BambooHR puts reviews, goals and one-to-one meetings inside its HR system

BambooHR Performance Management in short

What BambooHR does well

Customers run it from 10 people to more than 1,000

Where BambooHR stops, and what to read in its AI terms

What BambooHR costs, how the contract runs and how you leave

BambooHR’s price cards put Core at $10 and Pro at $17 for each employee each month. Its pricing questions give starting prices of $10.25 for Core, $17.50 for Pro and $25 for Elite. A 15% discount applies when you bundle Payroll and Benefits Administration with any plan.

Companies with 25 employees or fewer pay a flat monthly rate for each plan. BambooHR’s add-ons and pricing page puts the per-employee threshold at 20 employees and adds that no annual contract is required. In the UK, the flat monthly rate starts at 200 pounds for companies with 25 employees or fewer.

Under BambooHR’s terms, subscriptions are month-to-month or extended term, as set out in the order form. A month-to-month customer may end at any time, effective on the last day of the subscription month. BambooHR may change a subscription price on at least 60 days’ notice, and not more than once a calendar year.

An extended term renews automatically for twelve-month terms. It cannot be cancelled until the term ends, and fees are non-refundable. To stop renewal, give at least 60 days’ notice. The fees rest on an employee minimum and product minimums in the order form. BambooHR may not change the price during the term, apart from headcount or added services.

After a subscription is not renewed, you can download your data for 30 days. After that BambooHR has no obligation to keep it. Under its terms, BambooHR then deletes the data unless the law forbids that or additional terms require otherwise.

Fifteen questions to ask BambooHR before you sign

1. Which plan includes goals, cascading goals, the goal assistant, goal suggestions, AI summarised feedback and the workforce-risk AI? A good answer is a written feature list for each plan, attached to the order form.
2. Which price applies to us, the price card figure or the starting price in your pricing questions? A good answer is one price for our headcount, stated in the order form.
3. Does the flat monthly rate stop at 20 employees or at 25? A good answer is one threshold, stated in the order form.
4. Which Bamboo AI features are live for our account today, and which are still a test version? A good answer is a dated list by feature, in writing.
5. What does “Performance Data and Feedback” in the AI Addendum cover, and does it include our review data? A good answer is a written definition that puts review ratings and comments clearly in or out.
6. BambooHR gives OpenAI and Cohere as AI providers in its AI Addendum and adds Anthropic (Claude) in its subcontractor list. Which companies run the AI behind Bamboo AI for us, and where are they based? A good answer is a written provider list with a country for each, and notice before any change.
7. Which review tasks does the bar on high-risk, significant or consequential decisions cover in the AI Addendum? A good answer is a written list of the review tasks it covers and those it leaves out.
8. Can every AI feature stay off until we choose to switch it on? A good answer is that no AI feature is on for our account until an administrator switches it on.
9. BambooHR switched Ask BambooHR on automatically in an update. Will it be on when our account opens, and who can turn it off? A good answer is the name of the administrator who controls it and a written record of the setting.
10. Basic support runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain Time on weekdays, in English. What uptime figure and support hours will you put in our contract? A good answer is a stated uptime figure and a support schedule in writing.
11. Will you state in our contract whether our data trains your AI models? A good answer is one clear yes or no in the contract, covering the AI Addendum’s training clause.
12. BambooHR hosts customer data in the United States, Canada or Ireland, depending on the customer and the law. Which country will hold our records? A good answer is one country, stated in the order form.
13. How do managers’ ratings get compared across teams before they become final? A good answer is a view that puts every manager’s ratings side by side for HR to review first.
14. What is the price at renewal if we sign an extended term? A good answer is a renewal price fixed in the order form.
15. How do we export our review history, ratings and feedback within the 30 days? A good answer is a stated file format and an export we can run ourselves.

Alternatives to BambooHR

Lattice, 15Five, Leapsome, Culture Amp, Trakstar, PerformYard, ADP and Workday are the alternatives, and you can also buy nothing.

If you keep BambooHR for HR records and buy reviews elsewhere, check how BambooHR connects to the review tool first. BambooHR’s marketplace has a listing for each of Lattice, Leapsome and 15Five. Employees sync from BambooHR to Lattice, including the reporting structure. Employee data syncs from BambooHR to Leapsome every day. The 15Five connection syncs the team from BambooHR into 15Five and onboards and offboards employees automatically.

Lattice costs $10 a seat each month for Performance, with a $4,000 minimum annual agreement. 15Five costs $11 per user per month for Perform, billed annually. Leapsome prices Performance Reviews at EUR 7 per employee per month in its estimator. The estimator gives list prices only, and exact figures come in the quote. Culture Amp prices by employee count, product and service tier, and bills all products annually.

Trakstar prices by headcount, with onboarding and training included. PerformYard costs $5 to $15 per person per month. It includes links to HR systems and sign-in with the company’s own account in every plan.

ADP offers Workforce Now Performance Management for assessing and developing a team. You see its price only after you log in to ADP’s Marketplace. Workday charges for AI through Flex Credits, which count the work AI completes rather than the number of employees.

Buying nothing is another route if your current review process already does what you need.

For products beyond these, start at our performance management software guide.