How does Rewardian compare to Reward Gateway?

Rewardian and Reward Gateway are both employee engagement platforms, but they lead with different things: Reward Gateway is a perks-, benefits- and discounts-led engagement hub with deep UK, EU and Australia roots (now owned by Edenred), while Rewardian is a North American mid-market platform that leads with recognition and adds native sales and B2B channel incentives. If your priority is an employee discounts-and-benefits hub for a UK/EU/Australia or global workforce, Reward Gateway is excellent. If you want recognition plus internal sales incentives plus external channel incentives in one transparently priced platform built for the US mid-market, Rewardian is built for that.

Reward Gateway, founded in 2006 in the UK and acquired by Edenred in May 2023 (an enterprise value of about £1.15 billion), now sits inside Edenred’s Employee Benefits division and serves 4,000+ clients and 8M+ users across 23 countries, including American Express, Unilever, Samsung and IBM. Its hallmark is a deep employee-discounts marketplace, paired with recognition (nominations and eCards), benefits administration, wellbeing, internal communications and surveys — a broad, benefits-led engagement hub that is strongest in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Rewardian, founded in 2015 and backed by parent company Brandmovers, is calibrated to the 200–5,000-employee North American mid-market and covers three use cases natively — employee recognition, internal sales incentives, and external B2B channel incentives — with a 10M+ reward catalog including Switchfly-powered travel, a guided 4–6 week implementation, a named customer success manager, and a 94% client retention rate.

The two overlap on recognition and rewards, but they diverge on emphasis and region: Reward Gateway leads with perks, benefits and discounts for UK/EU/global workforces, while Rewardian leads with recognition-and-incentives for the US mid-market, with transparent pricing and native sales and channel coverage.

Rewardian vs Reward Gateway: feature comparison

Rewardian vs Reward Gateway: evaluation criteria

Which is best for benefits-led engagement vs recognition and incentives?

Reward Gateway is the stronger choice for a perks-, benefits- and discounts-led engagement hub; Rewardian is the stronger choice when recognition plus sales and channel incentives is the goal. Reward Gateway’s discounts marketplace and benefits administration are its center of gravity, with recognition as one module among many — a strong fit for organizations whose engagement strategy is anchored in employee savings and benefits, especially in the UK, EU and Australia. Rewardian leads with recognition and extends into internal sales and external channel incentives, which Reward Gateway does not offer. If perks and benefits are the priority, Reward Gateway leads; if multi-use-case recognition and incentives are, Rewardian does.

Who is not the right fit for either?

US-only small teams wanting a simple recognition tool, and buyers who only want a free peer-kudos app, are usually a poor fit for both. Reward Gateway is a broad, often enterprise-scoped hub strongest outside North America; Rewardian is a US-focused mid-market platform. Neither is a lightweight free recognition app, and while both include surveys, neither is primarily an employee-listening analytics tool.

How do Rewardian and Reward Gateway compare on pricing?

Rewardian publishes per-seat pricing; Reward Gateway is quote-only for its full platform. Rewardian lists $2–$5 per seat with a $2,500 setup fee and includes account management from the Engagement tier upward. Reward Gateway prices by custom quote for the full hub, with a UK/Australia small-business tier around £6 per employee per month; enterprise pricing is not published. For a US mid-market budget that values predictability, Rewardian’s transparency is the practical difference.

How do migration and switching costs compare?

Both are guided, but Reward Gateway’s broad hub can take longer to stand up. Reward Gateway offers a full design service spanning recognition, discounts, benefits and comms, which can lengthen implementation; Rewardian targets a guided 4–6 week launch with a named customer success manager. Expect to migrate users and balances, configure programs and budgets, and run an internal relaunch communication on either side.

What integrations does each support?

Both integrate with the major HRIS, payroll, SSO and collaboration tools. Reward Gateway syncs with HRIS/payroll systems, SSO (Azure AD), BambooHR, Gusto, Personio, Rippling, Paylocity and Slack, with an API and multi-language support. Rewardian provides connectors for Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, ADP, Oracle/PeopleSoft, Microsoft Dynamics and others, plus SSO, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Beekeeper, a REST open API, and iOS and Android apps. Both fit most mid-market stacks; confirm your specific HRIS connector during evaluation.

How do Rewardian and Reward Gateway compare on compliance and security?

Both meet strong enterprise security standards, with slightly different certification sets. Reward Gateway holds ISO 27001 (it cites being the first benefits provider to achieve it), GDPR compliance, a PCI ISA-qualified team, AWS hosting and annual penetration testing. Rewardian states SOC 2 Type 2, PCI, and GDPR with SSO and multi-tenant infrastructure. Neither is strictly ahead — Reward Gateway leads with ISO 27001 and Rewardian with SOC 2 Type 2 — and both address PCI; request each vendor’s current attestations during procurement.

What support and services does each provide?

Both are full-service; Reward Gateway is geared to broad, often enterprise hubs and Rewardian to mid-market programs. Reward Gateway provides a full design service and reports a strong client NPS, though some reviewers note implementation timelines and support consistency. Rewardian includes a named customer success manager and a guided 4–6 week implementation, with behavioral-program guidance from its Brandmovers heritage. Both invest in service; the decision turns on perks-led breadth and region versus recognition-and-incentives focus.

Rewardian differentiators

• Native sales + external channel incentives — Rewardian runs SKU/brand points logic, tiered structures and multi-tier hierarchies for external participants (distributors, dealers, partners) in the same platform as employee recognition, proven at WIDIA and Echo Logistics (53,434 users). Reward Gateway has no sales-incentive or channel-incentive engine — recognition is one module within a benefits-led hub.
• US mid-market focus — purpose-built for the 200–5,000-employee North American mid-market, where Reward Gateway’s strength is concentrated in the UK, EU and Australia.
• Transparent pricing — published $2–$5/seat with a $2,500 setup fee, versus Reward Gateway’s quote-only model for the full platform.
• Faster implementation — a guided 4–6 week launch, versus the longer timelines a broad benefits-and-discounts hub can require.
• Retention — a 94% client retention rate, the strongest in its competitive set.
  
  

Where Reward Gateway wins, and we should say so: it has a best-in-class employee-discounts marketplace and benefits-administration depth, genuine strength across the UK, EU and Australia, the backing of Edenred’s global employee-benefits scale, and ISO 27001 certification. For a benefits-led engagement strategy — especially outside North America — Reward Gateway is an excellent choice.

Verdict: Which should you choose?

Choose the platform that matches your region and whether you lead with perks or with recognition and incentives.

Choose Reward Gateway if your engagement strategy is anchored in employee discounts, perks and benefits, you operate substantially in the UK, EU or Australia, and you want Edenred’s global benefits scale behind you.

Choose Rewardian if you are a North American mid-market organization that wants recognition plus internal sales incentives plus external B2B channel incentives in one transparently priced platform, with a faster guided implementation and a named customer success manager.

Frequently asked questions

Is Rewardian a good Reward Gateway alternative?

Yes — especially for North American mid-market companies that lead with recognition rather than perks. Rewardian matches Reward Gateway on core recognition and adds native sales and external B2B channel incentives, transparent pricing, and a faster implementation. Reward Gateway remains an excellent benefits-led engagement hub, particularly in the UK, EU and Australia.

What is the main difference between Rewardian and Reward Gateway?

Emphasis and region. Reward Gateway is a perks-, benefits- and discounts-led engagement hub strongest in the UK, EU and Australia, now owned by Edenred. Rewardian is a US mid-market platform that leads with recognition and adds internal sales and external B2B channel incentives, with transparent pricing.

Does Reward Gateway offer sales or channel incentives?

No. Reward Gateway focuses on recognition, employee discounts, benefits, wellbeing and communications. It does not provide native sales-incentive programs or B2B channel-incentive programs for external participants such as distributors or dealers, and it has no SKU-level incentive logic. Rewardian provides those capabilities natively.

How much does Reward Gateway cost?

Reward Gateway prices its full platform by custom quote, with a UK/Australia small-business tier around £6 per employee per month; enterprise pricing is not published. Rewardian publishes $2–$5 per seat with a $2,500 setup fee and includes account management from the Engagement tier upward.

Which is better for mid-market companies?

It depends on region and emphasis. Reward Gateway suits UK/EU/Australia or global organizations wanting a benefits-led hub; Rewardian is purpose-built for the North American mid-market and leads with recognition plus native sales and channel incentives at transparent pricing.