Huggg vs Bonusly: points-based recognition or a real gift for a UK team?

If you're researching peer-to-peer recognition, and looking for a tool to support that, you'll probably have heard of Bonusly. It comes up a lot and for good reason. It's a popular platform that makes showing appreciation a day-to-day habit. However, it's also a point-based recognition platform that's from the U.S., whereas Huggg is an employee gifting platform from the UK. Here's a real-talk side-by-side comparison so you can see which would be the most relevant for you. 

Quick answer: Bonusly is a peer-to-peer recognition platform. Each staff member gets given a certain amount of points per month to award to colleagues, which can later be redeemed for gift cards, donations, or cash-outs. Its pricing model is per user, with a free plan for up to eight staff members, then costing $3 to $5 per user a month. On the other hand, Huggg is a UK employee gifting platform: you send a real gift by link, the recipient chooses what they want from a selection you've set, and they don't need an account. Nobody pays for a seat: you only pay for the gifts you send, priced in pounds. For a daily recognition habit inside Slack or Teams, look hard at Bonusly. To send meaningful gifts to UK people without paying for seats, Huggg is the simpler fit.

Huggg and Bonusly side by side

What it is

• Bonusly: a US recognition and rewards platform, founded in 2013 in Boulder, Colorado, which claims to be used by over 3,400 organisations. On paid plans you also get check-ins, smart 1:1 agendas, automated milestones, pulse analytics and Bizy, its AI recognition sidekick
• Huggg: a UK employee gifting platform. More than 2,000 UK companies use it to send thank-you gifts, Christmas gifts, long service awards and much more, and to hand managers and teams recognition budgets of their own

How rewards work

• Bonusly: points. Received points sit in a balance that never expires, redeemable in a catalogue Bonusly says holds 1,200+ gift card options across 200+ countries, plus donations, custom rewards and cash-outs
• Huggg: no points. You set the budget and pick a selection of around 50 options, drawn from a range of 700+ brands, and the recipient chooses one gift from it

Pricing

• Bonusly: Free for up to 8 users. Team is $5 per user a month with Bizy ($50 a year) or $3 without ($30 a year). Organization is quoted. Rewards are charged at face value on redemption, on top of the subscription
• Huggg: no per-user fee, subscription or minimum order. Gift prices include VAT and postage

The real difference: a points economy vs a gift

Bonusly is designed around frequency. Small, public shout-outs, often in a Slack or Teams channel, each carrying a few points that add up over weeks into something the person can spend. When it works, you get a visible stream of thank-yous across the whole company, and Bonusly is very good at keeping it flowing.

Huggg is designed around the moment. Someone sends one gift with a personal message, and the person picks something they want, there and then. No balance to check, no exchange rate between the thank-you and the thing.

Here's our contrarian bit. A monthly allowance that expires unused is a nudge to spend it, and that changes what gets measured. Participation and volume rise, which looks great on a dashboard. Whether any single thank-you landed is harder to see. We think fewer thank-yous, each carrying a real gift, often do more than a steady drip of points. The longer argument is in nobody wants your points.

That's not a knock on Bonusly. If the goal is a daily recognition habit across every team, frequency is the point, and points are a sensible way to fund it.

Cost before the first thank-you

Try this on your own headcount. Say 100 employees should all be able to recognise each other:

1. Bonusly Team without Bizy: $30 per user a year, around $3,000 before a single reward is redeemed
2. Bonusly Team with Bizy: $50 per user a year, around $5,000, again before rewards
3. Huggg: £0 for the platform. If managers send 50 gifts at £25 over the year, the bill is £1,250, all of it gifts, VAT included

To be fair to Bonusly, that seat price buys software Huggg doesn't offer, and you never pay for points nobody redeems. Huggg's free platform takes payment at the point of sending, which works for employee gifting because people claim what they're given.

So the real question is whether you want a monthly recognition system or a bill made up only of gifts. Bonusly prices in dollars and its FAQ says plans are billed annually, so ask how UK invoicing and VAT would work.

Peer-to-peer recognition on each platform

Bonusly is the specialist here, plainly. Recognition lives where people already work, through Slack and Teams integrations and mobile apps, and every post is visible to the company.

Huggg handles peer recognition through recognition budgets. Give a manager, a team or an individual a set amount, with limits, refresh periods and reason codes, and colleagues can thank each other without asking for sign-off. The thank-you is a gift by link, email or SMS that you can paste into Slack, Teams or WhatsApp yourself. Less social feed, more direct gesture. Our guide to running a peer-to-peer recognition scheme shows how to set one up so it lasts.

Cash-outs, points balances and UK tax

Bonusly points can be redeemed for cash-style rewards such as PayPal, Visa gift cards and prepaid Mastercards. People like cash: in Huggg's Christmas Gift Report, it beat every other format on feeling genuinely valued, at 52%. Yet fewer than half of cash recipients (45%) used it to treat themselves. The rest mostly went on bills or other people, so the thank-you disappears into the household budget.

Tax is the other angle. Points given for good work are a reward for work, so HMRC's trivial benefits exemption doesn't cover them, and cash-style redemptions like prepaid cards make the reporting messier. The same rule applies to a Huggg gift sent as a thank-you for work. The difference is that every Huggg gift is one item at a known, VAT-inclusive price, sent from one account, so it's simpler to report or to settle through a PAYE Settlement Agreement. Gifts for personal occasions, like a birthday, can still be trivial benefits. For the full rules, read trivial benefits and gift cards, and confirm your own position with an accountant.

Where Bonusly is genuinely stronger

• A daily recognition habit: built to make recognition frequent and public inside Slack and Teams. Huggg isn't a recognition feed
• More than recognition: check-ins, 1:1s, pulse analytics and an AI assistant on paid plans
• A global workforce: a catalogue spanning 200+ countries, with budgets you can set by location
• Saving up: received points never expire, so people can bank them for something bigger

Huggg or Bonusly: four questions to ask first

1. Are you buying a recognition habit or a way to send gifts? A company-wide recognition feed points to Bonusly. Gifts that land in the moment point to Huggg
2. Per user or per gift? Bonusly's paid plans charge for every seat. Huggg's platform costs nothing
3. Should recipients need an account? On Huggg they don't, which matters for frontline staff, new starters and anyone outside your Slack
4. Are your people mostly in the UK? Huggg prices in pounds with VAT included and its range leans on UK shops. For a team spread across many countries, Bonusly's catalogue reaches further

Choose Bonusly if you want peer-to-peer recognition to become a daily, public habit across a large or international company, and a per-user subscription for that software makes sense.

Choose Huggg if you're a UK company that wants managers and colleagues to send real gifts quickly, with no points, no seats and no sign-up for recipients. Across 477 UK companies in our Christmas Gift Report, 79% of gifts let the recipient choose, so the gift fits the person. Comparing more widely? See our ranked UK reward and recognition platforms and gift cards vs points-based reward platforms.

Want a second opinion? Book a call and tell us how your team says thank you today. If Bonusly is the better call, we'll say so.

FAQs

Is Huggg a good Bonusly alternative for UK companies?

For UK companies that mainly want to thank people with real gifts, yes. Managers and colleagues send a gift by link, email or SMS, the recipient chooses from a selection you set, and there's no per-user charge. It isn't a like-for-like swap for Bonusly's social recognition feed, check-ins and analytics, so if those matter most, Bonusly is the closer fit.

How much does Bonusly cost?

Bonusly is free for up to 8 users. Its Team plan costs $5 per user a month with the Bizy AI assistant or $3 without, or $50 and $30 per user a year, and Organization pricing is quoted. Rewards come on top, charged at face value when employees redeem them. On Huggg there's nothing to pay per head or per month, because you only pay for the gifts you send, at prices that include VAT.

Does Huggg use points like Bonusly?

No. Bonusly gives each employee a monthly allowance of points to give colleagues, and received points are saved and redeemed in its catalogue. On Huggg, the recipient gets a gift straight away and picks what they want from your selection, with no balance to manage and no account to create.

Can you do peer-to-peer recognition with Huggg?

Yes, in a different way. Recognition budgets let you give managers, teams or individuals a set amount to spend on gifts, with limits and reason codes, so colleagues can thank each other without waiting for approval. It's a direct gift, not a public points feed, so if company-wide visibility in Slack or Teams is the priority, Bonusly is built for that.

Last reviewed: October 2026. Bonusly details are taken from bonusly.com on 23 October 2026 and may change, so check them with Bonusly directly before you buy.