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 8.3 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
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Paylocity
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®
Chose BambooHR®
None. We used our own self made folders and spreadsheets prior to Bamboo.
Chose BambooHR®
scalability is an issue with BambooHR (missing lot of competent), integration with other tools (EDI feed, compliance etc)
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR® is not in the same category as others that I have used. BambooHR is truly comprehensive and if you pay for all the extras, you wouldn't need anything else. The parts we use are great for us and the fact that we can add custom fields means that our unique needs are …
Chose BambooHR®
Lattice is much more oriented towards performance management. It includes many more advanced performance management features from building actual assessments to also performance development planning. BambooHR® for us was a place to centralize our data and build from within as …
Chose BambooHR®
In my experience, I prefer overall reporting and functionality of Rippling, Gusto, and Ease.
It is on par with Employee Navigator and Paycom (due to more user friendly design)
Prefer to Worklio, Paylocity, and ADP Workforce.
Chose BambooHR®
I used to use workday at a past company and BambooHR® is less extensive but very easy to use. Again, the features and functionality on the former were more fleshed out and readily available but the functions that I use most often are more easily accessible via BambooHR®.
Chose BambooHR®
Not as well as any of them. I am not a QBO Payroll fan either but they are better than BambooHR®.
Chose BambooHR®
We have tried other system, but they were less user friendly and they were doing so much other stuff that they were not fulfilling correctly our needs. BambooHR® is a really nice tool to use, user friendly, and just the functions we need from an HR tool. It's great for the …
Chose BambooHR®
Used them before and wanted to try something new, overall it was a much easier product to use and get a handle on.
Chose BambooHR®
Bamboo HR is so so much more user-friendly and easier to navigate on both the admin and employee side of things. This significantly helps reduce headaches and frustration when something needs correction. There is always something that will need to be fixed, so having a platform …
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is the best, but unfortunately, it doesn't currently have an adequate payroll module for our needs.
Chose BambooHR®
We switch our clients from the other HRIS platforms to BambooHR, because they do everything better and have amazing customer support.
Chose BambooHR®
Less expensive than ADP and much more up to date and efficient than Heartland
Chose BambooHR®
At my previous employer, I evaluated over 20 HRIS platforms before choosing and implementing BambooHR® (in 2019). I love it! The continuous improvements are promising and I actually feel like product feedback is reviewed and, at times, implemented.

With BambooHR®, it truly …
Chose 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. …
Chose BambooHR®
Different companies and each proved to be beneficial for the particular company that had it implemented.
Chose BambooHR®
The platform for both employees and employer were way easier to use and navigate. Additionally, VensureHR generated many errors which we did not see with BambooHR.
Chose BambooHR®
We moved to BambooHR time tracking from Clicktime once BambooHR's functionality improved and we prefer to have all functions on the same platform.
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
ADP API Central, Paycom, Workday Adaptive Planning and Oracle API Platform Cloud
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was the easiest from an employee perspective and also had the most intuitive workflows from the HR side. The ability to create our own reports was very important to us and the open API has meant it is easy to use and integrate with our other solutions as we grow.
Chose Paylocity
It was long ago, but we previously used ADP… not sure which version.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is much better than ADP
Chose Paylocity
ADP- the adp we had was old and outdated.

Paylocity is more modern and fun to look at
Chose Paylocity
SAP SuccessFactors HCM and UKG Pro
Chose Paylocity
we have only ever used Paylocity, but we were not huge fans of the pay
Chose Paylocity
I prefer the flexibility of Paylocity to Paychex. (I don't remember Flex or PEO; they might not have had those distinctions when I used them over 10 years ago.) I really like doing payroll all by myself when I have time to do it.
Chose Paylocity
Superior mobile app, reporting capability, ease of use for employees to leadership, system administration is simple.
Chose Paylocity
Found Paylocity as more user and administrator friendly.
Chose Paylocity
Our company previously used Exponent HR, and we have since transitioned to a paperless system with streamlined processes. I believe that each product has areas in which it works exceptionally well and also leaves room for improvement.
Features
BambooHR®Paylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
Ratings
3% below category average
Paylocity
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
Employee demographic data8.20 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Employment history7.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.50 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Organizational charting6.60 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Organization and location management8.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.10 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.6
Ratings
19% below category average
Paylocity
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation7.30 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors5.80 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.10 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Benefit plan administration5.80 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.10 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.20 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow8.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Balance details8.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.30 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
Paylocity
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.70 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Update personal information8.80 Ratings8.80 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
View job history8.30 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.1
Ratings
12% above category average
Paylocity
7.0
Ratings
14% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.8
Ratings
10% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
Ratings
1% below category average
Report builder6.60 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.80 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
Paylocity
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
New hire portal8.10 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.5
Ratings
5% below category average
Paylocity
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.70 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.30 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.20 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance tracking6.80 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans6.90 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.80 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Review status tracking8.60 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Review reminders8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.40 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.1
Ratings
15% above category average
Paylocity
7.2
Ratings
8% below category average
Create succession plans/pools9.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Candidate search9.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Candidate development9.30 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
Paylocity
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.40 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.40 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.30 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.20 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.60 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.00 Ratings7.90 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
8.3
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
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 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.
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Pros
  • BambooHR® allows you to preview as a user in a specific access level. This is VERY helpful for providing instructions to employees or double checking that information is secure.
  • BambooHR® customer support is unmatched. Any time I have a question, I can quickly get an answer as well as additional resources.
  • Employees are able to easily find their information without coming to HR for questions. This cuts down on the questions coming into HR departments, big and small.
Read full review
  • Obviously, time and labor and payroll. It's time and labor time sheets are so easy, so easy for employees. We have been for many years a company that's allowed our employees to self-report that was easy to set up. California is a tough company or tough state to work in, so there's been a lot of restrictions and Paylocity has really helped us establish the rules and regulations and make sure we're compliant. We've recently moved to time clocks, so something that we had to do and that was a really easy transition to do and it's going very well. And also payroll. Payroll is so easy to run, so it's two good systems that I think have been really great.
Read full review
Cons
  • Notices for approving hours don't always coincide with pay periods well.
  • Payroll reports are by pay period without the ability to combine hours, etc. into a monthly report.
  • There is not an easy way to fix payroll errors. Must get it right the first time.
Read full review
  • 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
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
We most likely will because we are learning how to use it better all the time. It does integrate with our Advanced Benefits. But the customer service is not responsive when needing help. It almost always requires several contacts to get anywhere, and the contacts can be several days apart. Once you actually get to TALK to someone, things are usually resolved fairly quickly, but their email system is not efficient. I get half answers and they close the ticket! But once I can get to someone, it is almost always great service. Very hard to get someone though.
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Usability
BambooHR® is helpful, but I still handle some tasks manually due to missing features relevant to my needs. Certain processes require additional functionality, limiting full automation. While it streamlines HR operations, gaps in usability mean I must supplement workflows with manual efforts to ensure efficiency and meet specific business demands.
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Staff hasn't had that many glitches and they don't come with as many problems as we had with, we had a DP before. And there will always be issues sometimes with time clocks, time, time we clocking in and stuff. We've really seen downsides with that. That staff is not complaining as much.
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Reliability and Availability
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.
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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.
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Performance
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.
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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
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Support Rating
The support can be slow as they are a US based company and therefore we often have to wait for them to be online before we can speak to somebody and they are not particularly responsive to emails. The service itself has always been helpful and in most cases, the issue was resolved.
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I really appreciate that we are assigned a support manager. That person is very familiar with our set up, our needs and our history. However, I've spoken to others on the support team and have had very positive interactions and get the help needed.
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In-Person Training
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
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
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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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.
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Implementation Rating
We implemented bambooHR in Fall, 2023 then implemented Payroll 1/1/24. A vital piece of information was not known or missed in that we are exempt from State Unemployment Tax and have a Reimbursement Set-up, so bambooHR did not send Payroll Reports to the State. Those reports need to be sent regardless if we are exempt or not.
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We were handed off to multiple implementation people, some quit, one went on leave, one left suddenly, one was transfered to a diff dept...all causing a significant amount of disruption for our team. Many had conflicting info on how to properly set things up...hence a complete mess was left for us to figure out
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Alternatives Considered
I needed a system that was easy to use from an admin level as well as employee level. We run a pretty simple operation as we do not have shift diffs or multiple approval levels. Some of the systems reviewed were too much for us and, as a result, too expensive. BambooHR® fit our needs and budget accordingly.
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I would say that Paylocity is a significant upgrade from my experience with Paycor. I would say that it's a similar product to Paycom. The one thing I liked, Paycom did pay the PTOA little bit differently. It was in real time, but Paycom did not value us as a customer and they lost us due the pricing. And then they've tried to come back and they've tried to match. They have tried to match Paylocity pricing, but we chose not to go back because we're happy with Paylocity and I'm not going to make a huge move like that if I'm happy where I am.
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Scalability
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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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
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Return on Investment
  • HR team members have been saved thousands of hours over the 3.5 years we've had BambooHR®. It saved me personally several hours a day once BambooHR® was set up. Specifically, onboarding, offboarding, and a formal Hiring system are the major time savers.
  • Employee Information is much easier to access and is all centralized. Employees are empowered to update their information when applicable, and we have designed custom access levels for different positions and managers to ensure every individual is seeing the appropriate types of information about employees.
  • We saved significant money by switching from Lattice to BambooHR®'s Performance Management solution. This solution is less advanced, but the simplicity meets our needs perfectly fine, and it even saves time for managers and employees by BambooHR®'s standard questions, carefully designed to get to the heart of performance and improvement.
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  • All of the above, the data is readily available so that we can actually see what our turnover ratio is or the data that we need to make decisions. So I think overall it made our process a bit more seamless. There are training that's readily available that we can deploy to our employees as opposed to creating it and it's customizable so we can add things to it that is specific to our organization and just build on to what's already there.
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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.