Does BambooHR publish its payroll pricing?

No. BambooHR does not publish the price of its Payroll add-on. You must submit a quote request form and wait for a sales representative to follow up. This is a deliberate pricing strategy: the same approach used by ADP and Paychex. User-reported estimates on G2, Capterra, and Reddit suggest payroll adds $3–8/employee/month depending on team size and negotiated rate, but BambooHR does not confirm these numbers. If payroll pricing transparency matters to you, Gusto publishes every fee on its pricing page.

Is there a BambooHR free trial?

Yes. BambooHR offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. The trial gives access to all features of the plan you select. Seven days is enough to run test payroll cycles, set up employee profiles, and test the ATS: but it is shorter than Gusto's 30-day trial. BambooHR Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time & Attendance may not be fully testable without activating those add-ons during the trial. Contact BambooHR support at the start of the trial to clarify which add-ons are included.

What is the minimum BambooHR price?

The published minimum is $250/month for Core, which applies to companies with 25 or fewer employees. This means a 5-person team pays $250/month for BambooHR Core: the same as a 25-person team, because the per-employee price ($10 × 5 = $50) falls below the flat-rate minimum. For teams this small, Gusto Simple ($79/month for a 5-person team, payroll included) and Factorial (~$25/month for 5 people) are significantly cheaper. BambooHR's minimum makes it most cost-effective for teams of 25 or more.

What does the BambooHR Elite plan include?

BambooHR Elite, launched in 2026, costs $25/employee/month and adds three major features on top of Pro: Compensation Management (benchmarking, planning, levels and bands, pay visualization, total rewards statements), Custom Dashboards & Analytics (build your own reports with advanced visualizations and secure sharing), and HR Benchmarks (compare your turnover rate, age/gender distribution, and employee satisfaction scores against industry data). Elite also expands the ATS to 50 job openings (vs 25 on Pro), provides 300+ compliance training courses, and includes Premium Services (two administrator training sessions per year and two hours of data integrity services).

How does BambooHR pricing compare to Gusto?

At 25 employees: BambooHR Pro base is $425/month, Gusto Plus is $380/month. But BambooHR Pro doesn't include payroll: add that and the total is estimated at $500–600/month. At 50 employees: BambooHR Pro base is $850/month, Gusto Plus is $680/month with payroll included. BambooHR Pro wins if you need performance management (reviews, 360 feedback, goal tracking): Gusto has no performance module. Gusto wins on payroll pricing transparency, free trial length (30 days vs 7), and total cost for small teams. The decision hinges on whether performance management is a priority.

Does BambooHR offer a discount?

Yes: two confirmed discounts. First, a 15% bundle discount when you combine Payroll and Benefits Administration add-ons on any plan (US employees only). Second, non-profit discounts are available but not quantified publicly: non-profits should request pricing and disclose their status. Volume discounts also apply automatically as headcount grows, according to BambooHR's FAQ, but no thresholds or percentages are published. Annual contract discounts versus month-to-month pricing are not confirmed publicly but are common in enterprise HR software: ask your sales representative.

BambooHR Pricing 2026: Plans, Hidden Add-On Costs, and What You'll Actually Pay

Last updated: August 2026

TL;DR

BambooHR has three plans: Core at $10/employee/month, Pro at $17/employee/month, and Elite at $25/employee/month (new in 2026). For companies with 25 or fewer employees, a flat-rate minimum applies: Core starts at $250/month. Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time & Attendance are separate add-ons with unpublished prices that require a custom quote. Based on user-reported data, payroll typically adds $3–8/employee/month on top of the base plan. A 50-person team on BambooHR Pro with payroll likely pays $1,000–1,250/month total: compared to Gusto Plus at $680/month with full pricing transparency. BambooHR wins on HR features (performance management is included in Pro and Elite); Gusto wins on price and payroll transparency.

BambooHR's pricing page shows three clean per-employee prices and stops there. Payroll: the feature most companies add first: has no published price. Benefits Administration has no published price. Time & Attendance has no published price. You get a quote form instead. This guide pulls the published prices from bamboohr.com/pricing (verified August 2026), adds user-reported add-on estimates from public sources, and builds the cost picture that BambooHR's own pricing page doesn't provide.

BambooHR Plans and Pricing (August 2026)

BambooHR plan pricing verified at bamboohr.com/pricing, August 2026. Add-on pricing (Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance) is not published and requires a quote.

Plan	Price	Performance management	ATS openings	Compliance training	AI assistant
Core	$10/employee/month	Not included	5 job openings	1 course	Basic (HR data questions)
Pro	$17/employee/month	Included	25 job openings	15 courses	Core + company policies & docs
Elite (new)	$25/employee/month	Included	50 job openings	300+ courses	Advanced (benchmark questions)

ℹ What each plan actually adds

Core covers foundational HR: employee records, time off tracking, a basic ATS (5 openings), onboarding, and compliance tools. Pro adds Performance Management (reviews, 360 feedback, goal tracking, 1:1s), Employee Community, and Recognition & Rewards: the features that make BambooHR more than a recordkeeping system. Elite, launched in 2026, adds Compensation Management, Custom Dashboards & Analytics, HR Benchmarks (industry comparisons for turnover, age/gender, satisfaction), and 300+ compliance training courses. Elite is positioned for HR departments that need data benchmarking, not just data storage.

Small Business Pricing: The $250/Month Floor

BambooHR's official FAQ states: for companies with 25 or fewer employees, the software is charged at a monthly flat rate starting at $250/month. This minimum applies to Core. If you have 20 employees on Core, the per-employee math ($10 × 20 = $200) falls below the minimum, so you pay $250. The flat rate prevents smaller teams from getting a lower price than the $250 floor.

•Core plan minimum: $250/month for any team with 25 or fewer employees. The per-employee price of $10 only kicks in above 25 people.
•Pro and Elite minimums for small teams: not published. BambooHR routes all small-business quotes through their sales form. Based on the Core minimum logic, expect $425/month minimum for Pro (25 × $17) and $625/month for Elite (25 × $25).
•Volume discounts: BambooHR confirms automatic volume discounts apply as headcount grows. No thresholds or percentages are published.
•Non-profit discounts: available but not quantified publicly. Non-profits should request pricing directly and mention their status in the quote form.

Total Cost by Team Size: Base Plan Only

BambooHR base plan cost by team size, August 2026. Excludes add-ons (Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance: all require separate quotes). For teams of 25 or fewer, Core has a $250/month minimum.

Team size	Core	Pro	Elite
10 employees	$250/mo (minimum)	~$250–300/mo (est. minimum)	~$350–450/mo (est. minimum)
25 employees	$250/mo (minimum)	$425/mo	$625/mo
50 employees	$500/mo	$850/mo	$1,250/mo
100 employees	$1,000/mo	$1,700/mo	$2,500/mo
250 employees	$2,500/mo	$4,250/mo	$6,250/mo

⚠ These numbers don't include payroll

The table above covers the HRIS base plan only. BambooHR Payroll is the most common add-on: and its price is not published. Most teams that use BambooHR for people management also need payroll. The actual total is higher than the numbers above, by an amount BambooHR will not tell you until you complete their quote form.

Add-Ons: What BambooHR Doesn't Publish

BambooHR has four add-on modules, none with published pricing. The prices below are based on user-reported data from G2, Capterra, Reddit (r/humanresources, r/smallbusiness), and HR community forums as of 2026. BambooHR does not confirm or deny these estimates: treat them as directional, not guaranteed.

BambooHR add-on pricing: estimated based on user-reported data. All add-ons require a custom quote from BambooHR. US employees only for Payroll and Benefits Administration.

Add-on	Estimated cost	What it covers	Published?
Payroll	$3–8/employee/month	Direct deposit, federal/state tax filing, W-2s, flexible pay schedules	No: quote required
Benefits Administration	$4–6/employee/month	Open enrollment, carrier connections, life events, election management	No: quote required
Time & Attendance	$3–5/employee/month	Shift scheduling, overtime calculations, project tracking, time kiosk	No: quote required
Global Employment (EOR via Remote)	~$599/employee/month	EOR in 150+ countries, contractor management, global compliance	No: quote required
Bundle (Payroll + Benefits)	15% off combined	Automatic discount when both modules are added to any plan (US only)	Confirmed by BambooHR

Why the add-on pricing matters for the real total

A 50-person company running BambooHR Pro with payroll and benefits administration could be paying $850/month (base) plus an estimated $350–700/month in add-ons: for a realistic total of $1,200–1,550/month. That's 40–80% more than the base plan number. For comparison, Gusto Plus for 50 employees costs $680/month total, with no hidden add-on pricing for payroll: it's already included in the per-person fee.

BambooHR vs Gusto vs Rippling: Pricing at 50 Employees

HR software pricing comparison at 50 employees, August 2026. BambooHR total includes base + estimated add-on costs (payroll + benefits). * = estimated from user-reported data.

Software	Base price (50 people)	With payroll included	Transparent pricing?	Performance mgmt included?	Free trial
BambooHR Core	$500/mo	$650–900/mo (estimated)	Base only	No	7 days
BambooHR Pro	$850/mo	$1,050–1,250/mo (estimated)	Base only	Yes	7 days
Gusto Simple	$349/mo	$349/mo (payroll included)	Yes	No	30 days
Gusto Plus	$680/mo	$680/mo (payroll included)	Yes	No	30 days
Rippling HR + Payroll	~$1,085/mo (est.)	~$1,085/mo	Partial	Yes (add-on)	No
ADP RUN	Custom quote	Custom quote	No	No	No

When BambooHR Pricing Makes Sense

•You need performance management built in: BambooHR Pro includes review cycles, 360 feedback, goal tracking, and 1:1 management at $17/employee/month. Gusto doesn't offer performance management at any price point. For a 50-person team where HR owns performance reviews, paying $850/month for BambooHR Pro base (vs $680/month for Gusto Plus) buys a capability that would otherwise require a separate tool.
•You're between 25 and 200 employees: BambooHR is most cost-competitive in this range. Below 25 employees, the $250/month minimum makes Gusto Simple ($79–109/month for small teams) significantly cheaper. Above 500 employees, enterprise HRIS platforms (Workday, SAP SuccessFactors) typically make more sense.
•You don't need international payroll: BambooHR's Global Employment module (EOR via Remote) works but prices it as a Deel/Remote alternative. If your team is US-only, the base plan covers you. If you need international, Deel or Remote are likely cheaper and more specialized.
•You prefer HRIS-first, payroll-second: BambooHR was built as an HRIS and added payroll as an add-on. If your payroll is handled externally (PEO, accountant, ADP) and you mainly need employee records, time off, and HR workflows, BambooHR Core at $10/employee is strong value.

When to Consider Cheaper or More Transparent Alternatives

•Under 25 employees needing payroll: Gusto Simple ($79/month for a 5-person team vs BambooHR's $250/month minimum) is substantially cheaper and includes payroll in the base price. BambooHR's small-business floor makes it expensive for small teams.
•You need full payroll transparency before buying: BambooHR's quote process takes 1–3 business days to get a total number. Gusto publishes every price online. If comparing vendors on a deadline, Gusto's published pricing saves a sales cycle.
•Performance management is not a priority: If you only need payroll + time off tracking + basic HR records, Gusto Simple or Factorial covers the use case at a lower and more predictable cost than BambooHR Core + Payroll add-on.
•You need built-in IT management: Rippling bundles HR, payroll, and IT (app provisioning, device management, identity management) in one platform. BambooHR has no IT module. For companies managing software access as part of HR operations, Rippling's broader platform justifies its higher cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

BambooHR's base plan costs $10/employee/month (Core), $17/employee/month (Pro), or $25/employee/month (Elite). For companies with 25 or fewer employees, a flat-rate minimum applies: Core starts at $250/month. Payroll, Benefits Administration, and Time & Attendance are separate add-ons with unpublished pricing that requires a custom quote. Based on user-reported data, adding payroll typically costs an additional $3–8/employee/month. A 50-person team on BambooHR Pro with payroll likely pays $1,050–1,250/month total: roughly 25–45% more than the published base plan price.