Pulsido vs Matter
Both give you kudos in Slack, coins, rewards, and a weekly recognition ritual. Here's how they differ on price, platforms, and surveys.
Matter is a recognition and rewards app that lives in Slack and Microsoft Teams, with a weekly ritual called Feedback Friday. Pulsido covers much of the same ground: kudos tied to your values, coins, a rewards store, celebrations, and a weekly round. The differences are mostly in price, in how much you can do on the web, and in surveys.
The short version
- Pick Matter if your company runs on Microsoft Teams, you need an HRIS sync today, or you want Matter to handle swag printing and premium gifts for you.
- Pick Pulsido if you're on Slack or the web, you want celebrations and custom values on the free plan, or you want pulse surveys and confidential feedback in the same tool for less.
Side by side
| Pulsido | Matter | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Web (works on phones) and Slack | Slack and Microsoft Teams, plus a web app |
| Free plan | Kudos, custom values, celebrations, the weekly round | Kudos, a kudos template library, Feedback Friday |
| Rewards plan | Pro, $2 per person per month (yearly) | Pro, $3 per user per month (yearly) |
| Pulse surveys | Included in Business, $4 per person per month | Add-on, $2 per user per month on top of a paid plan |
| Gift cards and donations | Through your own Tremendous account | Built in, billed at face value |
| Swag | Claim links; you or your print partner ship it | Matter produces and ships it |
| HRIS sync | Not yet | Add-on with an annual fee |
| Free trial | 14 days of everything | 14 days |
What costs what
Matter has four plans: Free, Basic at $1, Pro at $3, and a custom Enterprise plan, per user per month billed yearly. Monthly billing is $2 for Basic and $4 for Pro. Surveys are an add-on at $2 per user per month on Basic or Pro.
Pulsido has three: Free, Pro at $2, and Business at $4 per person per month billed yearly. Business already includes the pulse, surveys, and feedback.
For 100 people, billed yearly:
| Pulsido | Matter | |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition with rewards | $2,400 (Pro) | $3,600 (Pro) |
| Rewards plus pulse surveys | $4,800 (Business) | $6,000 (Pro plus Surveys) |
One fair note: if all you want is celebrations, custom kudos, analytics, and QR codes, Matter Basic at $1 costs less than Pulsido Pro at $2. Pulsido gives you celebrations and custom values for free, but analytics and QR codes are on Pro.
Where Matter is ahead
- Microsoft Teams. Pulsido doesn't support Teams yet.
- HRIS sync. Matter can keep people and dates in step with your HR system. Pulsido imports birthdays, start dates, and member properties from CSV.
- Hands-off rewards. Matter runs the gift card catalog, premium gifts, and swag production for you. In Pulsido you connect your own Tremendous account for gift cards, and swag goes to your own print partner from a CSV.
- Track record. Matter has been around longer and has more integrations.
Where Pulsido is different
- The web is a full citizen. Everything you can do in Slack you can do on the web or a phone: coins, GIFs, private kudos, kudos to a whole team. Frontline teams without Slack seats can join with a link.
- Pulse surveys built for honesty. Results only show when three or more people answered. Confidential comments from a team smaller than five skip that team's manager and go to executives without the team name. Managers reply in a conversation without ever seeing who wrote it.
- Edits. Givers can fix a typo for 15 minutes after posting, and the Slack post updates too.
- A nudge, not just a channel post. Partway through the weekly round, Pulsido sends a short Slack DM to people who haven't given kudos yet. Anyone can turn it off.
Switching
You can run Pulsido next to Matter while you try it. Create your company, connect Slack, and point Pulsido at a different channel. When you're ready to move, import birthdays and start dates from a CSV so celebrations carry on without a gap.