BambooHR has remained one of the top names in HR software for years. They have won numerous awards for customer support, ease of use, and good value. Their numerous features can be flexibly packaged according to your needs.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- Flexible packaging and custom pricing is the way they roll. You can pick out one or two packages and pick other modules as add-ons based on your needs.
- Very simple and straightforward tool, easy to use.
CONS
- Payroll is only available for US-based employees
- Customer support is only offered during US business hours.
- Some modules like time tracking, performance management, and surveys are only available as add-ons.
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BambooHR tries to accommodate one or another version of their technology to fit your business. Their HR platform spans across the employee lifecycle as they have tons of other functionalities (like a full ATS or a performance management module) in addition to the core HRIS offer.
They do offer the core HR part as a stand-alone product. The way they package features can be flexible. For instance, they have a small business package called Essentials.
This package covers all the HR Management features like employee records, benefit tracking, standard reporting, document storage and more. It also has the employee self-service module, which is where workers can manage their time off, consult the employee directory and org chart, see a company calendar, and do all this from either the desktop version or the mobile app.
Further, Modules like payroll, time tracking, and performance management are offered as add-ons. If you need more, you can opt for the Advantage package. This plan includes onboarding and offboarding features, the Applicant Tracking System, advanced reporting, company branding, access to the open API, satisfaction surveys, and much more.
The flexibility of building out your plan like this is part of what keeps drawing one HR team after another to the tool. Arguably, it’s also what makes BambooHR one of the most popular HR software products of all time.
The product itself is fairly easy to use and figure out on your own. It’s one of the most simple tools to navigate that packs so many features. At SSR, we’ve demoed the tool, tried it for free, and even worked at companies where it was the HRIS of choice. We can say it’s rare to have to consult any help articles in order to make use of the tool. You just log in, do what you have to do, and trust that your colleagues will be notified.
Take the process of requesting time off, for instance. A worker would log in, send the request to their manager, and the manager gets an email notification. Once approved or rejected, the worker gets an email notification as well and the company calendar is updated accordingly. There’s no need for the worker to log back into the tool.
Lastly, BambooHR also have numerous amenities like an app marketplace of HR/recruiting vendors that integrate with their system, an HR glossary, and host HR events on occasion.
I was in charge of entering all employee data from hire to offboarding. I used the software daily. As an organization, we began tracking employee satisfaction and well-being because the owner wanted all employees to be healthy both physically and mentally.
We tracked every aspect of the employee's life cycle at work, including their benefits, time-off requests, and payroll.
- BambooHR includes a mobile app for easy access.
- It has a centralized employee database so that all necessary managers and employees have access.
- It provides offboarding features for easy removal of employees after termination.
- Templates are available for employees to use if desired.
- Many standard reports are included for data collection and reporting.
My organization was a small business that had problems organizing employee records from hire to termination. BambooHR was the best solution for our needs. The software allows the HR manager to manage all aspects of an employee’s life cycle, including hiring, onboarding, payroll, benefits, and offboarding.
It is easy to use, comes with plenty of built-in templates, and provides well-organized, visually appealing workflows. I was the assistant to the HR manager and used BambooHR for around six months.
- Pricing is not available on the website, so you have to call.
- It does not offer a free plan for startups or small businesses with limited profit.
- The ATS is not available on the basic plan, so you must upgrade to a premium plan to access it.
- Automated candidate matching is not available.
BambooHR is easy to understand and use, but the downside is that you cannot automate candidate matching. I like the ease of use because it saves time—especially when you're busy and need to complete tasks quickly.
When deciding which tool to purchase, price is always a top priority. You must also consider functionality and the specific processes your organization requires.
BambooHR has incorporated add-ons for their platform, but all add-ons cost extra, which increases the yearly price.
BambooHR is a one-stop shop for all HR needs in small to midsize businesses.
BambooHR is not ideal for startup businesses with little to no profit.
I used BambooHR to manage all HR work, including payroll, employee relations tracking, benefits, and employee experience. When I was working with the smaller organization, I used the application daily for a few months. I believe the company is still using BambooHR and anticipate they engage with it daily.
I was primarily responsible for setting up the HR system and establishing workflows for the end user. Once the system was set up, I used it to confirm that all employee information was flowing correctly throughout the system.
I liked the comprehensive approach it provided. It allowed me to manage everything in one system without needing to use other platforms. The platform was very user-friendly.
I worked for a smaller start-up that used it to centralize all of its HR needs. They were using it to replace paper files, outsourced payroll, and similar services. BambooHR addressed these needs and allowed them to manage all of their HR work in one place.
I personally used BambooHR for a few months while helping the company implement the software. I found it to be a helpful tool, especially for smaller organizations.
I disliked the limited compliance information across different states. I was not able to use it for our international employees. Uploading large amounts of data was difficult for larger organizations.
BambooHR is great for smaller organizations that don't have a complex employee structure. It was very user-friendly.
Organizations should consider the complexity and size of their employee structure. They should also evaluate the cost in comparison to what they currently pay for other ad hoc services that this tool would replace.
Unknown, as I didn’t use it for a long time.
Smaller, more centralized organizations will find BambooHR a great fit.
BambooHR is not a great fit for large or more complex organizations that need a custom tool.
There are multiple ways to incorporate BambooHR into your business workflows from an HR perspective. We used it for job postings, hiring, and onboarding. Also, we used it for tracking PTO, employee records, and payroll. We found it helpful for benefits enrollment too.
A relatively new feature is tracking employee satisfaction through eNPS, which is great ,and BambooHR includes the ability to use it for performance management.
I have found BambooHR to be simple in its design for a user-friendly approach. Also, with an average cost of $17 per employee (flat rate for more employees) it's saved both time and money.
Everything our small company needs is available in one platform, which is nice not to have to "hop around" to other platforms.
We are a small company that could not afford to hire an entire human resources department. Also, we wanted to move to a platform to house, e.g., employee records, track hiring processes, and data management. BambooHR was a way for us to accomplish these goals at a reasonable price and brought the company into the 21st century!
We used this platform for a couple of years for our benefits enrollment, administration, and hiring processes. It was user-friendly for our employees.
BambooHR has "add-on" features that can drive up the costs. The "straightforward" (i.e., limited) features may not be suitable for mid-to large-scale businesses. BambooHR has had its challenges with year-over-year capabilities.
BambooHR is user-friendly and great for small businesses. It is a "pay as you need" in its features, so you don't have to buy the entire package, if you will.
A careful analysis of your business needs from an HR perspective is required. For instance, how many employees do you have, what are your challenges in the HR realm (e.g., multiple systems for each function), and how much can you afford. This is a feature-based platform and can be helpful for any-sized business (smaller is my suggestion) to select what you need based on affordability.
BambooHR has become more user-friendly with more options.
BambooHR is good for a small business, based on cost and options it offers.
Large-scale or international businesses with hundreds of employees that have a cross-functional human resources department that uses/needs a platform that has multiple features in one, platform-based cost, and BambooHR may not be that.
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Many of BambooHR’s features work grandly for businesses in virtually every part of the world. However, modules like payroll, hiring & onboarding, and time tracking are certainly either thought of for US business practices or, in the case of payroll, only available for US employees. International or remote businesses looking for an HRMS to handle both HR and payroll needs would not be a good fit. Unless, that is, they use the HR part only and integrate payroll through another vendor, like one of the best international payroll providers.
Among the 20,000+ companies that use BambooHR, you’d find names like Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana, Change.org, University of Maryland, Grammarly, Stance, Postmates, Wistia, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ZipRecruiter.
BambooHR has two feature sets. Essentials provides human resources management modules, employee self-service tools, and baseline customer support.
Advantage includes everything in Essentials but adds premium customer support, hiring and onboarding systems, an ATS, training, reporting, a job site, company branding, and access to BambooHR's partner marketplace and open API integration.
Add-ons such as time tracking, payroll, and performance management are available at additional costs.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the top features:
- People Data & Analytics: BambooHR strives to be the single and secure database where all your employee information is stored and managed. They couple that with powerful, intuitive reporting tools and a strong focus on security.
- Mobile Hiring App: One of their most-talked-about perks, their hiring app gives recruiters the ease to perform most applicant tracking tasks from their phone if needed.
- Automated onboarding: Set up tasks to new hires for them to complete at a time of their choosing.
- Introductions: BambooHR makes introductions easy with resources like customizable new-hire packets and get-to-know-you emails.
- Electronic signatures: New employees can sign the stuff they need to without stepping a foot in the office.
BambooHR also has capabilities for:
- Attendance tracking
- Benefits administration
- Compliance
- Employee communication tools
- Employee engagement
- Reporting and analytics
- Payroll
- Performance appraisal
- Time tracking
- Workforce management
- Compensation management
- Performance management tools and surveys
BambooHR has an API with lots of partnerships and an app marketplace, although these are only available from the Advantage onwards. If you do go with that plan, the platform integrates with most applicant tracking systems, as well as solutions for employee assessments, background checks, employment verification, payroll, benefits administration, ERP & accounting, training, onboarding, performance management, recognition, and more. Their marketplace keeps growing and already features a few hundred vendor integrations.
BambooHR uses per-employee, per-month pricing, varying by company size: companies with 26+ employees pay per-employee, while those with 25 or fewer pay a flat monthly rate (starting at $250).
Three plans are offered:
- Core: $10/employee/month
- Pro: $17/employee/month (Includes Core + more)
- Elite: $25/employee/month (Includes Pro + advanced features, training, and AI assistant)
Add-ons include Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time Tracking, and Employer of Record. Bundling Payroll and Benefits Administration saves 15% (U.S. employees only). Volume and non-profit discounts are available.
BambooHR is a good fit for companies looking for a very customizable HR product, with pricing that reflects their needs. It’s also popular among teams that are partially or even fully remote.
BambooHR’s latest product enhancements reflect a continued push toward mobile accessibility, simplified task management, and greater workflow flexibility. These enhancements are unlikely to change how users perceive the platform overall, but they do reinforce BambooHR’s value as a system geared toward SMBs looking for pragmatic, incremental improvements in hiring efficiency.
Key feature changes include:
- Hiring widget in Android mobile app: Recruiters using Android devices can now monitor new applicants directly from their home screen and access the candidate list with one tap. This should improve responsiveness for hiring managers or recruiters working in the field or away from a desktop.
- Updated import tasks modal: BambooHR has introduced a redesigned interface for importing tasks, intended to streamline checklist creation during onboarding and offboarding. With this UI enhancement, admins can manage multiple hires at once or coordinate cross-departmental workflows.
- Support for up to 15 job pipeline stages: The previous 10-stage cap has been raised to 15, allowing for more granular hiring workflows. This is useful for teams that want to separate screening, interviews, assessments, and approvals into distinct stages without relying on workaround labels or notes.
Getting started with BambooHR is as easy as signing up for their free trial and then getting in touch with their team. They'll likely want to talk to you about choosing a plan that's based on your needs, and the implementation of that will vary accordingly.
BambooHR does more of a self-service approach to customer success. The Essentials package includes email support and access to their Customer Success Webinar library. For their telephone support, you’d have to upgrade to the Advantage plan. From our understanding, both kinds of personal support are only offered in US business hours.
BambooHR was started in 2008 by Ben Peterson and Ryan Sanders. Their goal was to create a product that customers would love using and that would save countless man hours. At the same time, they wanted the company behind this product to be a place people would enjoy working at.
This approach worked, as they have kept growing both their employee and customer count quite steadily over the years. They had 470 employees around the end of 2019. Now, as of Summer 2025, they have over 1730. Their product is used by thousands of companies in well over 100 countries.
An interesting bit about the way they manage their company is that they have an “anti-workaholic policy”. Basically, BambooHR employees are forbidden from laboring over 40 hours per week.
Also noteworthy is the fact that while both founding members are still on the board, BambooHR’s CEO is now Brad Rencher. He was previously a marketing executive at Adobe Inc., before being recruited for the post in October 2019.
Company HQ
Lindon, Utah
Number of Employees
1250+
Year Founded
2008
Amount Raised
According to their Crunchbase profile, BambooHR has raised an undisclosed amount of funding over 2 rounds. The last one of which was in Summer 2016. Among others, BambooHR is funded by Sorenson Capital.
FAQ
How come BambooHR is so popular?
We’d argue that BambooHR was one of the first companies to bring HR functionalities to the SaaS realm with modern UX design. However, while many companies do that now, they’ve secured their position as a household name in HR software due to their ever-growing features and flexible packages; which suit SMBs and enterprises alike.
Is BambooHR Free?
As of summer 2025, BambooHR doesn’t offer a stand-alone free-for-life product. They do have a free trial, however, and they’ve been known to extend it based on your needs and plans. That being said, it does eventually cost, but the pricing is completely customized based on what features you need.
About SSR
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