Brighten is employee recognition software with rewards, gamification and Slack/Teams integration. Free for 10 users; paid plans from $49/month.
Researched and fact-checked by Bartu Cavusoglu · Updated October 26, 2026
Brighten is an employee recognition platform built by Palavir. It lets colleagues send each other shout-outs, badges and awards backed by points and written messages, and it shows that activity in a shared team feed. The goal is to make appreciation frequent and visible instead of limited to occasional manager comments.
The product combines recognition with a rewards marketplace, gamification and analytics. It targets growing teams, remote and hybrid companies, HR departments and larger organizations that need security controls such as SSO and audit logs. A free plan makes it possible to try the core experience first.
An admin signs up, then configures the company name, logo and time zone under Settings > Organization and invites people from Settings > Users, one by one or through a CSV bulk import. Slack or Microsoft Teams can be connected from Admin > Integrations by following an authorization flow.
Once connected, employees give recognition from the chat tool they already use. Each recognition carries an award, a points value and a message, as in the homepage example of a 50-point Team Player Award. Points accumulate and can be redeemed in the rewards marketplace, while managers and admins review activity in the analytics views.
Recognition is the core: custom award types, points, badges and values-based shout-outs. Gamification adds streaks, challenges and leaderboards. The rewards catalog offers gift cards, experiences, merchandise and custom rewards, and managers can be given budgets to distribute.
Analytics track participation, engagement trends, top performers, sentiment and program ROI, with CSV export on Growth and above. On the security side, Brighten lists SSO through SAML or OIDC, two-factor authentication, role-based permissions, audit logs, IP allowlisting on Enterprise and configurable data retention. Admins can export recognitions, users, rewards and analytics as CSV or JSON.
Brighten is an employee recognition platform for peer shout-outs, points, rewards, gamification and analytics. Teams can give recognition from Slack or Microsoft Teams. It is a Palavir product.
Brighten has a free plan for up to 10 users. Paid plans are Starter at $49/month (50 users), Growth at $149/month (200 users) and Pro at $299/month (500 users), with custom Enterprise pricing. Annual billing saves 17%.
Yes to both. The Free plan covers up to 10 users and needs no credit card. Starter, Growth and Pro each offer a 14-day trial.
Brighten integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams, and syncs employee profiles from HRIS tools such as BambooHR and Workday. It also supports SSO through SAML or OIDC, webhooks and an API.
Yes. Brighten charges a platform fee on rewards of 12% on Starter, 10% on Growth, 8% on Pro and 5% on Enterprise. Funding a wallet upfront earns bonus credits of 2% at $1K, 3% at $5K and 5% at $10K.
The help center states that data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256. Brighten supports SSO, two-factor authentication and role-based access, and Enterprise plans include audit logs and IP allowlisting.
Brighten is a responsive web app that can be added to a phone's home screen. The help center says native apps are on the roadmap, although the pricing page lists mobile app access under Starter.
It is a reasonable fit. The free plan covers 10 users and Starter covers 50 for $49/month, with Slack and Teams included on Starter. Small teams should factor in the 12% reward fee on Starter.