Giftbit

Name: Giftbit
Brand: Giftbit

A free digital rewards API for SPIFFs, with money back on what nobody claims

Giftbit is a Canadian B2B digital rewards platform and API that lets a business send gift cards, prepaid cards, cryptocurrency and charity donations to individuals across 1,500-plus brands in 40-plus countries, with prepaid support reaching 150-plus countries; the platform charges no subscription, platform or minimum fee, you pay face value for rewards, and unclaimed rewards can be cancelled and the funds returned, which makes it a common choice for sales SPIFFs, contest prizes and referral incentives.

Visit website

Overview

Giftbit was founded in 2011 by Leif Baradoy and Peter Locke, with offices in Victoria and Calgary and a mostly remote team across the Pacific Northwest. It sits in the narrow gap between a gift card shop and a payments provider: a business account, an API, a catalogue of more than 1,500 brands, and a set of controls that turn handing out rewards into something you can budget, track and reconcile rather than something someone does on a personal credit card.

For a sales team, the relevance is specific. A commission plan pays through payroll. A SPIFF, a contest prize, a partner referral thank-you or a customer reference gift does not, and those payments are exactly the ones that go untracked. Giftbit gives you a single link per reward that carries the whole claim experience, bulk sending for a whole contest at once, per-reward status tracking from sent through delivered, opened, claimed or still outstanding, and team accounts with permissions and budgets so a sales manager can send within a limit a finance owner set.

The commercial model is the interesting part and deserves reading carefully. There is no subscription, platform or minimum fee. You pay face value for gift cards. The only direct charges are a 2.9 percent fee if you fund by credit card and a per-card fee on selected physical prepaid products, roughly 2.95 to 4.95 US dollars for a Visa, one pound for a GBP Mastercard, or two Australian dollars. Giftbit earns from brand partnerships that share margin, and from a default arrangement where it takes 25 percent of the value of promotional rewards that expire unclaimed, with the remaining 75 percent returned to you.

That breakage arrangement is the single most important thing to understand. It is genuinely useful, because a sales contest where two of eight winners never claim their prize means you get most of that budget back instead of losing it into an unredeemed gift card. It is also the mechanism by which a free platform makes money on your program, so read the terms rather than assuming free means free. Giftbit is SOC 2 compliant and counts Netflix, Red Bull, Shopify and Gusto among its named customers, which is a reasonable set of references for a company of its size.

Best for

Small businesses running sales SPIFFs, contests, referral rewards, customer research incentives or partner thank-yous who want a free, trackable, gift-card-based payout channel with an API, and who value getting unclaimed budget back over having cash payout rails.

Not the right fit for

Anyone shopping for commission software. Giftbit calculates nothing at all: no plan, no quota, no accelerator, no split, no clawback, no rep statement and no CRM integration. It only delivers the reward after someone else has decided who earned it.
Teams whose reps want cash. Giftbit is gift card, prepaid card, crypto and charity; there is no PayPal, Venmo, Cash App or bank ACH cash rail the way there is with Tremendous.
Regular recurring commission that legally belongs on a payslip; paying earned commission in gift cards is a tax and employment problem you do not want.
Companies uncomfortable with breakage economics, because the default arrangement gives Giftbit 25 percent of the value of promotional rewards that go unclaimed, which is a real if unusual cost structure.
Buyers who need a global cash payout network with tax reporting for non-employees; that is Trolley or Payoneer territory and Giftbit does not attempt it.

How it works

1
You open a free account and fund it. There is no subscription to sign, no seat licence, and no minimum. Funding by bank transfer carries no fee; funding by credit card costs 2.9 percent, which is avoidable with a little planning.
2
You create a reward campaign. You choose which brands the recipient can pick from, set the value, add your own branding and message, and set an expiry window on the claim. That expiry is not cosmetic: it is what enables unclaimed rewards to be cancelled and the funds recovered rather than sitting in limbo forever.
3
You send. One at a time from the dashboard, in bulk with a single click for a whole contest, through Zapier from thousands of apps, or programmatically over the API, which is a single interface to global gift card and prepaid distribution. Direct links deliver the complete reward experience in one URL, which means you can distribute prizes through Slack or a spreadsheet without Giftbit holding recipient contact details at all.
4
You track and reconcile. Every reward shows its state, sent, delivered, opened, claimed or outstanding, so you know which reps actually collected their SPIFF. When the claim window closes, unclaimed rewards can be cancelled and most of the value comes back, which turns a prize budget into something with a real, closable end state rather than an open liability.

Feature breakdown

24 features in 5 modules

Rewards catalogue and coverage

What you can actually send and where it works.

1,500-plus brands: A catalogue broad enough that recipients across different countries and tastes find something they want, delivered at face value with no markup to you.
40-plus countries for gift cards: Regional rewards tailored to the recipient's market rather than a US catalogue translated, which matters if part of your team or partner network is outside North America.
Prepaid cards in 150-plus countries: Where a local gift card brand does not exist, prepaid coverage extends far wider, which is the practical mechanism for rewarding someone in a smaller market.
Cryptocurrency and charity options: Beyond retail gift cards, recipients can be offered crypto or a donation, which broadens what an incentive can be without adding another vendor.
Physical prepaid cards: Available for programs that need something tangible, at roughly 2.95 to 4.95 US dollars per card, one pound for a GBP Mastercard, or two Australian dollars.

Sending and automation

Four ways to get a reward out the door, all included free.

Direct reward links: A single URL carries the entire claim experience, so you can distribute prizes through Slack, a spreadsheet or a portal without giving Giftbit recipient contact data.
One-click bulk sending: Send large volumes of rewards at once, which is the realistic workflow for a quarter-end SPIFF run or a whole contest bracket.
REST API: Global gift card and prepaid distribution through a single API, which is what earns Giftbit its place in engineering-led reward programs rather than only marketing ones.
Zapier connectivity: Triggers reward delivery from thousands of apps you already run, so a CRM stage change or a form submission can fire a prize without custom code.
Custom branding: Your brand, message and delivery details are applied to the reward so it reads as coming from you rather than from an unfamiliar third party, which materially affects claim rates.

Tracking, budgets and controls

The reason to use this rather than buying gift cards yourself.

Per-reward status tracking: Sent, delivered, opened, claimed or outstanding for every single reward, which answers whether a rep actually received and collected their SPIFF.
Team accounts and permissions: Control who can send, fund, review and manage rewards, keeping permissions, budgets and activity organised across a sales manager and a finance owner.
Budget controls: Spending limits per team or program so a contest cannot quietly overrun, which is the control most informal prize programs lack entirely.
Unclaimed reward cancellation: Rewards that expire unclaimed can be cancelled and the funds returned, with a default 25 percent share retained by Giftbit on promotional rewards. Unusual, and worth reading the terms on.
Program reporting: Visibility into program performance and budget allocation, so a quarterly incentive spend can be reported on rather than reconstructed from receipts.

Commercial model

Free, with the fine print stated plainly.

No subscription, platform or minimum fee: Explicitly stated by the vendor. There is no seat count and no floor, so a five-person company faces exactly the same terms as a large enterprise.
Face value on digital gift cards: Standard digital gift card distribution is free; you pay only what the recipient receives.
2.9 percent credit card funding fee: The only unavoidable fee if you fund by card. Bank funding avoids it entirely.
Breakage revenue share: Giftbit takes a default 25 percent of unclaimed promotional reward value when the claim period expires, returning the rest. This is how a free platform earns on your program.
Custom terms at volume: High-volume programs may qualify for custom pricing and revenue-sharing arrangements, which is the only part of the relationship that involves a conversation.

Security and trust

What a security review will find.

SOC 2 compliance: Maintained alongside regular security reviews, which is the baseline a finance team will ask for before funding an account.
Named enterprise customers: Netflix, Red Bull, Shopify and Gusto are cited by the vendor, which is meaningful third-party validation for a company of this size.
Contact-data-free distribution: Because direct links carry the whole reward, you can run a program without handing recipient email addresses to a third party, which is a real privacy advantage.
Fifteen-year operating history: Founded in 2011 and still led by co-founder Leif Baradoy, which is a longer track record than most vendors in this shortlist.

Use cases

4 documented

Sales manager running a monthly contest

Three winners a month get a 150 dollar prize, and historically one in four prizes is never actually redeemed because someone forgets, leaving the budget spent and the reward wasted.

Rewards go out in one bulk send with a claim window, status tracking shows exactly who collected, and unclaimed rewards are cancelled at expiry with most of the value returned to the account rather than lost.

Founder rewarding partner referrals

Occasional referrals from partners in Canada, the UK and Australia need a thank-you that is not large enough to set up as a vendor payment.

Giftbit sends regionally appropriate rewards across 40-plus countries with prepaid coverage in 150-plus, branded as coming from your company, with no vendor onboarding and no wire fees.

RevOps engineer automating incentive delivery

Qualifying events happen in the product and CRM continuously, and manual reward sending means prizes arrive weeks after the behaviour they are supposed to reinforce.

A single API call fires the reward the moment the event happens, or a Zapier trigger does it without code, and the per-reward status feed reconciles back into the internal system.

Finance owner tired of gift card expense reports

Sales prizes have been bought on personal cards and expensed, with no budget, no record of who received what, and no way to close the program at the end of the quarter.

One funded account with team permissions and budget limits replaces the expense trail, every reward is tracked to a named recipient and status, and the unclaimed balance comes back at expiry.

Pricing

from $0 to open and use an account; you pay only the face value of what you send

Free platform with no subscription, platform or minimum fees. You pay face value for rewards; Giftbit earns through brand margin share, a credit card funding fee, and a share of unclaimed promotional reward value.

Plan	Price	Includes
Standard account	$0 no subscription	No subscription, platform or minimum fees 1,500-plus brands across 40-plus countries Bulk sending, API and Zapier included Team accounts, permissions and budgets Per-reward status tracking and reporting This is the entire product for normal buyers. There is no paid tier above it that unlocks features.
High-volume custom	Custom terms negotiated	Everything in the standard account Custom pricing arrangements Negotiated revenue-sharing terms Program-level support The only sales-led path, and it is about improving your economics at volume rather than unlocking capability.

Plan

Price

Includes

Standard account

no subscription

No subscription, platform or minimum fees
1,500-plus brands across 40-plus countries
Bulk sending, API and Zapier included
Team accounts, permissions and budgets
Per-reward status tracking and reporting

This is the entire product for normal buyers. There is no paid tier above it that unlocks features.

High-volume custom

Custom terms

negotiated

Everything in the standard account
Custom pricing arrangements
Negotiated revenue-sharing terms
Program-level support

The only sales-led path, and it is about improving your economics at volume rather than unlocking capability.

Add-ons

Credit card funding (2.9 percent): Applies only if you fund by card. Funding by bank transfer avoids it.
Physical prepaid cards ($2.95 to $4.95 USD per card, GBP 1 per Mastercard, AUD 2 per Visa): Only applies to selected physical prepaid products; standard digital gift card distribution is free.

Billing notes

The vendor states plainly that there is no subscription, platform or minimum fee, which makes this adoptable by a company of any size including one person.
The default breakage arrangement gives Giftbit 25 percent of the value of promotional rewards that expire unclaimed, with 75 percent returned to you. Read the terms rather than assuming free is unqualified.
Getting most of an unclaimed prize budget back is a genuine advantage over buying gift cards outright, where an unredeemed card is simply money gone.
Fund by bank transfer rather than credit card to avoid the 2.9 percent fee, which on a 10,000 dollar quarterly prize budget is 290 dollars for nothing.
Physical prepaid card fees are per card and add up on volume programs, so keep programs digital unless a physical card is specifically the point.

Value assessment: As a rewards rail, Giftbit is close to free in the ordinary case and better than free in the unclaimed case, because most of an unredeemed prize budget comes back rather than evaporating. That single mechanic makes it cheaper in practice than buying gift cards yourself, before you count the tracking, budgets, API and branding you also get for nothing. The limits are equally clear: no cash rails, no tax form handling, no calculation of any kind. Compared directly with Tremendous, Giftbit is the better choice for gift-card-only programs where claim rates are imperfect, and the worse choice if reps expect cash or you need genuinely global cash payout coverage. Against a subscription commission platform it is not a comparison at all, because they do different jobs.

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

Genuinely free to adopt with no subscription, platform or minimum fee, which removes the entire procurement conversation for a small business.
Unclaimed rewards can be cancelled with most of the value returned, so a prize budget has a real end state rather than becoming an untracked liability.
Direct reward links carry the whole claim experience, letting you run a program without handing recipient contact details to a third party.
A single API covering global gift card and prepaid distribution, plus Zapier, so automation is available whether or not you have engineering time.
Team accounts with permissions and budgets, which is the control layer that turns informal prize-giving into something finance can approve.
Fifteen years old, SOC 2 compliant, still founder-led, and cited by Netflix, Red Bull, Shopify and Gusto, which is unusually solid for a free platform.

Limitations

It calculates nothing. No plan, no quota, no accelerator, no split, no clawback, no rep statement, no CRM connection, no audit trail linking a reward to the deal that earned it.
No cash payout rails at all: no PayPal, Venmo, Cash App or bank ACH, which is a hard limit if your reps expect money rather than a gift card.
The 25 percent breakage share on unclaimed promotional rewards is unusual and needs to be understood rather than glossed over, even though the remaining 75 percent comes back to you.
No US tax form handling; if a prize program creates 1099 obligations, that stays your problem in a way it does not with Tremendous.
Gift card coverage is 40-plus countries against 200-plus for the larger competitor, so genuinely global programs may find gaps that prepaid coverage only partly fills.
As a smaller Canadian vendor, procurement teams at larger customers will do more diligence than they would on a bigger name, which slows adoption at exactly the companies most able to pay.

Head-to-head comparisons

5 alternatives

Giftbit vs Tremendous

from $0 to use the platform; you pay only the face value of what you send

The head-to-head in this niche. Both are free platforms. Tremendous is larger, spans 200-plus countries with 2,500-plus brands, adds cash rails through PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and bank ACH for a 4 to 6 percent fee, and handles W-9 and 1099 preparation. Giftbit is smaller at 1,500-plus brands in 40-plus countries with prepaid in 150-plus, has no cash rails and no tax forms, but returns most of the value of unclaimed rewards. Choose Giftbit for gift-card programs with imperfect claim rates, Tremendous when reps want cash or you need tax handling.

Full Giftbit vs Tremendous comparison

Giftbit vs Guusto

from $0 on the free plan; $150 per month on Lite

Guusto is a recognition platform with gifting inside it, sold per sender and recipient seat above a free tier, adding leaderboards, milestone automation and a clean water donation per gift. Giftbit is pure infrastructure with an API and no recognition layer. Buy Guusto if you want the social program; buy Giftbit if you already know who won and just need the reward delivered and tracked.

Full Giftbit vs Guusto comparison

Giftbit vs Trolley

from $2,399 per year for the Pay module, plus per-transaction fees

Different problems that get confused. Trolley pays real money to recipients across 210-plus countries with identity verification, approval workflows, DAC7 and IRS tax reporting, for 2,399 dollars a year plus per-transaction fees. Giftbit sends gift cards and prepaid value for free. If you are paying contractors or affiliates their actual earnings, that is Trolley. If you are handing out prizes and SPIFFs, that is Giftbit.

Full Giftbit vs Trolley comparison

Giftbit vs QuotaPath

from $525 per month platform fee plus $35 per user per month (Growth), billed annually

Not alternatives, and a buyer should not treat them as such. QuotaPath designs the plan, calculates commission from CRM and billing data, gives reps a statement and a dispute path, runs approvals and exports to payroll, from 525 dollars a month plus 35 dollars per user. Giftbit delivers the discretionary rewards that sit outside that plan, for nothing. A team that runs both a commission plan and a contest programme wants one of each.

Full Giftbit vs QuotaPath comparison

Giftbit vs Palette

from $590 per month for up to 15 seats on annual billing ($790 monthly)

Palette is commission automation built to calculate and govern variable pay from your revenue systems. Giftbit has no calculation layer whatsoever. The only overlap is that both end in a rep being better off, and the distinction matters: Palette tells you the number, Giftbit is one of several ways to deliver a non-payroll version of it.

Full Giftbit vs Palette comparison

Implementation & onboarding

Setup time: Under an hour for the first send. Create a free account, fund it, choose brands, send. API integration is typically a day of engineering because the interface is deliberately small.
Learning curve: Very low. The only decisions with real consequences are which brands to offer, how long the claim window should be, and whether you are comfortable with the breakage terms.
Onboarding: Fully self-serve with free account creation and no sales call required. A consultation is offered but optional. There is no paid implementation engagement at any level, and high-volume custom terms are a commercial conversation rather than a setup one.
Migration notes: Nothing to migrate. Historical prize spend stays wherever it was recorded. If you leave, draw down funded balance first and let outstanding claim windows close, because unclaimed value settles under the breakage terms rather than simply refunding in full.

Platform, API & security

Platforms: Web dashboardREST APIEmail deliveryDirect link distribution
API: A single REST API for global gift card and prepaid card distribution, plus Zapier connectivity to thousands of applications for teams without engineering time.
Compliance: SOC 2 compliant with regular security reviews
Data residency: Canadian vendor with offices in Victoria and Calgary and a distributed team; no regional data residency options advertised.
SSO: Not advertised as a standard feature; access control is handled through team accounts and permissions.
Security notes: Team accounts separate who can send, fund, review and manage rewards, with budgets attached. Direct reward links allow distribution without Giftbit holding recipient contact information, which reduces the personal data you hand to a third party for a prize program.

Support & resources

Channels: Email supportOptional sales consultationProgram support for high-volume accounts
Documentation: API documentation for gift card and prepaid distribution, plus product help resources covering funding, campaigns, branding and claim windows.
Community: No large public user forum; the product surface is small enough that documentation and direct support cover it.

Company

Founded: 2011
Headquarters: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with a technical office in Calgary and a largely remote team
Ownership: Privately held and founder-led, with co-founder Leif Baradoy serving as chief executive
Founders: Leif Baradoy, Peter Locke
Employees: Not disclosed; a small distributed team based mainly in the Pacific Northwest
Funding: No large public funding rounds disclosed; the company operates on brand margin share and breakage revenue rather than on venture capital.

Timeline

2011Founded in Canada by Leif Baradoy and Peter Locke to make digital gift card distribution programmable for businesses.
2015Launches its rewards API, positioning the company as infrastructure for other software rather than as a gift card storefront.
2018Expands the catalogue beyond North America toward the 40-plus country gift card coverage it advertises today.
2021Adds prepaid card support reaching 150-plus countries, closing the coverage gap where local gift card brands do not exist.
2023Adds cryptocurrency and charity options alongside retail gift cards, broadening what a single reward link can offer.
2026Operates a free platform with 1,500-plus brands, SOC 2 compliance and named customers including Netflix, Red Bull, Shopify and Gusto.

Integrations

REST API for gift card and prepaid distribution
Zapier, connecting thousands of applications
Bulk send from the dashboard
Direct reward links for distribution through any channel
Email delivery with custom branding
1,500-plus gift card brands across 40-plus countries
Prepaid card programs covering 150-plus countries
Cryptocurrency and charitable donation reward types

Frequently asked questions

10 questions

What is Giftbit?

Giftbit is a Canadian B2B digital rewards platform and API. It lets a business send gift cards, prepaid cards, cryptocurrency or charity donations to individuals, choosing from more than 1,500 brands across 40-plus countries with prepaid coverage in 150-plus. It is commonly used for sales SPIFFs, contest prizes, referral rewards and research incentives.

Does Giftbit calculate commission?

No. There is no commission plan, no quota, no accelerator, no split, no clawback, no rep statement and no CRM integration. Something else decides who is owed what. Giftbit is only the delivery and tracking layer for rewards that sit outside payroll, so it is a companion to commission software rather than a replacement for it.

How much does Giftbit cost?

The platform is free. The vendor states there is no subscription, platform or minimum fee. You pay face value for digital gift cards. The direct charges you might encounter are a 2.9 percent fee if you fund by credit card and a per-card fee on selected physical prepaid products, roughly 2.95 to 4.95 US dollars for a Visa, one pound for a GBP Mastercard, or two Australian dollars.

How does Giftbit make money if the platform is free?

Two ways. It receives a share of the margin from the brands whose gift cards and prepaid products it distributes, and it retains a default 25 percent of the value of promotional rewards that expire unclaimed, returning the remaining 75 percent to you. That second mechanism is unusual enough that you should read the terms rather than assuming free is unqualified.

What happens to rewards nobody claims?

You set a claim window on each reward. When it expires, unclaimed rewards can be cancelled and the funds returned, subject to the default 25 percent breakage share on promotional rewards. This is genuinely better than buying gift cards outright, where an unredeemed card is simply money spent, and it is one of the strongest practical reasons to use the platform for contest prizes.

Can reps be paid in cash through Giftbit?

No. Giftbit covers gift cards, prepaid cards, cryptocurrency and charity donations. There is no PayPal, Venmo, Cash App or bank ACH cash rail. If your team expects cash SPIFFs, Tremendous handles that with a 4 to 6 percent fee, and Trolley or Wise Business handle larger cash payouts on a subscription or per-transfer basis.

Can a five-person business use it?

Yes, on exactly the same terms as a large one. There is no minimum spend, no seat licence and no subscription, so a company sending three prizes a quarter faces no floor at all. Team accounts and budgets exist so a manager and a finance owner can share the account with different permissions.

Does Giftbit handle tax forms?

No. There is no W-9 collection or 1099 preparation the way Tremendous provides. If your prize program creates US tax reporting obligations, handling them stays with you or your accountant. This is one of the clearer reasons to choose the larger competitor for US-heavy programs.

Is there an approval workflow and an audit trail?

There are team permissions and budgets controlling who may send, fund, review and manage rewards, plus per-reward status tracking from sent through claimed. What there is not is a multi-level finance approval chain, or any link from a reward back to the deal or plan rule that earned it. For that you need commission software underneath.

How does Giftbit compare with Tremendous?

They are the two free platforms in this niche. Tremendous is larger, covers 200-plus countries with 2,500-plus brands, adds cash rails and handles W-9 and 1099 preparation, charging 4 to 6 percent on cash options. Giftbit is smaller with 1,500-plus brands in 40-plus countries, has no cash rails or tax handling, but returns most of the value of unclaimed rewards. Gift-card programs with imperfect claim rates favour Giftbit; cash-expecting reps and US tax exposure favour Tremendous.

Editorial verdict

Giftbit does one narrow thing very well and charges nothing for it. If your sales team runs contests and SPIFFs, and the current process is somebody buying gift cards on a personal card and hoping people remember to redeem them, this replaces that with a funded account, budgets, permissions, per-reward tracking, an API and, best of all, most of the unclaimed money coming back at expiry. That breakage mechanic is the feature to weigh: it works in your favour on ordinary programs, and it is also how a free platform earns from you, so read the terms. The reasons not to choose it are equally sharp. There are no cash rails, no tax forms, narrower country coverage than Tremendous, and above all no calculation of anything. Anyone who arrived here looking for software that works out what a rep is owed is in the wrong aisle. Anyone who already knows the number and needs to deliver it should open an account, because it costs nothing to find out.

Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.