BambooHR vs Rippling: what each costs, covers and suits (2026)

The core difference

BambooHR and Rippling start from different places. BambooHR is a people platform for growing companies, generally 50 to 500 employees, and its three plans carry the HR features: records, workflows, time off, reports, applicant tracking and, from Pro, review cycles. Payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance and global employment are paid add-ons.

Rippling describes itself as one system for global HR, payroll, IT and finance, and says it serves a business of any size. On its site, HR, payroll, time and attendance, performance management, surveys and recruiting are separate products, and pricing is modular: you pay only for the products you pick and can add more later. That suits a company that wants one vendor for several functions. If HR records and time off are the whole job, a modular platform may offer more than you need.

Pricing

BambooHR's price list is public. Once a company has more than 25 employees, Core costs $10.25 per employee per month, Pro $17.50 and Elite $25. At 25 or fewer, the same plans are a flat $250, $425 and $650 a month. Volume discounts apply automatically, and none of the add-ons has a listed price.

Rippling's pricing page is a quote request, not a price list: you say which products you want and it sends a custom quote. Its FAQ says Rippling plans start at $8 per employee per month, with a monthly base fee. That sentence names no product, and the page does not show the base fee. Most products are priced per employee per month, while some may include a base fee, and the page does not say which.

Payroll is priced apart from the HR plans at both, and neither lists a price for it. BambooHR's payroll is an add-on with no published price, and Rippling says its payroll price depends on the number of employees and the products and services you select. A fair comparison needs one written quote from each, for the same headcount and the same functions. Put the same questions to both:

• Which products are in the quote: HR, payroll, time tracking, performance, hiring, benefits.
• For BambooHR, the plan, each add-on and the volume discount at your headcount.
• For Rippling, the per-employee price of each product and the monthly base fee.
• The contract term, and how the price moves as you add people.

What each includes

Core HR looks alike on both. BambooHR gives every plan records with unlimited custom fields, an org chart, documents with e-signatures, onboarding and offboarding, workflows and a custom report builder. Rippling's HRIS keeps employee records in one place, with an org chart across countries and worker types, document storage with signatures and an audit trail, onboarding automation, reports and workflows.

Time off is part of the HR product at both. BambooHR offers unlimited custom policies with approvals and accruals on every plan. Rippling's HRIS offers custom PTO policies, approvals and real-time balances, and manages time off policies across locations. For everything else the boundary falls in different places:

• Time tracking. BambooHR sells it in a paid Time and Attendance add-on. Rippling sells Time and Attendance as a separate product, with clock-in by mobile, web or time device, job costing, and overtime and missed-break alerts.
• Performance. BambooHR puts custom review cycles, 360 feedback, 1:1 meetings and goal tracking on Pro and Elite, with a satisfaction survey on every plan. Rippling's performance management is a separate product with review cycles, calibration, goals and 1:1s, and its surveys are another separate product.
• Hiring. BambooHR includes applicant tracking in every plan, limited to 5, 25 or 50 open jobs by tier. Rippling's recruiting is a separate applicant tracking product that posts to LinkedIn and Indeed.
• Payroll. Both sell it apart from the HR plans. BambooHR's payroll covers US employees. Rippling's US payroll files federal, state and local taxes, and its global payroll covers localized tax calculation in supported countries, with filing only in specific markets.
• IT and sign-in. Rippling's platform includes IT: SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning come through its IT product, and device management for Apple and Windows is sold as part of Rippling IT. BambooHR offers SAML single sign-on as a marketplace app.
• Integrations. BambooHR lists 150+ prebuilt integrations and an open REST API. Rippling's own pages give different counts, 650+ on its payroll page and 600+ on its about page, while its pricing FAQ says hundreds. Compare the app lists for the tools you use, not the counts.
• AI. Each ships an assistant: Ask BambooHR on its plans, and Rippling AI, which Rippling markets on its HRIS page for HR tasks.

Global teams

If some of your people are abroad, the two work differently. BambooHR's global employment add-on is run by its partner Remote and covers employer of record in 90+ countries plus contractor management, while its payroll is for US employees only. Rippling runs its own employer of record in 115 countries and onboards contractors in 180+ countries, and its HRIS page says it manages domestic and international workers on one platform.

Rippling's global payroll covers localized tax calculation in supported countries, so ask for your countries by name before you assume coverage. BambooHR connects payroll outside the US to partner payroll providers.

Which fits which team

• A company of 10 to 25 people that wants an HR system at a published price. BambooHR. Its flat monthly plans are on the page, and you can add payroll or time tracking later.
• A company of 50 to 500 that needs hiring and review tools inside the plan price. BambooHR Pro lists review cycles and 25 open jobs, so the scope is visible before any quote.
• A company that wants HR, payroll, time tracking and IT on one system. Rippling, bought product by product by quote. Its pricing page mentions a monthly base fee without giving it.
• A team with employees and contractors in many countries. Rippling runs its own employer of record in 115 countries. BambooHR's employer of record is run by Remote in 90+ countries.
• A team that wants device management and sign-in handled alongside HR. Rippling, through its IT product. BambooHR's plans cover HR, with SAML single sign-on as a marketplace app.
• A team that needs only the HR record and time off. Toku HR, described below, is the smaller option, with no payroll, applicant tracking or review cycles.

Toku HR as a third option

Toku HR is built for the people a company employs and pays itself. Starter covers the HR record and the paperwork around it: employee records, documents with e-signature, expenses, IT equipment and reports. Time off runs on accruals, with the statutory holidays of each employee's country added for you. Growth and Scale add time tracking with a web clock.

On Starter, Growth and Scale you pay $125, $225 or $325 a month while you have 25 employees or fewer, and $5, $9 or $13 per employee per month beyond that. Plan for plan, those figures sit at about half of BambooHR's starting prices. Rippling's pricing is by quote, so there is no line to compare. Toku HR is included at no charge for companies that use Employer of Record (EOR), PEO or Agent of Record (AOR), and costs $49 a month flat, however many people you have, for companies that use contractor management or stablecoin payroll.

Rippling and BambooHR are both ahead of it on scope. It runs no payroll and has no applicant tracking, review cycles, 360 reviews, surveys, compensation planning, AI assistant or mobile app. Where it does fit, Toku HR vs Rippling goes through the details.