Slack
Microsoft TeamsThe TL;DR
Choose HeyTaco if your team uses (or might use) Microsoft Teams, or wants rewards ready on day one.
HeyTaco works natively in Slack and Teams, ships with a 1,000+ gift card catalog, and gives everyone a daily allowance that resets automatically—all at a transparent per-user price.
Choose AsanteBot if you're Slack-only and want a permanent free tier to start with.
AsanteBot may be a better fit for very small, Slack-exclusive teams that want to start for free with weekly recognition limits before ever paying anything.
Both tools run a similar playbook—the deciding factors are platform coverage, rewards, and what happens once you outgrow the free tier.
Quick Comparison: HeyTaco vs. AsanteBot
This side-by-side comparison breaks down the key features of HeyTaco and AsanteBot, highlighting how each platform performs in critical areas of employee recognition.
| Feature | HeyTaco | AsanteBot |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition Model | Daily taco allowance (5/day) | 5 points/channel/week (free); unlimited on Starter |
| Platform Coverage | Slack and Microsoft Teams | Slack only |
| Where It Lives | Fully native in Slack/Teams | Fully native in Slack |
| Setup Time | 5 minutes | Under 2 minutes |
| Gamification | Leaderboards, Tacotars, stickers, levels | Leaderboards, giving streaks |
| Rewards Catalog | 1,000+ real gift cards + unlimited non-monetary | Company-defined reward framework |
| Free Tier | None (30-day full-access trial instead) | Free Forever (limited), plus 30-day trial of paid tier |
| Pricing (per user) | $3-5/user/month at any team size | $9/month flat for up to 10 users; larger-team pricing undisclosed |
| Billing Terms | Monthly or annual, cancel anytime | No contract, cancel in Slack anytime |
| Migration Support | Free for all teams | Not publicly documented |
| Best For | Teams on Slack or Teams wanting rewards ready day one | Very small, Slack-only teams wanting a free starting point |
What AsanteBot Does Well
Before diving into differences, let's acknowledge what AsanteBot does right. It's a genuinely lightweight, fast-setup Slack bot with real strengths for very small teams:
AsanteBot's Strengths
A permanent free tier
AsanteBot's Free Forever plan costs nothing and never expires, letting tiny teams try peer recognition indefinitely before ever entering a credit card.
Fast, self-serve setup
Install to Slack, pick an emoji as your points currency, and send your first recognition—marketed at under 2 minutes with no IT involvement.
Flat, predictable pricing at small scale
Its Starter plan is a flat $9/month for up to 10 active users, which can undercut per-seat pricing for very small teams.
Automated milestones
Birthday and work-anniversary shoutouts happen automatically, plus a weekly "Feedback Day" nudge to prompt recognition.
Simple, playful mechanic
A single custom emoji doubles as your recognition currency, which keeps the giving flow visually simple inside Slack.
Where Teams Experience Friction with AsanteBot
Alongside these strengths, a few structural gaps are worth knowing about before you commit:
No Microsoft Teams support
Every source we checked—AsanteBot's own site and its Slack App Directory listing—shows Slack-only support. If your organization uses Teams anywhere, or might in the future, AsanteBot isn't an option.
Free tier limits are weekly and per-channel, not daily and personal
The Free Forever tier caps recognition at 5 points per channel per week (capped at 5 channels)—a coarser, slower-resetting limit than a personal daily allowance.
No built-in gift card marketplace
The advertised "500+ custom rewards catalog" reads as a framework for companies to define their own rewards rather than a pre-populated marketplace of real gift cards—so someone on your team has to build the reward list.
Pricing beyond 10 users isn't public
AsanteBot markets itself as scaling to "1,000+ users," but its published pricing page stops at the 10-user Starter tier, so you can't self-serve a quote for a larger team.
"I started HeyTaco because I saw too many recognition programs fail—not because the intentions were wrong, but because the tools made it too hard. Recognition should live where your team already works, cost what a small team can afford, and be fun enough that nobody needs a reminder to use it."
Doug Dosberg, Founder of HeyTaco
Pricing: HeyTaco vs. AsanteBot
Knowing the true cost difference helps you make a smarter decision when evaluating platforms.
HeyTaco Pricing
HeyTaco Classic Plan: $3/user/month
- Unlimited recognition sends and receives
- Public and private leaderboards
- Custom daily taco limits
- Custom and collaborative rewards
- Gamification with stickers, levels, and Tacotars
- Company/individual insights and tracking
- Integrations (Slack, Teams)
- Unlimited teams, channels, and spaces
- Migration support from other platforms
- World class customer support
- Monthly or annual billing
- Secure login with SSO
HeyTaco Deluxe Plan: $5/user/month
- Everything in Classic
- Automated milestone celebrations (birthdays, work anniversaries)
- Instant gift cards (2,000+ options in 200+ countries)
- Dedicated account manager to help you customize, optimize, and scale your recognition strategy
No hidden costs:
- No setup fees
- No additional transaction fees
- No per-redemption charges
- No minimum commitment
AsanteBot Pricing
Free Forever: $0/month
- Unlimited team members
- 5 recognition points per channel weekly
- Up to 5 Slack channels
- Birthday/anniversary shoutouts
- HRIS sync, email + live chat support
Starter: $9/month flat (up to 10 active users)
- Unlimited recognition points, no weekly cap
- Unlimited channels
- Custom emoji currency
- 500+ custom rewards catalog (company-defined)
- AI insights and AI-drafted messages
- HR admin controls, priority support
Beyond 10 users: AsanteBot markets itself as scaling to 1,000+ users, but does not publish per-seat pricing for teams larger than its 10-user Starter tier.
Trial:
- 30-day free trial of Starter, no credit card required
- Rolls into the Free plan automatically if not upgraded
- Cancel anytime in Slack, no cancellation fee
Cost Comparison for a 10-person team
HeyTaco Classic:
- $30/month = $360/year
- Daily allowance, no channel caps
- 1,000+ gift card catalog included
- Total: $360/year
AsanteBot Starter (10 users, flat rate):
- $9/month = $108/year
- Unlimited points, Slack-only
- Rewards catalog is self-built, not pre-populated
- Total: $108/year
Trade-off: At exactly 10 users, AsanteBot's flat rate is cheaper on paper. But it's Slack-only, has no built-in gift card marketplace, and its pricing model is undocumented for any team larger than 10—three real constraints to weigh against the savings.
Detailed Feature
Comparison
Two Similar Playbooks, Three Real Differences
Platform Coverage: Slack + Teams vs. Slack-Only
HeyTaco is natively built for both Slack and Microsoft Teams from day one. AsanteBot's own marketing, help content, and Slack App Directory listing all point to Slack exclusively—no Teams app was found anywhere in its published materials.
Why it matters: Plenty of companies run Teams instead of Slack, and some run both during a merger or transition. AsanteBot simply isn't an option if any part of your organization is on Teams.
Winner for Platform Coverage: HeyTaco — native support for both major chat platforms vs. Slack-only
Recognition Allowance: Daily and Personal vs. Weekly and Per-Channel
HeyTaco: Daily Taco Allowance
- Resets every day: Fresh allowance (typically 5 tacos) each morning, for every person
- Personal, not per-channel: Your allowance travels with you across every channel
- Same limit at every plan tier
AsanteBot: Weekly, Per-Channel Points (Free Tier)
- 5 points per channel, per week on the free tier—a slower reset cadence than daily
- Capped at 5 channels on the free tier
- Unlimited points once you upgrade to the paid Starter tier, removing the cap entirely
Trade-off: AsanteBot's free tier creates a coarser, less frequent recognition rhythm than HeyTaco's daily reset, but its paid tier's unlimited-points design is closer to an open system than a habit-forming allowance.
Winner for Habit Formation: HeyTaco — a daily personal reset creates a more consistent recognition rhythm than a weekly, per-channel cap
Rewards: Real Gift Cards vs. Company-Defined Framework
HeyTaco: Built-In Gift Card Marketplace
- 1,000+ real-brand gift cards on Classic
- 2,000+ instant gift cards across 200+ countries on Deluxe
- Unlimited custom, non-monetary rewards on top
AsanteBot: Configurable Rewards Framework
- 500+ rewards catalog marketed on Starter, described as company-defined (e.g., "coffee on the team")
- Crowdfunded, surprise, and reusable reward types available
- No confirmed built-in real-brand gift card marketplace
Trade-off: AsanteBot's framework gives you full control over what rewards mean at your company, but someone has to build that list from scratch. HeyTaco gives you a real marketplace on day one, with room to add custom rewards alongside it.
Winner for Rewards: HeyTaco — a ready-to-use gift card marketplace beats a rewards framework you have to build yourself
Why Teams Switch from AsanteBot to HeyTaco
The Limits of a Slack-Only, Framework-Based Tool:
Teams outgrowing AsanteBot's free tier consistently run into:
- No path to Teams: If your org adds or moves to Microsoft Teams, AsanteBot isn't an option
- Rewards you have to build: No pre-populated gift card marketplace to fall back on
- Unclear pricing past 10 users: No self-serve quote for growing teams
- Weekly, per-channel limits (free tier): A slower reset than a daily personal allowance
The HeyTaco Solution:
- Works on Slack and Teams: One tool regardless of which platform you're on
- Rewards ready on day one: A real gift card marketplace out of the box
- Transparent pricing at any size: $3-5/user/month, no custom quote needed
- Daily personal allowance: Resets automatically every morning
Result: 67% daily active users and a recognition habit that doesn't depend on which chat platform your team happens to use
How Acadia Unified 300 Employees Across 19 Countries
Acadia turned a company merger spanning 300 employees and 19 countries into a recognition-first culture, tying peer appreciation directly to four core values from day one.
The result?
A distributed, multi-country team that recognizes each other daily inside the chat tools they already use—no separate rewards catalog to configure, no per-channel limits to work around.
"Seeing the tacos flood in was magical. That moment made it real." —TiAnna Conway, People Team Lead at Acadia
For a team spread across 19 countries, a simple, consistent daily habit mattered more than a complex rewards framework to build from scratch.
How We Compared HeyTaco and AsanteBot
This comparison is based on AsanteBot's own pricing, product, and help-center pages, its Slack App Directory listing, and HeyTaco's published pricing, as of . AsanteBot's third-party review presence (G2, Capterra) was inconsistent across sources at the time of research, so we've limited claims here to what AsanteBot publishes about itself.
Sources
- HeyTaco on G2 — 4.8/5 rating (700+ reviews)
- AsanteBot Pricing
- AsanteBot on the Slack App Directory
- HeyTaco Pricing — $3/user/month (Classic), $5/user/month (Deluxe)
Related Comparisons
See how HeyTaco compares to other recognition platforms:
Frequently Asked Questions: HeyTaco vs. AsanteBot
How is HeyTaco different from AsanteBot?
Both tools run a similar playbook—chat-native, fast setup, daily or weekly send limits, low commitment. The biggest differences: HeyTaco works natively in both Slack and Microsoft Teams, while AsanteBot is Slack-only. HeyTaco gives everyone a fresh 5-taco daily allowance that resets every morning; AsanteBot's free tier caps recognition at 5 points per channel per week, with unlimited points unlocked on its paid Starter plan. HeyTaco ships with a 1,000+ gift card catalog by default; AsanteBot's rewards catalog is a framework for company-defined rewards that you configure yourself.
Does HeyTaco work with Microsoft Teams like AsanteBot works with Slack?
Yes—and this is a key difference. HeyTaco is natively built for both Slack and Microsoft Teams. AsanteBot, based on its own site and Slack App Directory listing, is built exclusively for Slack, with no Microsoft Teams support found. If your organization uses Teams at all, or might switch to it, that's a real constraint to weigh.
How do the free tiers compare?
AsanteBot offers a permanent Free Forever tier (5 points per channel per week, up to 5 channels, no rewards catalog or AI features) alongside a 30-day trial of its paid tier. HeyTaco offers a full-featured 30-day free trial with no credit card required, but no permanent free tier. AsanteBot's pitch is a lower-commitment, always-free entry point; HeyTaco's pitch is full access to try before you commit.
Is AsanteBot cheaper than HeyTaco?
For very small teams, potentially. AsanteBot's Starter plan is a flat $9/month for up to 10 active users—about $0.90/user/month at that size. HeyTaco Classic is $3/user/month regardless of team size. AsanteBot doesn't publish pricing for teams beyond 10 users even though it markets itself as scaling to 1,000+ users, so the cost comparison at larger team sizes is unclear until you talk to their sales team.
Can I keep my AsanteBot recognition history when switching?
Yes. We import your AsanteBot recognition history and convert point balances to tacos at your preferred ratio, so your team's appreciation record carries over.
Does AsanteBot have a real gift card marketplace like HeyTaco?
Not by default. AsanteBot's rewards catalog is described as a configurable framework—companies define their own rewards (like "coffee on the team")—rather than a pre-populated marketplace of real gift cards. HeyTaco Classic includes a 1,000+ gift card catalog out of the box, and Deluxe adds 2,000+ instant gift cards across 200+ countries.
Will my team actually use HeyTaco more than AsanteBot?
HeyTaco sees 67% daily active users, driven by a daily allowance that resets every morning. AsanteBot's free tier caps recognition weekly rather than daily, which can create burstier, less consistent giving patterns. Its paid tier removes that cap, but the underlying habit-forming mechanic—a small, personal, daily reset—is specific to HeyTaco's model.
How long does it take to switch from AsanteBot to HeyTaco?
Technical setup takes 5 minutes to install HeyTaco in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Full migration with recognition history import takes 1-2 days for small teams (under 50), 2-3 days for medium teams (50-200), and 3-5 days for large teams (200+).
