# BambooHR > HR records, hiring, time off and reviews, with US payroll as an add-on BambooHR is an HR system for small and mid-sized companies that keeps employee records, time off, hiring and onboarding in one database. Higher plans add performance reviews, recognition and compensation planning, and payroll, benefits administration and time tracking are sold as add-ons. Teams of 25 or fewer pay a flat monthly fee; larger ones pay per employee. - **Category:** HR Software - **Made by:** BambooHR (since 2008) - **Website:** https://www.bamboohr.com - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026 ## Pricing BambooHR is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $250 per month for up to 25 employees, then $10 per employee / month. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** Free trial, no credit card required; it ends on its own. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Core | $250 per month for up to 25 employees | Records, reports, time off, hiring with 5 job openings, onboarding and the AI assistant. Above 25 employees, $10 per employee a month ($10.25 in the FAQ). | | Pro | $425 per month for up to 25 employees | Core plus performance reviews, 1:1s, recognition and rewards, and 25 job openings. Above 25 employees, $17 per employee a month ($17.50 in the FAQ). | | Elite | $650 per month for up to 25 employees | Pro plus compensation planning with Mercer benchmarks, custom dashboards, HR benchmarks and 50 job openings. Above 25 employees, $25 per employee a month. | Read from https://www.bamboohr.com/pricing/ on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with BambooHR before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **15% off for registered nonprofits** (Nonprofit): BambooHR takes an additional 15% off for registered nonprofit organizations. Source: https://www.bamboohr.com/pricing/ - **15% off when bundling payroll and benefits** (Other savings): Combining the Payroll and Benefits Administration add-ons with any plan gives a 15% discount, for employees based in the US. Source: https://www.bamboohr.com/pricing/ ## Key features - **Employee records and reports:** One database for people data, with a custom report builder, dashboards and built-in workflows for approving changes and time-off requests. - **Hiring and onboarding:** Post jobs to job boards, track candidates, send offer letters from templates, and give new hires a packet with e-signatures and an onboarding checklist. - **Time off:** Unlimited custom time-off policies with accruals, approvals and a shared calendar of who is out. - **Performance and recognition:** On Pro and Elite, run 360-degree review cycles, schedule 1:1s, track goals and give recognition points staff can redeem for gift cards. - **Ask BambooHR:** An AI assistant answers employees' questions about time off and holidays from company data, and on higher plans about policies and benchmarks. - **Payroll, benefits and time add-ons:** Add US payroll with tax filing, benefits enrollment with carrier connections, and time tracking with shift scheduling and an iPad kiosk. ## Good for - Small and mid-sized US companies replacing spreadsheets for HR - Teams that want hiring, onboarding and time off in one system - US employers that may add payroll and benefits later ## Worth knowing - Teams of 25 or fewer pay the flat monthly fee whatever their size; per-employee pricing, with volume discounts, starts above 25 employees. - Payroll and benefits administration are add-ons for US employees only, and their prices are not published. - The plan cards show $10 and $17 per employee for Core and Pro, while the FAQ on the same page says $10.25 and $17.50. - Job openings are capped by plan: 5 on Core, 25 on Pro and 50 on Elite. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. BambooHR is the HR system plenty of small US companies grow into: records, time off, hiring and onboarding in one place, with a phone app people rate well. But below 25 people you pay a flat $250 a month whatever your size, which is a lot for a team of ten. - **Value for money: D.** Core is a flat $250 a month for up to 25 employees, so a ten-person company pays $250, or $25 a head. It buys records, time off, hiring and onboarding. That's the dearest tenth of this category, where most charge $3.75 to $9 a person. - **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan, but a free trial with no card that ends on its own rather than turning into a bill. - **Features: B.** Records and reports, time off with accruals, hiring with 5 openings, onboarding with e-signatures and an AI assistant, then reviews and 1:1s on Pro. The whole job, with US payroll and benefits as add-ons. - **Ease of use: B.** 4.66 from 12,758 App Store ratings, which is a lot of happy people for HR software. Just under the 4.7 that would make it an A. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Slack, Greenhouse, Checkr, Culture Amp, Remote, Indeed and TalentLMS. No desktop app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from BambooHR's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among HR software - BambooHR's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 5 of the 9 other HR software we grade, and level with 3. - It stands best on ease of use (B, above 9 of 9) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $10 a month for each person, against a middle price of $9 for the category: 4 of the 6 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace BambooHR you would be making payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $120 a year. - You could make: Employee records, time off, applicant tracking and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Slack, Greenhouse and Checkr among them. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 12,758 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id587244049 ## Works with Slack, Greenhouse, Checkr, Culture Amp, Remote, Indeed, TalentLMS **Tags:** Employee records, Time off, Applicant tracking, Payroll, AI features, Reports ## Alternatives - [HiBob](https://toolgpa.com/tools/hibob): HR platform for mid-sized global firms, with US and UK payroll. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-hibob) - [Zoho People](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-people): Low-cost HR records, attendance, shifts and reviews from Zoho. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-zoho-people) - [Namely](https://toolgpa.com/tools/namely): US HR, payroll and benefits for mid-sized firms, with managed services. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-namely) - [Rippling](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rippling): HR, IT and finance platform with US and global payroll, by quote. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-rippling) - [Personio](https://toolgpa.com/tools/personio): European HR platform for records, absences, time and recruiting. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-personio) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026: - https://www.bamboohr.com/pricing/ - https://www.bamboohr.com/ - https://www.bamboohr.com/signup/ - https://www.bamboohr.com/platform/hr-data-and-reporting/mobile-app - https://www.bamboohr.com/integrations/ - https://www.bamboohr.com/about-bamboohr/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/bamboohr Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).