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Microsoft TeamsThe TL;DR
Choose HeyTaco if you want recognition your team will actually use, every day.
HeyTaco is best for teams that want daily peer recognition in Slack or Microsoft Teams, values tagging on every plan, simple per-user pricing, and team connection that starts in chat instead of on a calendar.
Choose Donut if you want one tool for onboarding, intros, and icebreakers.
Donut may be a better fit if automated onboarding, scheduled coffee-chat intros, and channel icebreakers are your priority, and recognition is one feature among many.
For teams that want recognition people actually use every day, plus connection without another meeting, HeyTaco is the simpler, more lovable Donut alternative.
How Do HeyTaco and Donut Compare?
A side-by-side look at recognition, team connection, and pricing, based on what each company publishes as of October 2026.
| Feature | HeyTaco | Donut |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Everyday peer recognition, plus Taco Chats for team connection | An all-in-one suite: onboarding, intros, celebrations, and shoutouts |
| Recognition | 5 tacos per person per day by default (adjustable), given in public and private channels | Shoutouts with weekly point budgets (5 a week on Free, 15 on Standard, custom on Premium) |
| Recognition since | 2016 | May 2025 |
| Values tagging | Included on Classic | Premium plan |
| Rewards | Custom rewards on every plan, plus 2,000+ gift cards in 100+ countries (Deluxe) | Rewards store, plus gift cards from 100+ retailers (Standard and up) |
| Gamification | Leaderboards, Quests, Tacotars, stickers, and levels | Leaderboard, badges, and bonus events |
| Team connection | Taco Chats: a facilitated chat in Slack, call optional | Intros: pairs meet live, with calendar time suggestions and Zoom links |
| How matches are made | Recognition data: pairs people who haven't crossed paths yet, to encourage new connections | Shared Slack channels, avoiding repeat pairs |
| Birthdays and anniversaries | Milestones (Deluxe) | Celebrations (up to 24 people on Free, unlimited on Standard) |
| Pricing model | Per user: $3 Classic, $5 Deluxe, plus $1 per Taco Chats participant | Flat monthly fee by team-size band, from $74/month (Standard, billed yearly) |
| Free option | 30-day free trial | Free plan with limits, plus a 14-day trial |
| Best for | Teams that want recognition people use every day, and connection without extra meetings | Teams that want one tool for onboarding, scheduled intros, and channel icebreakers |
What Does Donut Do Well?
Donut has grown from a coffee-chat app into a broader employee experience suite. Here's where it shines:
AI onboarding Journeys
Donut Journeys automates onboarding messages and tasks for new hires, and syncs with HRIS (HR system) and applicant tracking tools. It's genuinely helpful if you're hiring a lot of people. If you only bring on a few new hires a year, though, you may be paying for a suite built around something your team rarely uses.
A generous free plan
Donut's free plan includes Intros, Watercooler, and Celebrations in one channel each for up to 24 people, plus Shoutouts with 5 points a week.
Watercooler prompts
Donut posts conversation starters to channels, with a library of topics on paid plans, to spark casual discussion.
Recognition: Built In From Day One vs. Added On
Donut launched Shoutouts in May 2025. Teammates tag each other with an emoji to give points from a weekly budget, then redeem them in a rewards store. It's a solid addition to Donut's suite, and it's one feature among many.
HeyTaco has been built around recognition since 2016, and it shows in how often people use it:
Daily recognition builds a habit. Everyone gets a fresh set of tacos every day, so saying thanks becomes part of the daily routine. Donut Shoutouts runs on a weekly point budget, which makes recognition something you remember to do once a week, not every day. It's why 67% of HeyTaco users are active daily.
A daily limit you control. Everyone gets 5 tacos a day by default, and admins can raise or lower the limit to fit the team. The limit keeps recognition intentional, spreads it across the team, and prevents point inflation.
The full experience without the top plan. To get the most out of Donut Shoutouts, you need Premium. The Free plan gives each person 5 points a week and Standard gives 15. Custom point allowances, role-based allowances, and values-based recognition are Premium-only.
Values on every plan. Tag tacos with your company values starting on Classic, at $3 per user per month.
Slack and Microsoft Teams. HeyTaco recognition works natively in both, so mixed-platform companies don't have to choose.
Winner for recognition: HeyTaco — daily recognition that builds a habit, an adjustable taco limit, and values tagging on every plan
Team Connection Without the Calendar Invite
Donut Intros pairs teammates who share few Slack channels and helps them meet, with calendar time suggestions and Zoom links. It works for teams that love coffee chats. For everyone else, it's one more meeting on the calendar.
Taco Chats takes a different approach:
Chat first, call optional. Taco Chats starts as a text conversation in Slack. HeyTaco breaks the ice with a prompt and keeps the chat going. No extra meeting on anyone's calendar.
Matches from recognition data. Taco Chats pairs people using who's given and received tacos, so it can match teammates who haven't crossed paths yet, based on how your team actually works.
Pay for participants only. Taco Chats is $1 per participating teammate per month. Anyone who opts out isn't billed.
Winner for async and distributed teams: HeyTaco — connection that starts in chat, with a call only if the pair wants one
What Does a 50-Person Team Pay?
HeyTaco charges per user. Donut charges a flat monthly fee based on team-size bands. Here's how that plays out for a 50-person team that wants recognition, rewards, and team connection:
| Plan | What's included | Per month | Per user |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyTaco Classic + Taco Chats | Recognition, values tagging, custom rewards, leaderboards, Taco Chats | $200 | $4 |
| HeyTaco Deluxe + Taco Chats | Everything in Classic, plus gift cards, Milestones, and advanced analytics | $300 | $6 |
| Donut Standard | Shoutouts (15 points a week), gift cards, unlimited Intros | $299–$359 | $5.98–$7.18 |
| Donut Premium | Everything in Standard, plus values-based recognition and custom point allowances | $479–$599 | $9.58–$11.98 |
Donut prices show billed yearly and month to month. HeyTaco has no annual contract.
Recognition with values costs $4 per user on HeyTaco, vs. $9.58–$11.98 on Donut. HeyTaco includes values tagging on Classic. Donut requires Premium for values-based recognition. Even with gift cards on Deluxe, HeyTaco stays below Donut Standard.
A note on bands. Donut's 50–99 band costs the same at 50 people as at 99, so its per-user price drops as a team fills the band and jumps at the next one. HeyTaco charges for exactly the people you have, and Taco Chats only for those who join.
Winner for pricing: HeyTaco — $4 per user for recognition with values and team connection
Why Do Teams Switch from Donut to HeyTaco?
- Recognition people actually use. 67% of HeyTaco users are active daily.
- Values without an upgrade. Values tagging is included on Classic.
- Simple per-user pricing. No team-size bands and no annual contract.
- Connection without meetings. Taco Chats starts in chat, and a call is optional.
- Your history comes with you. HeyTaco imports your Donut Shoutouts history.
"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
How Insightly Built a Cross-Functional Recognition Culture
Insightly, a CRM platform, discovered through an eNPS survey that employees wanted more peer recognition. They built a recognition culture with no formal rewards store—just genuine peer appreciation.
The result?
The team credits HeyTaco with surfacing appreciation that often goes unseen—across teams, time zones, and job functions. Recognition now flows in every direction, not just within silos.
"We give tacos for our core values across the company, which brings us all together and reminds us that we're all going in the same direction." —Laura Freeman, Insightly
Cross-functional recognition helped break down silos and showed employees how their individual work connected to the company mission. Tacos offered a daily chance to notice what was happening outside your immediate team.
How We Compared HeyTaco and Donut
This comparison is based on publicly available pricing, features, and help documentation on each company's website as of , verified G2 reviews, and conversations with teams who evaluated both platforms. Per-user prices for Donut are calculated from its published team-size bands. 🌮
Sources
- HeyTaco on G2 — 4.8/5 rating (700+ reviews)
- HeyTaco Pricing — $3/user/month (Classic), $5/user/month (Deluxe)
- Donut Pricing
- Donut Shoutouts
- Introducing Donut Shoutouts — May 2025
- How Donut Works — Donut help center
Related Comparisons
See how HeyTaco compares to other recognition platforms:
Frequently Asked Questions: HeyTaco vs. Donut
How is HeyTaco different from Donut?
Donut is an all-in-one employee experience suite: AI onboarding, scheduled coffee-chat intros, channel icebreakers, celebrations, and, since 2025, Shoutouts for recognition. HeyTaco is built around recognition people use every day, with 67% of users active daily. For team connection, HeyTaco offers Taco Chats, which starts with a chat in Slack instead of a meeting on the calendar.
Does Donut have recognition now?
Yes. Donut launched Shoutouts in May 2025. Teammates tag each other with an emoji to give points from a weekly budget, which can be redeemed in a rewards store. Values-based recognition requires Donut's Premium plan. HeyTaco has focused on recognition since 2016, and values tagging is included on every plan, starting with Classic at $3 per user per month.
How is Taco Chats different from Donut Intros?
Donut Intros pairs people who share few Slack channels and helps them schedule a meeting, with calendar time suggestions and Zoom links. Taco Chats starts as a facilitated text conversation in Slack: HeyTaco breaks the ice with a prompt and keeps the chat going. A call only happens if the pair wants one. Taco Chats also matches people using recognition data, pairing teammates who haven't crossed paths yet.
Will Taco Chats add meetings to our calendars?
No. Taco Chats happens in Slack, and there are no calendar invites. People reply when it works for them. A call only happens if the pair chooses to schedule one.
Is HeyTaco cheaper than Donut?
For most teams, yes. A 50-person team pays $4 per user per month for HeyTaco Classic plus Taco Chats, including values tagging. Donut charges a flat monthly fee by team-size band: for 50 to 99 people, Standard is $299 to $359 a month and Premium, which adds values-based recognition, is $479 to $599 a month. That works out to $5.98 to $11.98 per user for a 50-person team.
Can I switch from Donut Shoutouts to HeyTaco?
Yes. HeyTaco can import your Donut Shoutouts history, so your team's recognition comes with you. Setup takes about five minutes, and every plan starts with a 30-day free trial.
Can I use HeyTaco and Donut together?
Yes. Some teams keep Donut for onboarding Journeys and use HeyTaco for everyday recognition and Taco Chats. If recognition is the main reason you're evaluating Donut, HeyTaco covers it on its own.
