Ari Weinzweig once said,

Creating a positive workplace culture and boosting employee morale are fundamental for any thriving business.

Although Nectar is a well-known tool for employee recognition, there are numerous other platforms that can also enhance how you acknowledge and appreciate your team’s efforts.

This blog will explore the 10 best alternatives and competitors to Nectar, offering new and effective ways to elevate employee recognition and build a more motivated and engaged workforce.

What Is an Employee Recognition Software? 

Employee recognition software is a digital tool designed to help organizations regularly acknowledge and reward their employees.

This software is crucial for fostering a positive workplace atmosphere where individuals feel genuinely valued and recognized for their achievements.

By implementing an effective employee recognition software solution, businesses can significantly boost employee morale, self-confidence, and overall productivity—key factors in any company's success.

Overview of the Top Ten Alternatives to Nectar for Boosting Employee Appreciation

‍Here’s a short description of every employee recognition platform where we highlight the best features.

• 14-Day Free Trial Available
• G2 Rating: 4.5

ThriveSparrow is an innovative employee success platform designed to revolutionize the way companies recognize and appreciate their staff. The platform supports peer-to-peer recognition, crucial for fostering a culture of gratitude within the workplace.

By using ThriveSparrow, employees can publicly acknowledge their colleagues' achievements, highlighting exceptional efforts and contributing to a positive work environment. This not only enhances collaboration but also strengthens team members' sense of belonging.

ThriveSparrow features two main modules: Engage and Kudos and Performance. Each module is specifically designed to boost aspects of employee engagement, recognition, and performance, supporting an integrated approach to improving workplace culture.

ThriveSparrow Best Features

• Extensive Rewards Marketplace: ThriveSparrow offers a wide variety of popular reward options such as Amazon, Nike, Airbnb, Netflix, Burger King, and Apple Music, motiviating employees and giving them the option to choose rewards that truly excite them.
• Spot your brightest stars: Managers can identify their team's top performers, or "brightest stars," using the leaderboard with a recurring update feature.

• Turn appreciation into rewards: Convert appreciation points into redeemable rewards. A wide selection of popular options, including Amazon, Nike, Airbnb, Netflix, Burger King, and Apple Music.
• Values aligned Kudos: Align organizational values to your employees while giving Kudos.

• Heatmaps for engagement insights: Uncover departmental-wise engagement patterns with interactive Heatmaps.
• Seamless Kudos integration for Slack: Give and receive appreciation (Kudos) directly on Slack.
• Customizable Kudos cards: Customize Kudos cards the way you want.

Pricing

ThriveSparrow offers a 7-day free trial and it comes with 3 pricing plans, billed annually.

Engage: The Engage module helps you drive and assess employee engagement with feedback from surveys and insights from reports. This module starts at $3/month/employee.

Kudos: Kudos allows you to give credit where it's due. The Kudos module is all about peer-to-peer recognition. You can track top performers on the leaderboard, reward colleagues for their help, and redeem appreciation points for cool stuff. Prices start at $2/month/employee.

Performance: The Performance module of ThriveSparrow enables you to evaluate employee performance using comprehensive 360-degree feedback. It facilitates the generation of both individual and group reports, offering summaries of competencies and GAP analyses. These features are instrumental in highlighting employee strengths and pinpointing areas that require improvement.

Prices start at $5/month/employee.

SIGNUP FOR FREE

• Demo Available
• Pricing unavailable
• G2 Rating: 4.8

In today's ultra-competitive labor markets, high turnover can pose significant challenges for organizations. That's where Awardco, an all-in-one employee rewards and recognition platform, comes into play.

Awardco is a robust Nectar alternative that helps companies effectively navigate these challenges and create a culture that retains top talent. With esteemed customers like Ford, JPMorgan Chase, Pinterest, Hertz, Paramount, and Chick-fil-A, Awardco has proven its ability to deliver exceptional results.

Designed for organizations with over 100 employees, Awardco enables the creation of world-class recognition programs that make a substantial impact on the bottom line.

Most loved features

• Seamless reward cashing: Awardco offers an incentive system that lets any employee cash out rewards/prizes easily.
• Recognition space: It offers both a private and a company-wide peer-recognition space.
• Swag store: Field staff can earn rewards, create wish lists, share 'wow' moments with peers, and exchange points for personalized rewards of their choice from the Swag store.
• Effortless setup: Easy to set up, and prompt support from the demo & sales team, and implementation specialists.
  

Pricing

The plans aren't disclosed, so you'll have to contact Awardco for the pricing.

• Demo Available
• Pricing starts at $2/member/month
• G2 Rating: 4.8

In the quest to cultivate a thriving internal culture and retain top talent, Assembly emerges as a game-changing peer-to-peer employee recognition, rewards, and engagement software. With seamless workflows, Assembly has assisted thousands of companies in achieving an impressive 95% employee engagement rate.

Suitable for teams of all sizes, Assembly provides a robust platform that enhances internal culture and fosters a sense of belonging. Best of all, it is FREE for up to 10 users, making it accessible to organizations of various scales.

What users loved about Assembly

• Interactive posts: Assembly empowers employees to liven up their posts and responses with GIFs, fostering greater interactivity.
• Make Recognition fun with its integration for Slack: Create and celebrate interactive recognition posts directly on Slack.
• Mobile-friendly coupon access: Access coupons effortlessly through your mobile device, providing a smooth and convenient way to redeem rewards.
• User-friendly platform: Smooth operating platform, user-friendly and great for remote teams.

Pricing

Assembly offers a free trial, and comes with 4 pricing plans billed annually.

Recognition: $2/member/month

Engagement: $4/member/month

Digital HQ: $6/member/month

For larger plans and customizations, you can request Assembly for a quote.

• Demo Available
• Pricing Upon Request
• G2 Rating: 4.8

Kudos is a powerful employee engagement and recognition platform that allows individuals to express appreciation for meeting deadlines, going above and beyond, or assisting colleagues. The platform provides employees the opportunity to give and receive "kudos" for exceptional work and contributions.

As an alternative to Nectar, Kudos offers virtually the same features while being more cost-effective. What sets Kudos apart is its emphasis on highlighting the core values that organizations want their employees to embody, rather than solely focusing on point scoring.

Most coveted features

• Remote recognition: Kudos simplifies remote employee appreciation and gratitude.
• Performance management: The platform assists managers with performance assessment through Kudos point history.
• Company-wide activities at a glance: The newsfeed provides a comprehensive view of company-wide activities.
• Diverse redeemable rewards: Kudos offers a wide range of redeemable rewards for employees to select from.

Pricing

The pricing is currently unavailable, and you need to contact the Client and Support team to obtain the details.

• Free Version Available
• Unlimited recipients for all paid plans
• Starts at $40/month
• G2 Rating: 4.9

With over 3,000 reviews on major platforms such as G2 and Capterra, Guusto has firmly established itself as one of the highest-rated employee recognition platforms. This is precisely why we've included it in our list of the best Nectar alternatives.

What sets Guusto apart is its exceptional ability to make it effortless for companies to express their appreciation for employees, whether they work remotely, in the field, or on the sales floor. (Healthcare, retail, and manufacturing.)

What user loved about Guusto

• Effortless tracking and analysis: The export feature enables easy tracking and analysis of the number of gifts given and received.
• Streamlined gift-delivery process: The platform offers a smooth, organized, and reliable gift delivery process.
• Flexible reward options: Recipients can choose to redeem rewards at their preferred stores or save them for larger gifts.
• Charitable donations: Employees have the option to opt for charitable donations apart from redeeming gifts.
• Responsive customer support: Users appreciate the responsive customer support, with prompt responses and regular follow-ups on issues.
• Motivational emails notifications: Email notifications on appreciation instances motivate employees and boost morale.

Pricing

Free plan: Sign up for free with Guusto, suitable for a single user with the capability to send up to 1,000 gifts

Lite: Priced at $40 per month, designed for a single user.

Essential: Priced at $120 per month and includes 30 seats (users).

Premium: Priced at $400 per month and includes 80 seats (users).

• Pricing Upon Request
• Demo Available
• G2 Rating: 4.7

Counting renowned companies like Samsung and Panasonic among its clients, Achievers stands as an excellent alternative to Nectar for enterprises seeking a more suitable employee recognition tool.

One of Achievers' key strengths lies in its ability to facilitate seamless social recognition, whether it be peer-to-peer or manager-to-peer. By leveraging Achievers, enterprises can enhance their employee engagement strategies, motivation, and overall job satisfaction.

Achiever's features that users are happy with

• Proactive customer success team: Weekly check-ins and high responsiveness to ad-hoc requirements by customer sucess managers.
• Diverse campaign ideas: The platform offers a wide range of campaign ideas, simplifying the implementation of recognition programs.
• Customizable report fields: Administrators can customize report fields to suit their needs.
• User-friendly interface: The interface is user-friendly and enjoyable to navigate, and is suitable for worldwide implementation.

Pricing

The pricing isn't available on the website. You have to contact them to obtain the details.

• Free Trial Available
• Starts at $5/user/month
• G2 Rating: 4.8

Bonusly is an exceptional peer-to-peer recognition platform designed to reward, recognize, and celebrate outstanding employees. It empowers everyone within an organization to acknowledge and appreciate their colleagues' contributions. Whether it's peer-to-peer recognition or managers recognizing their direct reports, Bonusly creates a continuous stream of positive vibes that uplift the entire workplace.

What users loved about Bonusly

• Personalized rewards selection: Bonusly provides a variety of personalized rewards, including charitable donations.
• Flexible reward options: Employees have the flexibility to redeem rewards at their preferred stores.
• Motivational recognition features: Users appreciated the recognition features that kept everyone motivated and productive.
• Real-time notifications: Bonusly's integration for Slack helps users receive real-time notifications on celebrations and success activities.

Pricing

Bonusly offers s 14-day free trial, and has 3 pricing plans - billed annually.

Free Plan,

Pro: $5/user/month

Contact the Sales team for the customized plans

• Demo Available
• Pricing Upon Request
• G2 Rating: 4.6

Terryberry is a comprehensive employee recognition platform that enables companies to integrate recognition into their culture right from the start. With their patented "360 Recognition" approach, Terryberry offers teams the opportunity to cover all four essential aspects of all-in-one recognition: incentives, milestones, social recognition, and employee feedback.

What sets Terryberry apart is its fully customizable nature, allowing organizations to tailor the platform to their unique needs and values, making it one of the top Nectar alternatives.

Most coveted features

• Automated years of service rewards: Automatic, equitable rewards for years of service, eliminating the need for manual intervention from managers.
• Quick issue resolution: The platform boasts quick response times for addressing issues and questions.
• Tailored support for manufacturing companies: Terryberry assists manufacturing companies by providing online portals for ordering through catalogs and handling invoice payments.
• Effortless setup and usage: It is effortless to set up and use, resulting in increased workplace productivity and higher morale.

Pricing

The pricing isn't available, but if you want to try out the product, you can schedule a free demo.

• Pricing starts at $3/employee/month
• G2 Rating: 4.6

Xoxoday Empuls is a holistic employee engagement solution that revitalizes company culture and breathes life into the digital workplace. With Empuls, people leaders can unite teams, break down silos, amplify the voice of every employee, and foster a culture of appreciation across the entire organization.

What users loved most about Empuls

• Customizable rewards: Empuls offers a broad array of customizable reward options, enabling organizations to tailor rewards to match individual preferences.
• Event and anniversary dashboard: The dashboard prominently displays upcoming events, anniversaries, and birthdays.
• Extra celebratory wishing points: Congratulating or appreciating colleagues on their birthdays, anniversaries, or achievements also earns the well-wisher extra points.
• Engaging forum for activities and feedback: Empuls includes a forum for conducting activities and providing feedback, enhancing communication and engagement within the platform.

Pricing

There are 4 plans - billed annually, they are:

Reward and recognize: $3/employee/month

Surveys: $3/employee/month

Social Intranet: $1/employee/month

Perks and benefits: $2/employee/month

• Free Trial Available
• Demo Available
• Starts at $4/employee/month
• G2 Rating: 4.7

Motivosity is an exceptional employee experience platform designed to address the most crucial moments in the employee journey. With a focus on community and connection, employee recognition, and manager development, Motivosity creates an engaging experience that resonates with teams of all sizes.

What sets Motivosity as a Nectar alternative is its ability to foster a sense of community and connection within the workplace. By providing a platform for employees to engage with one another, collaborate, and build relationships, Motivosity enhances team dynamics and overall employee satisfaction.

• Automated celebrations for birthdays and milestones: Motivosity automatically celebrates birthdays and milestones - no more missing those special moments.
• Comprehensive performance and engagement hub: A convenient one-stop shop for managing employee performance and engagement, making it ideal for remote teams.
• Streamlined meeting organization: Simplifies the process of organizing meetings, keeping everyone on the same page.
• Flexible monetary rewards for recipients: Share monetary rewards that recipients can spend however they please.

Pricing

Motivosity offers a 30-day free trial. Here are the plans, billed annually.

Recognition & Rewards: $4/employee/month

Add-on

Employee Insights: $2/employee/month

In Summary

Employee recognition stands as a cornerstone in nurturing a positive culture, elevating morale, and fueling productivity within organizations.

While Nectar continues to be a popular choice, exploring alternative solutions can introduce fresh and effective approaches to acknowledge your employees' invaluable contributions.

We delved into 10 exceptional Nectar alternatives, shedding light on how they can enhance employee recognition and cultivate a motivated, engaged workforce. We hope it helped you make an informed decision in choosing your pick.

If you have any questions or would like to explore these alternatives further, feel free to reach out to ThriveSparrow.