BambooHR® vs. Bonusly

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR®
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
BambooHR is an cloud-based human resources solution that provides onboarding, payroll, and benefits management. It also offers automated time-off management and employee self-service.
$10
per month per user
Bonusly
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Bonusly is a continuous performance and employee recognition platform designed to bring recognition, feedback, check-ins, and 1:1s into the flow of work, enabling employees and managers to build consistent performance habits. Core Capabilities Peer Recognition & Rewards: Value-tagged shout-outs with points redeemable for global gift cards, curated physical items, and nonprofit donations. Continuous Feedback: Lightweight prompts and…
$0
per month (up to 8 users)
Pricing
BambooHR®Bonusly
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
Free
$0
per month per seat
Team
$3
per month per seat
Organization
Custom Pricing
per month per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®Bonusly
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsBonusly offers three tiers: Free (free forever): Get started with core rituals like peer recognition and structured 1:1s—ideal for small teams building great habits from day one. Team: $3 per seat/month (or $30 per seat/year with annual billing). Built for managers and teams who want to stay connected, build trust, and improve every day. Unlocks the full power of habit-building features across recognition, guidance, 1:1s, and check-ins. Organization: Custom pricing upon request. Designed for companies that need scale, security, and analytics. Connect everyday culture to performance and engagement patterns, surface organizational insights, and prove impact with advanced reporting. A free trial is available for eligible tiers.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Bonusly
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®
Chose BambooHR®
We have BambooHR because of its great interface and user-friendly design. It meets our employees' needs as well as our employer's needs. We have integrations with some programs where Bonusly isn't able to cover.
Chose BambooHR®
Lattice is much more oriented towards performance management. It includes many more advanced performance management features from building actual assessments to also performance development planning. BambooHR® for us was a place to centralize our data and build from within as …
Bonusly
Chose Bonusly
I think it's because of the cost.
Features
BambooHR®Bonusly
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
284 Ratings
3% below category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.3255 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.0256 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.0256 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.7239 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.7261 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1251 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.3150 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
195 Ratings
7% below category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.1140 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.8105 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.4106 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.1150 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.3140 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.9158 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.496 Ratings00 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.8
245 Ratings
8% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Approval workflow8.6239 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details8.5228 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2129 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.5
276 Ratings
4% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.5187 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information8.9270 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.4239 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9168 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.8254 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.1
74 Ratings
13% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets9.174 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.2
223 Ratings
4% below category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Report builder7.3215 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4213 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.8158 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
234 Ratings
2% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.4221 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8206 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
160 Ratings
3% below category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.0119 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.8154 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.169 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.5147 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
179 Ratings
1% below category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.2164 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2140 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.697 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders8.1101 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.7155 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
81 Ratings
14% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.846 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search9.068 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.359 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
194 Ratings
1% above category average
Bonusly
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management7.7148 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.6158 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.4154 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1175 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.1185 Ratings00 Ratings
User Ratings
BambooHR®Bonusly
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(292 ratings)
9.4
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(219 ratings)
9.4
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(148 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(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
BambooHR®Bonusly
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
For companies with a "complex" PTO policy, it's one of the easier solutions to use I have seen. By complexity, I mean having different reasons for your time off and different amounts of time you can request on that end. If you need simple file sharing, it will work as well. For people who require more robust training material, it might not be the best fit.
Read full review
Bonusly
Bonusly has provided us a formal space to post recognition. While face to face recognition still occurs, this is a place where staff can post publicly or privately, but a majority choose public. It has been incredibly popular since our implementation. Staff love the ability to earn time off through recognition. That customized redemption is our most popular reward.
Read full review
Pros
BambooHR
  • Ease of use for established staff and admins, all the way down to brand new hires.
  • Integrations, especially for posting and managing jobs during the hiring process.
  • Making regularly occurring things like meetings and assessments easy to customize and to action easily.
  • Being able to assign out tasks for onboarding and offboarding.
Read full review
Bonusly
  • Fosters a culture of appreciation for one another
  • Allows for each staff to select reinforcers of meaning to them specifically
  • Can help tomato sure celebratory dates aren’t forgotten (birthdays, work anniversaries)
  • Increases employee engagement
  • Connects distance employees and employees who don’t have a department team around them to remain engaged and connected to others
  • Allows for specific hashtags that can be tied into company values, to reiterate core values of the organization.
Read full review
Cons
BambooHR
  • The biggest issue is on performance assessments. We are not able to customize the reminder dates so the automated reminder dates shown to people and on the email reminders is often misaligned with our actual internal deadlines. This causes a lot of confusion each review cycle.
  • Also on performance management, there is no way to push feedback to a supervisor for their direct report. The only way is if the manager requests the feedback from you. This limits the opportunity for people to give real time feedback throughout the half.
  • I wish we had a way to track notes from employee 1:1s in BambooHR® so when we do our performance reviews we can track. That may be a module we didn't purchase but it would facilitate more continuous and comprehensive evaluation of people at review time.
Read full review
Bonusly
  • Moderation. The freedom to post anything for recognition can get out of hand depending on your tolerance/company culture. There are very little to no tools around better this.
  • Bonusly has not done much in the way of adding features. Hard to call it a con but other similar platforms have extended into allowing more directed involvement from the organization. In other words: Bonusly is a little TOO hands-off in some ways.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BambooHR
There's nothing wrong with this platform. I would recommend it to any business starting with more than 10 employees. I will continue to use the program for as long as I need to, hoping they continue being tremendous and finding other ways to incorporate more technology.
Read full review
Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Usability
BambooHR
It is pretty intuitive and easy to use for most functions! This is helped by the clean and simple interface. The drop down filters and prompts are definitely strong points, and could be easily enhanced with more AI/automation features built in in future to make it even more efficient. I also like the playful icons, making it less dull as a HR tool :)
Read full review
Bonusly
Bonusly is easy to use and intuitive for anyone familiar with technology and using websites. There is a page where posts are made, and a page where rewards are redeemed. It is very straightforward.
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.
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Bonusly
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
Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BambooHR
Support has always been excellent. I was skeptical about not having a dedicated account manager at first, but my concerns were quickly eased. I love the different options for communication. Being able to chat, send emails or call a representative are great so that my workflow isn't disrupted by having to complete a call. I have never had an issue reaching anyone and the email follow up is great!
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Bonusly
I never had any issues with support. It's especially nice to be able to add location-specific rewards.
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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
Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BambooHR
Overall this training was great and our implementation specialist was wonderful and very helpful. We felt really prepared once our training was completed, But we could get additional help immediately even when we were live. The continuation Support heros after implementation are wonderful and you can always get a LIVE person each time you call into their office.
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Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BambooHR
We implemented bambooHR in Fall, 2023 then implemented Payroll 1/1/24. A vital piece of information was not known or missed in that we are exempt from State Unemployment Tax and have a Reimbursement Set-up, so bambooHR did not send Payroll Reports to the State. Those reports need to be sent regardless if we are exempt or not.
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Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
BambooHR® is not in the same category as others that I have used. BambooHR is truly comprehensive and if you pay for all the extras, you wouldn't need anything else. The parts we use are great for us and the fact that we can add custom fields means that our unique needs are addressed.
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Bonusly
the cost was [the] main factor for us. I think the platforms are very similar. Bonusly is one focused on just employee recognition which is great and concise. BlueBoard offers a lot more by way of experiences and gift-giving for recognition but on the pricier side.
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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
Bonusly
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.
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Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
Read full review
Bonusly
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BambooHR
  • HR team members have been saved thousands of hours over the 3.5 years we've had BambooHR®. It saved me personally several hours a day once BambooHR® was set up. Specifically, onboarding, offboarding, and a formal Hiring system are the major time savers.
  • Employee Information is much easier to access and is all centralized. Employees are empowered to update their information when applicable, and we have designed custom access levels for different positions and managers to ensure every individual is seeing the appropriate types of information about employees.
  • We saved significant money by switching from Lattice to BambooHR®'s Performance Management solution. This solution is less advanced, but the simplicity meets our needs perfectly fine, and it even saves time for managers and employees by BambooHR®'s standard questions, carefully designed to get to the heart of performance and improvement.
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Bonusly
  • Employees put forth extra effort and take on additional responsibility.
  • More creative ideas from employees to improve business processes and solve problems.
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ScreenShots

BambooHR® Screenshots

Screenshot of the Job Info tabScreenshot of Onboarding TasksScreenshot of a New Hire PacketScreenshot of an Employee Performance ReportScreenshot of Employee Satisfaction (eNPS®)Screenshot of Open Enrollment

Bonusly Screenshots

Screenshot of Bonusly’s home screen, which brings recognition to life with a social, real-time feed. Employees celebrate contributions with value-tagged messages, images, and emojis, while points accumulate toward meaningful rewards. This hub makes appreciation easier, and keeps the habits that drive culture right in front of everyone.Screenshot of Bonusly’s rewards experience, that gives employees access to a global catalog of gift cards, curated physical products, and nonprofit donations—all with instant fulfillment. Its categories and clear point ranges help people find rewards. With no markups and full visibility into spend, teams get a richer rewards experience without added admin work.Screenshot of Bonusly’s insights dashboard, which helps managers understand team health at a glance. Recognition trends, participation patterns, and value alignment reveal where the team excels and where support might be needed. With simple filters and export options, leaders can make data-driven decisions and run more informed performance reviews.Screenshot of Bonusly’s 1:1 workspace, which brings structure, shared notes, discussion topics, and past highlights into a collaborative view. Managers and employees stay aligned on priorities, celebrate wins, and address blockers early, with context from recognition and feedback woven in.Screenshot of where Bonusly automatically pulls together recognition, feedback, and work highlights into an organized performance recap. Managers get a clear storyline of contributions across months, and employees see their impact reflected accurately. This supports more fair, consistent, and insightful performance conversations.Screenshot of how Bonusly integrates natively with both Slack and Microsoft Teams so recognition happens in the flow of work. Employees can give, receive, and react to recognition directly in their chat channels, boosting participation and making appreciation feel immediate and natural. With updates and celebrations surfacing where conversations already happen, recognition becomes a daily habit—not another tool to remember.