BambooHR vs Gusto: Pricing and Features Compared

These two names arrive together on more shortlists than any other pair I get asked about, and the question is harder than it looks, because they are not the same kind of product. One sells the system that holds your people data. The other sells the machine that pays them. Both have HR in the marketing copy, and that is where the confusion starts.

The difference is invisible in a feature grid and obvious on an invoice. At 10 employees, the cheapest Gusto plan lists at $109 a month while BambooHR starts at a $250 flat rate. At 50 employees the cheapest Gusto plan is still the cheaper of the two, but the top Gusto plan costs more than the top BambooHR plan, and neither headline figure covers everything a growing team needs.

What follows is what each one costs at 10, 25, and 50 employees using rates both vendors publish, what actually lands in the base tier, what sits outside it, where each is genuinely stronger, and which situations point clearly at one or the other. There is no universal winner here. There is a right answer for your company, and two or three facts about your company decide it.

BambooHR and Gusto side by side

BambooHR is an HR system of record with hiring and onboarding built in and the operational modules sold separately. Gusto is a payroll and benefits platform with HR tools layered on top of the same subscription. Read the table below as two answers to the question of what belongs in a base price.

The pattern in that table is worth naming before the detail. BambooHR puts records, reporting, hiring, and time off in the plan and charges separately for payroll, benefits, and hours. Gusto puts payroll, tax filing, and benefits in the plan and charges separately for the deeper HR system work. Neither is padding a price. They simply drew the boundary in different places.

BambooHR reviewed

BambooHR answers a narrow question well: where does employee information live, and how do people get into and out of it cleanly. Every plan carries employee records, a custom report builder, workflows and approvals, dashboards, time off management with unlimited custom policies, benefits tracking, employee satisfaction surveys, and an employee self-service experience that non-technical staff pick up quickly.

Hiring and onboarding are included rather than bolted on. Core ships an applicant tracking system capped at 5 open job postings, plus job posting, candidate records, offer letter templates, a new hire packet, an onboarding checklist, and e-signatures. Pro raises the cap to 25 open jobs and Elite to 50. For a small employer hiring a few roles a year, that means applicant tracking stops being a second subscription.

Pricing is published, which is rare in this category. Core lists at $10 per employee per month, Pro at $17, and Elite at $25, and companies with 25 employees or fewer pay a flat monthly rate starting at $250 rather than per seat. Volume discounts are applied automatically as headcount rises, registered nonprofits get an additional 15 percent off, and you can choose month to month terms or an extended term.

The catch is everything outside those numbers. Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time and Attendance, and Global Employment are separately priced add-ons, the payroll and benefits add-ons cover US employees only, and none of the add-on rates are published. There is a 15 percent discount for taking Payroll and Benefits Administration together, but a complete quote still needs a conversation, which is the opposite of how the plan tiers are sold.

What each BambooHR plan adds

The ladder is worth reading closely. Core to Pro is a jump from records into performance and engagement, and Pro to Elite is mostly compensation and analytics. Most small businesses land on Core or Pro.

Gusto reviewed

Gusto starts from the highest risk work a small employer does. Every plan carries unlimited payroll runs including off-cycle runs, direct deposits or printable checks, automatic federal, state, and local tax filing including W-2s, 1099s, and forms such as 940 and 941, payroll approvals, automated payroll runs, custom admin permissions, employee and employer mobile apps, time off requests and approvals, multiple pay rates and schedules, and domestic contractor payments.

The HR layer is real but thinner than the payroll layer, and the entry tier is thinner still. Every plan carries employee self-onboarding, digital I-9s and W-4s, offer letter templates, document storage, and state new hire reporting. Custom onboarding checklists, custom document e-signing, software provisioning, and the org chart start on Plus, background checks are a paid add-on on every plan, and applicant tracking, performance management, and access to certified HR professionals each sit on a higher tier or behind an add-on rather than in the entry price.

Benefits are where Gusto separates itself from a pure payroll tool. With Gusto acting as broker, health insurance administration carries no extra cost and you pay only the premium, which is a genuine saving against a standalone benefits administration platform. Keeping your own broker is a $6 a month per eligible employee add-on on Plus and free on Premium, and Gusto does not offer that integration on the Simple tier at all. Workers compensation starts at $14 a month, and retirement and pre-tax accounts are priced per participant.

What each Gusto plan adds

The ladder here is about reach rather than depth. Simple is one state and the essentials, Plus adds the things a distributed or hourly team needs, and Premium buys people rather than features.

What each costs at 10, 25, and 50 employees

Both vendors publish rates, so this table needs no estimates. What it does need is a warning: the two columns are not buying the same thing, because the Gusto figure already contains payroll and the BambooHR figure does not.

Three patterns matter. The BambooHR flat rate does not move between 10 and 25 employees, so a team growing inside that band pays the same $250 while the Gusto bill climbs $6 to $22 with every hire. Below 25 people the flat rate is the worse deal per seat, and near 25 it becomes the better one. Above 25, per employee pricing takes over on both sides and the gap reopens.

The second pattern is what happens on the top tiers. Gusto Premium at 50 employees lists at $1,280 a month, slightly above BambooHR Elite at $1,250, and the two products at that price are doing different jobs. The third pattern is the one nobody models: payroll obligations do not disappear because your HR system tracks records. The IRS still expects deposits and returns on schedule, so a BambooHR subscription has to sit next to either the payroll add-on or a separate payroll provider.

What sits outside the sticker price

Every serious comparison of these two has to name the jobs before it names the products. The table below lists what a small employer actually needs done and where each vendor puts it, which is the fastest way to see why the plan rates are not comparable as printed.

One row deserves extra attention if you employ hourly staff. Time tracking is an add-on or a tier upgrade on both sides, and it rarely stays optional for long: Fact Sheet 21 from the Department of Labor requires payroll records to be preserved for at least three years and time records for at least two. Budget it at purchase rather than discovering it in month four.

Where each one is genuinely stronger

Neither product wins across the board, and the honest answer changes with the situation. The table below maps common small-business circumstances to the platform that handles them better.

The pattern is which half of the employee lifecycle hurts. Gusto is stronger from the moment somebody is on payroll: pay, tax, benefits, contractors. BambooHR is stronger before and around that: hiring, onboarding software, records, policies, and reporting. Companies that pick badly usually did so by comparing headline prices instead of asking which of those two halves is currently costing them time.

How to choose between BambooHR and Gusto

Five questions settle this faster than any feature matrix. Answer them before you book either demo.

One more piece of advice for both. Run a complete new hire through each product before you commit, end to end, including document management and signatures. An HR platform is judged by whether managers and employees actually use it, not by the length of its feature list, and one realistic run tells you more about that than a two hour demo ever will.

Before you choose

Our overlap with these two is partial, and only on the HR records slice: onboarding, employee records, documents, and training. FirstHR does not process payroll, file payroll taxes, administer benefits, track time, or provide applicant tracking, and both products above do some or all of that. If payroll, benefits, hours, or hiring is why you are shopping, one of them is your answer rather than us, and the employee record side is the only place we compete.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is BambooHR or Gusto cheaper for a small business?

Gusto, at the entry tier, and the gap is widest at small headcounts. Gusto Simple lists at $49 a month plus $6 per person, so 10 people costs $109, while BambooHR charges teams of 25 or fewer a flat rate starting at $250, near $25 per employee at that size. At 50 employees Gusto Simple lists at $349 and BambooHR Core at $500 before automatic volume discounts. The catch is that the Gusto figure already includes running payroll and the BambooHR figure does not.

Does BambooHR include payroll?

Not in the plan price. Payroll, Benefits Administration, Time and Attendance, and Global Employment are separately priced add-ons, and the payroll and benefits add-ons cover US employees only. A 15 percent discount applies when payroll and benefits are combined with any plan, but add-on rates are not published, so a complete number requires a quote. Plans include benefits tracking, which is record keeping rather than enrollment and carrier administration.

Does Gusto Simple cover payroll in more than one state?

No. Gusto states that Simple covers one state and that Plus and above cover multiple states. A single hire across a state line moves you from $49 plus $6 per person to $80 plus $12 per person, taking a 25 person bill from $199 to $380 a month. State tax registration for a new jurisdiction is sold as a separate add-on, priced by state.

Does BambooHR or Gusto include applicant tracking?

Both do, at different points. BambooHR includes it on every plan, capped at 5 open job postings on Core, 25 on Pro, and 50 on Elite, with job posting, candidate records, and offer letter templates. Gusto states that its applicant tracking system is included in the Plus and Premium plans, so the cheapest Gusto tier does not have it. For a company hiring a few roles a year, that difference is worth more than it looks.

Can you use BambooHR and Gusto together?

Yes, and it is a common setup rather than a workaround. BambooHR becomes the system of record while Gusto runs pay and benefits, and at 25 employees on entry tiers the pair costs roughly $250 plus $199 a month, about $449. Compare that combined figure against one vendor plus its add-on quote before assuming a single platform is cheaper, and confirm with both vendors what their integration syncs today.

Which is better for a company without a dedicated HR person?

It depends which job is eating your week. Gusto is the easier first purchase when payroll and tax filing are the risk, because both sit in the plan price with published rates and month to month terms. BambooHR is better when documents, time off, and hiring are the mess. Both can be set up without a consultant, which is not true of every platform a business with no HR department gets pitched.

Do BambooHR or Gusto require an annual contract?

Neither forces one. Gusto states there are no contracts, that account setup is free, and that you can switch or cancel at any time. BambooHR offers flexible month to month terms or an extended term for added certainty, and accepts credit cards and ACH for monthly customers, with wire transfers and checks for annual upfront payment. That makes this pair unusually easy to trial against each other before committing.

What does Gusto charge for benefits administration?

Nothing extra when Gusto is your broker: you pay only the insurance premium. Keeping your existing broker costs $6 a month per eligible employee on Plus and nothing on Premium, and the Simple plan does not offer that integration. One $200 annual service charge covers health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, dependent care accounts, and commuter benefits, with per participant fees of $2.50 a month for HSAs and $4 for the others. Workers compensation starts at $14 a month.