BambooHR publishes starting prices of $10 per employee per month for Core, $17 per employee per month for Pro, and $25 per employee per month for Elite for organizations with more than 25 employees. Companies with 25 or fewer employees receive flat monthly pricing starting at $250.
Those prices cover BambooHR’s base human resources software. They do not include BambooHR Payroll, full Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance, Managed Payroll, or Employer of Record services. BambooHR prices those products separately and requires businesses to request a quote.
As a result, the advertised base rate does not reveal what a company will pay for a complete HR and payroll setup. Headcount, selected plan, add-ons, automatic volume discounts, contract length, implementation needs, and additional services can all affect the final BambooHR cost.
This guide explains how BambooHR’s pricing model works, what its three plans include, which products cost extra, and how to estimate a realistic budget before contacting sales.
BambooHR pricing at a glance
Core: Published starting rate of $10 per employee per month for organizations with more than 25 employees
Pro: Published starting rate of $17 per employee per month for organizations with more than 25 employees
Elite: Published starting rate of $25 per employee per month for organizations with more than 25 employees
Teams with 25 or fewer employees: Flat monthly pricing starting at $250
Payroll: Paid add-on with custom pricing
Benefits Administration: Paid add-on with custom pricing
Time & Attendance: Paid add-on with custom pricing
Volume discounts: Applied automatically, but the discount schedule is not public
Contracts: Month-to-month and extended-term arrangements are available
The most important distinction is that Core, Pro, and Elite are HR software plans, not payroll plans. None includes BambooHR Payroll in its published base price.
How the BambooHR pricing model works
BambooHR uses a modular pricing structure built around its core human resources information system (HRIS). Businesses first select Core, Pro, or Elite and then add products such as payroll, benefits administration, or work-time tracking.
Organizations with more than 25 employees pay PEPM rates
For organizations with 26 or more employees, BambooHR publishes starting per-employee-per-month, or PEPM, rates:
Plan | Published starting rate |
Core | $10 per employee per month |
Pro | $17 per employee per month |
Elite | $25 per employee per month |
BambooHR says it automatically applies volume discounts as headcount rises. It does not publish the discount tiers, so multiplying a standard rate by a larger employee count produces a useful reference amount rather than a guaranteed invoice.
Smaller organizations receive flat-rate pricing.
Organizations with 25 or fewer employees receive flat monthly pricing starting at $250. BambooHR does not publish a separate small-company rate for every plan.
That distinction matters. A five-person employer should not assume that Core costs exactly $250 or that Pro and Elite carry the same price. The only public figure is the starting monthly rate for this headcount group.
Major operational products cost extra.
The following products and services generally cost extra beyond the Core, Pro, or Elite subscription:
BambooHR Payroll
BambooHR Benefits Administration
BambooHR Time & Attendance
Managed Payroll
Employer of Record services powered by Remote
HR Consulting Services
Additional data, training, payroll-reporting, and physical time-clock services
BambooHR does not disclose standard prices for most of these products. Businesses need a customized quote to determine their all-in cost.
Elite includes limited annual data integrity and new-administrator training benefits. Additional projects or training beyond those entitlements may require a separate quote.
BambooHR plans and pricing
BambooHR’s three plans add progressively more advanced HR, performance, compensation, analytics, training, and support functions. Moving to a higher plan does not add payroll to the base subscription.
Feature | Core | Pro | Elite |
Published rate for more than 25 employees | Starting at $10 PEPM | Starting at $17 PEPM | Starting at $25 PEPM |
Employee records and directory | Included | Included | Included |
Documents, workflows, and approvals | Included | Included | Included |
Custom HR reports | Included | Included | Included |
Applicant tracking | Up to 5 openings | Up to 25 openings | Up to 50 openings |
Onboarding, offboarding, and e-signatures | Included | Included | Included |
Time-off management | Included | Included | Included |
Benefits tracking | Included | Included | Included |
Performance management | Not listed | Included | Included |
Employee community and recognition | Not listed | Included | Included |
Compensation management | Not listed | Not listed | Included |
Mercer compensation benchmarks | Not listed | Not listed | Included |
Expanded dashboards and HR benchmarks | Not listed | Not listed | Included |
Compliance-training access | 1 course | 15 courses | 300+ courses |
Dedicated and premium service features | Not listed | Not listed | Included |
Payroll | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Benefits Administration | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Time & Attendance | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Feature availability can depend on the current plan comparison, account configuration, permissions, and purchased add-ons.
BambooHR Core
BambooHR publishes a starting rate of $10 per employee per month for Core for organizations with more than 25 employees, before automatic volume discounts.
Core provides the central HR system, including employee records, document storage, workflows, approvals, reporting, hiring, onboarding, time-off management, and benefits tracking.
The plan allows up to five open jobs in the applicant tracking system. It also provides baseline employee experience and compliance tools, including access to one compliance training course.
Core may suit an employer that primarily needs a central employee database and standard HR administration. It does not include performance management, compensation management, payroll, worked-time tracking, scheduling, or full benefits enrollment.
BambooHR Pro
BambooHR publishes a starting rate of $17 per employee per month for Pro for organizations with more than 25 employees, before automatic volume discounts.
Pro includes Core’s HR functions and adds performance management, employee community and recognition, more compliance training content, and expanded product capabilities.
The Pro applicant tracking system supports up to 25 open positions. The plan also includes access to 15 compliance-training courses.
Pro may be more practical for an organization that wants to manage reviews, goals, feedback, and employee programs in the same HR system. Compensation management and BambooHR’s most advanced analytics remain reserved for Elite.
BambooHR Elite
BambooHR publishes a starting rate of $25 per employee per month for Elite for organizations with more than 25 employees, before automatic volume discounts.
Elite adds compensation planning, job levels and bands, Mercer compensation benchmarks, expanded dashboards, HR benchmarks, 300+ compliance-training courses, and premium service features.
The plan supports up to 50 open positions in BambooHR’s applicant tracking system. It also includes dedicated support and specified training, data integrity, and service benefits.
Elite appears most relevant to HR teams that need compensation analysis, broader workforce analytics, expanded training, and more hands-on service. Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time & Attendance still incur an extra cost.
BambooHR cost examples by company size.
The following examples use BambooHR’s published base-plan rates. They exclude payroll, benefits administration, worked-time tracking, implementation, consulting, insurance premiums, taxes, and other separately priced services.
Company scenario | Public monthly calculation | Important qualification |
5 employees | Starting at $250 | Equivalent to $50 per employee at the published floor; exact plan price may be higher |
10 employees | Starting at $250 | Equivalent to $25 per employee at the published floor; exact plan price may be higher |
25 employees | Starting at $250 | Equivalent to $10 per employee at the published floor; exact plan price may be higher |
50 employees on Core | $500 before volume discount | 50 × $10 |
50 employees on Pro | $850 before volume discount | 50 × $17 |
50 employees on Elite | $1,250 before volume discount | 50 × $25 |
Assumptions: These examples use the public small-company floor or standard PEPM rates. BambooHR’s unpublished automatic volume discounts may reduce the 50-employee amounts. All add-ons are excluded.
The small-company pricing structure can make BambooHR comparatively expensive on a per-person basis for very small teams. At the $250 floor, a five-person company would spend at least $50 per employee per month before adding payroll or time-tracking.
Larger companies should not treat the nominal multiplication as a guaranteed quote. BambooHR says volume discounts apply automatically, but buyers need a sales proposal to see the actual discounted rate.
How much does BambooHR Payroll cost?
BambooHR does not publicly disclose a standard price for BambooHR Payroll. Payroll is a paid U.S. add-on that requires the BambooHR platform.
This means BambooHR Payroll pricing cannot be calculated based on the $10, $17, or $25 base plan rates. Those figures apply only to the HR plans.
What BambooHR Payroll includes
BambooHR describes its payroll product as supporting:
U.S. employee payroll
Unlimited payroll runs
Direct deposit
Federal, state, and local payroll-tax filing
W-2 creation
1099 document support
Multiple pay rates
Garnishment support
Payroll reports and history
Custom journal reporting
Accounting connections for supported systems
BambooHR can act as a tax-filing agent where required. Customers remain responsible for providing complete and accurate information, maintaining sufficient funds, supplying applicable tax IDs and rates, and reviewing their obligations.
The available public sources do not confirm the existence of a separately priced contractor-only plan. Support for 1099 documents should not be interpreted as proof that BambooHR offers a complete contractor payment or international contractor management product.
Possible payroll costs beyond the subscription
BambooHR’s public legal documents allow additional charges in certain circumstances, but they do not publish a complete fee schedule.
Potential costs include:
Correcting inaccurate or incomplete customer-provided payroll data
Other additional payroll work
Courier or mailing expenses
Insufficient funds cost
Payroll implementation, processing, or auxiliary services identified in the agreement or order form
The amounts and applicability are not publicly disclosed. Businesses should request a written fee schedule and ask BambooHR to identify every recurring, conditional, and one-time payroll charge before signing.
Managed Payroll costs extra
BambooHR also offers Managed Payroll for eligible customers who want BambooHR personnel to prepare and administer more of the payroll process.
Managed Payroll requires an active BambooHR Payroll subscription and carries a separate PEPM fee. BambooHR does not publish that fee, so buyers need quotes for both the payroll software and the managed service.
Other BambooHR add-ons and additional costs
A complete BambooHR budget may include several products beyond the base HR plan.
Benefits Administration
Benefits tracking is included in the base plans, but full Benefits Administration is not. The add-on supports U.S. benefits enrollment, employee elections, reporting, broker access, and connections with supported carriers.
BambooHR is not the benefits broker. Customers continue working with their own broker, and carrier connectivity depends on the supported provider and plan.
BambooHR’s terms also state that Benefits Administration may carry additional implementation, processing, or auxiliary fees. Buyers should ask for these charges to be itemized in the proposal.
Time & Attendance
Time-off requests, balances, policies, and calendars are part of the base HR platform. Tracking hours worked is different.
Businesses need the Time & Attendance add-on for timesheets, clock-in functions, scheduling, projects, approvals, geolocation functions, and automated overtime calculations. A physical time-clock arrangement may require an additional subscription and a hardware cost.
Product or service | Pricing status | What it adds |
BambooHR Payroll | Custom quote | U.S. payroll, direct deposit, tax filing, payroll reports, and related functions |
Benefits Administration | Custom quote | Enrollment, elections, reporting, broker access, and supported carrier connections |
Time & Attendance | Custom quote | Worked-time tracking, timesheets, approvals, projects, scheduling, and overtime calculations |
Managed Payroll | Custom quote | Additional payroll preparation and administration services |
Employer of Record | Custom quote | International hiring through Remote, which serves as the legal employer |
HR Consulting Services | Custom quote | Project-based or ongoing HR guidance |
Additional data and training services | Not publicly disclosed | Data imports, exports, account-copy work, data assistance, or additional training |
Physical time-clock service | Not publicly disclosed | Hardware-supported time-clock capabilities |
Employer of Record services
BambooHR offers Employer of Record services powered by Remote. Remote, rather than BambooHR, serves as the worker’s legal employer.
This service is not the same as native multicountry payroll for employees hired through a company’s own international entities. Country availability, employment terms, deposits, offboarding costs, and pricing depend on Remote and the applicable country.
BambooHR discounts, contracts, and implementation costs
BambooHR offers several discount programs but does not disclose all pricing adjustments.
Published discounts
Automatic volume discounts: BambooHR applies discounts as employee count rises, but it does not publish the tiers.
Nonprofit discount: Registered nonprofits receive a 15% discount.
Product bundle discount: BambooHR advertises 15% off when Payroll and Benefits Administration are combined with a base plan for eligible U.S.-based employees.
BambooHR allows annual upfront payment, but buyers should not assume a specific annual-payment discount without a written quote.
Month-to-month and extended terms
BambooHR offers month-to-month and extended-term subscriptions.
A month-to-month subscription can generally end on the final day of the month in which it is canceled. BambooHR does not provide a partial-month refund under its standard terms.
Extended-term subscriptions are generally non-cancelable during the agreed term. They automatically renew for another 12 months unless the customer provides notice at least 60 days before expiration. Ending an extended subscription early can leave the remaining term fees due.
Order forms may also contain minimum employee counts, minimum product commitments, coterminous add-ons, or other customer-specific conditions.
Implementation
BambooHR says a general implementation usually takes four to six weeks. Standard implementations include an implementation specialist, while organizations with fewer than 25 employees may use BambooHR’s QuickStart process and office hours.
The company does not publish a universal implementation price. It offers additional data-integrity, training, payroll-reporting, and related services for separate fees, although Elite includes limited annual data-integrity and new-administrator training benefits.
Buyers should ask which implementation, migration, configuration, training, and data-conversion work is included in the subscription.
BambooHR pricing compared with Gusto
A fair BambooHR-versus-Gusto pricing comparison should use equivalent product scope rather than the two companies’ headline prices.
BambooHR’s published rates cover a base HRIS plan. A company that also needs payroll, full benefits administration, and work-time tracking must add three separately priced products. Because those prices require quotes, the final BambooHR total cannot be calculated publicly.
Use the following framework when comparing BambooHR with Gusto:
Pricing question | BambooHR | What to verify with Gusto |
What does the base price buy? | A base HRIS plan—Core, Pro, or Elite—rather than payroll | Which current Gusto plan provides the payroll and HR functions you need |
Is payroll included in the listed price? | No, Payroll is a quoted add-on. | Confirm payroll inclusion, tax-filing scope, and special-service charges |
Is benefits administration included? | Benefits tracking is included; full administration costs extra | Confirm administration, brokerage, carrier, and premium arrangements |
Is work-time tracking included? | Time off is included; worked-time tracking and scheduling cost extra | Confirm the selected plan’s time and scheduling functions |
Can the total be calculated publicly? | Only the base HR cost | Add the current plan price and any required add-ons |
What contract applies? | Month-to-month or extended term | Review the selected provider’s current order form and cancellation terms |
Which HR functions matter? | Recruiting, onboarding, records, reporting, performance, compensation, and analytics vary by tier | Compare equivalent HR functions rather than treating every plan as interchangeable |
BambooHR may make sense for an HR-led organization that wants a dedicated system of record with capabilities for recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, and analytics. A business focused primarily on payroll should compare the cost of BambooHR’s required base platform and payroll add-on against the full price of a payroll-centered alternative.
Because BambooHR does not disclose its add-on rates, no responsible comparison can declare BambooHR or Gusto universally cheaper without current, company-specific BambooHR quotes and an equivalent feature comparison.
Is BambooHR worth the price?
BambooHR may be worth the price for an organization that needs a structured HR system rather than payroll alone.
Its base platform combines employee records, reporting, hiring, onboarding, document management, workflows, time-off management, and employee experience functions. Pro and Elite add performance management, community features, compensation tools, benchmarks, expanded analytics, and larger compliance-training libraries.
BambooHR may be a good fit for:
HR-led organizations seeking a central system of record
Employers who need recruiting and onboarding in the base platform
Teams that want performance management or compensation planning
Businesses that already use another payroll provider
Companies that value HR reporting, employee data, and configurable workflows
Organizations willing to obtain quotes for add-ons and implementation
BambooHR may be less suitable for:
Very small businesses are concerned about the $250 monthly starting floor
Companies seeking only basic payroll
Buyers who need a completely public all-in price
Employers seeking a contractor-only subscription
Businesses requiring a directly delivered native multicountry payroll engine
Companies looking for PEO co-employment services
BambooHR states that it is HR software, not a PEO. Its Remote-powered EOR service uses a separate model in which Remote serves as the legal employer for eligible international hires.
BambooHR pricing FAQ
How much does BambooHR cost per month?
For organizations with more than 25 employees, BambooHR publishes starting rates of $10 per employee per month for Core, $17 per employee per month for Pro, and $25 per employee per month for Elite. Automatic volume discounts can change the actual quoted rate.
Organizations with 25 or fewer employees receive flat monthly pricing starting at $250. Add-ons cost extra.
Does BambooHR include payroll?
No. BambooHR Payroll is a separately priced U.S. add-on and is not included in Core, Pro, or Elite. BambooHR does not publish a standard payroll price, so businesses must request a custom quote.
What is the cheapest BambooHR plan?
Core has the lowest published PEPM starting rate at $10 per employee for organizations with more than 25 employees. Smaller organizations receive flat monthly pricing starting at $250, but BambooHR does not publish an exact Core price for every small-business headcount.
Is there a free version of BambooHR?
The reviewed public sources do not identify a permanent free BambooHR plan. Public pricing begins with a flat rate starting at $250 per month for organizations with 25 or fewer employees.
Businesses should ask BambooHR whether a demo or temporary trial is currently available.
Does BambooHR offer discounts?
Yes. BambooHR publishes automatic volume discounts, a 15% registered-nonprofit discount, and a 15% bundle discount when eligible U.S.-based employees receive Payroll and Benefits Administration alongside a base plan.
The volume-discount schedule is not public.
Can I use BambooHR without its payroll add-on?
Yes. BambooHR’s base product is an HRIS, and businesses can use Core, Pro, or Elite while keeping a separate payroll provider.
Buyers should confirm how employee, time, deduction, and accounting data will move between the systems.
Does BambooHR support international payroll?
The reviewed sources do not confirm the existence of a native BambooHR multicountry payroll engine. BambooHR provides U.S. payroll and directs other needs to local integrations, marketplace partners, or its Remote-powered Employer of Record service.
What additional BambooHR costs should I budget for?
Potential additional costs include Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance, Managed Payroll, EOR services, consulting, data services, additional training, implementation work, and physical time-clock services.
Payroll corrections, insufficient funds, courier charges, or additional work may also produce contract-specific charges. Benefits Administration may carry additional implementation, processing, or auxiliary fees.
Does BambooHR require a long-term contract?
Not always. BambooHR offers month-to-month and extended-term subscriptions.
Extended terms are generally non-cancelable and renew for 12 months unless the customer gives at least 60 days’ notice before expiration.
How long does the BambooHR implementation take?
BambooHR generally estimates four to six weeks for implementation. Actual timing depends on company size, data quality, selected products, integrations, configuration, and customer readiness.
Sources
Pricing and plan details are drawn from BambooHR's own pricing page (the published Core/Pro/Elite rates, the $250 small-company floor, contract terms, and the modular add-on model) and BambooHR's legal/terms documentation for the conditional payroll and benefits charges. Add-on prices (Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance, Managed Payroll, EOR) are quote-based and not published; where ranges appear in the market they are third-party estimates only.
BambooHR HR software pricing — Core $10, Pro $17, Elite $25 PEPM (26+ employees); $250/mo flat rate (≤25 employees); automatic volume discounts; month-to-month and extended terms
BambooHR plans and features comparison — tier-by-tier feature differences (ATS openings, compliance-training courses, performance, compensation, Mercer benchmarks); Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time & Attendance shown as add-ons
Disclaimer
Pricing is accurate as of June 2026. The Core ($10), Pro ($17), and Elite ($25) per-employee-per-month rates apply to organizations with more than 25 employees and are starting rates before BambooHR's undisclosed automatic volume discounts; organizations with 25 or fewer employees pay a flat rate starting at $250/month. These rates cover BambooHR's HR software only — Payroll, full Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance, Managed Payroll, Employer of Record (via Remote), and HR Consulting are separately priced and quote-based, so a complete total can't be calculated from public rates. Implementation, data/training, and other conditional or pass-through charges may also apply. This content is informational only, is not financial, tax, or legal advice, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by BambooHR LLC. BambooHR® is a trademark of BambooHR LLC. Verify current pricing directly with BambooHR before purchasing.
