How much does Bonusly cost compared with Evergreen?

Bonusly publishes a free tier for up to 8 users and a Team plan at $3 per user per month, or $5 with its AI add-on, billed annually, plus a separately charged rewards budget. Evergreen is $3.99 per active user per month with no rewards budget, and only people who interact with the app in a month are billed.

Does Bonusly work in Slack and Microsoft Teams like Evergreen does?

Yes. Bonusly has a Slack app with a /give command and a Bonusly home tab, and lists a Teams integration. The difference is what happens next: Bonusly points are redeemed in its own app, while an Evergreen seed has nothing to redeem, so the channel post is the whole experience.

Is a Bonusly reward taxable?

Points that turn into gift cards, cash or prepaid cards are generally treated as a taxable benefit, and how you report that is between you and your payroll team. A tree planted on somebody’s behalf has no cash value to them, which is one reason companies pick Evergreen.

Can I move from Bonusly to Evergreen without losing history?

Recognition history does not transfer between the two products. What does carry over is the habit: the channel and the people are unchanged, and if you used core values in Bonusly they become tags in Evergreen.

Alternatives

Bonusly Alternative: Evergreen vs Bonusly

For teams weighing Bonusly against a lighter, chat-native tool. Bonusly attaches points and a rewards catalogue to every thank-you; Evergreen attaches a tree.

Bonusly at a glance

Pricing: Free for up to 8 users; the Team plan is $3 per user per month ($5 with the Bizy AI add-on), or $30 and $50 per user per year billed annually; the Organization plan is custom priced; the rewards budget is charged separately at face value. (as read on 7 September 2026)
Best for: Bonusly is the right choice for a company that wants points employees can spend on gift cards, cash or swag, with HRIS provisioning and a performance layer attached.
Website: bonusly.com

What Bonusly is

Bonusly is a points-based recognition platform. A person gives a colleague a small number of points with a message, usually tagged to a company value, and the recipient redeems accumulated points in a catalogue of gift cards, prepaid cards, branded swag or charity donations. The catalogue covers 200+ countries and the rewards are charged to the company at face value, separate from the subscription.

Over the last few years the product has widened. The Team plan now includes automated milestones, 1:1s, check-ins and performance recaps, and a $2 per user AI add-on called Bizy writes recognition and summarises activity. There is a Slack app, a Teams integration and integrations with BambooHR, Workday, ADP and the usual identity providers.

Who it suits

Bonusly fits a company that has decided recognition should carry money. If your people expect a gift card at the end of the month, if you already budget for rewards, or if your HR team wants provisioning from the HRIS and a performance layer in the same login, Bonusly does this well and tells you what it costs up front. Eight users on the free tier is a real way to test it.

The cost is administrative as much as financial. Somebody sets budgets, watches spend, decides which reward categories are on, and answers the question about whether a $25 gift card goes on a payslip. The rewards budget is a line item that gets discussed in every planning round, and the larger the company, the larger the line.

How the two products treat a thank-you

Evergreen starts from the position that the message is the reward, and that what a company adds should be something nobody has to spend. A seed is given in Slack or Microsoft Teams with a message and optional value tags, and posted to a public channel. Every three seeds a person receives are planted as one real tree through a reforestation partner. The company gets a public impact page and a reporting dashboard; the recipient gets a public thank-you and a tree with their name on it.

That removes three things Bonusly needs: a rewards budget, a catalogue and a tax conversation. It also removes something Bonusly offers: the ability to give somebody $50 for a genuinely exceptional week. If that ability matters to you, Bonusly is the more complete product. Our guide to employee recognition covers when cash helps and when it quietly replaces the message.

Pricing is the other structural difference. Bonusly bills per seat on the plan, annually. Evergreen bills $3.99 per active user per month, where an active user is somebody who has interacted with the app that month, so a quiet team in August costs less than a busy one in March. There is a 14-day trial with no card required. See pricing.

What switching involves

Recognition history does not migrate between the two. If you leave Bonusly, give people a fixed window to redeem points, export the analytics you want to keep, and then install Evergreen in the same channel your Bonusly posts went to. If you used core values in Bonusly, set them up as tags in Evergreen on day one so that the values reporting is continuous even though the tool is not. The weekly reminder and monthly recap take over the job of keeping the habit alive.

Where Bonusly is strong

Published, self-serve pricing with a free tier for up to 8 users and a 30-day trial, which is rare in this category.
A catalogue of 1,200+ rewards in 200+ countries, including gift cards, prepaid cards, swag and the option to donate points to charity.
Rewards are charged at face value on top of the subscription, with no charge for unused funds and admin spend limits.
Recognition can be tied to a core value, and the analytics show which values are being named and which managers are participating.
HRIS and identity integrations named on the site include BambooHR, Workday, ADP, Okta and OneLogin.

Where it falls short

The rewards budget is a second bill on top of the platform fee, and it is the larger of the two once people redeem regularly.
Awards, incentives, SAML SSO and company-wide analytics sit behind the custom-priced Organization plan.
Points redeemed for gift cards or cash are a taxable benefit in most jurisdictions, which is a payroll question Bonusly does not remove.
Bonusly has grown into a performance product with 1:1s, goals and check-ins; a team that only wants recognition pays for and administers the rest.

How Evergreen differs

A tree instead of a catalogue: There are no points to spend. Every three seeds a person receives become one real tree planted through a reforestation partner, so there is no rewards budget, no catalogue to curate and no taxable benefit.
One price, only for people who take part: Evergreen is $3.99 per active user per month, and an active user is somebody who has interacted with the app that month. Bonusly bills every seat on the plan.
Lives in the channel: Seeds are given in Slack or Microsoft Teams and posted to a public channel with the message and any value tags. There is a dashboard for reporting, but nobody has to visit a portal to be recognised.
Values and reporting without the performance layer: Evergreen has value tagging, tag analytics, a monthly team recap and a public impact page. It does not have 1:1s, goals or an AI assistant, and does not try to.

Verdict

Choose Bonusly if the case for recognition in your company rests on tangible rewards, if you need HRIS provisioning at scale, or if you want performance conversations in the same tool. Choose Evergreen if you want peer recognition to happen where people already talk, with a fixed per-active-user price and a planted tree rather than a rewards budget to defend every quarter.

Questions people ask

How much does Bonusly cost compared with Evergreen?: Bonusly publishes a free tier for up to 8 users and a Team plan at $3 per user per month, or $5 with its AI add-on, billed annually, plus a separately charged rewards budget. Evergreen is $3.99 per active user per month with no rewards budget, and only people who interact with the app in a month are billed.
Does Bonusly work in Slack and Microsoft Teams like Evergreen does?: Yes. Bonusly has a Slack app with a /give command and a Bonusly home tab, and lists a Teams integration. The difference is what happens next: Bonusly points are redeemed in its own app, while an Evergreen seed has nothing to redeem, so the channel post is the whole experience.
Is a Bonusly reward taxable?: Points that turn into gift cards, cash or prepaid cards are generally treated as a taxable benefit, and how you report that is between you and your payroll team. A tree planted on somebody’s behalf has no cash value to them, which is one reason companies pick Evergreen.
Can I move from Bonusly to Evergreen without losing history?: Recognition history does not transfer between the two products. What does carry over is the habit: the channel and the people are unchanged, and if you used core values in Bonusly they become tags in Evergreen.