BambooHR® vs. Namely

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
Namely
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Namely is an end-to-end HR, benefits, and payroll solution for mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based platform can be used to manage the entire HR process.N/A
Pricing
BambooHR®Namely
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®Namely
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Namely
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®

No answer on this topic

Namely
Chose Namely
BambooHR has eNPS, which is pretty helpful and allows us to send pulse surveys to employees to get an understanding of how they are doing. Namely doesn't have anything like that.
Chose Namely
Namely was able to check all of the boxes in the most affordable way
Chose Namely
Namely provided certain features that we were looking for that the other vendors did not, specifically the social feed. We do not have a company intranet so we needed a place to communicate and store resources in addition to managing HR and Benefits. Namely provided that …
Chose Namely
I did not choose Namely, the previous head of HR selected it. I do not find Namely to be better in any area than the tools Ive used in the past. Specifically the user interface - some of my employees have limited experience with technology and this system is not intuitive.
Chose Namely
Had more user-friendly functionality than the others, and goals and performance reviews had all the features I was looking for whereas others were lacking in those areas.
Chose Namely
Namely was simply the best value considering how robust the features are. Nothing is perfect but Namely continually strives to be and we appreciate that! They've taken a dozen or more feature requests from me and I'm optimistic that they'll come through :)
Chose Namely
Simply put, Namely met the most needs from our list for the right price. The team was great (we miss Regina) during presentation and implementation. TribeHR didn't have the review process according to anniversary dates, which we need. Proliant didn't have the right API …
Chose Namely
That is the only product that truly combines HRIS with Payroll
Chose Namely
We chose Namely because it has the option to expand all of our services under them. Due to having so much confusion with many different vendors for everything and never knowing who the point of contact was, and employees having to remember and keep up with a bunch of different …
Features
BambooHR®Namely
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.7
201 Ratings
2% below category average
Namely
7.0
143 Ratings
12% below category average
Employee demographic data8.3178 Ratings7.7132 Ratings
Employment history7.9182 Ratings7.9138 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.0177 Ratings7.130 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.6168 Ratings7.0132 Ratings
Organizational charting6.7184 Ratings4.6134 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1174 Ratings6.3129 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.297 Ratings8.382 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
6.8
129 Ratings
16% below category average
Namely
6.9
127 Ratings
14% below category average
Pay calculation7.590 Ratings9.0111 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.267 Ratings5.553 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.363 Ratings6.057 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.198 Ratings8.1109 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.394 Ratings8.9113 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.9102 Ratings4.1100 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.358 Ratings6.657 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.8
173 Ratings
10% above category average
Namely
7.4
124 Ratings
8% below category average
Approval workflow8.5169 Ratings6.5121 Ratings
Balance details8.5160 Ratings7.1116 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2128 Ratings8.595 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.2
194 Ratings
2% above category average
Namely
8.3
141 Ratings
3% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.9123 Ratings8.5129 Ratings
Update personal information8.9192 Ratings9.1140 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3164 Ratings7.5127 Ratings
Employee recognition7.3120 Ratings7.8116 Ratings
View job history8.4182 Ratings8.4134 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
Namely
5.9
53 Ratings
31% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings5.953 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.0
163 Ratings
7% below category average
Namely
8.2
121 Ratings
9% above category average
Report builder6.8157 Ratings8.5117 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.2155 Ratings8.5112 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.9106 Ratings7.574 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
166 Ratings
0% below category average
Namely
6.7
116 Ratings
17% below category average
New hire portal8.2160 Ratings8.7110 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.6147 Ratings4.885 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
106 Ratings
4% below category average
Namely
4.1
96 Ratings
64% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.973 Ratings6.086 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.5101 Ratings3.194 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.167 Ratings3.172 Ratings
Performance tracking6.994 Ratings4.189 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
118 Ratings
3% below category average
Namely
5.9
107 Ratings
28% below category average
Performance plans7.0106 Ratings4.696 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.989 Ratings2.268 Ratings
Review status tracking8.595 Ratings7.695 Ratings
Review reminders8.099 Ratings7.698 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.5100 Ratings7.485 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.9
80 Ratings
13% above category average
Namely
5.9
21 Ratings
28% below category average
Create succession plans/pools8.646 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.066 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search8.967 Ratings5.921 Ratings
Candidate development9.258 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
137 Ratings
2% above category average
Namely
8.8
6 Ratings
13% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.5103 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.5113 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.290 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.3108 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.587 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1126 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.2128 Ratings8.66 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®Namely
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®Namely
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(206 ratings)
7.9
(145 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(15 ratings)
9.9
(9 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(133 ratings)
8.4
(71 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(107 ratings)
8.0
(27 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
5.5
(85 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®Namely
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
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.
Read full review
Namely
Namely is aesthetically very pleasing and navigates like other social media platforms which can be appealing to potentially a remote workforce who interacts more online than in person. Unfortunately, it did not serve our population well as we are primarily manufacturing where people are not as interested in utilizing the HRIS for interactions when they would rather connect in person.
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
Namely
  • Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing
  • Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets.
  • Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out.
  • The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage.
  • The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me.
Read full review
Cons
BambooHR
  • BambooHR® has moved their offerings to a tiered package approach that groups features together at different tier and price levels. To gain access to a specific feature, you may need to upgrade to a whole new tier that includes additional features you may not be interested in. I would prefer being able to add-on one specific feature when needed.
Read full review
Namely
  • Limits to custom reporting
  • No direct feed for Ohio Workers Comp (now a manual process on our end)
  • No option to place an employee on Leave of Absence and exclude them from payroll while they are "inactive"
  • No option to suppress certain deductions for certain pay types (i.e. allow 401K for commissions but block remaining deductions - also now a manual process to uncheck the suppress box for 401K for each commission check)
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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
Namely
Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.
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Usability
BambooHR
It's clear and well appointed with prompts on where to go for each category of information it holds. The user has limited access based on a need to know/job related basis. It has a clear help option with the ability to chat, email or read documentation on how to do something.
Read full review
Namely
It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.
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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.
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Namely
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.
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Namely
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BambooHR
10/10. The absolute best. I never dread contacting support. I know the team will be quick and helpful. It is so easy, that sometimes I skip straight to contacting support instead of trying to find help articles. They are faster than me trying to figure it out on my own!
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Namely
Namely platform has pretty good support: knowledgeable and relatively fast response times. Namely Payroll and Namely Benefits are very much depending on the quality of the support agent or CSM: we have had knowledgeable and attentive ones, but also ones that have provided erroneous information or failed to respond to urgent asks in a timely manner
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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
Namely
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BambooHR
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!
Read full review
Namely
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BambooHR
BambooHR's initial implementation team was amazing. We loved having a dedicated person we could call, email or speak to during the entire process. I feel that's so important when you are new to a software. Our process was time consuming, but well worth the final product.
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Namely
Implementation was a bit complicated and our company had to carry most of the weight. It often felt like our implementation manager was giving us extra work that she did not want to do herself. It also took much longer than expected - I believe almost 2 months. I believe our company carried a bit too much of the weight.
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Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
BambooHR® was able to provide excellent value for money when compared to the other options we looked at when we carried out a review of them. A previous member of the team had also used BambooHR® at another company and rated them highly which influenced our decision greatly. The demo also showed BambooHR® was able to carry out all of the tasks we were looking for
Read full review
Namely
The reason I continued to choose Namely at multiple employers is due to the continuity of employee experience. And the features have continued to grow since I initially onboarded in 2014. Also, through the years, I have had terrific benefits teams. The customer service has been the worst part of the experience outside of the benefits team.
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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.
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Namely
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.
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Namely
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
Read full review
Namely
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.
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Namely
  • We were able to transition to a fully digital onboarding process which saved us hours in time per new hire and made the process smoother for the new hire.
  • Namely is our first HRIS and has helped the HR department to find data and information quickly.
  • Namely helped us digitize our performance management process which the company undergoes on an annual basis.
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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

Namely Screenshots

Screenshot of the Namely employee dashboard. This creates a central hub to access payroll and benefits info, share announcements, celebrate milestones, and navigate everything HR, from a desk or on the go.Screenshot of Namely Payroll, which is backed by automation and built-in compliance.Screenshot of the Onboarding interface, for new hires.Screenshot of the Applicant Tracking interface, which supports processes from job posting to onboarding with tools for hiring teams and candidates.Screenshot of the Benefits Administration interface, which supports open enrollment, plan changes, and employee elections.Screenshot of the Workforce Management interface. From here, viewers can track time, manage schedules, and handle complex workforce needs.