Empuls vs Reward Gateway: A Comparative Analysis of Two Employee Rewards and Recognition Platforms

Employee engagement has become a top priority for organizations seeking to retain talent and foster a positive workplace culture. Recognition, rewards, communication, and feedback now play a central role in shaping that experience.

Empuls and Reward Gateway offer solutions in this space, but their capabilities and approach differ. 

But Empuls outshines Reward Gateway. While Reward Gateway focuses narrowly on basic recognition and UK-centric discounts, Empuls offers a comprehensive, AI-powered engagement platform that brings together recognition, rewards, surveys, benefits, and communication in one seamless ecosystem. 

With intelligent automation, a 10M+ global rewards catalog, personalized nudges, and real-time sentiment analysis, Empuls empowers organizations to engage employees at every stage of the lifecycle—something Reward Gateway simply doesn’t offer. 

In this article, we will compare both platforms across key areas—recognition, rewards, automation, communication, and analytics—and explain why Empuls is a strong choice for businesses seeking Reward Gateway alternatives or exploring Reward Gateway competitors.

Deep dive: Empuls

Empuls is a unified platform for employee engagement, built to support recognition, rewards, feedback, and internal communication. It’s designed for global teams and integrates seamlessly with everyday work tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, UKG, and HiBob.

The platform stands out for its built-in AI assistant, Em, which drives engagement through smart nudges, award prompts, survey insights, and recognition suggestions.

Key capabilities include:

• Recognition and rewards: Peer-to-peer, spot, milestone, and value-based recognition—automated and easy to manage.
• Global rewards catalog: 10M+ options across 100+ countries, including gift cards, experiences, Amazon products, and branded swag.
• Surveys and feedback: eNPS, pulse, lifecycle, and 360° surveys with analytics and sentiment insights.
• Social intranet: Drives open communication, celebrates milestones, and connects distributed teams.
• Perks and benefits: Tax-free and flexible benefit options, salary advances, and exclusive brand discounts.

Empuls is built to scale, supports white-labeling, and helps organizations drive consistent engagement across the employee lifecycle.

Deep dive: Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway is an employee engagement platform focused on recognition, communication, and employee discounts. It’s widely used in the UK and Australia, with strong retail partnerships that power its discounts offering.

Key features include:

• Recognition and rewards: Peer-to-peer and manager recognition with points-based rewards redeemable for gift cards, experiences, and donations.
• Employee discounts: A major draw, especially in the UK, offering deals and cashback across a wide range of retailers.
• Communications: Internal blogs, announcements, and push notifications to share updates, though more functional than collaborative.
• Surveys: Basic survey tools for pulse checks and feedback, with limited analytics.
• Branding and integrations: Offers white-labeling and integrations with HR and communication tools.

While Reward Gateway is effective for recognition and discounts, it lacks depth in automation, AI-driven insights, and community engagement features.

Empuls vs Reward Gateway: Comparing key platform features

This detailed comparison uses the exact categories from your internal battlecard and integrates the most recent Empuls updates and differentiators. Each section clearly contrasts what Empuls offers versus what Reward Gateway delivers.

1. Recognition

Empuls delivers a complete recognition system with peer, manager, jury, and milestone-based awards—fully automated and customizable. Reward Gateway covers the basics but lacks advanced workflows, award diversity, and visibility controls.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Core value badges	✅	✅
Peer-to-peer recognition	✅	✅
Manager-to-peer recognition	✅	✅
Spot awards	✅	✅
Nomination-based awards	✅	✅ (limited)
Jury-based awards	✅	❌
Long service awards	✅ Automated & tax-compliant	✅ Manual
Milestone awards	✅ With gamification engine	✅
Performance-based awards	✅ KPI-linked award workflows	❌
External recognition (clients/vendors)	✅	❌
Award automation (rule-based)	✅ Supports award cycles, approval workflows	⚠️ Limited
Wall of Fame (TV & interactive)	✅ TV & web mode, real-time feeds	❌
Recognition personalization (AI-enhanced)	✅ Smart prompts, rephrase suggestions, award creation via AI	❌
Quid Pro Quo prevention	✅	❌
Yearbook	✅	❌
Public & Private Recognition	✅	❌
Recognition & Reward Programs	✅	❌
Reward Program	✅	❌
Reward Cycles	✅	❌
Reward Scheduler	✅	✅
External Recognition	✅	❌

2. Rewards

Empuls offers a robust, pay-on-redemption rewards engine with a 10M+ global catalog, Amazon integration, custom swag, and gifting automation. Reward Gateway has fewer reward types, slower processing, and limited international options.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Budget control & team-wise utilization	✅ Customizable per team, with dashboards	✅
Pay-on-redemption billing	✅ No upfront cost	✅
Global reward catalog	✅ 10M+ options, 100+ countries	⚠️ Limited to fewer regions
QR-code-based rewards	✅	❌
Custom swag and storefront	✅ Fully automated with branded delivery	✅ (less automated)
Experiences and travel	✅ 100K+ experiences, curated by location	⚠️ Limited
Gift vouchers	✅ 8000+ brands	⚠️ Limited
Amazon integration	✅ Native integration	❌
Gifting automation	✅ Birthday, anniversary, onboarding, exit, festival gifts	❌

3. Perks

Empuls enhances employee savings through curated perks, cashback offers, and fringe benefit tie-ins across 50+ countries. Reward Gateway focuses largely on UK-centric retail discounts, with less flexibility and coverage elsewhere.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Corporate discounts marketplace	✅ Across 50+ countries	⚠️ Limited
Custom fringe perks via LSA	✅ Fitness, food, wellness, family care	❌
Cashback and savings	✅	⚠️ Limited
Salary advance	✅ Early access to earned wages	❌

4. Benefits

Empuls stands out with its multi-benefit card for managing tax-free and lifestyle benefits, offering real-time dashboards and compliance support. Reward Gateway doesn't provide a structured benefits solution for tax savings or fringe allowances.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Tax-free benefits	✅ (Meal, fuel, telecom, books via card)	❌
Multi-benefit card (fringe + tax)	✅ RBI-compliant, multi-wallet via RuPay	❌
Real-time utilization dashboard	✅ Admin & user level	❌
Flexible benefit configuration	✅ Company-defined benefit bundles	❌

5. Surveys

Empuls includes eNPS, pulse, lifecycle, and 360° surveys—powered by AI for sentiment analysis and action planning. Reward Gateway provides only basic survey tools, without analytics depth or automation.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Pulse surveys	✅ Scientifically designed, auto nudges	✅
eNPS surveys	✅ With industry benchmarks	✅
Lifecycle surveys	✅ 10+ event-driven surveys (onboarding, training, etc.)	❌
360-degree feedback	✅ Peer, manager, and direct report feedback	❌
Sentiment analysis	✅ AI-based for open-ended feedback	❌
Survey analytics and trends	✅ Heatmaps, department-wise insights	⚠️ Basic
Conversational AI for surveys	✅ Personalized, adaptive question flows	❌

6. Social intranet

Empuls comes with a built-in social intranet featuring wishboards, AMAs, group discussions, and polls to boost internal communication. Reward Gateway supports top-down announcements but lacks collaboration-focused tools.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Newsfeed & announcements	✅	✅
Polls & quizzes	✅	✅
Celebrations (birthdays, milestones)	✅ Wishboards, spotlight modes	❌
AMA sessions	✅ Ask leadership anything format	✅
Social sharing	✅ Native integration	❌
TV mode (digital signage)	✅ Lobby + event broadcasting	❌
Pinned posts	✅	❌
Employee directory	✅	❌
Filters & “My Circle” personalization	✅ Location, team, department views	❌

7. Employee profile

Empuls helps employees stay connected with rich profiles, skill tags, and a full org chart for easier collaboration. Reward Gateway does not support team mapping or detailed employee profiles beyond basic info.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Rich employee profile	✅ Includes hobbies, skills	✅
Org chart	✅ Hierarchical + searchable	✅

8. Community groups

Empuls fosters culture through hobby and work-based groups with content moderation, member controls, and engagement features. Reward Gateway does not offer community or interest groups as part of its experience.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Hobby, functional, and location groups	✅ With content moderation	✅
Private/public group options	✅	❌
Activity notifications per group	✅	❌

9. User access settings

Empuls provides granular control with role-based permissions, admin delegation, and data visibility settings for HR, managers, and leaders. Reward Gateway offers standard roles with limited flexibility for enterprise-level governance.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Role-based access	✅	✅
Admin access delegation	✅	✅
Data visibility customization	✅	✅

10. AI capabilities

Empuls is built with AI at its core, offering skill mapping, award suggestions, sentiment analysis, nudges, and predictive insights. Reward Gateway lacks native AI functionality, limiting automation and intelligence in engagement programs.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
AI skill mapping from recognition	✅	❌
Predictive analytics on attrition	✅	❌
AI co-pilot for insights	✅	❌
Smart award creation (GenAI)	✅	❌
Content moderation with an inclusion coach	✅	❌
Recognition rephrasing, and citation improvements	✅	❌
AI usage insights and suggestions	✅	❌
Sentiment analysis on surveys	✅	❌
Nudges and prompts (Em)	✅	❌

11. Reward catalogs

Empuls features an intensely localized global catalog, covering 100+ countries and categories from gift cards to experiences, swag, and Amazon. Reward Gateway offers a smaller, slower-to-fulfill catalog mostly centered around digital gift cards.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Gift cards	✅ 8000+ brands	⚠️ Limited
Amazon products	✅ With API integration	✅
Experiences	✅ 100K+ across 50+ countries	⚠️ Limited
Swag store	✅ Curated + on-demand distribution	❌
Travel & entertainment	✅ 1M+ options including hotels, flights	⚠️ Limited
Donations to charity	✅ 10K+ orgs	✅
Prepaid cards	✅ Visa, Mastercard	⚠️ Limited

12. Reports

Empuls delivers layered reporting for individuals, teams, and departments—backed by AI insights and recognition gap detection. Reward Gateway offers standard usage reports, but they lack actionable data and predictive analytics.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Individual-level reports	✅	⚠️ Basic
Manager/team reports	✅	✅
Org-wide program reports	✅	⚠️ Basic
Recognition abuse detection (Quid Pro)	✅	❌

13. Personalization

Empuls supports white-labeling, custom dashboards, award certificate designs, and feed configurations—fully aligned with your brand. Reward Gateway has limited branding options and minimal experience personalization.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
White-labeling	✅ Fully configurable	✅
Platform theme and custom widgets	✅ Dashboard, leaderboard, feed	✅
Custom award certificates	✅ Digital, downloadable	✅

14. Security & compliance

Both platforms meet global security standards, but Empuls also supports multi-region deployments, tax-compliant reward workflows, and advanced access control for enterprises. Reward Gateway’s security controls are standard but less flexible.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
SOC2, ISO, GDPR, CCPA	✅ Compliant across all standards	⚠️ Limited
Multi-region data storage	✅ Configurable as per region	⚠️ Limited
Tax-compliant reward workflows	✅ With reports	⚠️ Limited

15. Enterprise capabilities

Empuls is built for scale, with multilingual and multi-currency support, cost-of-living indexing, and concierge onboarding. Reward Gateway offers enterprise plans but lacks the configuration depth and automation Empuls provides.

Feature	Empuls	Reward Gateway
Multi-currency, multi-language support	✅ 50+ currencies, 55+ languages	❌
Cost of living adjustments	✅ For fair global reward distribution	❌
Dedicated CSM and onboarding	✅ Concierge implementation model	❌

16. Integrations

Empuls integrates seamlessly with HRMS (HiBob, UKG, SAP), Slack, Teams, LMS, and ATS tools—embedding engagement in daily workflows. Reward Gateway supports some integrations, but its ecosystem depth and automation capabilities are limited.

Integration Type	Empuls	Reward Gateway
HRMS (HiBob, UKG, SAP)	✅ Deep integrations	✅
Slack and MS Teams	✅ With appreciation reminders	✅
SSO, API, SDKs	✅ SAML 2.0, custom apps	✅
LMS, ATS, PMS, Health Apps	✅ Extensive connector library	❌

The Empuls advantage: Features that Reward Gateway just can’t match

When measured feature by feature, Empuls clearly outpaces Reward Gateway by delivering a more intelligent, flexible, and future-ready employee engagement solution. 

Where Reward Gateway stops at recognition and discounts, Empuls accelerates engagement with AI-driven award creation, predictive attrition insights, 360° feedback, tax-compliant benefits, and a globally localized reward experience. 

It not only empowers HR and people leaders with deeper insights but also brings employees closer together through interactive intranet tools and meaningful recognition. For organizations looking to go beyond the basics and build a thriving culture of appreciation, Empuls is the superior choice—built to scale, adapt, and inspire.

Looking for a Reward Gateway alternative? Book a demo with Empuls today.