Short answer: for check-ins and quick surveys, use Geekbot (free for up to 10 users) or Polly (free polls with unlimited responses). For recognition, Matter, HeyTaco, and Bonusly all run inside Slack from about $1 to $3 per user per month. Donut is the pick for introductions and onboarding, and StaffHero is the one to choose if you want anonymous pulse surveys with eNPS and a leadership summary, delivered through Slack on its Growth plan.
Slack apps have one big advantage over standalone platforms: people answer a question in the place they already are, so response rates don’t depend on anyone remembering to log into another site. The trade-off is depth. Most Slack-native tools do one job well and leave reporting light. This list groups them by job so you can pick one or two without overlap.
Pricing checked October 2026 on each vendor’s own site. Prices are in USD.
Quick picks
| App | What it does in Slack | Starting price | Free plan | Also on Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbot | Async standups, polls, surveys | $2.50/participant/month (annual) | Yes, up to 10 users | Yes |
| Polly | Polls, surveys, Q&A, pulse checks | $19/month (Basic, 1 license, annual) | Yes | Yes |
| Donut | Intros, shoutouts, onboarding, celebrations | $74/month (Standard, annual) | Yes, limited | Yes |
| Matter | Kudos, Feedback Friday, pulse surveys | $1/user/month (Basic, annual) | Yes | Yes |
| HeyTaco | Gamified peer recognition | $3/user/month (Classic) | 30-day trial | Yes |
| Bonusly | Recognition with a rewards catalog | $3/user/month (Team, without AI) | No (30-day trial) | Yes |
| StaffHero | Anonymous pulse surveys, eNPS, AI summaries | $99/month flat for up to 50 (Slack from $199 Growth) | No (free demo mode) | Not listed |
| Water Cooler Trivia | Weekly team trivia | $10/month for up to 10 participants | Four-week trial | Yes |
| TeamMood | Daily or weekly anonymous mood check-ins | US$4/active user/month | 30-day trial | Yes |
| Assembly | Recognition, awards, announcements | $3/user/month (Empower, billed yearly) | Not found | Yes |
How we picked
We went through the 76 tools in our directory and kept the ones whose Slack integration is a core part of the product, not a notification add-on. For each, we checked the vendor’s pricing page in October 2026 for prices, free plans, and trial terms, and confirmed the Slack listing on the vendor’s site. We didn’t use review-site ratings. More on our process on the methodology page.
Check-ins, surveys, and feedback
1. Geekbot
Geekbot runs standups in Slack without a meeting. At a set time, it DMs each person a few questions (what did you do, what’s next, anything blocking you) and posts the answers to a team channel. The same engine runs polls and surveys, so it doubles as a lightweight pulse tool.
Best for: Remote and distributed teams that want daily or weekly check-ins without a call.
Key features:
- Async standups and retrospectives
- Polls and surveys
- Answers posted to a shared channel, with reports
Pricing: Free for teams of up to 10 users. Standups are $2.50 per participant per month billed annually ($3 monthly). Polls & Surveys are $0.75 per respondent per month annually ($1 monthly). 30-day trial.
Pros:
- Free for small teams
- You pay only for the modules you use
Cons:
- No recognition features
- Survey analytics are basic next to a dedicated engagement platform
Slack / Teams: Both.
2. Polly
Think of Polly as the Swiss army knife for asking questions in Slack. Quick polls, longer surveys, standups, trivia, Q&A sessions, a suggestion box, and pulse checks with eNPS all come from the same app.
Best for: Teams that run lots of small polls and want the option to grow into surveys.
Key features:
- In-channel polls with unlimited responses
- Surveys, standups, and trivia (Basic and up)
- Q&A, quizzes, and anonymity and DM delivery options (Pro)
- Suggestion box and pulse checks with eNPS
Pricing: The Free plan is $0 with unlimited responses and 45 days of results history. Basic is $19/month billed $228 annually for one license and adds surveys, standups, and trivia. Pro is $29/month for one license ($348 annually). The Team plan is $249/month for 5 users.
Pros:
- Useful free plan
- Wide range of question formats
Cons:
- Pricing is per license (the person creating polls), which takes a minute to understand
- Anonymity options sit on Pro, so check the tier before running sensitive surveys
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://www.polly.ai
3. StaffHero
When you need a proper engagement read rather than a quick poll, StaffHero is the more serious option. It sends anonymous pulse surveys on a schedule, calculates eNPS, shows results on a heatmap, and writes an AI Leadership Brief so managers can see what changed without reading every comment. An action tracker turns results into follow-up tasks.
Best for: Companies of up to about 200 people that want ongoing engagement measurement, with Slack as the delivery channel.
Key features:
- Anonymous pulse surveys and eNPS
- Heatmap with segmentation
- AI Leadership Brief
- Action tracker
Pricing: Flat monthly pricing: Starter $99/month for up to 50 employees, Growth $199/month for up to 100, Scale $299/month for up to 200. Annual billing gives 2 months free. Slack integration starts on Growth. You can explore the full product in demo mode before paying.
Pros:
- Flat pricing, not per seat
- Proper survey analytics, which most Slack-native tools lack
Cons:
- Slack isn’t included on the $99 Starter plan
- Microsoft Teams isn’t listed
Slack / Teams: Slack on Growth and Scale.
4. TeamMood
TeamMood asks one small question, daily or weekly: how was your day? People pick a mood and can add an anonymous comment. Over time, managers get a trend line for team morale without running a formal survey.
Best for: Managers who want an early warning signal on morale with almost no effort from the team.
Key features:
- Daily or weekly mood notifications
- Anonymous team feedback
- Analytics across multiple teams, with segmentation
- Export center and API
Pricing: TeamMood charges US$4 per active user per month after a 30-day trial, with monthly or yearly billing. You’re billed only for users who received a mood request that month.
Pros:
- Very low effort for employees
- Active-user billing means you don’t pay for inactive accounts
Cons:
- Mood data is a signal, not a full engagement survey
- We couldn’t confirm the current price
Slack / Teams: TeamMood says it integrates with both.
Visit: https://www.teammood.com
Recognition in Slack
5. Matter
Matter is a cheap way to make recognition a habit in Slack. Kudos go out in a channel, a weekly Feedback Friday prompt nudges people to share feedback, and birthdays and work anniversaries post automatically. Add the surveys module and you get pulse surveys and eNPS too.
Best for: Small to mid-size teams that want recognition plus light feedback for very little money.
Key features:
- Kudos tied to company values
- Feedback Friday
- Birthday and anniversary celebrations
- Pulse surveys and eNPS (add-on)
Pricing: Free forever plan with kudos, the template library, and Feedback Friday. Basic is $1 and Pro $3 per user per month, billed annually. Surveys are an extra $2 per user per month. 14-day trial.
Pros:
- Lowest paid price on this list
- Free plan is usable on its own
Cons:
- Surveys cost extra
- Rewards are less developed than Bonusly’s catalog
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://matterapp.com
6. HeyTaco
Recognition with a sense of humor. In HeyTaco, people send tacos to each other in Slack messages, leaderboards show who’s giving and receiving, and quests encourage specific behaviors. Tacos can be spent in a Taco Shop on rewards you define.
Best for: Informal teams that will actually enjoy the game element.
Key features:
- Taco-based peer recognition in messages
- Leaderboards and quests
- Taco Shop rewards
- Milestones, gift cards, and analytics (Deluxe)
Pricing: Classic is $3 per user per month and Deluxe is $5. 30-day free trial with no credit card. Custom pricing for 200+ users.
Pros:
- Very quick to adopt
- Low price
Cons:
- The tone won’t fit every company
- No engagement surveys
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://heytaco.com
7. Bonusly
Bonusly connects recognition to a real budget. Each person gets points to give, the points are tied to company values, and recipients redeem them in a rewards catalog. It also runs celebrations and has check-ins and 1:1s.
Best for: Companies that want recognition to carry real rewards.
Key features:
- Points-based peer recognition
- Rewards catalog
- Celebrations
- Check-ins and 1:1s
Pricing: No free plan is listed on Bonusly’s pricing page as of November 2, 2026. The Team plan is $3 per user per month without the Bizy AI assistant, or $5 with it. Bonusly’s pricing page shows monthly prices, but its FAQ says all plans are billed annually, so confirm billing terms before signing. 30-day trial. Reward spending is separate.
Pros:
- Strong rewards catalog
- 30-day trial on paid plans
Cons:
- You need a reward budget on top of the subscription
- More admin to set up than Matter or HeyTaco
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://bonusly.com
8. Assembly
Assembly combines recognition with awards, challenges, milestone celebrations, and company announcements. Its Empower plan adds points, budget controls, a global reward catalog, and an AI insights hub the company calls Dora Hub.
Best for: Companies that want recognition and internal announcements in one tool across Slack and Teams.
Key features:
- Peer-to-peer recognition with points
- Awards and challenges
- Milestone celebrations and announcements
- Global reward catalog
Pricing: Empower is $3 per user per month, billed yearly. We didn’t find a free plan.
Pros:
- Broad feature set at a low per-user price
- Works in Slack and Teams
Cons:
- Billed yearly
- Overlaps with tools you may already have for announcements
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://joinassembly.com
Connection and culture
9. Donut
Donut is best known for pairing coworkers at random for coffee chats, which helps remote and growing teams meet people outside their own group. It also handles Shoutouts (recognition points), Watercooler conversation prompts, onboarding message journeys, and celebrations.
Best for: Remote teams and fast-growing companies where people don’t know each other yet.
Key features:
- Random intros for coffee chats
- Shoutouts points with gift card rewards (paid plans)
- Watercooler topics
- Onboarding journeys and celebrations
- HRIS sync (Standard and up)
Pricing: The Free plan includes intros for up to 24 users per round in one channel, 5 Shoutouts points per week, 12 Watercooler topics, and 3 onboarding Journey messages. Standard starts at $74/month billed annually ($89 on monthly billing). Premium starts at $119/month annually ($149 monthly). Final cost depends on your number of active users. 14-day trial.
Pros:
- Helps with a problem most engagement tools ignore: people not knowing each other
- Free plan is enough to try intros properly
Cons:
- Pricing scales with active users, so use Donut’s estimator
- Not a survey tool
Slack / Teams: Both.
Visit: https://www.donut.com
10. Water Cooler Trivia
Water Cooler Trivia sends a short trivia quiz to your team on a schedule, four quizzes a month, then posts results and a leaderboard. It’s a low-effort way to give a remote team something shared to talk about.
Best for: Remote teams that want a recurring social moment without scheduling an event.
Key features:
- Weekly trivia delivered in Slack, Teams, or email
- Leaderboards and results
- Tiered pricing by participant count
Pricing: $10/month for up to 10 participants ($90 a year on annual billing, which is a 25% discount). The 11 to 25 tier is $25/month, and larger tiers follow the same pattern, which the company describes as about $1 per user per month. Four-week free trial, no credit card. Schools and non-profits get 50% off.
Pros:
- Predictable tiered pricing
- Almost no admin once it’s running
Cons:
- Single purpose
- Doesn’t measure engagement
Slack / Teams: Both, plus email.
Visit: https://www.watercoolertrivia.com
How to choose a Slack engagement app
Pick by job, then stop. The most common mistake is installing four bots that all post in #general. Choose one tool for check-ins or surveys (Geekbot, Polly, StaffHero, TeamMood), one for recognition (Matter, HeyTaco, Bonusly, Assembly), and maybe one for connection (Donut, Water Cooler Trivia). Many teams need only one.
Check anonymity before you ask sensitive questions. A poll that shows names is fine for lunch plans and terrible for “do you trust your manager?” Polly puts anonymity options on Pro. StaffHero and TeamMood are built around anonymous responses.
Watch how pricing counts people. Geekbot charges per participant, Polly per license, Donut and TeamMood by active users, StaffHero by headcount band. The same team can get very different bills.
Plan for Teams if you might switch. Every tool here except StaffHero lists Microsoft Teams support too, which matters if your company is moving between platforms. For Teams-first recognition tools, see our list of Microsoft Teams employee recognition apps, or browse the Slack and Teams apps category.
Know when Slack isn’t enough. If you need benchmarks, lifecycle surveys, or performance reviews, look at a full platform. Our guide to the best employee engagement software covers those, and many integrate with Slack too.
FAQ
What is the best Slack app for employee engagement?
It depends on what you want to improve. Geekbot is a strong choice for async check-ins, Matter and HeyTaco for recognition, Donut for helping people meet, and StaffHero for anonymous pulse surveys with eNPS.
Are there free employee engagement apps for Slack?
Yes. Geekbot is free for up to 10 users, and Matter, Polly, and Donut have free plans with feature limits. See our full list of free employee engagement apps.
Can you run anonymous surveys in Slack?
Yes. StaffHero and TeamMood are designed around anonymous responses, and Polly offers anonymity options on its Pro plan. Check the settings before you send, since some poll tools show names by default.
What is the best recognition app for Slack?
Matter is the cheapest paid option at $1 per user per month. HeyTaco suits teams that like a playful style, and Bonusly is better if you want points tied to a real rewards catalog.
Do these Slack apps also work with Microsoft Teams?
Most do. Geekbot, Polly, Donut, Matter, HeyTaco, Bonusly, Water Cooler Trivia, TeamMood, and Assembly all list Teams support. StaffHero lists Slack only.
How we review: every price and free plan on this page was checked on the vendor’s own site in October 2026. Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. Read our affiliate disclosure.