9 Espresa alternatives in 2025
Compare the top 9 Espresa alternatives in 2025 for employee benefits and perks management. Find the best platform with detailed feature comparisons, pricing, and user reviews.
In this piece
Remember when choosing a benefits platform felt straightforward? You'd pick something that checked the basic boxes, roll it out to employees, and call it a day. But somewhere between the promises of "comprehensive solutions" and the reality of clunky interfaces, many HR leaders find themselves stuck with platforms that create more headaches than they solve.
If you're reading this, chances are you're experiencing that familiar frustration; maybe your current benefits platform doesn't quite fit your company's needs, or perhaps you're discovering that "one-size-fits-all" actually means "fits nobody particularly well." You're not alone in this struggle, and you're definitely not stuck with whatever you chose three years ago.
The benefits technology has developed into a separate industry of its own, with new players entering the market and established platforms expanding their capabilities in ways that might surprise you. What seemed like cutting-edge features in 2022 are now table stakes, and the platforms that are winning over HR teams today are the ones that actually make benefits administration feel less like a chore and more like a strategic advantage.
This guide walks you through compelling alternatives to Espresa, each with distinct strengths that might align better with your company's unique needs. Whether you're looking for more flexibility, better global support, or simply a platform that your employees will actually want to use, there's likely an option here that will make you wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.
Best alternatives to Espresa
1. Forma
Forma is a modern employee benefits platform designed to give HR teams control and flexibility. It allows organizations to customize benefits, streamline administration, and provide employees with options tailored to their unique needs.
Our platform supports a variety of programs, including Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs), health-related accounts, and education assistance, among others. Employees can use branded cards, shop in the Forma Store, or request reimbursements, all within a seamless experience.
With tools for real-time analytics, compliance, and global adaptability, Forma helps businesses manage programs efficiently while focusing on strategic outcomes.
Forma vs. Espresa: How do they compare?
Both platforms aim to simplify benefits administration, but there are distinct differences in their approach.
- Customization: Forma offers a greater level of flexibility; you can tailor benefits programs to employee preferences, regional needs, and organizational goals, while Espresa operates with more standardized structures.
- Global capabilities: Forma supports global programs with features like cost-of-living adjustments and compliance tools; Espresa provides less automation for these processes, requiring additional oversight.
- Reimbursement processes: Forma focuses on automation, enabling faster claims processing; Espresa’s workflows often require manual intervention, which can slow reimbursements.
- Analytics and insights: Forma provides comprehensive dashboards and metrics for program performance; Espresa’s reporting options are less detailed, limiting visibility into ROI.
Forma Features and Benefits
Forma provides tools that simplify administration while giving employees meaningful choices.
Pre-tax and post-tax benefits
Forma’s pre-tax and post-tax benefit solutions are designed for modern workplaces looking to simplify administration and maximize employee engagement. With support for HSAs, FSAs, LPFSAs, dependent care FSAs, commuter benefits, and COBRA, Forma provides a unified platform that consolidates these offerings into one intuitive experience.
What sets Forma apart is its proprietary technology stack; most competitors white-label older platforms, while Forma owns and operates its infrastructure. This results in faster processing, fewer errors, and complete control. Forma also offers modern banking integrations, a universal Visa card, and an award-winning user interface that requires little to no training for employees.
Companies benefit from reduced administrative time by as much as 80% and enhanced user satisfaction, with a 98% member approval rating. Whether managing reimbursements, investing HSA funds, or enrolling in commuter programs globally, Forma delivers simplicity, scalability, and compliance across both pre- and post-tax benefit accounts.
Global support
Forma is built with a global-first mindset, supporting employee benefits in over 111 countries with ease and compliance. For businesses with distributed teams, this level of international reach is crucial. Many platforms fall short when it comes to handling benefits outside the U.S., but Forma's infrastructure and local market knowledge ensure parity in employee experience no matter the geography.
Administrators can offer standardized yet customizable benefits to international employees, eliminating the complexity that often comes with managing country-specific rules, tax codes, and eligible spending categories. This capability is especially useful for maintaining equity across a global workforce.
Forma’s global support is backed by real-time currency conversions, compliant regional spending options, and flexible funding models. With a single platform to manage everything, HR teams can reduce complexity, maintain compliance, and deliver a consistent employee experience worldwide without tying together multiple vendors or systems.
Forma Store and Visa card
The Forma Store and Forma Visa Card give employees the freedom and simplicity to use their benefits however they choose, all while ensuring employer oversight and compliance. Through the Forma Store, employees can access a curated selection of wellness, lifestyle, and professional development services that align with their eligible benefit categories.
Meanwhile, the Forma Visa Card offers seamless transactions for both pre-tax and post-tax accounts. It supports mobile payments, auto-adjudication for eligible expenses, and works across all supported benefit categories. This eliminates the need for employees to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement, reducing friction and improving the benefits experience.
For businesses, this dual system reduces fraud, improves reporting accuracy, and simplifies the management of eligible spending. The entire process is configurable, allowing companies to control where and how funds are used while delivering a flexible, user-friendly experience that encourages higher engagement.
Integration options
Forma’s integration capabilities are designed to embed seamlessly into your existing HR and payroll systems. From Workday and BambooHR to ADP, SAP, and beyond, Forma provides pre-built and custom integration pathways that enable real-time data synchronization, eligibility tracking, and usage reporting.
This deep connectivity ensures that benefits administration remains low-touch and high-accuracy. Automatic enrollment, data syncing, and claims management reduce the administrative burden on HR teams and eliminate manual errors. Integrations also enable better compliance, helping organizations stay aligned with regional regulations and internal policies.
Additionally, Forma’s open API gives companies the flexibility to build unique connections or expand their capabilities as their workforce evolves. Whether you’re a startup scaling globally or an enterprise refining your tech stack, Forma’s integration ecosystem supports growth, agility, and security, ensuring your benefits infrastructure keeps pace with your business.
If you’re looking to scale your benefits program and want to switch to a third-party administrator that truly works, Forma can help. <span class="text-style-link text-color-blue" fs-mirrorclick-element="trigger" role="button">Schedule a demo</span> today.
2. Benevity
Benevity is a corporate-purpose platform that helps companies manage social impact initiatives. It integrates employee engagement, community investment, and philanthropy into one system.
Organizations use Benevity to streamline donation campaigns, track volunteer programs, and manage grants while aligning efforts with broader social and environmental goals.
Benevity features and benefits
Benevity’s features focus on simplifying corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives while enhancing engagement and measuring impact.
Employee giving ecosystem
Benevity offers employees access to over two million vetted nonprofits worldwide. The platform supports flexible donation methods, including payroll deductions, personal contributions, and peer-based matching campaigns. Automated tax receipts and compliance tools simplify program management for HR teams, ensuring accuracy and reducing administrative tasks.
The system also enables companies to create custom matching rules, encouraging greater participation in donation programs tailored to specific causes or regions.
Volunteer engagement system
The platform organizes volunteer opportunities into categories, such as skills-based, virtual, or field volunteering, to meet diverse employee needs. Nonprofits can post detailed volunteer opportunities, allowing employees to select causes aligned with their skills and interests.
Participation tracking and reward systems, such as converting hours into donation credits, encourage ongoing engagement and provide measurable outcomes.
Grants management suite
Benevity automates grant-making workflows, from application reviews to final disbursements, helping organizations manage funding programs efficiently.
Grant applicants benefit from a self-service portal to track statuses and submit required documentation, reducing delays and errors. Impact dashboards enable organizations to connect grant allocations to social outcomes, such as meals provided or educational resources funded, ensuring transparency and accountability.
3. Reward Gateway
Reward Gateway is an employee engagement platform designed to enhance workplace satisfaction through recognition, well-being initiatives, and financial benefits. It consolidates these tools into a single, customizable interface that employees can access across devices.
The platform is used to strengthen company culture, increase retention, and improve overall workforce morale.
Reward Gateway features and benefits
Reward Gateway provides employers with an interconnected set of tools to address diverse engagement needs.
Strategic recognition tools
Reward Gateway offers peer-to-peer and manager-led recognition features that align with company values. Employees can send digital eCards with customizable messages, while managers can attach monetary or non-monetary rewards to their recognitions.
The platform integrates milestone recognition for events like work anniversaries, birthdays, or retirements. Automated workflows ensure timely acknowledgment tied to approved rewards, simplifying the process for managers.
Rewards can be redeemed through global options, including eGift cards, physical products, or charitable donations, allowing employees to choose the benefits that matter most to them.
Financial well-being and discounts
The platform includes a financial well-being program called SmartSpending™, which gives employees access to exclusive discounts from over 900 retailers. Employees save through digital discount codes, reloadable cards, and cashback offers tailored to their shopping habits.
SmartSpending™ also provides price-matching for competitive rates, ensuring employees maximize savings. This feature supports financial wellness by increasing disposable income through everyday purchases. Employers can customize the discount options to exclude competitors or highlight industry-relevant deals, offering a tailored experience for their workforce.
Well-being center
Reward Gateway includes a Well-being Center with on-demand resources focused on physical, mental, and financial health. Employees can access workouts, guided meditation sessions, nutritionist-designed recipes, and sleep routines. The Well-being+ app complements these resources by allowing employees to track personal goals, participate in challenges, and join social communities for motivation.
The well-being tools are designed to reduce stress and promote healthier lifestyles, contributing to long-term employee satisfaction and productivity.
4. Perkbox
Perkbox is an employee experience platform designed to enhance employee engagement, well-being, and satisfaction through a unified solution. The platform consolidates perks, discounts, recognition tools, and well-being resources, making it easier for organizations to motivate and retain their workforce.
It supports businesses with diverse or distributed teams by offering tools that address cultural alignment, financial resilience, and employee rewards in a flexible and customizable way.
Perkbox features and benefits
Perkbox combines employee engagement tools into one platform, offering distinct features that cater to well-being, recognition, and rewards.
Global perks and discounts
Perkbox gives employees access to over 9,000 perks and discounts across categories like groceries, fitness memberships, dining, and travel. These discounts help employees save on everyday expenses, improving their overall financial resilience.
Through Flexi Perks, employees receive monthly points that can be redeemed for free items such as coffee vouchers or gift cards. This feature adds value to the employee experience without additional cost to employers.
The platform’s diverse discount catalog includes both local and global vendors, ensuring relevance for employees across different regions.
Recognition and rewards
The platform offers peer-to-peer recognition tools that allow employees to celebrate each other’s achievements through personalized messages tied to company values. Recognitions can be shared publicly or within teams, fostering a culture of appreciation.
Managers can assign reward points to employees for milestones or exceptional performance. These points are redeemable for a range of options, including gift cards and physical items.
Automated workflows support scheduled group rewards, such as holiday bonuses or work anniversary celebrations, reducing administrative effort for HR teams.
Well-being support
Perkbox provides access to curated mental and physical well-being resources, including on-demand videos, meditation guides, and sleep improvement tools. Employees can access these resources anytime via the mobile app or website.
The platform also offers discounts on gym memberships, fitness equipment, and wellness products, encouraging employees to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Optional add-ons like Online GP services enable employees to consult doctors for private prescriptions, referrals, or medical advice, supporting proactive healthcare management.
5. Bonusly
Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards platform that enhances workplace culture through peer-to-peer recognition, milestone celebrations, and a diverse rewards catalog. It helps organizations improve employee engagement, align recognition with company values, and foster a culture of appreciation.
Bonusly integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, making recognition and rewards accessible across teams and regions.
Bonusly features and benefits
Bonusly offers features designed to streamline recognition, track performance, and provide meaningful rewards for employees in global and hybrid workplaces.
Peer-to-peer recognition
Bonusly’s core feature allows employees to recognize each other by awarding points for achievements or contributions. Recognition posts are visible on a shared company feed, creating transparency and fostering a sense of community.
Employees can use tags to align their recognition with company values, ensuring that the platform reinforces cultural goals while celebrating individual contributions. This values-based approach helps organizations track which behaviors are most commonly recognized.
Integration with communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams embeds recognition into daily workflows, increasing participation rates and reducing friction for employees.
Milestone celebrations
Bonusly automates recognition for key milestones, such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and onboarding. These celebrations trigger pre-configured awards, ensuring no important event is overlooked.
Milestones sync directly with HR systems, eliminating the need for manual updates and reducing administrative workload. Employees can also join in the celebrations by adding their recognition to the shared feed.
The platform’s flexibility allows administrators to customize milestones and set reward tiers for each type of event. This ensures that the recognition feels personalized and aligned with organizational priorities.
Rewards catalog
The rewards catalog offers employees access to thousands of options, including gift cards, charitable donations, and custom company-branded items. Employees can redeem points directly from the platform, simplifying the rewards process.
Administrators have control over the catalog, allowing them to restrict options based on budget, region, or company preferences. This ensures that rewards remain meaningful and relevant to employees across different locations.
For global teams, Bonusly includes localized reward options and currency conversion, making it easier to provide equitable rewards regardless of geography.
6. Fond
Fond is a comprehensive employee recognition and rewards platform designed to improve workplace culture by combining peer-to-peer recognition, corporate discounts, and service awards into a single platform.
The platform helps companies streamline engagement, simplify reward delivery, and provide meaningful incentives for employees. Fond integrates seamlessly with existing HR systems to ensure ease of use for administrators and accessibility for employees across global teams.
Fond features and benefits
Fond offers a range of features designed to enhance employee engagement and streamline rewards management.
Peer-to-peer recognition
Fond’s recognition tool allows employees to send public or private acknowledgments to colleagues for achievements or milestones. Recognitions can include redeemable points, which employees use to access rewards from Fond’s global catalog.
A shared social feed displays recognitions, allowing employees to engage by liking or commenting, increasing visibility across teams and departments. This feature helps foster a sense of community and reinforces company values by tagging recognitions with predefined core value categories.
Service awards are automated, triggering recognitions for anniversaries or tenure milestones. Managers can also issue spot bonuses to reward exceptional performance instantly, simplifying the recognition process.
Rewards marketplace
Fond’s rewards marketplace provides employees with access to thousands of redemption options, including gift cards, merchandise, charitable donations, and experiential rewards. Employees can redeem points earned through recognitions or bonuses for items that matter most to them.
Company-branded rewards, such as swag or customized items, are also available in the marketplace, making it possible to align rewards with organizational branding. Administrators can manage and adjust reward options to match employee preferences or budget requirements.
Unused points are returned to the company if employees leave, eliminating waste and ensuring efficient budget utilization. The marketplace supports multiple languages and currencies, accommodating global workforces.
Corporate discounts
Fond offers pre-negotiated corporate discounts across categories such as travel, fitness, and entertainment. These discounts are accessible to employees and can be extended to five family members at no additional cost.
A browser extension provides real-time notifications about available discounts during online shopping, ensuring employees never miss savings opportunities. The platform guarantees competitive pricing through its best rate guarantee, offering to beat any lower rates found elsewhere by 5%.
Administrators have access to usage analytics that track popular discounts, total employee savings, and engagement rates, helping them optimize the program to meet employee needs.
7. Motivosity
Motivosity is an employee recognition and engagement platform aimed at fostering positive workplace culture through tools for peer-to-peer recognition, rewards, and feedback. It helps organizations streamline employee appreciation, increase retention, and improve team morale by embedding recognition into everyday workflows.
The platform integrates multiple features, such as social recognition feeds, customizable rewards, and employee engagement surveys, to create a holistic approach to workplace satisfaction.
Motivosity features and benefits
Motivosity provides a range of features designed to improve employee engagement, simplify recognition programs, and build a stronger organizational culture.
Recognition programs
Motivosity allows employees to recognize each other for contributions through a centralized social feed. This peer-to-peer recognition encourages frequent, informal moments of appreciation, which can be tied to company values using customizable tags.
Recognition posts are visible to teams, promoting transparency and fostering a supportive environment. Employees can also attach messages or emojis to amplifications, further personalizing their gratitude.
The platform integrates with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, ensuring recognition is visible within daily workflows and increasing employee participation.
Rewards marketplace
Motivosity includes a global rewards marketplace offering employees access to digital gift cards, charitable donations, and branded company swag. This flexibility allows employees to select rewards that are meaningful to them.
Rewards can be funded through a points-based system or monetary allocations, providing employers with control over budgets while ensuring equitable distribution. The marketplace supports global teams with localized options and currency conversions.
Automated tracking and compliance tools simplify reward management, ensuring that employers can monitor reward utilization and align programs with organizational goals.
Engagement surveys
Motivosity includes tools for creating and distributing engagement surveys that capture employees' feedback on workplace experiences. The MV6 survey methodology focuses on six dimensions of engagement, such as manager effectiveness and role satisfaction.
Survey responses are analyzed in real-time, providing actionable insights that help organizations address areas of concern quickly. Results can be segmented by team or department, ensuring targeted interventions.
These surveys are configured to encourage participation through incentives, such as recognition points or rewards, increasing response rates significantly compared to traditional email surveys.
8. WorkTango
WorkTango is an employee experience platform designed to improve engagement, retention, and workplace culture. By integrating surveys, recognition, and rewards into a unified solution, WorkTango enables organizations to gather actionable insights, enhance employee satisfaction, and align recognition programs with business goals.
The platform supports businesses of all sizes, offering tools to manage hybrid and distributed teams while maintaining compliance and scalability.
WorkTango features and benefits
WorkTango combines advanced analytics, customizable tools, and seamless integrations to deliver a comprehensive employee experience solution.
Recognition & rewards
WorkTango’s Recognition & Rewards module supports peer-to-peer, manager, and top-down recognition, allowing organizations to celebrate employee achievements at all levels. Recognition can be tied to company values, reinforcing cultural alignment.
Employees can redeem points through a global rewards marketplace featuring over 10 million options, including gift cards, experiences, and charitable donations. The marketplace operates with zero markup, ensuring cost efficiency for employers.
Automated workflows simplify milestone recognitions, such as work anniversaries or birthdays, reducing administrative effort and ensuring timely celebrations.
Surveys & insights
The platform’s Surveys & Insights module enables organizations to deploy unlimited, customizable surveys across the entire employee lifecycle. These surveys include templates for onboarding, engagement, and exit feedback developed by industrial-organizational psychologists.
Real-time analytics transform survey responses into actionable insights through dashboards, heat maps, and sentiment analysis tools. Managers can identify trends and take data-driven actions to improve team dynamics.
Anonymous feedback guarantees confidentiality, encouraging employees to share honest input without fear of repercussions. This supports high participation rates and authentic sentiment tracking.
AI-powered analytics
WorkTango utilizes artificial intelligence to optimize recognition messages and analyze survey results. The “Recognition Writing Assistant” enhances the quality of recognition posts, ensuring they are timely and impactful.
AI-driven sentiment analysis processes open-text survey responses, identifying common themes and summarizing feedback for faster decision-making. This reduces manual effort for HR teams and ensures timely action on employee concerns.
Leadership development tools provide managers with actionable insights based on recognition patterns and feedback, helping them improve their effectiveness and align with organizational goals.
9. Compt
Compt is a compliant employee stipend platform built to support personalized perks while reducing administrative overhead. It enables companies to create custom, category-based stipends that employees can use with any vendor, offering unmatched flexibility without compromising on tax compliance or control.
Compt is ideal for modern, remote, or globally distributed teams seeking to support diverse needs while staying within budget and policy.
Compt features and benefits
Compt provides intuitive tools for building inclusive, customizable, and tax-compliant perk programs that scale.
Personalized stipends
Compt allows HR teams to create perk stipends across categories such as wellness, learning, remote work, or professional development. Employees can spend their funds anywhere, on anything that fits the category, and upload receipts directly for reimbursement. This approach ensures employees get benefits that truly match their lifestyle and priorities.
Global and tax-compliant
Compt is designed for compliance, particularly with the U.S. IRS tax code (Section 132). It automatically flags taxable vs. non-taxable expenses, ensuring programs stay compliant while reducing manual review. The platform also works for global teams, allowing reimbursements in different currencies and compliance with local regulations where possible.
Automation and integrations
Receipts are matched automatically with submitted expenses, and admins can approve reimbursements with one click. Compt integrates with payroll, HRIS, and accounting platforms like ADP, Gusto, BambooHR, and QuickBooks, streamlining workflows and syncing data across systems.
Real-time reporting
Compt gives admins visibility into how stipends are being used across teams and categories. Real-time dashboards help track usage, monitor program adoption, and adjust budgets as needed. This data ensures that benefits are driving value and ROI.
What to look for in an Espresa alternative?
When comparing Espresa alternatives, focus on platforms that improve flexibility, control, and employee experience. The most important criteria include:
- Program Customization: Look for platforms that let you create different spending categories for different roles; higher wellness allowances for field workers or additional professional development funds for managers. The best alternatives allow you to adjust benefit amounts based on seniority, location, or department without creating administrative nightmares, designing benefits that reflect how your employees actually work.
- Global Support: If you have international employees, built-in tools for multi-currency support, tax compliance, and cost-of-living adjustments save months of manual work. Strong alternatives automatically handle currency conversions, ensure compliance with local tax regulations, and adjust benefit amounts based on regional cost differences, so your global team receives equitable benefits regardless of location.
- Faster Reimbursements: Nothing frustrates employees more than waiting weeks for reimbursements. Look for platforms with robust automation that instantly approve eligible purchases through smart categorization and receipt scanning. The best alternatives approve claims in real-time, with manual review only for edge cases, dramatically reducing administrative burden while improving employee satisfaction.
- Employee Experience: Multiple spending options, prepaid cards, online stores, and traditional reimbursements ensure everyone can access benefits in ways that work for their lifestyle. Some employees prefer card convenience for immediate purchases, while others appreciate curated store options with pre-negotiated discounts. This flexibility maximizes utilization across diverse workforces with different preferences and needs.
- Data and Reporting: Real-time insights help you track usage patterns, optimize budget allocation, and demonstrate ROI to leadership. Look for platforms providing detailed analytics on utilization rates, popular benefit categories, and cost-per-employee metrics. This data becomes invaluable during budget planning and helps you make evidence-based decisions about program adjustments and improvements.
What is the best Espresa alternative?
Below is a comparison of leading Espresa alternatives based on flexibility, global support, ease of use, and reporting capabilities.
Get Started with Forma
Forma ranks highest because it offers flexible, global-ready benefits that are easy to manage and easy for employees to use. It gives HR teams control over every program detail with tools that support compliance, automation, and customization.
Employees can use branded cards, shop in a curated store, or get fast reimbursements; all in one place with real-time dashboards that help you track usage and optimize your budget.
Forma is revolutionizing the way HR teams deal with flexible employee benefits. <span class="text-style-link text-color-blue" fs-mirrorclick-element="trigger" role="button">Schedule a demo</span> to learn more about us today.
