BambooHR® vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR®
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
BambooHR is an cloud-based human resources solution that provides onboarding, payroll, and benefits management. It also offers automated time-off management and employee self-service.
$250
per month
Paylocity
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
BambooHR®Paylocity
Editions & Modules
Core
$250
per month
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®Paylocity
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Paylocity
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®
Chose BambooHR®
Loved BambooHR and was looking to move to them with my last company until I decided to make a job change. Paylocity was very difficult to use and their customer service was abysmal. I did not use the payroll feature. The reporting with Trax was not as robust as we would have …
Chose BambooHR®
I did not select BambooHR, it was already in use and it works well for the size of the company so there is no reason to change it. Paylocity has better payroll functionality but is lacking on the HRIS side, so BambooHR and Paylocity are somewhat comparable. In my opinion, avoid …
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR was a significant cost savings for us compared to Paylocity. As we compared both systems, Paylocity might have a few more bells and whistles, but BambooHR's simplicity and price tag made It a much better fit for us as we transitioned to an HRIS and payroll platform.
Chose BambooHR®
scalability is an issue with BambooHR (missing lot of competent), integration with other tools (EDI feed, compliance etc)
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is the best, but unfortunately, it doesn't currently have an adequate payroll module for our needs.
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is easy to use whether you have one or 1,000 employees.
Chose BambooHR®
Bamboo's simplicity in utilization beats all the above. The functionality isn't as robust as some, but it gets the job done well and has no huge misses, especially as I believe the simplicity outweighs the lack of functionality in small areas!
Chose BambooHR®
We have BambooHR because of its great interface and user-friendly design. It meets our employees' needs as well as our employer's needs. We have integrations with some programs where Bonusly isn't able to cover.
Chose BambooHR®
Although there are many products in the marketplace, there is no perfect system. BambooHR is the most economical HRIS for a small business, start-up, or business that has never had HR software. BambooHR was selected for its affordable functionality. However, if they continue …
Chose BambooHR®
I used to use that software but couldn't meet up my demand. But in BambooHR workforce management platform features are really amazing than that. Platforms, content and overall everything of BambooHR is work-worthy.
Chose BambooHR®
Other tools with a more unified platform (including a more mature payroll solution) have been much more robust in terms of their data and reporting capabilities. BambooHR, however, has the edge on having a flashier look that may be more appealing to some up-and-coming …
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is FAR better than Paycom, ADP, and Paychex. BambooHR is much more user friendly and "fun" but not quite as robust. I would say for companies over 250 employees that need an all in one, that Paylocity outperforms BambooHR.
Chose Paylocity
Paycom looked very dated but had decent functionality. BambooHR is for smaller companies. Paylocity was a great price and platform switching from ADP TotalSource. Used Paycor at another company I worked for an did not have great customer service experience.
Chose Paylocity
Used to use ADP. We're transitioning from ADP. We looked at BambooHR and we looked at Workday when we were trying to decide who to use. But we decided to go with Paylocity as we think it was the best choice. I've had 5 years of using it and been more than happy with it.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has much more functionality than BambooHR. I think BambooHR was simpler to use and had a cleaner look, but it did not have integrated Payroll, and it could not report out at the level that Paylocity reports out on. BambooHR is too barebones for the needs of our …
Chose Paylocity
The systems functionalities are very similar, but no matter how great a system may be is good customer care does not represent the program, the reviews will always be poor.
Chose Paylocity
I think Paylocity is robust. While it still has some kinks to iron out, it is building out over time nicely. ADP is a really nice system, but a bit dated. PeopleAdmin requires an immense amount of time to build ones system. BambooHR and Gusto aren't as robust in my opinion.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity beats all of these hands down. I will give credit to ADP for having a good payroll system, but everything else they have is terrible. Bamboo HR is a really simple to understand and use platform, but that's also it's downside, it's too simple and not robust where …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is more cost effective than ADP. It offers more features and more payroll enhancement capabilities than Bamboo.
Chose Paylocity
It is better than Paycor and Bamboo, AS good as ADP, and gives UKG and SAP a run for their money. Paycor has more than most and almost as much customization as UKG and SAP. For smaller businesses (less than 1000), by far Paylocity is my choice.
Chose Paylocity
We were very close to selecting Proliant or Rippling. Proliant because their customer service was superior to any of the other platforms we looked at. They were so much more personable and ready to work with us. However, we chose Paylocity because Proliant didn't have many …
Chose Paylocity
Price Ease of system commitment to a long-term relationship.
Chose Paylocity
Pricing and ease of use were much better with Paylocity.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity seems to have more functionality.
Chose Paylocity
All HRIS are clunky, some more than others. I like it better than Workday and ADP.
Chose Paylocity
I think it is an easy platform to use and navigate. Great customer service.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is so much easier to use and automates many of the daily HR functions allowing me to focus more on individual employees.
Chose Paylocity
I think Paylocity offers a lot more that those companies don't. I love community feature and I know when I used Kronos they had nothing like that and anything that they did have, it was effective or easy to use. A lot of team members struggled to use that system.
Features
BambooHR®Paylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.7
201 Ratings
2% below category average
Paylocity
7.9
1146 Ratings
1% above category average
Employee demographic data8.3178 Ratings8.61088 Ratings
Employment history7.9182 Ratings8.21050 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.0177 Ratings8.0980 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.6168 Ratings7.6993 Ratings
Organizational charting6.7184 Ratings7.2923 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1174 Ratings7.9899 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.297 Ratings7.6770 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.8
129 Ratings
16% below category average
Paylocity
8.2
1115 Ratings
3% above category average
Pay calculation7.590 Ratings8.61087 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.167 Ratings7.5533 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.363 Ratings8.6822 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.098 Ratings7.6752 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.394 Ratings9.01084 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.9102 Ratings8.1866 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.258 Ratings8.0543 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.8
173 Ratings
10% above category average
Paylocity
7.5
943 Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow8.5169 Ratings7.5841 Ratings
Balance details8.5160 Ratings7.4900 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2128 Ratings7.7709 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
194 Ratings
0% above category average
Paylocity
8.5
1127 Ratings
5% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.9123 Ratings8.61097 Ratings
Update personal information8.9192 Ratings8.81117 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.2164 Ratings8.1899 Ratings
Employee recognition7.3120 Ratings8.3811 Ratings
View job history8.4182 Ratings8.5963 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
Paylocity
7.1
349 Ratings
13% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings7.1349 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.0
163 Ratings
7% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
1038 Ratings
1% below category average
Report builder6.8157 Ratings7.5993 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.1155 Ratings7.61013 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.9106 Ratings7.3645 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
166 Ratings
0% below category average
Paylocity
8.4
975 Ratings
6% above category average
New hire portal8.2160 Ratings8.5969 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.5147 Ratings8.2778 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
106 Ratings
4% below category average
Paylocity
7.8
536 Ratings
2% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.973 Ratings7.9422 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.5101 Ratings7.7493 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.167 Ratings7.8371 Ratings
Performance tracking6.994 Ratings7.8499 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
118 Ratings
3% below category average
Paylocity
7.5
678 Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans7.0106 Ratings7.5614 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.989 Ratings7.5526 Ratings
Review status tracking8.595 Ratings7.5625 Ratings
Review reminders8.099 Ratings7.7629 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.5100 Ratings7.6526 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.9
80 Ratings
13% above category average
Paylocity
7.3
352 Ratings
7% below category average
Create succession plans/pools8.746 Ratings6.7235 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.066 Ratings7.2289 Ratings
Candidate search8.967 Ratings8.0322 Ratings
Candidate development9.258 Ratings7.5261 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
137 Ratings
2% above category average
Paylocity
8.0
644 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.5103 Ratings8.0550 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.5113 Ratings8.2573 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.290 Ratings8.0451 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.3108 Ratings7.9546 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.587 Ratings7.6466 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1126 Ratings8.2595 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.2128 Ratings7.9592 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®Paylocity
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHR®Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(206 ratings)
8.5
(1213 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(15 ratings)
9.0
(118 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(133 ratings)
8.8
(78 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
9.8
(17 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
9.6
(17 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(107 ratings)
7.9
(105 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
7.7
(15 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
8.2
(55 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 ratings)
8.0
(13 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(3 ratings)
8.8
(13 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
8.2
(15 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
9.3
(16 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
9.7
(9 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
8.2
(17 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
8.7
(16 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
I think if you're a small organization and you're trying to get out of paper, this is a really good first step to doing that. I've heard from other people that are in larger organizations where they have thousands of employees that there may be better platforms, but for smaller organization it's awesome.
Read full review
Paylocity
Paylocity appears to be well-suited for startups to large businesses. As with any product, finding the right price point for the services provided is the challenge. Always remember that one small company that would really appreciate the "benefits essentials" or some other part of the platform but can't afford them right now, may be the ones to get you that large company through word of mouth...IF they had been able to experience that part of the product and refer it to others.
Read full review
Pros
BambooHR
  • Recruiting- communications are easy for both the internal team and candidates
  • Onboarding- the onboarding tasks are great. I love being able to attach documents as well as delay sending out tasks
  • Communication- the employee community is a great tool to keep our communications clean and organized. I love that we now have insight as to who has viewed the comms
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Payroll is made pretty easy. I love that we have the ability to log into payroll, we just upload the information from commissions, things like that where there are exceptions to a regular payroll run. It may make it very easy to do that, just a quick upload. Additionally, when we're in the payroll grid, it gives us the ability to just make quick changes to people's pay or their tax schedule, tax withholdings, things like that without having to go through a lot of different screens. It's just very easy to access just for the click of a button. Love that.
  • We talked about performance reviews, talked about payroll with benefits administration, it allows us to utilize EDI feeds with our benefit vendors so it creates a seamless, but we just enter the information into Paylocity and then it seamlessly provides that information to our vendors. That's been really helpful. And adjusting benefits is also very easy within Paylocity. I love the recent edition of compensation analysis information, so I'm able to go into the compensation module and look for jobs that are similar to a job title at our company. I can enter the job description, I give them what state that the person or the job is in, and it pops out compensation data. It gives me different options, so titles that might be similar. So if there's not something that's an exact fit, I'm able to find something really, really close. It's been a huge upgrade because before that I was having to use a different vendor and paying $400 per job and now it's significantly less expensive to Paylocity and I'm still getting great quality data. It's been very helpful.
Read full review
Cons
BambooHR
  • BambooHR® has moved their offerings to a tiered package approach that groups features together at different tier and price levels. To gain access to a specific feature, you may need to upgrade to a whole new tier that includes additional features you may not be interested in. I would prefer being able to add-on one specific feature when needed.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • We have had lots of year end issues specifically with Partners W2's.
  • We had an accrual issue that was causing 2 additional vacation/sick accruals per year.
  • When updating accruals- the paperwork to do so is confusing at times. I feel there is little support to assist you in filling the paperwork correctly to reflect what you need the accrual to actually do.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BambooHR
There's nothing wrong with this platform. I would recommend it to any business starting with more than 10 employees. I will continue to use the program for as long as I need to, hoping they continue being tremendous and finding other ways to incorporate more technology.
Read full review
Paylocity
There are several technical issues we have experienced this past year with the employee onboarding process that we are still waiting to have resolved. Overall our experience with Paylocity has been positive, and we love how user-friendly and easy to navigate the system is. It has made all of our HR processes much more streamlined and efficient.
Read full review
Usability
BambooHR
It's clear and well appointed with prompts on where to go for each category of information it holds. The user has limited access based on a need to know/job related basis. It has a clear help option with the ability to chat, email or read documentation on how to do something.
Read full review
Paylocity
I would give it that overall rating because we implemented in 2023 and so although that may feel like a lot of time, it still is, we still have a lot to learn and so I'm optimistic that as we learn more that rating will increase.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
BambooHR
Yes, there is a huge team in the back of the online platform or it looks like it because I have never been left without an answer when I have a question or waiting from a response on my chat .... There must be a huge team, this is so great and I always seem to have someone that is very knowledgeable too. So many times in the past I had to leave with customer service that would connect you with someone else because of the expertise, here everyone seems to be some kind of an expert in the HR function.
Read full review
Paylocity
Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
Read full review
Performance
BambooHR
I love BambooHR. Reports are easy to run and download and it usually covers any types of requests I get from the management team. You get excel or .csv downloads/reports and it is fast and simple, not too crowded so it is easy to read through. We don't integrate the tool yet but again, soon we will. we just did not had the time to utilize it yet but that's the plan.
Read full review
Paylocity
We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
Read full review
Support Rating
BambooHR
10/10. The absolute best. I never dread contacting support. I know the team will be quick and helpful. It is so easy, that sometimes I skip straight to contacting support instead of trying to find help articles. They are faster than me trying to figure it out on my own!
Read full review
Paylocity
It is very hard to get answers to your questions, you cannot speak to someone without days of requesting assistance or answers and then eventually can get a call back and then it is usually resolved fairly quickly. But NOT easy to get that help.
Read full review
In-Person Training
BambooHR
I didn't have in-person training besides teaching my managers how to use the program. However, I couldn't omit this question (maybe a system glitch).
Read full review
Paylocity
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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Online Training
BambooHR
As far as I can recall, everything went well with doing it online and got questions answered. Was thankful to work with a dummy file to get used to some practices prior to getting our own domain within bamboo to then place our personnel information in the system, this helped a lot!
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Paylocity
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
BambooHR
BambooHR's initial implementation team was amazing. We loved having a dedicated person we could call, email or speak to during the entire process. I feel that's so important when you are new to a software. Our process was time consuming, but well worth the final product.
Read full review
Paylocity
Implementation was a bit bumpy and Paylocity team not always available for next steps and/or questions. I feel like Paylocity could have done a better job in their fact finding as far as what we were currently doing, our payroll policies and needs, etc. so that we would have run into less issues as we moved forward.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
BambooHR® was able to provide excellent value for money when compared to the other options we looked at when we carried out a review of them. A previous member of the team had also used BambooHR® at another company and rated them highly which influenced our decision greatly. The demo also showed BambooHR® was able to carry out all of the tasks we were looking for
Read full review
Paylocity
We went through demos five years ago and we evaluated ADP and UKG in the past, and we used Paycor previously. In the past, I've used ADP and Kronos when it was still Kronos at other companies. So several different ones. One of the main reasons was that it was all one platform and you didn't have to log into other platforms for it to communicate with each other. Payroll talks to time that talks back to payroll and you don't have to log into anything separate. The reporting was also really easy and you didn't have to have a master's degree to do it.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BambooHR
Since my organization has dropped with employees, I always find ways to reduce costs. I thought there would be a cheaper option, but I was glad that my package included a lot for the price, and downgrading would cost more. The rep could have let me downgraded and taken me to a higher package. I am thankful that didn't happen.
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Paylocity
I didn't help but I like the pricing
Read full review
Scalability
BambooHR
There is so much you can do with this platform, it is incredible and so welcoming. We don't utilize it 100% yet just because we are growing and the HR team has not been able to concentrate on other areas offered to us but but we will soon. Which is also why we got the product, specifically because what BambooHR can do to help us meet our growing business needs.
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Paylocity
We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
Read full review
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
Read full review
Paylocity
They are thorough, care about quality and success, take the time needed to implement properly, answer questions, build data feeds. A professional, caring, very skilled team there.
Read full review
Return on Investment
BambooHR
  • Time Savings: Automating onboarding, payroll, and employee record management has cut HR admin time by up to 30%, allowing teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of paperwork.
  • Improved Onboarding: Streamlined workflows have cut onboarding time by nearly 50%, ensuring new hires are productive faster, reducing turnover risk in the critical first months.
  • - Enhanced Informational Clarity: Centralized employee data means fewer errors and faster access to essential information, reducing compliance risks and increasing accuracy in reporting.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • So when I first found Paylocity back in 2013 and was pitching it to the senior leadership company, my PowerPoint presentation, our return on investment was reducing errors in time and labor. We did paper time sheets back in the day back in 2007, 2008. So we were always running paper time sheets, Microsoft Excel or other standalone products, printing them out and hand keying them into a payroll system. So my ROI to our company was to save money and time on data entry and also to better manage the taxes. So we pay for the tax service, we're in 27 states having to manage that. Previously we were responsible for knowing what every state tax codes were, what every state tax compliance rules were. So with Paylocity we signed up for a tax service and that has been a huge return on investment.
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ScreenShots

BambooHR® Screenshots

Screenshot of Job Info TabScreenshot of Onboarding TasksScreenshot of New Hire PacketScreenshot of Employee Performance ReportScreenshot of Employee Satisfaction (eNPS®)Screenshot of Open Enrollment

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.