BambooHR Pricing 2026: Core, Pro and Elite Cost Per Employee

Quick answer: BambooHR pricing depends on headcount. Companies with more than 25 employees pay per employee per month: Core $10, Pro $17 and Elite $25. Companies with 25 employees or fewer pay a flat monthly rate starting at $250/month. Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance and Global Employment are add-ons quoted separately. A 50-person team pays $500, $850 or $1,250 a month at list rates before volume discounts. Vendor-published on bamboohr.com/pricing, checked September 2026.

BambooHR now publishes its starting prices, which was not always the case. That makes the base subscription easy to estimate. The harder part is everything around it: the flat rate for small teams, the add-ons that are still quote-only, and the discounts that are applied automatically as headcount grows.

This guide covers what each BambooHR plan costs, what you would pay at 10, 50, 100 and 250 employees, how the add-ons and discounts work, and how the price compares with other HR platforms. For what the software is actually like to use, read our BambooHR review.

How Much Does BambooHR Cost?

BambooHR uses two pricing models, and which one applies depends only on how many employees you have:

• More than 25 employees: a per-employee, per-month price. Core starts at $10, Pro at $17 and Elite at $25 per employee per month (USD).
• 25 employees or fewer: a flat monthly rate starting at $250 per month.

BambooHR’s pricing page marks each plan price with an asterisk noting that volume and non-profit discounts are available, and every plan still routes through a “Get Quote” button. So treat the published numbers as list prices: your quote should be at or below them for the core plan, and it will add a separate line for any add-on you choose.

All figures in this guide are vendor-published, checked September 2026.

BambooHR Pricing Plans: Core, Pro and Elite

The three plans are cumulative: Pro includes everything in Core, and Elite includes everything in Pro. The table shows the price and the plan limits that most often decide which tier a company needs.

	Core	Pro	Elite
Price (more than 25 employees)	$10 per employee/month	$17 per employee/month	$25 per employee/month
Open jobs in the applicant tracking system	5	25	50
Compliance training courses (EasyLlama)	1	15	300+
AI assistant	HR data questions	Adds company policies and documents	Adds benchmark questions and analysis
Performance management (review cycles, 360 feedback, 1:1s, goals)	No	Yes	Yes
Employee community, recognition and rewards	No	Yes	Yes
Compensation planning, Mercer salary benchmarks, levels and bands	No	No	Yes
Custom dashboards and HR benchmarks	No	No	Yes
Premium services (admin training, data integrity hours)	No	No	Yes

Core ($10) covers the HRIS itself: employee records, standard and custom reports, workflows and approvals, hiring and onboarding, time-off management, benefits tracking, eNPS surveys, compliance support powered by VirgilHR and on-demand pay.

Pro ($17) is the plan to price if you want performance reviews inside BambooHR. It adds review cycles, 360-degree feedback, 1:1s and goal tracking, plus the employee community and recognition tools.

Elite ($25) adds compensation management, custom dashboards, HR benchmarks and premium services: 2 new-administrator training sessions and 2 hours of data integrity services a year, dedicated customer support and an additional 30 days of implementation for Elite features.

The BambooHR review walks through how these features perform in practice. This page sticks to the cost.

How Much Does BambooHR Cost Per Employee Per Month?

Above 25 employees, the per-employee rate is $10 on Core, $17 on Pro and $25 on Elite. Multiplying the list rate by headcount gives the ceiling for the core subscription. Actual quotes should come in lower as headcount rises, because BambooHR applies volume discounts automatically.

Employees	Core (monthly / yearly)	Pro (monthly / yearly)	Elite (monthly / yearly)
10	Flat rate, starting at $250/month ($3,000/year)
25	Flat rate, starting at $250/month ($3,000/year)
50	$500 / $6,000	$850 / $10,200	$1,250 / $15,000
100	$1,000 / $12,000	$1,700 / $20,400	$2,500 / $30,000
250	$2,500 / $30,000	$4,250 / $51,000	$6,250 / $75,000

These are list-price calculations from the published rates, before volume discounts and before any add-on. They are useful as a budget ceiling and as a check on the quote you receive.

How Much Does BambooHR Cost for a Small Business?

If you have 25 employees or fewer, you pay a flat monthly rate that starts at $250 per month, not a per-employee price. For a 10-person company that works out to at least $25 per employee per month, which is more per head than the Elite list rate for larger companies. At 25 employees the flat starting rate is the equivalent of $10 per employee, the same as Core.

BambooHR’s pricing page does not say which plan the $250 starting rate applies to, so ask for the flat rate on Core, Pro and Elite separately when you request a quote.

For very small teams whose main need is paying people, a payroll-first tool can cost less. Gusto’s pricing starts at $49 per month plus $6 per person on its Simple plan, which is $109 a month for 10 people with payroll included.

What Does BambooHR Charge for Payroll, Benefits and Time Tracking?

BambooHR lists four add-on solutions that sit outside the Core, Pro and Elite prices. None of them has a published price, so each is quoted.

Add-on	What it covers (per bamboohr.com)	Availability	Price
Payroll	Direct deposit, flexible pay schedules, federal and state tax filing, a dedicated payroll project manager for setup	US employees only	Quote
Benefits Administration	Self-guided benefits configuration, open enrollment, life events, election approval, carrier connections	US employees only	Quote
Time & Attendance	Shift scheduling, meal and rest breaks, project tracking and billable hours, overtime calculations, iPad time kiosk	Listed without a US restriction	Quote
Global Employment (powered by Remote)	Employer of record and contractor management for hiring outside your own entities	International	Quote

If you plan to use Payroll and Benefits Administration together, BambooHR offers a 15% bundle discount when both are combined with any plan. The bundle discount currently applies only to US-based employees.

For companies with staff outside the US, BambooHR says non-US payroll runs through local payroll integrations (for example in the UK, Australia and New Zealand), global payroll partners in its marketplace, or its employer-of-record service.

Does BambooHR Offer Discounts?

Yes. BambooHR publishes three discounts:

• Volume discounts are applied automatically based on headcount and increase as headcount grows. BambooHR says you do not need to request or negotiate them.
• Non-profit discount: an additional 15% off for registered non-profit organizations.
• Bundle discount: 15% off when Payroll and Benefits Administration are combined with any plan (US employees only).

Is BambooHR Free to Use? Free Trial and Free Plan

BambooHR has no free plan: every plan on the pricing page is paid. It does offer a free trial. The sign-up page says no credit card is required and the trial ends automatically, so there is no charge if you do not convert. You can also request a demo instead.

If you need a free HR tool rather than a trial, our guide to free HR software compares the free plans that are available.

BambooHR Contract Terms and Payment Methods

BambooHR lets you choose month-to-month terms or an extended term. Customers paying monthly can use a credit card or ACH. Wire transfers and checks are accepted from customers who pay annually upfront. As headcount changes, BambooHR says pricing adjusts automatically.

What Happened to BambooHR Essentials and Advantage?

Older price guides describe two BambooHR packages, Essentials and Advantage. BambooHR’s current pricing page does not list either name. It lists Core, Pro and Elite, with the prices above. If a quote, contract or older article refers to Essentials or Advantage, ask BambooHR which current plan and which features it maps to before comparing prices.

Costs to Budget for Beyond the Subscription

The plan price is the largest line, but it is rarely the whole bill. Before comparing BambooHR with another vendor, get a fully loaded figure that includes:

• Every add-on you will use. Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time & Attendance and Global Employment are all quoted separately.
• The plan you will need in a year, not today. Core allows 5 open jobs in the applicant tracking system, Pro 25 and Elite 50. Performance reviews start on Pro and compensation planning on Elite. A company that expects to need either should price the higher plan now.
• Internal setup time. Migrating records and configuring workflows and time-off policies takes HR time. Elite includes admin training sessions, data integrity hours and extra implementation days; on Core and Pro, ask what setup support is included.
• Marketplace apps. BambooHR lists more than 150 integrations. Some partner apps are sold by the partner, so check whether any tool you need carries its own fee.
• Renewal terms. Ask what the rate becomes at renewal and how the automatic headcount adjustment is calculated.

BambooHR Pricing vs Competitors

BambooHR is one of the few HRIS vendors that publishes per-employee prices. Here is how its entry price compares with the platforms buyers most often price alongside it. All figures are vendor-published, checked September 2026.

Platform	Published starting price	Payroll included?
BambooHR	Core $10, Pro $17, Elite $25 per employee/month (flat from $250/month at 25 or fewer)	No, US-only add-on
Gusto	Simple $49/month + $6 per person; Plus $80 + $12; Premium $180 + $22	Yes (US)
Rippling	Custom quote	Separate product, quoted
Deel	EOR $599 per employee/month; contractors $49/month; US PEO $125 per employee/month	Within EOR and PEO
Lattice	Foundations $13 per seat/month; $4,000 minimum annual agreement	Not in Foundations
Factorial	From $8 per user/month	Check with vendor
HiBob	Quote only (demo request)	Check with vendor

For the full comparison, including which platform fits which situation, see our guide to BambooHR competitors and alternatives. For head-to-head pricing, read BambooHR vs Workday and Rippling vs BambooHR. Our HR software pricing guide covers the wider market.

Is BambooHR Worth the Price?

On price alone, BambooHR Core at $10 per employee is competitive for a company above 25 employees that wants an HRIS with hiring, onboarding, time off and reporting. The value question turns on two things: whether you need Pro or Elite features (which raise the price by 70% or 150% over Core), and whether you need payroll, which is an extra quoted add-on and only covers US employees. Teams at or under 25 people pay the flat rate, so the per-person cost is highest for the smallest companies.

Whether the product justifies the price is a question about the software, not the rate card. Our BambooHR review covers features, user ratings, pros and cons, and who it suits. You can also see user ratings on the BambooHR profile on Spotsaas.

Related reading: BambooHR vs Gusto 2026: HRIS-First or Payroll-First?

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