Best Gamification Platform in 2023: Which One is Right for You?

Did you know that gamification elements in your marketing strategy can increase your closing of deals by up to 88%? If you want to see these kinds of results, you must know what you’re doing and do it well.

Badges, achievements and shareable milestones are definitely a step in the right direction, but the surrounding hype is short-lived and prone to fading. Suppose you want to increase customer loyalty, motivate sales teams and turn your clients into passionate advocates. In that case, you should use a gamification platform to transform your brand into a resource that engages the mind. Add to that character progression, a storyline and a competitive flare, and you’ve got a solid strategy.

We know that it’s easier said than done. That’s why we’ve created a list of the best gamification software providers to help you on your journey to successful user engagement, brand loyalty building and revenue generation.

What is a gamification platform?

A gamification platform is a software or digital solution incorporating game mechanics and design into non-game contexts. Gamification software is any tool that applies the key features of games to achieve a specific goal.

Image source: Unsplash

It applies to anything from learning languages (Duolingo) to customer loyalty programs (Starbucks) or marketing schemes (Nike, M&M’s or pretty much any enterprise that knows how to take advantage of trends).

The worldwide gamification software market was valued at almost 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 – and it’s constantly growing, expected to reach nearly 97 billion USD by 2030.

Why did it become so popular across industries? It’s proven to enhance user and employee engagement, motivation and participation.

One thing that nobody can deny games excel at is the user onboarding experience. In fact, you could say they inspired the process of improving UX in business. The interactive onboarding sequences proved to be incredibly successful.

Gamification can turn virtually any product or service into something interesting. It’s currently a widely used and very effective customer retention method.

Did that get you considering a gamification platform for your company? Read on to find out what to look for in such solutions. We’ve also prepared a list of our top picks of gamification software for businesses.

What should gamification software have to boost customer engagement?

At its core, gamification is built on three simple concepts: objectives, rewards and competition.

• Key features – some examples of what they should include are:
  • Badges, achievements, progress bars and rewards – these are the primary gamification examples you typically find in most software. They help engage customers successfully and motivate them to spend more time with your brand.
  • Leaderboards – this is somewhat of an extension of the previous point. They bring competition into the experience and can increase engagement more successfully than other types of incentivization, especially if paired with a reward system for the best results.
  • Many game types – opt for gamification software with many options, so you can pick the best ones that fit your strategy. This also allows you to stay interesting and mix things up if needed. Bonus points if they’re white-labeled.
  • Integrations with community or social media platforms – social media posts from your customers sharing their achievements are free advertising. Also, social features increase customer engagement by allowing users to connect with peers, mutually inspiring and motivating each other.
  • Real-time feedback and notifications – users should receive feedback on their actions, progress and performance. This helps to guide their decision-making and provides a sense of accomplishment. Some options include push notifications, visual cues or personalized messages.
  • Ease of use – the best gamification tools give you a wide range of game mechanics to implement into your strategy without knowing even the basics of coding or other technical knowledge. This kind of software should be intuitive, accessible for everyone and help to save time.
  • Reporting tools – gamification software isn’t just for motivating employees, increasing user engagement and building customer loyalty. It’s an invaluable data collection tool. Metrics and analytics will help you grow more effectively and successfully meet your clients’ needs.

Image source: Adact

• Pricing – gamification software vendors often don’t include this information on their websites. This is standard practice for SaaS companies. Although, as a customer, you’re probably looking to compare different offers. You can look for pricing on software comparison sites or call companies directly.
• Free trial – this is a safe way to test out all the program’s features. The longer it is, the more freedom you have to explore and decide if the solution is right for you. Testing features is especially important since gamification platforms aren’t particularly cheap. Some vendors don’t have this option or only offer a short demo.

On top of what we’ve mentioned, consider your business processes, brand profile and target customers. The software and specific options you opt for have to match your individual needs.

Choosing the best gamification platform: Top picks

Now that you know what you’re looking for, let’s zoom in on some of the best gamification software available on the market.

Adact

Adact is one of the best gamification software vendors out there. It specializes in game-based marketing campaigns and lead generation. The platform is very easy to use and requires no coding knowledge. It also offers a wide range of games to choose from. With the extensive editing options, you can create not only branded content, but even seasonal holiday campaigns.

Features

• Many game types to choose from, including text-based, raffle-based and playful/competitive games

Image source: Adact

• Drag-and-drop editor with no coding knowledge needed to help you design branded games
• Option to create landing pages, add registration forms, banners and link banners, which you can include anywhere in the game
• Real-time advanced analytics that allows you to see how well your customer engagement campaign is doing – statistics include the number of visits, unique leads, games started and completed, bounce rate and average gameplay session length

Image source: Adact

• Traffic measurement and button clicks
• Multiple brand management options from one place
• GDPR-compliant data imported straight to your CRM and email marketing software
• Prize management and automatic assignment
• Over 2000 integrations through Zapier – with a customer support team to help you set them up
• Multi-language options with automatic translations to help you reach the international market easily

Here are the results our clients have achieved with different campaigns:

• Creditstar launched a Halloween campaign using a smash game and reached a conversion rate of 20% with this approach!
• A1 Slovenia created three trivia games with Adact and, by doing so, increased the number of active app users and got nearly 20,000 unique leads.
• Atomic Wallet launched a Jeopardy campaign, attracting 246,000 unique players with 95% game completion.

For more successful gamification examples, check out our blog post.

Pricing

Adact offers a free version for up to 14 days. There are three pricing plans to choose from: Single, Full and Agency. The pricing starts at €6,800 yearly, although custom pricing plans are available, including campaign-based pricing.

Book a call to see which options will suit your needs best. There are also flexible pricing options available on demand.

Influitive

Influitive successfully helps to turn your regular customers into loyal advocates with its advocacy and community engagement solutions. Its primary focus is improving customer loyalty with points collection, increasing awareness and encouraging healthy competition. Since its creation in 2010, this gamification software has powered over $1 billion in ROI value for its customers.

Image source: G2

Features

• Performance management and metrics with downloadable reports
• Secure data management
• Badges and leaderboards
• Activity tracking
• Contest and rewards management
• Goal setting and tracking
• Collaboration tools
• Learning games with customizable quizzes for marketing, modules and many training options
• Push notifications, private chats, public forum and gamified Q&A
• Social networks and CRM integration

Pricing

The customer advocacy platform access cost starts at $1,999/month. Digital community access is priced individually based on specific needs. No free plan is available, but you can schedule a demo.

Ambition

Ambition provides several services, with a sales gamification tool being one of them. It drastically decreases the time necessary to run competitions and custom sales contests. Admittedly, this is the only gamification element the platform is focused around. It successfully motivates users with leaderboards and helps to recognize every accomplishment to help drive long-lasting behavior changes.

Image source: G2

Features

• CRM integration
• Reporting platform with performance management, reliability data and user, role and access management
• Data importing and exporting tools
• Personalized dashboards, profiles and goal setting
• Incentivizing leaderboards, badges, triggers and a commission calculator
• Advanced competition options with templates and custom settings
• Knowledge base for easy training
• Real-time updates, reviews and notifications

Pricing

Ambition doesn’t provide pricing information on its website. However, other sources state that $6,840 yearly is this gamification platform’s starting price.

Mambo.IO

Mambo.IO is a gamification platform that helps companies boost engagement, measure activities, set goals and increase performance. Its suite of APIs makes creating seamless in-app customer engagement experiences easy. The tool is fully customizable, scalable and you can tailor it to fit your gamification strategy.

Image source: SaaSworthy

Features

• Real-time feedback with notifications to positively reinforce valuable behaviors
• Advanced reporting, performance metrics and analytics of behavioral data that you can break down or group together in many ways
• Setting KPIs for specific time periods to make long-term goals more manageable
• Custom points, levels and a personalized reward system
• Behavioral and point-based leaderboards
• Coupon system rewards
• Customizable widget library
• Activity streams that you can personalize for specific user groups
• Built-in CRM interface
• Integrations with webhooks

Pricing

Mambo.IO offers three plan types: On-Demand, On-Premise and Dedicated Cloud. However, the vendor doesn’t include price information on its site. Software comparison sites state their monthly prices start from $15 per user.

Gametize

Gametize is a simple enterprise gamification platform primarily used for customer engagement, community building and advocacy. You can use it for marketing automation, sales advocacy and to create employee training modules and interactive courses. The vendor advertises that anyone can create their own white-labeled or mobile campaign in just five minutes.

Image source: G2

Features

• Fun and interactive challenges and quizzes
• Leaderboard and rewards store with customizable achievement badges that you can tailor to the target audience
• Analytics feature includes metrics such as participation rates, initiated discussions and posted replies
• Instantaneous feedback for real-time support with messaging, votes and commenting options
• Social media platforms integration and APIs

Unfortunately, this gamification software’s customization options are limited and you cannot directly upload audio files.

Pricing

To start with, you can register for a seven-day free trial without the need to provide any payment details. When your trial run is up, you can choose from five payment options:

1. Light – $100/month or $1,200 billed annually
2. Regular – $200/month or $2,400 billed annually
3. Premium – $500/month or $6,000 billed annually
4. Premium Plus – $1,000/month or $12,000 billed annually
5. Enterprise – custom pricing

Qualifio

This gamification solution offers over 50 interactive formats with cross-channel publication options. It’s a program targeted mainly towards large brands and enterprise companies. The platform allows the collection of rich first-party data. It’s an easy-to-use gamification platform with many integration options.

Image source: TrustRadius

Features

• Many gamification apps to choose from, including contests, quizzes, trivia, surveys and personality tests
• Game techniques applied to marketing strategies
• Intuitive campaign builder without the need for any technical or coding skills
• Advanced formats (only available as add-ons to the basic license)
• Over 40 languages to choose from
• Customizable templates which you can take to the next level with CSS, HTML or JavaScript
• Publishing to every digital channel from Qualifio – websites, mini-sites, mobile apps, social media, emails, ads and pop-ups
• With over 30 types of form fields, CAPTCHAs and real-time validation, you can collect valuable data
• Full GDPR compliance and CRM integration
• Advanced and exportable reporting

This customer and employee engagement software is valued for its clear statistics insights, reliability and data security. However, if you’re looking for advanced customization, you may find that the tool is limited in that regard.

Pricing

There is a free demo of Qualifio, but no free version. Prices start from €1,000 per feature. There are four packages to pick from: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The license cost is calculated individually based on:

1. The number of brands using the software
2. The number of users
3. The level of services required
4. Geographical information (international/national)

Best gamification platform: Comparison table

Why use a gamification platform?

The main goal of gamification software is to drive desired behaviors, encourage active participation and motivate users to achieve specific objectives. It leverages the motivational aspects of games – competition, rewards, challenges and progress tracking – to make tasks more enjoyable and engaging.

Here are the top reasons why you should invest in gamification software for your business:

1. Improved user satisfaction – gamification can make virtually any process more enjoyable, especially if incentivized. When designing your gamified UX, keep it thoughtful and always circle back to your customers’ needs. You’ll be rewarded with their satisfaction, positive feedback, loyalty and potentially – priceless word-of-mouth advertising.
2. Better customer engagement – anyone who’s ever played so much as a mobile or party game knows how fun they are. If designed correctly, you could even say they’re addictive. When done right (and in line with your brand values and image), gamification elements boost customer retention and more or less directly lead to revenue growth.
3. Smoother user and/or employee onboarding – every game has one thing in common: it has to introduce you to its rules while keeping it enticing and simple. Admittedly, it’s no easy feat. Good gamification software will help you with elements like an intuitive user interface, onboarding checklist and completion status bar, badges, leaderboards or even a sidekick-type character to lead users through the process.
   The alternative? Having your customers or employees bored and overwhelmed from the start – or indifferent at best.
4. Gaining valuable customer and session data – this is perhaps one of the most valuable benefits gamification software offers because it gives you insight into your customers’ wants and needs, typical behavior etc.
   Most programs include robust tracking and analytics options. This insight allows you to effectively refine your strategies, optimize processes, personalize experiences and improve and grow faster.

Image source: Unsplash

Conclusion

If you’re considering giving your company a well-deserved growth boost, there’s nothing like gamification software to help you achieve just that. The data speaks for itself – there are currently more than 2,700 million gamers worldwide, and that number is expected to grow by about 15% in the next four years. This information, combined with the ever-shortening attention spans of consumers, means you simply need to gamify your brand experience to stay interesting and relevant.

Adact is the #1 user engagement software with a vast collection of gamification elements to fit your unique needs. Its scalable features will suit both small and large enterprise businesses.

Book a call to discover how the platform can serve your company’s unique needs. If you prefer, you can always watch the demo and sign up for a free trial to test out the extensive features in your own time.

Gamification platform: FAQs