BambooHR

BambooHR hiring ends where the employee record begins

One system for hiring and people records, with an easy start

Three things count in BambooHR’s favour. Hiring and employee records share one system. The contract can start month to month. Job boards connect from inside the product. Each one saves work or risk for a team that hires alongside many other tasks.

Its AI rules and your duties need a read before you rely on them

BambooHR’s legal terms give you several duties, and most of them concern AI. They decide who is responsible when an AI feature gets something wrong in hiring. Read them with your lawyer before you rely on any AI feature.

Where BambooHR customers report it helped their hiring

Customer stories help most when the need behind them matches yours. Four customers with 26 to 350 employees report results with BambooHR. One had a short burst of hiring and one spent hours on job boards. One onboarded contractors, and one lets managers screen CVs. If your need matches one of these, that story tells you what to ask. BambooHR reports more than 30,000 customers, so ask it for a story from a company closer to your own.

The bill follows your headcount, and the contract sets the exit

BambooHR charges by plan and by the number of employees you have. Your headcount therefore sets the bill, whether or not you are hiring this month. An extended term adds a floor, because the bill rests on the minimum employee count in your Order Form.

Companies with more than 25 employees pay per employee. US prices start from $10.25 a month on Core, $17.50 on Pro and $25 on Elite. The plan cards round Core and Pro to $10 and $17. At the starting prices, 100 employees come to about $1,025 a month on Core and $1,750 on Pro. Volume discounts apply automatically and adjust as your team size changes. Companies with 25 employees or fewer pay a flat $250, $425 or $650 a month. Registered nonprofits get an extra 15% off.

Other regions have their own prices. UK plans start at £8.10 per employee a month, or £200 a month flat for 25 employees or fewer. Canadian plans start at $14.40 CAD per employee a month, or $360 CAD flat. International plans start at $10 USD per employee a month, or $250 USD flat.

In BambooHR’s US plan comparison, each plan has its own number of job openings. They are 5, 25 and 50. Account Owners can add 10, 20 or 30 openings in account settings, where the price of each option appears. The Pro plan now includes 25 openings instead of the earlier 20. BambooHR’s subcontractor list calls the ATS an add-on to the HR system. The two descriptions differ, so ask whether the ATS is in your plan or has its own price.

Some costs sit outside the plan. Payroll, time tracking and benefits administration are add-ons. Cronofy charges $15 a month for a user who schedules only for themselves.

The contract comes in two forms, and they treat the bill differently. A month-to-month subscription can end at any time, effective the last day of the subscription month. What you give up is a fixed price. BambooHR may change the price on 60 days’ notice or add new charges. It will not change the price of a subscription package more than once in a calendar year.

An extended term works differently. It cannot be cancelled until the term ends, and the fees are non-refundable. The minimum bill rests on the employee minimum in your Order Form for the whole term, whatever your actual headcount. A smaller headcount therefore does not lower that minimum until the term ends. The term renews automatically for 12-month terms unless you give at least 60 days’ notice before it ends. So the date that matters is 60 days before the term ends. BambooHR may change the price for the next renewal term on 60 days’ notice. During the term, BambooHR may not change the price other than for changes in headcount or added services. BambooHR gives no refunds for partial months or for implementation costs. All fees exclude taxes and duties.

Your candidate data is hosted in the US, Canada or Ireland, depending on the customer and applicable laws. Under BambooHR’s terms, you can download your data for 30 days after a subscription is not renewed. After that, BambooHR has no obligation to keep it. It deletes the data unless the law prohibits that or additional terms require otherwise. The Data Processing Agreement adds a choice. On request or on termination, BambooHR will destroy all personal data and certify deletion, or return it. You make that election. Ask how the 30-day download window and your right to have the data returned fit together.

One data setting needs a decision. Indeed now asks BambooHR and other ATS partners for data on how applicants fare during the interview process. All BambooHR customers are opted out of sharing this data by default.

Eight questions before you sign

These questions turn the risks above into promises you can get in writing. Ask them before you sign, because the contract and the AI Addendum put most of the duties on you.

1. Is the ATS part of our plan, or an add-on with its own price? Good answer: A quote with a separate line for the ATS and its job-opening limit.
2. What does a busy quarter cost when we pass our job-opening limit? Good answer: A set price for extra openings, in writing, without changing plan.
3. Which hiring uses of Bamboo AI fall under the ban on high-risk, significant or consequential decisions? Good answer: A written answer for each AI feature we plan to use in hiring.
4. Which AI companies would see our candidates’ details, and where do they process them? Good answer: A current list with locations that matches the AI Addendum.
5. Can our candidate data stay out of every kind of AI improvement, including aggregated data? Good answer: A written promise that covers aggregated data and feedback data.
6. Which tools we plan to use are in beta, and what happens if you change them? Good answer: A written list of those tools, and notice before a feature we rely on changes.
7. How do the 30-day download window and our right to have candidate data returned fit together? Good answer: A set period and file format in the contract, matching the data agreement.
8. Is sharing data on how our applicants fared with Indeed switched off, and who can switch it on? Good answer: Yes, and only a named admin can change it.

Alternatives to BambooHR

Look at Rippling, Cezanne, Workable or Breezy HR if BambooHR comes off your list.

The first question is whether you want hiring to sit inside your HR records. Rippling and Cezanne both tie hiring to their HR systems. Rippling Recruiting is an applicant tracking system that is part of Rippling’s all-in-one platform, and a signed offer triggers onboarding. Cezanne Recruitment works with the Cezanne HR system or as a standalone product. Cezanne tailors it for small and growing businesses, and teams of 1 to 200 can get started quickly.

Workable and Breezy HR are the other route. Both sell applicant tracking as its own product, with HR tools as separate packages. Workable runs an AI agent inside its ATS that moves candidates to a chosen stage when score thresholds are met. Workable prices by company size, in bands from 1 to 20 employees up to 801 to 1,000. Breezy HR prices for teams of 10 to 10,000, so ask how it sets the price for your headcount. Breezy also sells Onboard as a separate employee onboarding system. Ask Workable for a price at your real headcount, because BambooHR’s bill follows headcount too.

You can also keep BambooHR for people records and use a different ATS. BambooHR’s marketplace holds a comparison matrix of the applicant tracking partners that connect to it. If your open jobs already fit inside your plan, check what the plan includes before you buy anything else.