BambooHR® vs. GoCo

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR®
Score 8.5 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.
$250
per month
GoCo
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
GoCo is an HR platform designed for small and mid-sized businesses to simplify HR tasks and enhance productivity. GoCo empowers HR teams to streamline workflows and focus on building happier, more efficient teams.N/A
Pricing
BambooHR®GoCo
Editions & Modules
Core
$250
per month
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®GoCo
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsWe are an all-in-one solution, without being one-size fits all. Improve your entire employee lifecycle with our comprehensive platform options. Whether you are upgrading from paper-based processes or looking for a more modern solution with better support — we have the package you need.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®GoCo
Features
BambooHR®GoCo
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
Ratings
3% below category average
GoCo
7.1
Ratings
10% below category average
Employee demographic data8.20 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Employment history7.80 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.90 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.50 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Organizational charting6.60 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Organization and location management8.00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.10 Ratings4.90 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.6
Ratings
19% below category average
GoCo
6.0
Ratings
28% below category average
Pay calculation7.30 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors5.90 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.10 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Benefit plan administration5.80 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.10 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.90 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.20 Ratings2.70 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
GoCo
6.4
Ratings
22% below category average
Approval workflow8.50 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Balance details8.50 Ratings6.80 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.30 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
GoCo
7.7
Ratings
5% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.80 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Update personal information8.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Employee recognition7.20 Ratings6.50 Ratings
View job history8.30 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.1
Ratings
12% above category average
GoCo
7.0
Ratings
14% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.8
Ratings
10% below category average
GoCo
5.7
Ratings
27% below category average
Report builder6.60 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.80 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
GoCo
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
New hire portal8.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.40 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.5
Ratings
5% below category average
GoCo
3.8
Ratings
70% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.70 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.40 Ratings1.80 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.20 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Performance tracking6.80 Ratings5.90 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
GoCo
5.0
Ratings
44% below category average
Performance plans6.90 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.80 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Review status tracking8.60 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Review reminders8.00 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.1
Ratings
15% above category average
GoCo
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
GoCo
4.5
Ratings
53% below category average
Job Requisition Management7.40 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.40 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.30 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.20 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®GoCo
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHR®GoCo
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®GoCo
Likelihood to Recommend
I think if you're a small organization and you're trying to get out of paper, this is a really good first step to doing that. I've heard from other people that are in larger organizations where they have thousands of employees that there may be better platforms, but for smaller organization it's awesome.
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GoCo is a complete package that meets our needs for hiring onboarding and payroll processing. The platform is well suited for both hourly and salaried employees and allows for many options based on work schedules and PTO accrual. It is an intuitive platform and has increased our efficiency with payroll processing and benefits selection.
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Pros
  • BambooHR® allows you to preview as a user in a specific access level. This is VERY helpful for providing instructions to employees or double checking that information is secure.
  • BambooHR® customer support is unmatched. Any time I have a question, I can quickly get an answer as well as additional resources.
  • Employees are able to easily find their information without coming to HR for questions. This cuts down on the questions coming into HR departments, big and small.
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  • Benefits enrollment! We've received compliments on how easy it is to enroll each year in benefits.
  • New hire onboarding. All information is sent to new hires and they can seamlessly enter their information and read and sign all documents and agreements.
  • For the most part, the reports are easy to configure and use.
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Cons
  • Notices for approving hours don't always coincide with pay periods well.
  • Payroll reports are by pay period without the ability to combine hours, etc. into a monthly report.
  • There is not an easy way to fix payroll errors. Must get it right the first time.
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  • Handling exceptions for staff PTO requests for employees in their 90 day probationary period
  • Ease of managing different hourly work week exceptions
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Likelihood to Renew
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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No answers on this topic
Usability
BambooHR® is helpful, but I still handle some tasks manually due to missing features relevant to my needs. Certain processes require additional functionality, limiting full automation. While it streamlines HR operations, gaps in usability mean I must supplement workflows with manual efforts to ensure efficiency and meet specific business demands.
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I really like GoCo. There are a few things I wish could be improved and have talked with our rep about them. They are very receptive to ideas and have made changes based on some of my suggestions.
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Reliability and Availability
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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No answers on this topic
Performance
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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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
The support can be slow as they are a US based company and therefore we often have to wait for them to be online before we can speak to somebody and they are not particularly responsive to emails. The service itself has always been helpful and in most cases, the issue was resolved.
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GoCo has done a great job of being responsive to us in working through issues in the system.
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In-Person Training
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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No answers on this topic
Online Training
As far as I can recall, everything went well with doing it online and got questions answered. Was thankful to work with a dummy file to get used to some practices prior to getting our own domain within bamboo to then place our personnel information in the system, this helped a lot!
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I needed a system that was easy to use from an admin level as well as employee level. We run a pretty simple operation as we do not have shift diffs or multiple approval levels. Some of the systems reviewed were too much for us and, as a result, too expensive. BambooHR® fit our needs and budget accordingly.
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We really wanted an HRIS that also did benefits open enrollment. GoCo was able to provide both of those in one system. And, the open enrollment process is pretty slick for employees.
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Scalability
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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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • HR team members have been saved thousands of hours over the 3.5 years we've had BambooHR®. It saved me personally several hours a day once BambooHR® was set up. Specifically, onboarding, offboarding, and a formal Hiring system are the major time savers.
  • Employee Information is much easier to access and is all centralized. Employees are empowered to update their information when applicable, and we have designed custom access levels for different positions and managers to ensure every individual is seeing the appropriate types of information about employees.
  • We saved significant money by switching from Lattice to BambooHR®'s Performance Management solution. This solution is less advanced, but the simplicity meets our needs perfectly fine, and it even saves time for managers and employees by BambooHR®'s standard questions, carefully designed to get to the heart of performance and improvement.
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  • Productivity has gone up in the HR/Payroll department. GoCo has helped us streamline our processes, what used to take us three days to complete manually, we can now do in one day, leaving time to focus elsewhere.
  • What used to take our campus administrators a day to approve time off requests (paper) it now only takes a click of a button and staff are notified immediately.
  • Staff Self-service is huge as they can look up their own information quickly at anytime of the day.
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ScreenShots

BambooHR® Screenshots

Screenshot of Job Info TabScreenshot of Onboarding TasksScreenshot of New Hire PacketScreenshot of Employee Performance ReportScreenshot of Employee Satisfaction (eNPS®)Screenshot of Open Enrollment