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.