Why choose Karma over Matter?

Matter team has built an efficient recognition platform that helps employees appreciate each other and gather feedback from co-workers even when working remotely. It is a great product that makes employees recognized, and their opinions heard. If you're here to understand the difference between Karma and Matter, or looking for an alternative, this article is for you.

What's the difference between Karma and Matter? What's right for me?

No matter how much we'd love you to pick Karma as your recognition platform, we're here to give you objective perspective on what you'll get by using each of these products.

Matter and Karma are platforms that allow you to create recognition programs from scratch and engage your employees in the company's culture even while working remotely. With both platforms, you can set up reward programs and create company values. Both Karma and Matter give you access to detailed analytics to see which employees use the platform most, what kind of recognition they share and who receives the most of them.

However, there are some key differences between the two. Let's discuss the pricing first. Both Matter and Karma offer a 30-day free trial, after which you choose a paid plan. Karma keeps it simple with one all-inclusive plan billed per active user, so you only pay for people who actually use it.

The main difference is that Karma is gamified, which means there are automation-triggered points, connect feature with ice-breaking games, and rewards, that are redeemed as you use the platform. These make it more fun to use and provide an extra motivation for the employees. Matter does not have this gamification element but is more focused on showing appreciation through many customizable feedback features.

Another big difference is that Karma's feedback is anonymous, and Matter is not. In Karma, you can give and receive feedback without anybody knowing who gave it, which makes it a very safe place to share thoughts on the subject. It also has a focus on micro-feedback, which means that you can give short and concise feedback that is easy to digest. Matter has a focus on long-form feedback, which can be very helpful if you want to give more in-depth feedback or want to start a discussion about someone's development. Now, let's take a closer look at how Matter and Karma differ.

• Set up the account

  Karma

  Users can enter their Personal Karma accounts with the magic link, but there's no need to set up the profile either, Karma takes the necessary information from the user's account in Slack.

  Matter

  Matter allows signing in with the magic link and requires employees to set up the account along with the profile picture.

• Reinforce company values

  Karma

  Karma allows creating questions on a scale from 1-5 and short text questions. The feedback is received by the owner in an anonymous form. Karma provides leaderboards that allow recognition of more employees by filtering it according to the company values.

  Matter

  Matter sends a weekly feedback streak, and encourages teams to gather and give feedback to each other proactively. Matter makes it easy to receive feedback regularly with continuous feedback surveys. In addition, every Friday employees are able to see the short leaderboard of the top 3 champions.

• Create rewards

  Karma

  Karma allows you to set up the same rewarding options and also offers to create team rewards to which all employees can contribute a specific amount and then redeem for the whole team's benefit. Karma coins don't expire, so users can accumulate coins to redeem more valuable desired reward.

  Matter

  Matter allows redeeming custom rewards, automated Gift cards, and send donations. Matter coins expire and refresh every Friday, so employees have to be consistent in sharing the points.

• Give recognition

  Karma

  Allows giving recognition in any channel and to the whole list of its participants at a time, as well as by selecting users individually. Karma coins can be shared publicly and privately. Employees can use trigger words and automated emojis to share more instant recognition within the channel.

  Matter

  Encourages giving recognition in a separate channel. Allows assigning points to a few people at a time. You can also comment or like other people's recognitions, which makes it more personal and interactive. Kudos can be given only publicly, no private option available.

An alternative to Matter —
only more diverse

Ultimately, the decision of which platform to use depends on the needs of the organization. Karma has diverse engagement features that help to promote company values and let teams stay connected. Matter instead, is keen on creating a feedback system with many customized feedback features and long surveys. Therefore, if you want anonymity within micro-feedback combined with other team engagement features, then Karma is the way to go. And if you want long-form feedbacks and discussion starters, then Matter might be better suited for you.