BambooHR® vs. CATS Applicant Tracking System

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
CATS ATS
Score 3.8 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
BambooHR®CATS Applicant Tracking System
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
Annual Pro Plan
$69
per user, per month
Monthly Pro Plan
$99
per user, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®CATS ATS
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlease visit the CATS pricing page to compare plans and features
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®CATS 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

Features
BambooHR®CATS Applicant Tracking System
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
255 Ratings
4% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.3228 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.1233 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.9228 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.7215 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.5235 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1226 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.2131 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
172 Ratings
7% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.3125 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.892 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.493 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.0131 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.4128 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.0140 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.582 Ratings00 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.7
221 Ratings
6% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Approval workflow8.5215 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details8.3206 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
248 Ratings
4% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.6167 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information8.9244 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3216 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9156 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.8233 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.1
209 Ratings
6% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Report builder7.2202 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4200 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.6144 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
212 Ratings
2% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.3202 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8189 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
142 Ratings
2% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.0103 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.9136 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.069 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.5130 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
160 Ratings
1% below category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.3145 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2122 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.597 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders8.0101 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.8139 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.9
81 Ratings
13% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.646 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking8.967 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search8.968 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.159 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
180 Ratings
3% above category average
CATS Applicant Tracking System
8.2
19 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.8137 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.7148 Ratings9.517 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings8.617 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.4144 Ratings10.017 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings4.618 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1164 Ratings7.619 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.0171 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
BambooHR®CATS Applicant Tracking System
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHR®CATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(245 ratings)
8.1
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(17 ratings)
8.4
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(173 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
8.0
(137 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 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®CATS Applicant Tracking System
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
Performance management - the prompt questions are really helpful in distilling thoughts! Though it would still be great to have an optional box for additional feedback that might not be directly related to the prompt questions. The clean interface and user friendliness is a definite plus! But some specific features, eg. on TOIL application - it would be helpful to ensure it is intuitive to use, rather than confusing with the input process.
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.
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Pros
BambooHR
  • Recruiting- communications are easy for both the internal team and candidates
  • Onboarding- the onboarding tasks are great. I love being able to attach documents as well as delay sending out tasks
  • Communication- the employee community is a great tool to keep our communications clean and organized. I love that we now have insight as to who has viewed the comms
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
  • 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
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
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
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
Just because there's a little complex with everything that's rolling out and so I have had to walk some people through functionality because there's just so much to click at this point. Another thing is the review process doesn't allow for ratings with a number scale, and I know we're kind of getting away from that as an industry, but with our previous system we have been rating people for their merit percent increase on their wages at the end of the year and it doesn't have the functionality to do that.
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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.
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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.
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CATS Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BambooHR
I use the chat feature most often and the wait times can be long, but often I do get right in. When they promise to follow up, they always do. It seems the "support hero's" are very well training and knowledgeable. There are lots of resources in the form of print or video, too.
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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.
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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).
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CATS Software
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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CATS Software
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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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
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Alternatives Considered
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 well as connect to external integrations. PerformYard is what we used prior to BambooHR® for onboarding workflows and performance reviews, but BambooHR® is far superior.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
  • Time Savings: Automating onboarding, payroll, and employee record management has cut HR admin time by up to 30%, allowing teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of paperwork.
  • Improved Onboarding: Streamlined workflows have cut onboarding time by nearly 50%, ensuring new hires are productive faster, reducing turnover risk in the critical first months.
  • - Enhanced Informational Clarity: Centralized employee data means fewer errors and faster access to essential information, reducing compliance risks and increasing accuracy in reporting.
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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 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

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