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Rybbon vs. Runa: What's the difference?

Written by Collin Burke | Mar 14, 2022 9:57:29 PM

How Rybbon stacks up against Runa

Trying to decide on the best gift card platform for your incentive, loyalty, and employee experience programs? Every software is different - based on your needs, one might offer advantages over another.

When determining the best incentive management platform for your organization, several key questions may guide your search:

  • How much do you spend on digital gift cards and rewards monthly or annually?
  • Who is responsible for your campaigns? A single user or a team?
  • Who will be using the platform? Market researchers? Sales reps?
  • How many recipients will be receiving cards each month?
  • Who will receive your cards? Survey respondents? Employees?
  • How complex are your campaigns? Would you benefit from an API for customization?
  • How do you intend to track and analyze the success of your campaigns?
  • What are the financial reporting requirements for your organization?

Based on the answers to these questions, your needs and priorities may look different. It’s helpful to know the strengths and weaknesses of each product before making a decision.

Here are some of the main points to consider when comparing Runa to Rybbon when selecting a digital rewards platform.

What is Rybbon?

Rybbon is a SaaS platform offering digital rewards management for sales, marketing, HR, research, and retention teams. Founded in 2015, the company offers a cloud-based solution for sending, tracking, and reporting on digital incentives. The company was acquired by the payments and incentives company Blackhawk Network in August 2021.

Through the Rybbon platform, users can offer either an instant reward (e.g. a thank-you to survey respondents) or points-to-reward model based on parameters such as referrals, purchases, or loyalty. The company has partnerships with well-known brands to deliver incentives and virtual rewards at scale.

Similar to Runa, Rybbon allows users to recapture 100% of unclaimed rewards. This allows users to focus more of their budget on improving pipeline, retention, and loyalty, without losing the unused value for gift cards.

What sets Runa apart from Rybbon?

Benefits of Rybbon

For those users looking for a simple way to send gift cards on a small scale - or periodically - Rybbon offers a useful and cost-effective tool for delivering and tracking digital rewards. These might be incentives for employees, customer loyalty programs, thank-you gift cards to survey respondents, or any sort of miscellaneous purpose.

To be clear, Rybbon is most beneficial for companies that need direct integrations with other platforms, especially marketing automation software like HubSpot or Marketo.

Benefits of Runa

For companies sending high volumes of gift cards at scale, Runa's flexible API is likely a better-suited solution. Our API empowers companies to distribute gift cards automatically, no matter the use case.

Other key benefits of using Runa's platform and API:

  • Our platform boasts over 700 retailer options, so you (or your recipients) can choose the brands that appeal most.
  • Save up to 25% on gift cards through our exclusive partnerships.
  • Send gift cards to recipients in over 27 countries - reach your audience wherever they are.
  • Get complete flexibility and customization for expiry dates, branding, and workflows.

Wondering if Runa is right for your business? Get a demo to see how it works.

Reviews from Rybbon users

According to reviews from popular sites like G2 and Capterra, Rybbon enjoys consistently positive reviews from its users. These sites' survey respondents based reviews on their perception of price, usability, features, and overall satisfaction.

Rybbon's digital gift card management platform is reported as a cost-effective, well-supported reward delivery option for users who administer smaller campaigns such as incentive program rewards, loyalty points offers, online survey rewards, etc.

For users interested in building a points-to-reward program for their business, Rybbon receives praise for its easy setup, administration, and support services.

Among positive Rybbon reviews, users reported ease-of-use for sending digital rewards and incentives. They also noted helpful customer support and useful integrations with some of the larger platforms and services (such as HubSpot, Marketo, Qualtrics users, etc.).

While overall customer sentiment for Rybbon is positive, many users report issues that can slow down the reward administration process. Customer service teams appear responsive to these issues, with users, according to reviews.

  • Some users reported technical difficulty or delay in processing payments to the Rybbon account. Time between payment to the account and application to the Rybbon available balance was reported in one case to be 3-5 days.
  • Other users mentioned limited customization options for landing pages and emails. This can make it more difficult to create a high-touch customer experience for recipients.
  • Users highlighted that more time needs to be invested when integrating with smaller or lesser-known platforms. While Rybbon's direct integrations are robust, it isn't known for it's flexible API.
  • One user cited a limited availability of survey tool integrations. This is notable, since survey response rewards are a popular type of automation within the platform.

What is Rybbon’s pricing model?

Rybbon has a tiered pricing model for its services, allowing both small businesses and larger enterprises to benefit from the power of sending digital rewards.

Popular with small businesses or those with less-consistent sending needs, Rybbon’s current pricing model (as of August 2021) offers a pay-as-you-go option. This allows users to set up a free account and send as needed while paying 10% above the face value of the card. While this is advantageous for smaller companies with simple or infrequent campaigns, this model may have diminishing returns over time as campaigns start to scale. Within this model, the company offers its integrations, customizable pages, and basic reporting functions.

Moving up, the company offers two more tiers: a Team tier for marketers, and an Enterprise tier for departments with more advanced branding and Enterprise-level compliance needs.

The Team tier currently starts at $1,990 USD annually, with the Enterprise tier starting at $5,990 USD annually. The company does not feature more in-depth pricing information on its website. Each tier allows users to recoup unclaimed gifts.

What is Runa's pricing model?

Runa's pricing structure is flexible and fair. We can offer rates that will work for your program depending on your gift card order volume. 

Whatever your business is looking for, we're happy to discuss different pricing options to form an agreement that works for everyone.

Want to know more about how Runa compares to Rybbon?

The best way to learn more about the features that set Runa apart from Rybbon is to receive see for yourself how our software works.

Schedule a demo of Runa to how you can use our gift card management platform to save time and money.