5 Awardco Alternatives in 2026, Compared by Price and Fit

The short answer: the right Awardco alternative depends on how you want to reward people and how you want to pay for it. Awardco's strength is choice: Amazon Business, Best Buy, thousands of gift cards, and service awards, on custom annual plans. The alternatives trade some of that choice for a different price model, a different kind of reward, or a broader program.

• Give River: gift cards on Core as one part of a program with micro-learning, surveys, and gamified Seasons, at published prices.
• Bonusly: 1,200+ rewards with cash-out options such as PayPal and Venmo, at published per-user prices.
• Motivosity: a company-funded Visa card, swag stores, and lifestyle spending accounts.
• WorkTango: a zero-markup rewards marketplace, with validated engagement surveys.
• Workhuman: service milestones and recognition analytics for global enterprises.

Every competitor fact below comes from that vendor's own website or help center, checked in October 2026. We make Give River, so it's listed first. On reward choice alone, Awardco is hard to beat; we say where each alternative falls short.

What Awardco does well

• Reward choice: Amazon Business, Best Buy, thousands of gift cards, custom rewards, and cash-style options such as PayPal and prepaid cards.
• Service awards: milestone programs with keepsakes such as MemoryBooks, plus automated birthday and anniversary recognition.
• Giving: donations to more than 1.7 million charities.
• Integrations: 15 HRIS integrations listed, including certified two-way Workday, plus Slack and Microsoft Teams, and SAML single sign-on on all plans.
• Beyond employees: a dedicated plan for recognizing volunteers and contractors.

Teams that look elsewhere usually name one of these:

• Quotes, not list prices: custom annual quotes, priced by how many program types you run, with small-business packages from $3,000.
• Extras: eNPS surveys (Awardco Engage) and some integrations ($1,200 a year each) are sold separately.
• Learning: Awardco rewards training completed in a separate learning system but doesn't list its own content.
• Focus: they want rewards to be one part of the program, not the center of it.

Awardco alternatives at a glance

What rewards cost on top of the software

In a rewards-heavy program, how rewards are funded matters as much as the software price. From each vendor's own pages:

• Awardco: rewards are prefunded at one point per dollar. Bank (ACH) funding is free; card funding carries a 3–5% fee.
• Bonusly: rewards are billed at face value, plus a convenience fee when paid by card; prepaying by bank transfer has no fee.
• WorkTango: no markup on rewards, and a suggested budget of $70–$125 per employee per year.
• Workhuman: a “shared success” model built on transaction fees, not a subscription, and a suggested recognition budget of about 1% of payroll.

Before you sign, ask each vendor: is there a markup on rewards, a fee to fund by card, or a minimum?

1. Give River

Best for: teams that want rewards to be one part of a broader engagement program, at a published per-user price.

Pricing: Free has no time limit and covers recognition, badges, and the leaderboard, without gift cards. Core and Growth start with a 30-day trial. A card is required at sign-up, and Free is never charged.

What it adds over Awardco:

• Published prices and a free plan, where Awardco sells custom annual plans.
• Surveys and polls, including eNPS, in Core's price. Awardco's eNPS is in Awardco Engage, sold separately.
• River Runs: 5–20 minute micro-learning on wellness, professional development, and soft skills.
• Gamified Seasons of 1–3 months with the River Rankings leaderboard.
• On Growth, River Guides coaching and goal tracking, which Awardco doesn't list.

Where Awardco is stronger:

• More reward choice: Amazon Business, Best Buy, and thousands of gift cards.
• Service-award programs with keepsakes such as MemoryBooks, where Give River has milestone badges and custom awards (Core).
• A certified two-way Workday integration, and a plan for recognizing volunteers and contractors.

Full side-by-side: Give River vs Awardco.

2. Bonusly

Best for: teams that want a very large catalog with cash-out options at a published per-user price.

Pricing: free for up to 8 users. Team is $5 per user per month with the Bizy AI assistant, or $3 without, with a 30-day trial. Organization is custom-priced.

Why look at it instead of Awardco:

• Published per-user prices and a free plan.
• More than 1,200 rewards, including cash-out options such as PayPal and Venmo.
• Goals, which Awardco doesn't list.
• 30+ HRIS connectors on Team and up, against Awardco's 15.

Where Awardco is stronger: SAML single sign-on on every plan (Bonusly keeps it on Organization), and service-award keepsakes; Bonusly covers birthdays and anniversaries on Team and up. More: Bonusly alternatives.

3. Motivosity

Best for: companies of about 75 to 10,000+ employees that want stipends and a company-funded card alongside recognition.

Pricing: custom quotes, billed annually, with a $3,000 minimum. Its pricing page describes a platform fee of about $0–2 per employee per month, plus modules typically from about $1 per employee per month.

Why look at it instead of Awardco:

• The ThanksMatters card, a company-funded Visa card, plus swag stores.
• Lifestyle spending accounts: stipends for wellness, learning, or home office.
• 50+ HRIS connectors listed, against Awardco's 15, and a published 30–60 day implementation, where Awardco gives no timeline.

Watch for: the same shape of deal. Motivosity's $3,000 minimum matches where Awardco's small-business packages start, and its surveys are an add-on, like Awardco Engage. More: Motivosity alternatives and Give River vs Motivosity.

4. WorkTango

Best for: mid-market companies that want zero-markup rewards plus validated engagement surveys.

Pricing: quotes only. Recognition & Rewards is priced per user per month; Surveys & Insights is sold separately. The minimum contract is 12 months, usually billed yearly. BI WORLDWIDE acquired WorkTango in July 2026 and is moving its rewards fulfillment to BIW's global rewards marketplace.

Why look at it instead of Awardco:

• No markup on rewards: gift cards, travel, prepaid cards, and swag.
• Nominations and formal awards.
• Surveys designed by I/O psychologists in 40+ languages, and wellness incentives linked to Apple Health and Google Fit.
• A published 4–6 week implementation, and an average adoption of 80%+ (WorkTango).

Where Awardco is stronger: more charities (1.7 million+ against 1.2 million+), and a fit from small business to enterprise, where WorkTango sells to mid-market companies. Also note that WorkTango's Teams bot is an add-on. Compare: Give River vs WorkTango.

5. Workhuman

Best for: mid-market and global enterprises recognizing people across many countries, currencies, and languages.

Pricing: custom quotes only, on a transaction-fee model. Select new customers can get their first-year transaction fees refunded if promised engagement or retention results aren't met.

Why look at it instead of Awardco:

• Service Milestones with crowdsourced messages from colleagues.
• Workhuman iQ: recognition analytics with dashboards and an AI assistant.
• Conversations for check-ins, goals, and reviews; Awardco doesn't list goals or coaching.
• Frontline recognition by kiosk, SMS, QR code, or paper nomination.

Where Awardco is stronger: a published starting point for small businesses ($3,000 packages for 100 or fewer employees), where Workhuman quotes every deal, and earn incentives and badges, which Workhuman doesn't list. More: Workhuman vs Awardco and Workhuman alternatives.

How to choose

• Reward choice and service awards come first: Awardco is hard to beat; for global programs, compare it with Workhuman.
• Cash-out rewards at a published price: Bonusly.
• Stipends or a company-funded Visa card: Motivosity.
• No markup on rewards, plus validated surveys: WorkTango.
• Rewards as one part of recognition, learning, and gamified Seasons, at one published price: Give River.

For reward ideas beyond the catalog, see our award and recognition ideas guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest Awardco alternative?

Give River and Bonusly publish their prices and start free. Give River's gift cards start on Core at $4.99 per user per month, and Bonusly Team is $3 per user per month ($5 with Bizy AI). Awardco's small-business packages and Motivosity's annual minimum both start at $3,000.

Is there a free alternative to Awardco?

Give River Free is $0 for up to 25 members with no time limit, though gift cards start on Core. Bonusly is free for up to 8 users. Motivosity, WorkTango, and Workhuman don't list a free plan.

Which Awardco alternatives offer cash-style rewards?

Bonusly lists cash-out options such as PayPal and Venmo, Motivosity offers a company-funded Visa card, and WorkTango's marketplace includes prepaid cards. Awardco itself offers PayPal and prepaid cards.

Which Awardco alternative is best for large enterprises?

Workhuman is built for mid-market and global enterprises, with Service Milestones, recognition analytics, and performance conversations. Motivosity serves companies of up to 10,000+ employees.

Do these alternatives work with Microsoft Teams?

Yes. Bonusly includes Slack and Microsoft Teams on every plan, Motivosity and Workhuman integrate with both (Workhuman's Teams app requires single sign-on), and WorkTango's Teams bot is an add-on. On Give River, Slack and Microsoft Teams are both included from Core.

Sources

Competitor facts checked in October 2026 (October 4 for Awardco, Bonusly, Motivosity, and Workhuman; October 5 for WorkTango), from each vendor's own website and help center. Give River facts are from our pricing page and facts page.

• Awardco: plans, plan schedule, integrations, gift cards, Amazon rewards, cash-like rewards, employee training, service awards, Awardco Giving, funding your account, Awardco Engage, single sign-on
• Bonusly: pricing, plans, Organization plan, paying for rewards, rewards, goals, 1:1 meetings, celebrations, HRIS integrations, SAML, integrations
• Motivosity: pricing, reward marketplace, ThanksMatters card, lifestyle spending accounts, achievement awards, integrations, implementation guide
• WorkTango: pricing, recognition software pricing, adoption, BI WORLDWIDE acquisition, rewards marketplace, Surveys and Insights, wellness, Microsoft Teams, rewards budget
• Workhuman: pricing advantage, integrations, ROI guarantee, rewards, Service Milestones, Workhuman iQ, Conversations, frontline recognition, Microsoft Teams, social recognition