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Today, employers are facing a tricky balancing act. How do you keep your employees happy and productive while also offering the flexibility of remote work, which so many people now expect? What used to be a challenge is now a golden opportunity—one that allows you to hire the best talent from anywhere in the world. But to make it work, you’ll need to lean on the latest HR tools that are transforming the way we manage teams.
Enter Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) or Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS)—digital platforms that let you oversee your entire workforce from one centralized hub. These systems are becoming essential for companies that want to thrive in the new era of remote and hybrid work.
In this review, we’ll be taking a closer look at two of the top players in the HRIS game: BambooHR and Rippling. Both are big names in the world of HR software, offering a wide range of services designed to make HR management easier and more efficient. But while they share some similarities, each has its own unique strengths and potential limitations.
We’ll break down what each platform brings to the table, examine where they excel, and compare them side by side. By the end of this, you’ll have a clearer picture of which solution fits your business needs best.
What You’ll Discover:
- In-Depth Feature Analysis: A thorough breakdown of the features and usability of both platforms.
- Pricing Comparison: A detailed look at the costs associated with each service to assist with effective budgeting.
- Pros and Cons: Unbiased assessments of the strengths and limitations of BambooHR and Rippling.
Whether you’re looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use platform like BambooHR or a more all-in-one, robust solution like Rippling, we’ll provide the insights to help you make the right call.
At the end of this comparison, you’ll have all the information you need to decide which HR platform will best support your team—whether you’re managing a small startup or a larger, established company trying to stay agile in a changing world.
BambooHR vs Rippling Overview
| Feature | BambooHR | Rippling | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| User Reviews | G2: 4.4/5 Trustpilot: 4.3/5 |
G2: 4.8/5 Trustpilot: 4.4/5 |
BambooHR has received very good customer reviews, while Rippling’s are very good to excellent. |
| Pricing | $108/month for 20 employees + $5.40 per month per additional employee for HR management; $150/month for 20 employees + $7.25 per month per additional employee | $35/month + $8 per employee for HR management; $500–600/employee per month for international hiring | Neither provider posts its prices online so we’ve only managed to uncover some of them. |
| User-friendliness | Very good | Very good | Both platforms have great reviews for ease of use and administration. |
| Customer Support | Live chat and phone support during office hours | 24/7 live chat and phone support | Rippling has live chat support at all times, while BambooHR only has support during weekday office hours. |
| Integrations | Excellent | Excellent | BambooHR can integrate with 128 third-party apps. Rippling can integrate with over 540 apps. |
| Data Security | Excellent | Excellent | BambooHR is compliant with SOC2 and GDPR as well as PCI DSS payment standards. Rippling is GDPR and SOC2 compliant and both CSA STAR Level 2 and ISO 27001 certified. |
| International Hiring (EOR) | Not offered | Very good | Rippling lets you hire employees in 29 countries and contractors in 185. BambooHR doesn’t help with hiring international employees or contractors. |
| Recruitment | Not offered | Not offered | Neither platform offers recruitment services, though both include recruitment management functions. |
| Benefits Administration | Excellent | Excellent | Both platforms help clients give their workers add-on benefits like health insurance and pensions. |
| Payroll | Very good | Very good | Both platforms facilitate employee and contractor payments in multiple currencies. |
Main Differences: BambooHR vs Rippling
In the world of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), BambooHR and Rippling have emerged as key players designed to meet the diverse needs of HR departments across various industries.
Both platforms serve as comprehensive employee management tools that help organizations track personnel, manage benefits, monitor time, handle payroll, and much more. While they share similar functionalities and objectives, understanding their differences is essential for businesses looking to optimize their HR processes.
BambooHR
BambooHR is widely recognized as a user-friendly HRIS that prioritizes the needs of small to medium-sized businesses. Its intuitive interface simplifies essential HR tasks, allowing organizations to focus on what matters most: their people. With a strong emphasis on employee experience, BambooHR aims to create a seamless management experience for both HR teams and employees.
Services offered by BambooHR
- Employee Management: Centralizes employee data, allowing for easy tracking of personal information, job roles, and employment history.
- Benefits Tracking: Streamlines the management of employee benefits, ensuring accurate tracking of enrollments, eligibility, and changes.
- Time-Off Management: Simplifies the process of requesting and approving time off, providing visibility into leave balances and schedules.
- Performance Management: Facilitates employee evaluations, goal-setting, and feedback processes to enhance performance and development.
- Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Manages the recruitment process from job postings to candidate selection, streamlining hiring workflows.
- Reporting and Analytics: Offers customizable reports and analytics tools to help HR teams make data-driven decisions regarding workforce management.
Rippling
Rippling has gained traction as a versatile HRIS that combines traditional HR management with innovative features. Its standout capability is the Employer of Record (EOR) service, enabling businesses to hire employees internationally without needing local entities. This functionality, along with comprehensive contractor management and PEO services in the U.S., makes Rippling a compelling choice for organizations with diverse workforce needs.
Services offered by Rippling
- Employer of Record (EOR): Acts as the legal employer for international hires, managing compliance with local labor laws and payroll in multiple countries.
- Contractor Management: Provides tools to onboard, manage, and pay contractors globally while ensuring proper classification and compliance.
- Global Payroll: Automates payroll processing across multiple countries, handling tax withholdings and ensuring timely payments in local currencies.
- Benefits Administration: Manages employee benefits packages, including health insurance and retirement plans, while ensuring compliance with local regulations.
- Professional Employment Organization (PEO): Acts as a co-employer in the U.S., taking on HR responsibilities like hiring, payroll, and benefits administration.
- Time and Attendance Tracking: Enables tracking of employee hours, attendance, and overtime, streamlining payroll processing and compliance.
- HR Compliance Management: Ensures that HR practices align with legal requirements, helping organizations navigate complex labor laws and regulations.
BambooHR Pricing
BambooHR operates on a subscription-based pricing model, with costs determined by the size of your organization and the specific features you choose. While pricing details are not openly available on their website, it’s generally regarded as affordable for small to mid-sized businesses. To obtain a precise quote tailored to your needs, you’ll need to reach out to BambooHR directly.
One notable advantage of BambooHR’s pricing structure is its flexibility. You can select from various service tiers, enabling you to customize your plan according to your business’s unique requirements. For instance, smaller companies with basic HR needs can opt for a more budget-friendly plan, while larger organizations can benefit from advanced features such as performance management and custom reporting.
Additionally, BambooHR offers a free trial, allowing you to explore the platform and determine if it meets your business needs before making a commitment. This trial grants you full access to all features, giving you a genuine feel for how BambooHR can support your team.
Rippling Pricing
| Plan | Price per employee/contractor per month |
|---|---|
| Rippling EOR Services | Starting at $599 per employee per month |
| Rippling HR Platform | $35 per month |
| Rippling User Fees | $8 per person per month |
| Rippling Contractor Pricing | Not publicly available; requires a quote |
Key Differences
Service Expansion
- BambooHR: Focuses primarily on traditional HR functions.
- Rippling: Offers extensive services like EOR and PEO, catering to both domestic and international hiring needs.
Global Reach
- BambooHR: Does not provide international hiring solutions, limiting its global reach.
- Rippling: Supports international hiring in 29 countries through its EOR services and contractor management in 185 countries.
Pricing Transparency
- BambooHR: Pricing is generally more budget-friendly, starting at $6-8 per employee per month.
- Rippling: EOR services command a higher price point of $599 per employee per month, reflecting the complexities of international compliance and management.
Deciding between BambooHR and Rippling hinges on your organization’s specific HR needs and future growth plans.
For those prioritizing international hiring and comprehensive contractor management, Rippling offers robust solutions. However, if you’re seeking a straightforward, cost-effective HRIS primarily for domestic management, BambooHR could be the right fit.
BambooHR Pros and Cons
BambooHR is, first and foremost, an HRIS designed to help any organization manage its staff. The particular pros and cons of working with this provider include:
- Pros
Extensive administration tools
BambooHR includes payroll, tax calculations, paid time off (PTO), time tracking, applicant management, and many more HR functions. A standalone employee management system lets employees take care of all employee management activities in one central piece of software.
Scalability
This platform can accommodate as many employees as needed. It can be used by small, medium, and even very large enterprises and makes it easy to manage companies that are scaling up.
Mobile app
BambooHR has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices called, very creatively, BambooHR Mobile. This app lets employees clock in and out, see their payslips, and access many more services while on the go.
Extensive benefits management
BambooHR helps organizations administer benefits of all kinds, such as pensions, paid time off (PTO), and life, disability, health, vision, and dental insurance as well as flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs). It doesn’t offer any benefits packages itself but it does integrate with insurance providers or let clients work with their own brokers.
Useful integrations
This platform has pre-made integrations with 120 apps and also has an API for custom integrations. This makes it very useful and highly adaptable, enabling streamlined workflow within organizations’ tech stacks.
- Cons
No international hiring services
BambooHR doesn’t provide EOR services for hiring employees globally, nor does it give international contractor hiring services. International organizations can use the platform and it is available in five languages aside from English. However, it doesn’t help with legal hiring or managing compliance.
Difficult implementation
According to the service provider’s own information, it can take between four and six weeks on average for organizations to completely set up and implement their system. This is longer than average and can definitely slow down workflow.
No pricing online
BambooHR’s prices are not posted publicly online. While we’ve uncovered some, it can be hard to estimate the total costs of its services, and therefore, individual quotes are necessary.
Rippling Pros and Cons
Rippling is also an advanced HRIS service provider. Its particular advantages and disadvantages include:
- Pros
Extensive administration tools
Like BambooHR, Rippling also includes extensive HR tools such as payroll, tax calculations, paid time off (PTO), time tracking, and applicant management.
Superior data security
Rippling’s data security is top-notch. It’s ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and CSA STAR Level 2 certified as well as SOC 1, 2, and 3 compliant.
Mobile app
Rippling’s mobile app – Rippling HR, IT, and Finance – is available for iOS and Android devices. It lets employees access benefits, request leave, submit expenses, and view their payslips.
Scalability
The Rippling platform is extensive and can take on thousands of employees if needed. This helps smaller businesses scale whenever they want to.
Benefits packages
Rippling helps organizations manage their employees’ benefits through their own brokers and providers. It also partners with providers to offer benefits packages that include health, vision, dental, and life insurance and pensions for international employees and contractors.
Extensive integrations
Rippling has more integrations than almost any other platform. It links with over 540 finance, HR, and communication apps, and it has an API for forming custom integrations.
- Cons
Limited support for international hiring
Rippling helps businesses hire contractors in an impressive 185 countries. However, its EOR provisions are much more limited. It only helps with hiring full-time employees in 29 countries.
System complexity
Rippling has an easy-to-use interface, but it’s also an extensive and, therefore, complex platform. Users rate it as somewhat difficult to set up, and it can take time to learn its full functionality.
No pricing online
Unlike many competitors, Rippling doesn’t show its prices online. Instead, you’ll need to be very specific about your organization’s needs so sales staff can provide you with an accurate service quote.
Head-to-Head Comparison: Bamboo HR vs Rippling Features
Now that we’ve seen BambooHR and Rippling’s strengths and weaknesses individually, it’s time to compare them. Rather than aiming to find an overall champion, however, our goal is to judge them on different criteria to identify the use cases where each of these platforms might be best used.
User-friendly platform: Rippling Wins
While both platforms have intuitive UIs that are easy to navigate, there are a lot of differences between them. Users say that Rippling meets their requirements better and is easier to use overall. BambooHR is rated as slightly easier to administer and set up. However, Rippling is seen as providing better support with its attentive 24/7 live chat. It’s close but we’re giving it to Rippling.Â
Resources: It’s a tie
BambooHR offers many resources, such as a blog, podcast, webinars, and extensive articles on HR, to help users learn. Rippling offers tools for analytics, global spending, and headcount and also has educational tools like webinars and Rippling University. We feel that these resources are quite equal.
Integration with other software: Rippling Wins
BambooHR offers 120 integrations out of the box with HR, communications, and recruiting apps like Bonusly, Checkr, Clicktime, Slack, and Zevo. Rippling, however, is an industry leader. It can integrate with over 540 apps, including Asana, Checkr, GitHub, Slack, Salesforce, and other well-known HR, business management, and communications solutions.
International hiring (EOR): Rippling Wins
BambooHR doesn’t support international employee hiring, so Rippling easily wins this category. Its EOR services are limited to just 29 countries, which is far less than most of its EOR-focused competitors’.
Contractor Solution: Rippling Wins
Again, BambooHR doesn’t have any contractor hiring services, only functionality for self-managing contractors. Rippling has a wide range of locations for contractor hiring, helping manage invoices and payments in 185 countries and territories. This makes it the clear winner once again.
Employee Benefits: Rippling Wins
Both of these service providers help organizations administer extensive benefits that include pensions and health insurance. It should be clear, however, that in most cases, they both only provide benefits administration functionality on their platforms. That means you need to work with third-party vendors. However, Rippling does provide tailored benefits packages for both EOR employees abroad and US PEO employees who fully comply with local laws. For this reason, we’re giving the category to Rippling.
Payroll Management: Rippling Wins
Both platforms make it easy to enter payroll, calculate taxes and benefits, reimburse expenses, file taxes, and more. Rippling’s user reviews rate it higher in every category. It also has extensive integrations with popular accounting tools like QBO, Xero, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite to make managing money easy.
Our Verdict: BambooHR vs Rippling
Even though it looks like we have a clear winner, this review aimed to see the areas where each provider gives better services. However, since their prices are not publicly available, you’ll still need to look at quotes to help you determine which one is the best choice for your company.
When to choose BambooHR
If BambooHR integrates with all of the tools in your tech stack, it can be a highly dependable platform for managing many employees in one place.
When to choose Rippling
Rippling did well in every category and is a good choice for a comprehensive HRIS for businesses large and small. Those looking to expand internationally, especially using contractors, can select Rippling as an extensive and compliant provider.