11 Best Employee Referral Software Tools for 2024

Manually managing employee referrals can be complex and time-consuming, especially as your business grows. Automating referrals with employee referral software makes this type of program much easier to manage — it prevents errors, saves you time and money, and streamlines the process at every stage.

Types of employee referral software

There are three main types of employee referral program software: 

Employee-to-employee referral software: Runs, tracks, and manages campaigns that encourage employees to refer best-fit candidates for open jobs.

Employee-to-customer referral software: Runs, tracks, and manages programs that encourage employees to share your products or services with peers who could benefit. 

Flexible employee referral program software: Fully customizable to your employee referral needs.

Most employee referral software only runs employee-to-employee referral campaigns. 

And while some customer referral solutions (and brand ambassador solutions) can handle employee-to customer programs, they usually can’t manage employee-to-employee referrals. 

However, select employee referral software solutions are flexible enough to manage both types of referral programs. Choosing a flexible solution can help you leverage your employees for maximum growth! 

What are the top employee referral software tools?

We’ve evaluated the following tools based on the following: 

• Key features
• Customer review scores (where available)
• Whether a demo, free plan, or free trial is available
• Types of customer support 

1. Referral Rock 

Best employee referral software overall 

Referral Rock is a next-generation tool that helps you boost your employee referrals, increase brand awareness, and accelerate growth. 

This software works for employee-to-employee referral programs, as well as employee-to-customer referral programs where employees serve as brand ambassadors. (This is in contrast to the other tools on this list, which are designed only for employee-to-employee referrals.)

Referral Rock lets you customize and brand your programs to your needs, and automates promotions to keep your program top-of-mind. It also integrates with over 30 of the tools you already use, for a seamless fit into your existing presence and processes.

Plus, Referral Rock is flexible enough to run other types of advocacy programs, such as customer-to-customer referral programs, affiliate programs, and channel partner programs!

Top features:

• Launch fast: Our program landing page builders help you personalize the referral experience quickly, with no need for complicated coding. Your program will be ready for employees in a matter of days.
• Incentive flexibility: Offer any number of incentives that your employees will love, including cash back, gift cards, and swag. Plus, handle multi-step reward processes with ease.
• Stellar customer service: Expert services to help onboard and tailor the program to your unique business needs.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
Professional: $175+/month Engage: $200+/month  Enterprise plan also available	Free trial, free demo	Onboarding specialist, live chat, knowledge base, product guide, resource guides, email support, webinars	4.5 out of 5 (55 reviews)

Bottom line: Referral Rock is one of the only platforms that empowers employees to refer both new hires and new customers, plus handle other types of referrals. This flexibility makes Referral Rock the #1 employee referral software choice. Expert services and specialists will guide you through every step of launching and managing your employee referral program.

You can fully customize your program to your needs, and use automated engagement to keep employees motivated.  But don’t just take our word for it – our software has received stellar ratings on review sites for customer service, product, and fair pricing.

2. Boon 

Boon works well both as a stand-alone software and as a complement to existing hiring systems such as an ATS (Applicant Tracking System). It’s designed to be an easy-to-use and engaging platform. Use it to automate status updates on each referral. You can also optimize your rewards schemes through the use of customizable templates and real-time payment tracking. 

Top features:

• Quick setup experience that doesn’t require training or additional onboarding support. 
• Updates automatically by pulling data from your latest job postings.
• Referral widget makes it easy for your employees to share referrals from anywhere.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo	Chat	4.8 out of 5 (4 reviews)

Bottom line: The ability to pull data right from job postings is a plus. But although Boon claims to have plan options for startups to enterprises, the lack of transparent pricing means you won’t know how much you’ll need to invest. And the company hasn’t received many reviews yet. 

3. Jobvite Employee Referrals 

Jobvite is a talent acquisition platform that enables you to manage the entire talent management lifecycle end-to-end from a single location. The tool works well for businesses of all sizes. It’s a good tool to consider if you’re looking for a talent management suite that also doubles up as a great employee referral system. 

Top features:

• Automation of reward schemes optimizes your workflows and makes it easier for employees to participate.
• Gives immediate feedback to referred candidates, enhancing the user experience for both current employees as well as the job seekers.
• Extensive tracking capabilities help you monitor and manage the status of your engagement campaigns, referral bonuses, probation periods, and much more.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo	Submit a case online (similar to a ticket) for support	4.05 out of 5 (1010 reviews)

Bottom line: Jobvite might make sense if your business doesn’t yet have a talent management system. But if you’ve got a talent management system in place already, you’d be paying for features you don’t need. Plus, no public pricing listed means you’ll probably have to pay a lot for these combined features. We do like the feedback element, though. 

4. ERIN 

ERIN’s employee referral program software is known for being fast and user-friendly, which makes it appealing for employees to refer and track the status of their referrals on the go. According to its website, ERIN supports the ability to make referrals ‘in under 30 seconds’ using either the mobile or web app. 

Top features:

• Sends push notifications to employees automatically, whenever new jobs become available. 
• Referrals can be sent via email as well as text messages.
• Everyone involved in the referral process, whether they’re the referring employees, the hiring managers, HR, or the referral candidates themselves, can track the progress of the referral. 

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
$799-$999/month; enterprise plan also available	Free demo, free plan	Knowledge base, support tickets	4.71 out of 5 (169 reviews)

Bottom line: ERIN’s quick referral sending and easy tracking make it an attractive choice. Gamified features, tiered programs, and even an AI add-on are akso notable. But you’ll only get hiring features for this price, unlike other solutions that can handle both hiring referrals and customer referrals from employees at a lower price point. 

5. Teamable 

Teamable’s employee referral platform leverages your employees’ social networks to create dynamic and fluid talent pools. Teamable helps you source quality talent by optimizing your referral workflows. The interface supports increased employee engagement and simplifies the process of employee referrals. 

Top features: 

• Search feature dives deeper to find the best candidates from an employee’s network
• Gamification incentivizes employee referrals to open positions, increasing engagement rates.
• Diversity- and inclusion-focused referral hiring features help you build a more robust team.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
$350-$750+/user/month	Free demo, free plan	Dedicated success manager and custom implementation	4.63 out of 5 (27 reviews)

Bottom line: Employee referrals can often lead to bias, since employees tend to refer candidates of similar backgrounds and mindsets. So, we appreciate the focus on making the employee referral process more diverse and inclusive. Teamable also has an AI search feature that can help unearth the best employees from all sources, and craft customized messages to candidates. 

6. Employeereferrals.com 

Employeereferrals.com, true to their name, has several features not available on other platforms. Powerful ‘recommendation engines’ make it easy for employees to target the most ideal candidates in terms of geo-location, title, skill description, and more. You can even leverage LinkedIn for recommendations.

Top features:

• Ability to record videos talking about your brand that candidates can see when they apply.
• Employee leaderboards drive healthy competition and encourage active participation.
• Customizable branding and URL options (making it easy for your employees to remember referral URLs while they’re mobile). 

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo	Email, phone, dedicated success team	4.64 out of 5 (33 reviews)

Bottom line: The sourcing engine and LinkedIn search are definitely the standout features here, and we also appreciate the gamification and mobile-centricity. But with no public pricing, Employeereferrals.com is probably very expensive (especially since they call the software “white-label.”)

7. Jobote

Jobote helps you streamline and manage the referral workflow end-to-end, keeps all relevant parties in the loop, and has engagement features that incentivize employees to sign up. Jobote is also GDPR compliant.

Top features:

• Unique referral pages customized to meet the brand’s design colors that can be shared easily online.
• Completely transparent interface for employees that tracks the progress of referrals besides listing conditions and rules for referrals.
• Seamless integrations with the HR web application Teamio. 

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
1400-3400 Euros/year	None listed	Unknown	No reviews available

Bottom line: If your company is based in the European Union or employs people from that geographic area, Jobote is a good choice because it handles GDPR compliance for you. And when converted to USD, the price per month seems reasonable for U.S. based companies as well.  Like most companies on this list, though, it only handles candidate referrals. 

8. Radancy (formerly Firstbird)

Vienna-based Firstbird has been in the business since 2013, and they were recently acquired by Radancy (a talent acquisition platform). The simple interface cuts down on the time it takes to make referrals, and ensures employees stay up to date on their referrals’ status.

Top features:

• Targeted notifications reach the right employees to refer, and employees get feedback on referrals right away.
• Employees can make referrals via several social media platforms, or through a mobile app.
• Suite of gamification options, including leaderboards, points, and shoppable rewards.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo available	Help Center, email support	5.0 out of 5 (1 review)

Bottom line: Since Firstbird merged with Radancy’s talent acquisition suite, you’ll probably only want this software if you need other applicant search and management features (such as job site searches, ads and employee relationship management). The pricing isn’t transparent, either, and has probably increased to reflect the merge. 

9. Real Links 

Real Links provides the ability to create what they call ‘referral jam campaigns,’ which are short 30-minute platform-based referral competition events. These foster high engagement, are easily replicated, and are scalable across a business.

Top features:

• Job and content sharing can be pre-scheduled for the duration of the campaign to maximize the impact of social media sharing.
• The software finds ‘hidden’ connections that employees didn’t know they had to match up to job openings. 
• High-impact gamification in the form of live leaderboards, raffles, reward shops, confetti, and a lot more. 

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo, free trial	Customer success team	No reviews available

Bottom line: The “jam” model and hidden connections feature are interesting, but why not have a program running all the time to maximize referrrals? Flash contests and leaderboards can increase engagement, but that doesn’t mean the whole program has to stop when each contest comes to a close. 

10. Hireology (formerly EmployUs)

HR and recruiting software company Hireology acquired EmployUs a few years ago. So, Hireology customers can now easily design an employee referral program, and make referring simple for their employees, using the platform. 

Top features:

• Easily boost employee engagement by using email and SMS campaigns, proven A/B tested templates, and campaign analytics.
• Referrals can be made in as little as seconds. Employees can even use email or SMS to submit referrals.
• Complete referral management inclusive of automated eligibility checking and integration with ATS and HRIS.

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo	Unknown	No reviews available

Bottom line: Just like with Radancy, you’ll probably only want Hireology if you need other recruiting features, beyond hiring referrals.  If you’ve already got those features in another platform, you would end up paying for features you don’t need.

11. WorkTaps 

WorkTaps is a mobile-first employee referral marketing solution that’s ideal for remote teams and the hourly workforce. It facilitates the ability to increase speed of hiring, improve retention rates, and generate cost savings.

Top features:

• Seamless solution for an hourly workforce working remotely or for teams working in a deskless environment.
• Functions effortlessly as a recruiting machine that helps you find top talent quickly.
• Mobile-first approach enables candidates to ‘tap and share’ links in a matter of seconds. 

Pricing	Free demo or trial	Customer support	Review score
No pricing listed	Free demo available	Support portal	No reviews available

Bottom line: WorkTaps is designed to fill an employee referral niche that most companies don’t focus on (hourly and remote employees). But there’s not much info on their website (and pricing isn’t transparent), so it’s harder to research this tool.

Employee referral software FAQ 

What are the key features of employee referral software? 

Look for these features when selecting a platform:

Lets you set up and launch a program in just a few days

Contrast that launch time with spreadsheets and all other manual methods of managing referrals. The speed to market is incomparable.

Streamlines the referral process, making it simple for employees

Attention spans are short. To capture interest and encourage employees to make it to the finish line, employees must be able to refer using a minimal number of clicks, swipes, or taps. Software helps make this process quick, simple, and manageable. 

Tracks employee sharing 

Employee referral software instantly attributes every referral to the correct employee. With software, there is a much lower probability of delays and slip-throughs. Having software can help you stay on top of tracking and minimize potential mishaps.

Instantly issues rewards to employees 

Software ensures all your employees are paid and rewarded on time whenever their recommendations help grow your company. This eliminates the stress of having to micromanage each referral reward transaction, and keeps employees happy.

Integrates with your existing workflows

Since employee referral software integrates with your existing software programs and processes, referral data moves seamlessly through your system. This can be mission-critical for businesses that already have internal processes and systems in place. 

Engages employees with automated program promotions

This way, you won’t have to manually promote your referral program as heavily. The software will do some of the heavy lifting for you, and help ensure that the program stays at the top of employees’ minds.

Lets you customize your program to your brand’s needs

Having the referral software’s brand show up on your communications can be confusing and could lessen your credibility. Choose a software that allows you to customize your interface to match your own branding – and personalize your program to cover all the other needs of your brand.

Handles multi-step processes easily and effortlessly

For many employee referral programs, it’s essential to track and reward employees multiple times – and with different, increasing rewards – as a referral moves through different stages of the process. 

Some examples of multi-step rewards include:

• Rewards for when the candidate applies, gets interviewed or shortlisted, and finally gets hired, or
• Rewards for when a lead is qualified, sets up a demo, and then makes a purchase 

Make sure that, if you’d like to take advantage of such a process, your employee referral software is ready. 

What are the benefits of employee referral program software?

Now that we’ve gone through the features of employee referral software, let’s summarize the main benefits.

Employee-to-employee referral software helps streamline the hiring process. It puts qualified candidates right in front of you, saving you time sorting through applications. 

Employee-to-customer referral software helps bring in leads who are more likely to purchase from you – and more likely to remain your customers after they make that first purchase. 

Employee referral software: A type of brand ambassador software

Employee referral software is also sometimes called ‘brand ambassador software’ because your referring employees function a lot like brand ambassadors.

Are you ready for employee referral program software? 

There are a few different points to consider if you’re thinking about utilizing employee referral program software.

You’re ready for employee-to-employee referral software if: 

You have a large enough company to warrant setting up the program and buying the software

How large your business is can be a matter of perspective. It’s really about establishing a baseline for the benefits of automating the recruitment process. 

Bear in mind that some software is billed based on the number of users as well.

Your employees know what makes an ideal employee

Set up a strong foundation through ongoing awareness initiatives. 

When they’re knowledgeable about culture fit, values, and other key characteristics of an ideal employee, your employees will recommend candidates who are more likely to get hired. 

Approaching things this way removes potential misunderstandings and frustrations with the employee referral process. It also makes the process fruitful for everyone involved, since everyone is invested in finding the best talent for your positions.

You’re ready for employee-to-customer referral software if: 

Your employees know relevant information about your products/services

Employees must know enough to share what makes your products stand out, so they can identify people in their networks who have needs that your product can meet.

Create concise materials (such as short videos) that showcase your product’s unique features and benefits, and the ideal customers who are the best fit for your product. 

Your support team is ready to handle an influx of new customers

Referral programs can lead to rapid growth for your brand, but you’ll need to deliver the same level of support your existing customers expect. Set up your back-end administration and customer support so that quick jumps in customer numbers can be managed effortlessly.

 The last thing you want is to be ill-prepared and ill-equipped. That can cause disappointment and a loss of confidence for both employees and the people they’re referring to the business. It might make employees rethink whether they want to refer again. 

Start an employee referral program that works for you 

Employee referral programs are becoming a must-have for businesses that are ready to scale. Create successful employee referral programs by using high-performance software that can help you save time, reduce costs, and extend your impact and reach. 

Use the best practices provided in this guide to get optimal results from all that work you’re putting in.