BambooHR® vs. Namely

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
Namely
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Namely is an end-to-end HR, benefits, and payroll solution for mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based platform can be used to manage the entire HR process.N/A
Pricing
BambooHR®Namely
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®Namely
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Namely
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®

No answer on this topic

Namely
Chose Namely
BambooHR has eNPS, which is pretty helpful and allows us to send pulse surveys to employees to get an understanding of how they are doing. Namely doesn't have anything like that.
Chose Namely
Namely was able to check all of the boxes in the most affordable way
Chose Namely
Namely provided certain features that we were looking for that the other vendors did not, specifically the social feed. We do not have a company intranet so we needed a place to communicate and store resources in addition to managing HR and Benefits. Namely provided that …
Chose Namely
I did not choose Namely, the previous head of HR selected it. I do not find Namely to be better in any area than the tools Ive used in the past. Specifically the user interface - some of my employees have limited experience with technology and this system is not intuitive.
Chose Namely
Had more user-friendly functionality than the others, and goals and performance reviews had all the features I was looking for whereas others were lacking in those areas.
Chose Namely
Namely was simply the best value considering how robust the features are. Nothing is perfect but Namely continually strives to be and we appreciate that! They've taken a dozen or more feature requests from me and I'm optimistic that they'll come through :)
Chose Namely
Simply put, Namely met the most needs from our list for the right price. The team was great (we miss Regina) during presentation and implementation. TribeHR didn't have the review process according to anniversary dates, which we need. Proliant didn't have the right API …
Chose Namely
That is the only product that truly combines HRIS with Payroll
Chose Namely
We chose Namely because it has the option to expand all of our services under them. Due to having so much confusion with many different vendors for everything and never knowing who the point of contact was, and employees having to remember and keep up with a bunch of different …
Features
BambooHR®Namely
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
255 Ratings
4% below category average
Namely
9.6
144 Ratings
17% above category average
Employee demographic data8.3228 Ratings8.0133 Ratings
Employment history8.1233 Ratings9.9139 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.9228 Ratings9.931 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.7215 Ratings9.8133 Ratings
Organizational charting7.5235 Ratings9.8135 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1226 Ratings9.8130 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.2131 Ratings9.983 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
172 Ratings
7% below category average
Namely
9.2
128 Ratings
12% above category average
Pay calculation8.3125 Ratings9.9112 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.892 Ratings10.054 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.493 Ratings9.858 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.0131 Ratings8.0110 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.4128 Ratings9.9114 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.0140 Ratings9.9101 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.582 Ratings6.657 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
Namely
9.9
125 Ratings
19% above category average
Approval workflow8.5215 Ratings9.8122 Ratings
Balance details8.3206 Ratings9.8117 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2129 Ratings9.996 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
Namely
7.3
142 Ratings
12% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.6167 Ratings9.9130 Ratings
Update personal information8.9244 Ratings9.9141 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3216 Ratings7.0128 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9156 Ratings2.3117 Ratings
View job history8.8233 Ratings7.1135 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
Namely
5.9
53 Ratings
31% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings5.953 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.1
209 Ratings
6% below category average
Namely
7.9
122 Ratings
4% above category average
Report builder7.2202 Ratings8.0118 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4200 Ratings8.0113 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.6144 Ratings7.574 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
212 Ratings
2% above category average
Namely
6.5
117 Ratings
20% below category average
New hire portal8.3202 Ratings8.0111 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8189 Ratings5.086 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
Namely
6.2
97 Ratings
26% below category average
Corporate goal setting7.0103 Ratings5.087 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.9136 Ratings3.194 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.069 Ratings9.973 Ratings
Performance tracking7.5130 Ratings6.990 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
160 Ratings
1% below category average
Namely
6.3
108 Ratings
22% below category average
Performance plans7.3145 Ratings5.097 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2122 Ratings5.069 Ratings
Review status tracking8.597 Ratings7.096 Ratings
Review reminders8.0101 Ratings7.099 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.8139 Ratings7.485 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.9
81 Ratings
13% above category average
Namely
5.9
21 Ratings
28% below category average
Create succession plans/pools8.646 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking8.967 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search8.868 Ratings5.921 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
Namely
8.8
6 Ratings
12% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.8137 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.7148 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.4144 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1164 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.0171 Ratings8.66 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®Namely
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 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®Namely
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(245 ratings)
7.0
(145 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(17 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(173 ratings)
8.4
(71 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(137 ratings)
6.0
(28 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
5.5
(85 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®Namely
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.
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Namely
Namely is aesthetically very pleasing and navigates like other social media platforms which can be appealing to potentially a remote workforce who interacts more online than in person. Unfortunately, it did not serve our population well as we are primarily manufacturing where people are not as interested in utilizing the HRIS for interactions when they would rather connect in person.
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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
Namely
  • Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing
  • Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets.
  • Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out.
  • The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage.
  • The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me.
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.
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Namely
  • Limits to custom reporting
  • No direct feed for Ohio Workers Comp (now a manual process on our end)
  • No option to place an employee on Leave of Absence and exclude them from payroll while they are "inactive"
  • No option to suppress certain deductions for certain pay types (i.e. allow 401K for commissions but block remaining deductions - also now a manual process to uncheck the suppress box for 401K for each commission check)
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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.
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Namely
Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.
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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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Namely
It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.
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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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Namely
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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Namely
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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Namely
Namely platform has pretty good support: knowledgeable and relatively fast response times. Namely Payroll and Namely Benefits are very much depending on the quality of the support agent or CSM: we have had knowledgeable and attentive ones, but also ones that have provided erroneous information or failed to respond to urgent asks in a timely manner
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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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Namely
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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Namely
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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Namely
Implementation was a bit complicated and our company had to carry most of the weight. It often felt like our implementation manager was giving us extra work that she did not want to do herself. It also took much longer than expected - I believe almost 2 months. I believe our company carried a bit too much of the weight.
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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.
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Namely
The reason I continued to choose Namely at multiple employers is due to the continuity of employee experience. And the features have continued to grow since I initially onboarded in 2014. Also, through the years, I have had terrific benefits teams. The customer service has been the worst part of the experience outside of the benefits team.
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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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Namely
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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Namely
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
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Namely
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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Namely
  • We were able to transition to a fully digital onboarding process which saved us hours in time per new hire and made the process smoother for the new hire.
  • Namely is our first HRIS and has helped the HR department to find data and information quickly.
  • Namely helped us digitize our performance management process which the company undergoes on an annual basis.
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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

Namely Screenshots

Screenshot of the Namely employee dashboard. This creates a central hub to access payroll and benefits info, share announcements, celebrate milestones, and navigate everything HR, from a desk or on the go.Screenshot of Namely Payroll, which is backed by automation and built-in compliance.Screenshot of the Onboarding interface, for new hires.Screenshot of the Applicant Tracking interface, which supports processes from job posting to onboarding with tools for hiring teams and candidates.Screenshot of the Benefits Administration interface, which supports open enrollment, plan changes, and employee elections.Screenshot of the Workforce Management interface. From here, viewers can track time, manage schedules, and handle complex workforce needs.