BambooHR® vs. Patriot Payroll

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
Patriot Payroll
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Patriot Software headquartered in Canton, Ohio offers Patriot PAY, their benefits administration and payroll software.
$17
per month
Pricing
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
Basic Payroll
$17/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Accounting Basic
$20/mo (unlimited use)
Accounting Premium
$30/mo (unlimited use)
Full Service Payroll
$37/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPatriot Software has two payroll options to choose from: Basic Payroll, and Full Service payroll software. Both start with a simple three-step payroll process. With the Full Service Payroll, Patriot will collect, deposit, and file federal, state, and local payroll taxes on the customer's behalf; end-of-the-year payroll tax filing is included at no extra charge. Print W2s on 8 x 1/2 x 11 plain white office paper to hand to employees, or post to the free employee portal. Also, Patriot Software offers free direct deposit.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
Features
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
256 Ratings
4% below category average
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.3228 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.1233 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.0229 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
Patriot Payroll
8.3
15 Ratings
0% above category average
Pay calculation8.3125 Ratings9.515 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.892 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.593 Ratings8.75 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.0131 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.4128 Ratings9.211 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.0140 Ratings8.213 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.582 Ratings6.36 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
Patriot Payroll
-
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
249 Ratings
4% above category average
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.6167 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information8.9244 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3217 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9156 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.8234 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
Patriot Payroll
-
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
Patriot Payroll
-
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
213 Ratings
2% above category average
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.4203 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
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.0103 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.9136 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.169 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
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.3145 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2122 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.697 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®
9.0
81 Ratings
14% above category average
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.746 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search8.968 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.259 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
181 Ratings
3% above category average
Patriot Payroll
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management7.8137 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.7148 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.4144 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.0164 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.1172 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
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
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHR®Patriot Payroll
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(245 ratings)
9.7
(20 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(17 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(173 ratings)
9.3
(10 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(137 ratings)
8.7
(10 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
-
(0 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®Patriot Payroll
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
Patriot Software
Patriot PAY is well-suited to a company that has a 10-day window between the end of the pay period and the payday. The company size makes very little difference and it is easy to use for any company. It is also very progressive in development and improvement. If a company has a small window for turn-around, but fairly consistent payroll amounts (such as a lot of salary workers), Patriot PAY might also be a good fit for them.

Companies with tight turn-around times or payrolls that vary significantly in direct deposit amounts might have difficulty using Patriot PAY.
Read full review
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
Patriot Software
  • It is simple, intuitive and straightforward in its design. Someone with little experience with roles in human resources roles, bookkeeping or payroll can quickly learn how to set-up the software and run payroll regularly by reading through the support portion of the site, or by contacting the helpful staff at Patriot. Patriot staff have walked me through issues or guided me on the phone as I learned how to use a function of the software.
  • Patriot provides comprehensive quarterly tax filing records, including 941s, state unemployment compensation tax payments, state employer's tax and local employer's tax filings. You can also generate payroll or tax deposit reports over a specific time period or per employee.
  • The support and FAQ pages available on Patriot are very practical and written in an easy to understand manner. Using the information provided there, I was able to properly set up new employees according to local and state filing requirements.
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
Patriot Software
  • Connecting with outside software - we have an issue of Patriot not recognizing donors when connected to other websites when all the information is the same minus a middle initial
  • Giving an error page when something small is off. Instead of giving an easy to fix error notification, Patriot brings the user to an error page and they have to reenter everything.
  • Fixing dates easily. If a date is entered incorrectly, 8/13/21 instead of 2021, an error pop up appears but the user has to click enter/okay many times or refresh the page in order to fix this issue.
  • Enter vs Tab key - Patriot loves the tab key but if the user clicks enter instead, many times it brings them to the home page.
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
Patriot Software
It works well because it is cheap for us.
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.
Read full review
Patriot Software
I think it is great once things are setup as for general user looking to look for simple things like a copy of a paystub or a current pay rate for an employee. However, to find specialized things like a state withholding number or payroll integration settings those do require a bit more digging to find or possibly a call to customer service for help.
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
Patriot 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
Patriot 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.
Read full review
Patriot Software
Generally speaking it is pretty good that when I need to call somebody up for a payroll question I can generally within five minutes get somebody on the phone and they can help me resolve the problem or specify where specifically I need to go or contact to find my answers. However, that being said, for my specific situation as a partner my assigned contact has not always been very responsive.
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
Patriot 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.
Read full review
Patriot 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.
Read full review
Patriot Software
No answers on this topic
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
Patriot Software
I briefly used Intuit Online Payroll, and it was expensive, had no support, and was very frustrating to use. I also used 3 local tax companies for payroll - they were extremely expensive and messed up all of the time. Their employee turnover was very annoying (and it seemed to happen every other month) and each employee did things differently. When I let one of my employees go, the last company paid them after termination (2 weeks of salary), and had to get into a legal battle because the employee would not give the money back.
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
Patriot 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
Patriot Software
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
Read full review
Patriot 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.
Read full review
Patriot Software
  • It boosts my time available for client-facing activities by not having to spend as much time processing payroll.
  • It helps me deliver accurate reports to my CPA at tax time regarding employee wages and employer taxes.
  • Through the online portal, I can easily track year-to-date taxes my company has paid.
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

Patriot Payroll Screenshots

Screenshot of the 3-step process to carry out payrollScreenshot of the Payroll interface, which can be used run payroll on any device with internet or data connection. There is no need to download and maintain a separate payroll app.Screenshot of a payroll report, to sort by work location, employee, and date range.