BambooHR Review – Pricing, Alternatives and More (2022)

BambooHR – What Is It?

BambooHR is a cloud-based online human resource management system. It is the official definition of the BambooHR platform, but it offers much more than just a human resource management system. The platform was designed by two enthusiasts who created an HR platform that took things beyond the simple spreadsheet. BambooHR was founded in 2008 by Ben Peterson and Ryan Sanders, and it’s considered one of the best on the market.

BambooHR’s design helps both employers and employees and has an excellent user interface. First and foremost, BambooHR is a human resource management platform, but with the many add-ons, the platform becomes much more than just an HR system.

Employers can manage all the essential features related to employee records, benefits tracking, document storage, standard reporting, and more. In addition, the employees get access to the employee self-service portal. They can manage time off, access the employee directory and the company calendar, access the mobile app, and use it with a single sign-on.

BambooHR Features

The BambooHR features are designed to accommodate the needs of small to medium businesses with up to 1,000 employees. Here I provide a list of features that are available within the BambooHR platform. Please note that the list is a collection of all the offered features, and the particular features depend on the price plan you select.

The BambooHR offerings are organized per feature, and I’ll keep the same outline system here:

HR Management

• Employee records
• Benefits tracking
• Standard reporting
• Document storage
• Standard access levels
• Standard workflows and approvals
• Standard email alerts

Employee self-service

• Time-off management
• Employee directory and organizational charts
• Company calendar
• Mobile app
• Single sign-on

Hiring and Onboarding

• Applicant tracking system (ATS)
• Onboarding
• Offboarding
• Electronic signature
• Training tracking

Customer Support

• Email support
• Customer support webinar library
• Telephone support

Advanced components

• Advanced reporting
• Tailored workflows and approvals
• Custom access level
• Custom email alerts
• Custom tabs and fields
• Company branding
• Audit trail

Integrations/Data Sharing

• BambooHR Open API
• BambooHR Marketplace

Apart from the standard BambooHR features, the platform offers plenty of add-ons that bring many extra services and significantly improve HR management. These are:

Payroll

• Single source of data
• Full-service tax filing
• Comprehensive reporting
• Employee access
• Exceptional customer support
• Data security
• End-of-year forms

Time Tracking

• Daily time entry
• Employee timesheet
• Automatic reminders
• Approval workflow
• Automatic overtime calculations
• Report to Payroll

Performance Management

• Goals
• Peer feedback
• Self/Manager assessment
• Employee performance report
• Company performance report

From the list of features above, you can better grasp the extent of BambooHR’s features. However, as you can note, the essential features are mainly aimed at the needs of small and medium businesses – management of employee records and tracking.

On closer inspection, the features provided by BambooHR are desirable for companies and HR departments that deal with plenty of hirings. In addition, the integrated applicant tracking system is a desirable feature as it dramatically simplifies the recruiting process and helps both the employer and employee get settled better in their new roles.

The advanced features offer plenty of functionalities, and the add-ons make BambooHR among the most versatile all-in-one HR and payroll management systems available today. In addition, the mobile app helps with recruiting and hiring when on the go and is available for Android and iOS users.

To get more features, BambooHR supports plenty of third-party integrations. You can see all the available integrations supported by BambooHR on their Marketplace page available via the official website.

BambooHR Pricing Plans

BambooHR offers two pricing plans: Essentials and Advantage. The features of both plans vary greatly, as do the prices. To find out the exact price, you will have to contact the platform; depending on your needs, you will get a free price quote.

I’ve contacted them and got a quote for both pricing packages for a US-based company with 50 employees. (Please note that these prices are just a guideline, you will have to contact them for an exact price, as the price is dynamic-per-employee and as the number of employees rises, the price is subjected to discounts.)

Essentials: $4.95/employee/month – this plan includes employee directory and records, document storage, standard access levels, employee self-service, benefits tracking, time-off management, company calendar, and mobile app access. The Essentials plan comes with email support and access to the webinar library.

Advantage: 8.25/employee/month – this plan has everything the Essentials plan offers, with many more additional features like employee onboarding and offboarding, Applicant Tracking System (ATS), electronic signatures, advanced and custom reports, training tracking, custom alerts, company branding and more. The Advantage plan comes with email support, access to the webinar library, and phone support.

To see if the BambooHR features would suit your needs, you can take advantage of their free trial. To do this, you need to register with your company info, and you can see a lot of the offered features of the platform.

I’ve prepared the following table comparing the essential offerings versus its main competitors:

Comparing BambooHR with Other HR Services

Here are the main differences and similarities between BambooHR and its main competitors. I’ve opted to compare BambooHR with Gusto, Zoho People, and GoCo. All these platforms have good features that enable a business to manage human resources and get additional features depending on the platform.

BambooHR, like Gusto and Zoho People, has scalable features that fit the needs of different-sized companies. The essential plans of all of these come with an employee self-service portal and good benefits tracking features. For example, BambooHR is primarily an HR management platform with payroll as an add-on. On the other hand, Gusto is primarily a payroll service with HR management as an add-on.

These HR platforms have mobile apps, but all have different designs and different levels of functionalities. For example, the Gusto mobile app works great, as does the GoCo mobile app, but users have found that the BambooHR mobile app could use several improvements. These pertain to the app’s user interface, usability, navigation, and benefits management feature.

Here I bring you a comparison table, comparing the features to its main competitors.

BambooHR User Experience

Upon getting a closer look at the BambooHR HR management platform, I can say that this platform has an excellent user experience. The main dashboard is very well designed and easily managed. In addition, the homepage contains all the essential information about the company and displays the scheduled appointments and announcements.

The main page also outlines all the benefits and important reminders, reports, and employee and applicant training info.

Adding a new employee to the BambooHR platform is very simple. You can add all the pertinent employee information to the system. You can opt to send a new hire packet to your new employee and have them enter their own personal info, along with signing the vital paperwork and seeing their new team.

The standard reports provided by BambooHR are very nicely outlined and detailed. These reports bring every bit of info about the current state of your employees.

I found that the BambooHR platform is straightforward to use, and I like all its features. The navigation is simple, and depending on your price plan, you can customize it to fit your needs. It is a fantastic thing, as the design is clean and everything is nicely visible. Additionally, the platform allows for custom settings for all the available features.

BambooHR Customer Service

So far, BambooHR enjoys an excellent online reputation. It has an overall rating of 4.5-stars on CapTerra and other online review sites. In addition, the users of the Essentials package get email support that is available from Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM MST. To help its customers, BambooHR organizes weekly customer success webinars that cover each aspect of the BambooHR platform.

In addition, users get phone support in the Advantage package, which is accessible from Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM MST. The customer support toll-free phone number is 1-866-387-9595. The company is also active on social media, and you can find some interesting info on their social media profiles. The customer support team is in-house and US-based and is knowledgeable, polite, and capable of handling each client inquiry.

The official BambooHR website also has a resources page with a blog section, content library, webinar library, and plenty of HR guides to help you manage HR. Overall, this platform has all its bases covered in customer support, which I find appealing in an HR management platform.

BambooHR Online Security

As BambooHR is a cloud-based platform, it is prone to all the online risks as any other platform. However, the platform has proper encryption. All customer data is encrypted in transit, and the sensitive fields are encrypted at rest. The Zero Trust model is used to keep data locked and secured at every level.

The platform urges each user to create strong passwords with at least ten characters, including lower and uppercase letters, numbers, and special symbols to keep client accounts safe and secure. There is also multi-factor authentication. You can enable this option from the settings in the main platform, and once enabled, you’ll need a password and a code generated by an authenticator app. The 2-Step Login adds another layer of security and protection to your account.

Conclusion

BambooHR is a great option for a human resource management system. This cloud-based system has plenty of features that enable proper management of all the aspects of HR: hiring, onboarding, time tracking, preparing compensation, and much more. While the pricing plans are higher than the competition, the features and user-friendly design make BambooHR a very appealing option.

The BambooHR features are well-balanced; there is a personalized Human Resource Information System (HRIS), applicant tracking system (ATS), payroll add-on, and other more features that make BambooHR among the best HR platforms available today.