BambooHR vs. CATS Applicant Tracking System

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
BambooHR is an on-line human resources solution that provides onboarding, payroll, and benefits management. It also offers automated time-off management and employee self-service.
$250
per month
CATS ATS
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
CATS is a web-based recruiting software. Users can manage the entire recruiting process including custom job applications, posting jobs, resume parsing, custom recruitment workflows, and generating customized reports. Pricing is tiered per user, per month.
$69
per month
Pricing
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Editions & Modules
Core
$250
per month
Pro
$250
per month
Annual Pro Plan
$69
per user, per month
Monthly Pro Plan
$99
per user, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHRCATS ATS
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo matter what HR looks like at your company, we have the perfect plan for you!Please visit the CATS pricing page to compare plans and features
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Considered Both Products
BambooHR
Chose BambooHR
Although there are many products in the marketplace, there is no perfect system. BambooHR is the most economical HRIS for a small business, start-up, or business that has never had HR software. BambooHR was selected for its affordable functionality. However, if they continue …
CATS ATS

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.1
120 Ratings
3% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data7.8102 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.7109 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.4106 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.8.393 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.1105 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management8.096 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.557 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.1
76 Ratings
1% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.250 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.244 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.030 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.859 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.458 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.060 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.730 Ratings00 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.8
104 Ratings
9% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Approval workflow9.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details8.995 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.485 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.7
115 Ratings
7% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information7.971 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information9.2114 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation9.094 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition8.677 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history9.0107 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
7.8
48 Ratings
1% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets7.848 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
7.7
91 Ratings
1% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Report builder8.187 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.785 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data7.463 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.6
95 Ratings
7% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.791 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.683 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.2
59 Ratings
1% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting8.246 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting8.257 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility8.245 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking8.153 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
7.9
65 Ratings
1% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.658 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans8.052 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking7.959 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders8.261 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.856 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
7.1
45 Ratings
10% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools5.831 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking7.737 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search7.139 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development8.035 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR
8.1
78 Ratings
4% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
8.2
19 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management8.055 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.361 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.256 Ratings8.617 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.259 Ratings10.017 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.453 Ratings4.618 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.268 Ratings7.619 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.672 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Customized Application Form00 Ratings9.518 Ratings
Resume Management00 Ratings8.119 Ratings
Candidate Search00 Ratings6.219 Ratings
Collaboration00 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation00 Ratings8.615 Ratings
Email Templates00 Ratings9.519 Ratings
User Permissions00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings4.718 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
Vibe HCM
Vibe HCM
Score 4.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(124 ratings)
8.1
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(10 ratings)
8.4
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(51 ratings)
2.7
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
5.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(48 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHRCATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
I think BambooHR is meant for companies that have more than 200 employees, because it is not cheap, but for what they are offering, it is a nice software with some easy UI to understand for everyone at a company. I think for a small company, it is way too big of a software and it is not that worth the price.
Read full review
CATS Software
It has a great parsing feature and the extension is very helpful. Many ATS systems do not support parsing within LinkedIn...this one does. I was sad to see this option go when we finally transitioned. I would almost keep CATS just for the LinkedIn parsing if I knew I could easily get the information OUT of the system once it was there. A good API/webhook would be great, but sadly the API connections don't work well. Our firm also works with companies with multiple sites all across the US. There was never a way to "nest" a location with a parent company. Because of this, being able to research or report on a true client relationship was not possible. It was a very manual process.
Read full review
Pros
BambooHR
  • Customer Service - The customer service is consistent and the team is always eager to help. They are polite, patient, and there are never terrible interactions.
  • Communication - BambooHR communication channels are simple. There are many different ways to communicate with the team. I prefer e-mail because it helps me keep track of the conversations and they respond within the appropriate time. Also, the e-mail reminders or notifications help tremendously and it's not overbearing.
  • User Interface - It's simple and easy to use!
Read full review
CATS Software
  • Simple to implement, SaaS based tool that needs no in-house IT support or resources
  • Customizable reports, labels, fields, applications
  • Affordable
  • No long term contract, month-to-month with ability to cancel anytime
  • Data backups are simple
  • Email directly from the candidate record with response coming into Outlook is easy to configure and creates record and updates status automatically
Read full review
Cons
BambooHR
  • Reporting - I wish that you could choose a timeframe for all reports. There are times when I need to run a report for information at a point in time, but there is no functionality to complete this (maybe this is an add-on, but seems like it should be a basic function.)
  • ATS - Customizable notifications and making it easier to figure out how to change notification/email settings. I figured it out, but it was difficult to find. I wish you could choose to notify managers of candidates 1/week instead of every time someone applies.
  • Custom Holidays - being able to set up 2 different Holiday policies for different working groups. Some of our team gets a floating holiday, but we can't set that up without doing it for the entire company.
  • Being able to intercept a form that was signed by an employee but not the 2nd signer. We can't access onboarding forms that new hires signed after the 2nd signer left the company. Now we have to have our team resign all their onboarding forms because we cannot access the one with their signature.
  • Delegation for approvals - being able to delegate this when someone is on leave or time away so that Admins don't have to manage.
  • Org chart - being able to customize this feature
  • More broad or customizable EEO categories
Read full review
CATS Software
  • I would like to see either an integration with a robust reporting tool that would allow me to design my own custom reports with a data export or more built-in reporting options.
  • Mobile app is currently mostly just a look-up tool. I would like it to have the ability to do more - add tasks, update pipelines, etc.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BambooHR
Overall we have not had any reason to discontinue our use of BambooHR. We have not found a better solution, and there is no pressing reason that we would want to move away from the product. If they should fail to continue to improve their features over time, I could see this changing down the road, but for now I would say we are very satisfied with them. We would definitely like to see continued growth of their product however.
Read full review
CATS Software
Our company has been using it and enjoying the benefits for a few years now. Its a perfect system for our end goal of finding the best candidate effectively and being able to track and write reports on our progress.
Read full review
Usability
BambooHR
Is very easy to navigate. All processes once explained, you can actually create an implement process associated to your HR goals. It is like a digital file of your employees, with functionalities that let you be on track on onboarding, performance, information, among others process. Time off approvals are easy to navigate.
Read full review
CATS Software
not recruiter friendly. workflow is not good
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
BambooHR
Yes, there is a huge team in the back of the online platform or it looks like it because I have never been left without an answer when I have a question or waiting from a response on my chat .... There must be a huge team, this is so great and I always seem to have someone that is very knowledgeable too. So many times in the past I had to leave with customer service that would connect you with someone else because of the expertise, here everyone seems to be some kind of an expert in the HR function.
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Performance
BambooHR
I love BambooHR. Reports are easy to run and download and it usually covers any types of requests I get from the management team. You get excel or .csv downloads/reports and it is fast and simple, not too crowded so it is easy to read through. We don't integrate the tool yet but again, soon we will. we just did not had the time to utilize it yet but that's the plan.
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BambooHR
I have used the help chat function several times and that is easy and great to use. There are also many articles, FAQs sections and an entire learning platform to learn on your own. I believe that is great. I also have used ChatGPT to ask how to do certain functions as well, which were accurately reported.
Read full review
CATS Software
I've had mixed results with asking for support. Sometimes they gave a quick answer and sometimes my emails were never responded to. Some responses were a single word.
Read full review
In-Person Training
BambooHR
I didn't have in-person training besides teaching my managers how to use the program. However, I couldn't omit this question (maybe a system glitch).
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BambooHR
As far as I can recall, everything went well with doing it online and got questions answered. Was thankful to work with a dummy file to get used to some practices prior to getting our own domain within bamboo to then place our personnel information in the system, this helped a lot!
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BambooHR
It was some work involved in moving all of our documents from a drive over to the correct folders and creating the system of what folders were needed and what got placed where
Read full review
CATS Software
This is an incredibly easy system to implement. There is no hardware or software required, it's entirely SaaS based. Compared to other systems I've implemented, it's breathtaking. Customization can all be done directly in the tool, there is no need for any involvement of consultants and most of the information you cannot figure out intuitively is covered in the knowledge base
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
Although there are many products in the marketplace, there is no perfect system. BambooHR is the most economical HRIS for a small business, start-up, or business that has never had HR software. BambooHR was selected for its affordable functionality. However, if they continue to ingore the lack of functionality the pretty package will no longer have any value.
Read full review
CATS Software
We used to use Sendouts (prior to it being acquired by Bullhorn) - and it wasn't browser based like CATS so instead of being able to access it from a home computer, laptop, mobile phone, etc. you could only use it on the computer with the software uploaded - which is a hindrance. It also wasn't as customizable as CATS. We picked CATS because it the price was right, it was browser-based, had email-integration, and integrates with social media and job posting services to share your jobs
with the public.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BambooHR
Since my organization has dropped with employees, I always find ways to reduce costs. I thought there would be a cheaper option, but I was glad that my package included a lot for the price, and downgrading would cost more. The rep could have let me downgraded and taken me to a higher package. I am thankful that didn't happen.
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BambooHR
There is so much you can do with this platform, it is incredible and so welcoming. We don't utilize it 100% yet just because we are growing and the HR team has not been able to concentrate on other areas offered to us but but we will soon. Which is also why we got the product, specifically because what BambooHR can do to help us meet our growing business needs.
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
Read full review
CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BambooHR
  • It's been a great force multiplier for our HR staff, supplementing their skills to allow them to focus on more complex tasks.
  • Employees enjoy using it and have to talk to HR staff less with the self-service options.
  • You may find as your organization grows that you outgrow a module or BambooHR and will replace with a dedicated solution.
Read full review
CATS Software
  • We went from Excel spreadsheets to using CATS so honestly anything would be an improvement. But CATS has saved tremendous time on an on-going basis in terms of managing the career portal automatically.
  • Being able to log email conversations with the click of a button from Outlook right into CATS has been a time-saver and also has helped numerous times in providing better follow-through to candidates and providing better tracking of candidate interactions and what they have previously said (or not).
Read full review
ScreenShots

BambooHR Screenshots

Screenshot of BambooHR's Reporting

CATS ATS Screenshots

Screenshot of Easily view candidates, without leaving the job order, using the candidate preview. Even quickly communicate with candidate via SMS without leaving your current screen.Screenshot of Candidate ProfileScreenshot of Add filters to quickly search and narrow down your candidate database.Screenshot of