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BambooHR vs Gusto comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

BambooHR
Ranking in Benefits Administration
7th
Ranking in Talent Management
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Cloud HCM (6th)
Gusto
Ranking in Benefits Administration
22nd
Ranking in Talent Management
38th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of BambooHR is 2.7%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gusto is 0.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration
 

Featured Reviews

Ram-Mohan - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre-built adapters simplify CI/CD processes but monitoring improvements are needed
If Bamboo can provide a dashboard with tool health, such as whether the master or instance has the required space, it would be beneficial. Sometimes, when I trigger a build, it ends with no space on the agent machine where the agents are installed. If Bamboo can create an internal monitoring mechanism and display the tool's health status on the landing page or homepage, it would help end users and DevOps Engineers like me.
Mimi Evans - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to use solution that offers a lot; gives employees the option to get cash advances
I think it's great that it syncs with QuickBooks Online and any payroll software that syncs with QuickBooks Online is great. My issue with their syncing was that every single account for a deduction went to a liability account, but not a lot of businesses run that way. As of September, they did not have the ability for me to put an employee's deduction for benefits in anything but a liability account; which made it not difficult, but added a manual step to the syncing of the entering of our payroll between Gusto and QuickBooks Online. I would also like for the tech support to be more responsive. Gusto also advertises their health benefits, but they don't do a good job of explaining why it's a better option to go through them. I think there's more communication that could be done on that. I also think that there are some HR benefits that they could be offering to these lower plans, without having to go to the Premium Plan. I think that that's something that they should consider in the future.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The tool's most valuable features are the recruitment module, performance module, and document storage."
"Bamboo has a vast number of pre-built adapters which can be used as plug and play components."
"We use this solution for our end to end HR needs from onboarding and hiring to learning."
"It's very user-friendly and easy to train someone new. It was easy to implement and get someone onboarded on the system."
"The performance goals and personal features of every employee with the dashboard is most valuable."
"Bamboo has a vast number of pre-built adapters which can be used as plug and play components."
"I can easily go to BambooHR to search for any staff member in the company."
"The solution's technical support is super responsive and helpful. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"I like the payroll part. We also use documents and forms whenever we hire, such as a new hire form for each state, and we like that as well."
"I appreciated the templates that they offered for new hires and onboarding."
 

Cons

"In the BambooHR performance management annual evaluations we have some limits to the questions. We can only add four extra questions, and they already have three basic questions, this is not easy for us. We would like to have more flexibility with the questions."
"The color palettes could be changed to make the solution a little more attractive and easier to use."
"The performance could be improved. When you save some documents, it takes longer to store them in BambooHR's systems than it used to. Something needs to be upgraded or fixed in the code. Alow, we provide services to other companies, so Bamboo isn't able to help us in many areas because of the way we work."
"The UI needs improvement because it needs to be more user-friendly."
"BambooHR needs to have more flexibility around performance management."
"It would be useful to have the possibility to assign a task to the different users within the software."
"BambooHR could be improved by managing leave in a way that transfers remaining days at the end of the annual year to the following year."
"It would be good to include more options for approvals and workflows. They are deliberately not the most sophisticated version of anything that they do, but it is like 80/20. They hit the vast majority of all the needs, but I have started to run up against the limits of their functionality. It has forced me to start paying attention to the marketplace or sending feedback to BambooHR. Clients are still happy though. Timesheets is a new area in which they're slowly expanding. It is currently very limited, but it meets the needs of standard nine-to-five salary employees who just want to be able to key in their time, have it approved, and then pushed off to payroll. It does not have any of the bells and whistles that an hourly employee or hourly worker might need. That is one area that is currently limited, but they have integrations with some of the best companies that do that."
"Their enrollment e-signature, enrollment forms, and other documents need a lot of work. Once we fill in the information, we cannot go back and change any of that. It's a time-taking process. If there is any mistake in the document and if we need to go and change a specific field in the form, it's not possible. We have to redo the entire form."
"In the beginning, their support was top-notch. And then around the beginning of 2022, and end of 2021, their support tanked. We used to get responses in the beginning within one to two business days, and towards the end, we were getting responses in one to two business weeks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"We pay a monthly subscription to use the solution. The subscript model is based on how many employees we have active."
"It was definitely cheaper than some of the larger systems."
"Price-wise, the solution is in the middle compared to other tools offering similar functionalities."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering BambooHR?
Organizations of all sizes, especially those that are experiencing rapid growth, want to have a way to effectively manage their HR operations. Our organization feels that BambooHR is an HR manageme...
What do you like most about BambooHR?
The tool's most valuable features are the recruitment module, performance module, and document storage.
What needs improvement with BambooHR?
If Bamboo can provide a dashboard with tool health, such as whether the master or instance has the required space, it would be beneficial. Sometimes, when I trigger a build, it ends with no space o...
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Find out what your peers are saying about BambooHR vs. Gusto and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,959 professionals have used our research since 2012.