)
Nectar
Nectar

Introduction

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Nectar Versus the Competition

Nectar is a peer-to-peer employee recognition software best suited for companies with 50-2,000 employees. Features include shoutouts tied to core values, custom challenges, plus an Amazon integration for rewards.

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

Ratings

4.8

Ease of Use

4.6

Best For

Orgs with 50-2,000 employees seeking cost-effective peer-to-peer employee rewards solutions.

Key Differentiator

Top vendor for its ever-growing feature-set

Price

Starts at $5/mo

Free Trial

No

PROS

  • Regularly introduces new features and enhancements to its products.
  • Volume discounts available for organizations with 500+ employees.
  • You pay for the rewards that are claimed. Points and allowances that remain unused won’t cost you a dime.

CONS

  • The priced plans are not available to start off as a self-service process. You’d have to book a demo and pay to access some of the premium features.
  • The rewards selection could feel limited to some teams, especially those looking for more experiences in offer.
  • No longer offer a free plan.

Nectar Alternatives:

Connecteam

Connecteam is an all-in-one workforce management hub for businesses, big and small with simple yet effective rewards and recognition features.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.6 / 5
Product Score
4.3 / 5
Visit Website

Connecteam

Connecteam is an all-in-one workforce management hub for businesses, big and small with simple yet effective rewards and recognition features.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.6 / 5
Product Score
4.3 / 5
Learn More

Matter

It's rare to find a vendor that can so effectively integrate rewards and recognition within tools we're already using daily. So seeing Matter automate global reward delivery, birthdays, work anniversaries, and employee surveys, all inside Slack or Teams—and it does so beautifully—is truly impressive.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.6 / 5
Product Score
4.3 / 5
Visit Website

Matter

It's rare to find a vendor that can so effectively integrate rewards and recognition within tools we're already using daily. So seeing Matter automate global reward delivery, birthdays, work anniversaries, and employee surveys, all inside Slack or Teams—and it does so beautifully—is truly impressive.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.6 / 5
Product Score
4.3 / 5
Learn More

Kudos

Kudos’ employee rewards storefront is highly configurable, allowing you to tailor rewards that speak to your brand and employees’ needs. Extra support is also provided during and after the tool’s launching phase.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.8 / 5
Product Score
4.2 / 5
Visit Website

Kudos

Kudos’ employee rewards storefront is highly configurable, allowing you to tailor rewards that speak to your brand and employees’ needs. Extra support is also provided during and after the tool’s launching phase.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.8 / 5
Product Score
4.2 / 5
Learn More

Bonusly

Bonusly’s specialty lies in its reward catalog: it packs an impressive number of gift cards that work in dozens of countries. Teams with 50-5000 employees, remote or in-office, can make great use of the tool. Bonusly’s discounts also make it a sound option for nonprofits.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.8 / 5
Product Score
4.2 / 5
Visit Website

Bonusly

Bonusly’s specialty lies in its reward catalog: it packs an impressive number of gift cards that work in dozens of countries. Teams with 50-5000 employees, remote or in-office, can make great use of the tool. Bonusly’s discounts also make it a sound option for nonprofits.
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.8 / 5
Product Score
4.2 / 5
Learn More

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Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast

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Nectar Review

Nectar is a 360° recognition & rewards platform, as it includes social recognition, awards, challenges, milestones, discounts, and other kinds of perks. We’ll go into more detail on what these mean, but first, we must point out that Nectar also stands out for having a completely free version and being especially friendly for remote-first teams.

Nectar's solution is built around a peer-to-peer recognition feed that aligns employee accomplishments with company core values. The feed itself is very much like a social network. You can mention a coworker, add a reason why you recognize them in a public forum, add a certain number of points, and mention which of the operational core values (why you’d previously set) is tied to this commendation.

As to rewards, each employee (including managers) gets a points balance each month, which they can allocate to colleagues who go above and beyond. Those points don’t expire and are redeemable within the same platform. Nectar is also known for its extensive reward selection, including Amazon products, gift cards, company swag, charities, and a whole lot more.

An additional perk that sets Nectar apart is that companies can offer exclusive discounts to their employees. As of 2022, the companies that Nectar has partnered with for this offering include Airbnb, Six Flags, Papa Johns, Walt Disney World, Costco, and many more.

Other recent features include their organizational network analysis component and their internal communications tool. The former gives HR insights into which teams recognize one another the most and is a part of their broader analytics module, while the latter has done a great job delivering engaging content to employees in a clear, consistent format.

As a final note, we’ll add that we’ve kept in constant contact with the guys at Nectar for years and have noticed that they tend to release new features and high-impact integrations with good frequency.

Who shouldn't buy Nectar

While they do offer volume discounts to companies with more than 500 employees, enterprise customers with over 2,000 employees don’t make up the bulk of Nectar’s current customer base. Those looking for more of a white glove service and having more resources deployed for their account might not be the best fit for Nectar, as they’re a smaller team and definitely more on the SMB and remote-friendly end of both spectrums.

Nectar Customers

Heineken, Teachable, Major League Baseball, SHRM, Eightfold.ai

Nectar: Best Free Employee Recognition Platform

Nectar: Best Free Employee Recognition Platform
visit Nectar

Nectar Key Features

  • Sizeable reward catalog: On demand company branded swag as rewards, plus a large variety of other rewards including gift cards, charities, etc. Amazon products are also available as rewards for millions of options plus quick shipping.
  • Analytics: A reporting module shows you the most/least active employees, Leaderboards
  • Organizational network analysis (ONA): Tied to reporting, this feature allows you to see which teams are supporting which other teams.

Nectar also has capabilities for creating:

  • Step count and other fitness challenges
  • Recognition for employee awards like President's club, employee of the month, etc.

Nectar Key Integrations

  • Single sign on (SSO)
  • A variety of HRIS integrations: Bamboo, Rippling, Paycor, ADP, Namely and many more
  • Slackbot that allows people to give/receive recognition via slack
  • Microsoft Teams integration where you can use the entire product within Teams

Nectar Pricing

Nectar requires a minimum annual agreement of $4,000. The platform no longer offers a free tier and its pricing has increased a bit since our last review.

  • Plus: $5 per employee per month when billed annually and includes key features like peer-to-peer recognition, manager-to-employee recognition, HRIS integration, recognition automation for birthdays/anniversaries, and dedicated account manager.
  • Premium: $6 per employee per month when billed annually and includes everything in Plus, and: nominations program, swag store, rewards cards, and multi-language.
  • Custom: Quotation-based available for enterprises.

Nectar is Best For

Organizations with 50-2,000~ employees who want a high engagement peer-to-peer employee rewards solution that is cost-effective.

How has Nectar Changed Over Time?

Nectar Implementation

Implementing Nectar at first is as easy as signing up and inviting your colleagues to join. You can start using the platform pretty much instantly. For one of the paid plans, you’d have to first book a demo so their customer success team can get a good sense of your needs and the program that you’d create within the platform. Implementation times will vary depending on the outcome of said demo and the scope of your team’s needs.

Nectar Customer Success

Companies on the Plus Plan get a dedicated account manager.

About Nectar

While many workforce engagement platforms are about peer-to-peer & manager-to-employee recognition, Nectar has always been about helping distributed teams stay connected. This philosophy has set them apart even since 2015, when remote work wasn’t as common as it is today.

Which is not to say that they can’t be a good fit for centralized companies too. It’s just that their features definitely revolve around being able to reward and recognize employees anytime and anywhere.

Now, although the philosophy behind Nectar has stayed steady over the years, the platform is constantly evolving, as we mentioned in the review and features sections of our deep dive. Working out of Orem, Utah and other parts of the US, it’s remarkable that a team of 30~ has been servicing companies like Heineken and the MLB quite successfully.

Company HQ

Orem, Utah

Number of Employees

30+

Year Founded

2015

Amount Raised

$1.12M

FAQ

Nectar Alternatives

Motivosity

Community-focused rewards platform

Popularity score
4.7 / 5
user score
4.7 / 5
Product score
4.4 / 5
Guusto

Excellent rewards platform for frontline employees

Popularity score
4.9 / 5
user score
4.7 / 5
Product score
4.2 / 5
Workstars

Affordable rewards program for U.K.-based businesses

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

Nice option for remote teams with 250+ people

Popularity score
4.9 / 5
user score
4.7 / 5
Product score
4.2 / 5
Connecteam

Free tool for employee rewards, time off, and training

Popularity score
4.6 / 5
user score
4.6 / 5
Product score
4.3 / 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.

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