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BambooHR vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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
9th
Ranking in Talent Management
9th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Workday
Ranking in Benefits Administration
1st
Ranking in Talent Management
2nd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of BambooHR is 2.8%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 18.5%, up from 18.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Vineeth John - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a certain level of simplicity with the whole package and intutive
We used Payworks. Payworks is designed strictly for payroll. It's not really meant to be an HRIS tool because it doesn't allow for an employee profile, for example. You can't manage a lot of employee information, track training, recruitment, or any of that stuff. They've added an applicant tracking module, but it's still very basic. So adding BambooHR was very complementary to having it covered. The only problem was the two systems didn't talk to each other. It was a bit of a hassle for us to maintain the two systems, going back and forth and making sure the data was centralized when we made changes.
Sarvesh Kumar Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use and provides great flexibility and security
Implementing the solution is generally not easy because it depends on our client's landscape. In the last one and a half years, Workday has started a new implementation approach called launch implementation. This approach allows you, as a client organization, to implement Workday in a shorter amount of time, given that you fulfill certain criteria. It depends on the number of subsidiaries and employees you have and their compensation structure. If it's not too complex, Workday provides its clients with this new approach called launch, where they can quickly onboard with the Workday without many complex requirements. The general implementation for Fortune 500 companies is always complex.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"BambooHR is accessible to users who aren't good with technology. If you don't have an IT background, you can easily find information about any employee."
"The HR metrics that this solution provides has been most useful. We also really like the fact that employees have the ability to be self sufficient and manage their own information."
"The solution's technical support is super responsive and helpful. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"Leave management is the most valuable as they all started with leave management and then progressed to performance management. Of course, employee profiles are central to everything. It is also very easy to use. Customers get on board with it very quickly. One of the selling points for BambooHR is that they have a very wide partner network. There are lots of other partners that have integrations with BambooHR. They have an open API. This is one of the things that is driving its growth because lots of people and companies are literally just building integrations of BambooHR to ride the wave. If you have an integration with BambooHR, you get sales. People are more likely to choose your product because they've already chosen BambooHR. That's how it is happening. It is a cloud deployment, so there is only one version. They do the updates every month, and because of this, you are encouraged to send them feedback all the time. You never know. Your feature may be included in the next release."
"The scalability of BambooHR is good."
"The performance goals and personal features of every employee with the dashboard is most valuable."
"This is a scalable solution. We have not experienced any issues."
"I like the fact that the annual days are calculated automatically and that if annual leave is taken in the future, those days are put on hold. You know at every point how many days of annual leave are you left with and how many are on hold."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of reporting."
"We use the platform for tasks, including applying for leaves, communication, and adhering to our organization's policies through efficient goal setting and reviews."
"In terms of customization, while it may not be fully customizable, you can configure the features based on the foundation that Workday offers. This allows you to take the basic features and tailor them to the specific needs of your company or business. It provides a lot of configuration flexibility."
"It is quite user-friendly."
"It helps the users to enroll for the benefits automatically and update their life events without the involvement of HR individuals or back-office staff. It enables a person to take action on their own. It reduces the administrative burden on HR and puts the ownership on the person that is going through the life event, whether it is having a child, taking a leave of absence, or something else. There are easy ways to integrate Workday with your common benefits. At least in the USA, it can be integrated with common benefits providers such as Fidelity, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, etc. It has got a connector that is able to connect with the vendor or the third party to which you are trying to send the eligibility file. It basically allows us to automate or set up the tool, and the integration with the provider is a lot quicker than competing tools. When it comes to reporting on just eligibility and SLSA, it is a lot more user-intuitive. Depending on the purpose of what you are doing, you can grant security rights or roles, for example, you can control whether someone is a benefits administrator doing an independent audit. Workday makes it very easy to do that. It significantly simplifies the reporting process."
"It's actually a cloud-native solution and based on the community for development. It is a very good open architecture and able to interconnect with other systems. And it is very stable and very fast in terms of response."
"I like that it's easy to use and flexible."
"There is a lot to like about it. I really enjoy the business process framework. It's something that's really seamless. It allows you to have people within the flow. They get assigned a task to complete something to approve, etc. That's a really good piece of functionality that Workday offers. Their out-of-the-box reporting framework is also really powerful in terms of what it provides. These would be two things that I would highlight."
 

Cons

"It would be useful to have the possibility to assign a task to the different users within the software."
"The color palettes could be changed to make the solution a little more attractive and easier to use."
"If you are dealing with two or more businesses under one company name, it is not possible to transfer employees between companies if they have a separate bamboo set up."
"There are some issues with the job tab under my info where you add the salary."
"I would like to be able to export some documents into PDFs a little easier. Right now, only HR can update the training record and as you scale your company, managing the system can be manual and time consuming."
"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."
"The only thing that could have been added is better integration with local payroll systems or a local Canadian payroll module."
"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."
"They don't offer any backend database access. This is one limitation that I found in this product. Workday hasn't opened up about what kind of database they are into, which can make it easy for the technical team to emulate issues. It would be good if they can offer backend access to the technical team. It would be helpful if they can also provide a Troubleshooting Guide that we can use to troubleshoot issues. When we have an issue, there are very limited resources to refer to."
"The user interface can be enhanced."
"In a future release we could like to have access to asset, supply and treasury management functionalities."
"They don't have worker payroll in the product. We have to solve our payroll. I hope one day they will be able to have their own localized standard payrolls for all countries."
"I would be happy if it was faster. Currently, when I try to navigate within the solution itself, it is a bit slow in terms of the page load time. When I click on something, it usually takes time to load. When you click on different icons or areas on the website, it is slow. Even when you navigate between different models, it is a bit slow. I would like to see a bit faster performance and a better user experience."
"We would like to see improvement in the mobile app variant of this solution. The time sheet entry and approval, and the geo-tagging features all need to have their functionality updated, in order to be comparable with other products on the market."
"My only suggestion might be to include a brief description of any new fields we introduce, making it easier for people to use them. Perhaps this is something they can consider implementing."
"The navigation of Workday is good but could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"Price-wise, the solution is in the middle compared to other tools offering similar functionalities."
"It's very, very expensive."
"You have the license fee per module, and then you have a kind of annual training fee, which is a kind of add-on. I wouldn't say it is exhaustive; it is minor. Licensing is pretty transparent for most of the part."
"By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."
"The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."
"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."
"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."
"The solution is flexible in terms of pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
BambooHR's reporting tools were not the best I've used, but they're good. There are some limitations in terms of customized reports, as opposed to ADP, for example. The only thing that could have b...
What are the biggest differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors?
Differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud,w and SAP SuccessFactors:w Oracle: "simple interface and deep customization to suit the purpose." SAP: Multiple functionalities that increase process effi...
What do you like most about Workday?
I like its UI and UX. When we were using Oracle or SAP, the UI/UX wasn't very user-friendly for the employees.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workday?
If you go with the launch implementation approach, the solution is generally not very expensive. If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive. The solution is fl...
 

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Sample Customers

Stance, SoundCloud, Reddit, Shopify, 99designs, Stitcher, Disqus, Beans & Brews, Stacy and Witbeck, Vino Farms, MokiMobility, SecurityMetrics
AAA, Allied Global, Avago Technologies Limited, Aviva, Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Chiquita Brands International, Equifax, Flextronics, HP, Life Time Fitness, McKee Foods, MGM Resorts International, Sanofi, ServiceSource International, Symantec, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!
Find out what your peers are saying about BambooHR vs. Workday and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.