Manually managing employee referrals is too complex and time-consuming, especially as your business grows. Automating referrals with employee referral software makes an employee referral program much easier to manage, prevents errors, saves you time and money, and streamlines the process at every stage.
Employee referral software tools mobilize employees to recommend your latest job openings, or your products or services, to their networks in exchange for employee referral bonuses.
Today, we’ll review the 11 best employee referral software tools on the market. Plus, find out about features and benefits of employee referral software, and how to tell if you’re ready for employee referral software.
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 employee referral programs. Choosing a flexible solution can help you leverage your employees for maximum growth!
Top 11 employee referral software tools
Up next, we’ll be covering the 11 most popular employee referral software tools. We’ve evaluated the 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
This information will be helpful to narrow down potential employee referral tools for your business.
| Software | Pricing | Demo or free trial? | Customer support | Review score | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral Rock | Starting at $200/month | Free trial, demo | Onboarding specialist, customer success managers, chat support, product and resource guides, support center, webinars | 4.5 (55 reviews) | Flexible (Employee-to-customer, employee-to-employee) |
| Boon | N/A | Demo | Chat | 4.8 (4 reviews) | Employee-to-employee |
| Jobvite | N/A | Demo | Support tickets | 4.05 (1010 reviews) | Employee-to-employee |
| ERIN | Starting at $799/month | Demo, free plan | Knowledge base, support tickets | 4.71 (169 reviews) | Employee-to-employee |
| Teamable | $350+/admin user/month | Demo, free plan | Dedicated success manager, custom implementation | 4.63 (27 reviews) | Employee-to-employee |
| Employeereferrals.com | N/A | Demo | Email, phone, dedicated success team | 4.64 (33 reviews) | Employee-to-employee |
| Jobote | 1400-3400 Euros/year | N/A | Unknown | N/A | Employee-to-employee |
| Radancy | N/A | Demo | Help Center, email support | 5.0 (1 review) | Employee-to-employee |
| Real Links | N/A | Demo | Customer success team | N/A | Employee-to-employee |
| Hireology | N/A | Demo | Unknown | N/A | Employee-to-employee |
| WorkTaps | N/A | Demo | Support portal | N/A | Employee-to-employee |
1. Referral Rock
Best employee referral software overall
Referral Rock referral software is a next-generation tool that helps you boost your employee referrals, increase brand awareness, and accelerate growth.
Our 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, our software is flexible enough to run other types of advocacy programs, such as customer-to-customer referral programs, affiliate programs, and channel partner programs!
Top 3 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 |
| $200-$800/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) |
Our take: 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. Our 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.