Employee discounts aren\u2019t new. But the way employers evaluate them is changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, many HR teams deprioritized traditional discount portals. They were easy to launch and sounded generous on paper, yet usage was inconsistent and the experience often felt disconnected from the benefits employees actually relied on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, reimbursement-based lifestyle benefits<\/a> like stipends and Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs)<\/a> surged in popularity. They met employees where they were by offering freedom to spend on what mattered most, while giving HR and Finance a simpler, more compliant way to deliver support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, in 2026, those two threads are converging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Compt\u2019s 2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report<\/strong><\/a>, participation across flexible benefits programs is remarkably high \u2014 93% of active employees used at least one benefit in 2025 \u2014 but how employees use those benefits has shifted toward everyday essentials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly 1 in 10 stipend dollars is now spent at grocery retailers, and 70% of total spend flows to local, regional, independent, or niche vendors rather than national marketplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That context matters. It reframes the question HR and Finance leaders are asking in 2026:<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we make the benefits we already fund feel like more?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where an employee benefits discounts marketplace comparison becomes useful \u2014 not to crown a single \u201cwinner,\u201d but to understand how these models actually work in practice, and where each falls short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The benchmark data shows a clear pattern: employees are prioritizing benefits that offset real, recurring costs. Food, wellness, connectivity, and household needs consistently rank among the most-used categories, and participation for these benefits remains high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employers, at the same time, are consolidating programs instead of adding new ones. In 2025, 64% of Compt customers<\/a> ran an all-inclusive LSA<\/strong>, up from 55% the year before. The goal for many of our customers was to make their existing benefits and budgets work harder while reducing operational complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI like that the entire [Compt] product is designed around simplification of the employee experience. \u2026 The more work that we can get done in a simple, automated way, the more time we have to spend on value-add activities instead of administrivia.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 Chief Human Resources Officer, large veterinary healthcare organization<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Most platforms HR teams evaluate fall into one of four models. Each reflects a different assumption about how employees engage with benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditional discount marketplaces give employees access to negotiated deals across retail, travel, entertainment, and wellness through a standalone portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They can work as a lightweight perk, but the benchmark data<\/a> helps explain why engagement often fades. Employees don\u2019t organize their lives around portals; they organize spending around their actual needs and wants. When discounts live outside the benefits employees actively use, they\u2019re easy to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These platforms also lack visibility into whether discounts meaningfully support participation, utilization, or financial wellness. Savings may exist, but they\u2019re disconnected from benefits strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketplace-first platforms attempt to solve that disconnect by embedding curated catalogs directly into LSAs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The upside is control; these models deliver hand-selected vendors, predictable spend paths, and a clean user experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The tradeoff is constraint. Curated marketplaces require ongoing maintenance and inevitably exclude edge cases \u2014 especially for global teams<\/a>, local vendors, or employees with specialized needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This matters because employee behavior doesn\u2019t align neatly with catalogs. In 2025, employees spent stipend dollars across 64,000+ unique vendors globally, reinforcing that personalization, not curation, drives participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reimbursement-first platforms<\/a> prioritize flexibility. Employees spend where it makes sense for them and submit receipts within defined categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The data strongly supports this model. All-inclusive LSAs reached 93% participation<\/strong><\/a> and 89% utilization<\/strong> in 2025, outperforming narrower, single-purpose stipends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Employees consistently direct spend toward what\u2019s most useful in a given moment, whether that\u2019s covering everyday essentials like groceries<\/a> one month, investing in wellness<\/a> or professional development<\/a> the next, or using the benefit for small, meaningful joys that simply make them happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, the limitation of open reimbursement models was simple: no built-in savings layer to pair with that unprecedented flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is where the category has evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy 2026 is the year to reevaluate employee discounts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The four models in today\u2019s employee benefits discounts marketplace comparison<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Discount-only marketplaces<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Marketplace-first LSA platforms (Forma, ThrivePass, Espresa)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Open reimbursement-first platforms (Compt, Benepass)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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4. Open reimbursement + embedded discounts (<\/strong>Compt + PerkSpot<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n