Learn how to cut HR admin
Get any questions answered
Zero commitment
Which is the best HR software for small businesses: Charlie or BambooHR? Based on customer insights and our independent research, CharlieHR is the better choice for small businesses in the UK.
As a product manager at Charlie, part of my job is to know about other HR software tools, how they compare, and which is the best fit for different businesses. To help you make the right decision, I’ve put together this in-depth guide into Charlie vs. BambooHR.
Keep reading for a comparison of features and pricing, along with details on the benefits of both HR platforms.
CharlieHR
BambooHR
Docs and employee data
✅
✅
Compliance with UK laws
✅
❌ (Not by default)
Onboarding
✅
✅
Time-off management
✅
✅
Performance reviews
✅
☑️
Employee surveys and polls
✅
✅
Peer-to-peer shoutouts
✅
✅
Perks and discounts
✅
❌
Report templates
✅
✅
Custom reports
✅
✅
Employee self-service
✅
✅
Integrations (including payroll)
✅
✅
Marketplace with exclusive discounts
✅
❌
Applicant tracking system (ATS)
☑️ (with Charlie Recruit add-on)
✅
Bespoke HR advice
☑️ (with Charlie Advice add-on)
☑️ (as part of Bamboo Services)
UK-based support
✅
❌
Designed for UK small businesses
✅
❌
Easy to set up
✅
✅
Best for:
UK small businesses who need HR software for the first time
Medium-to-large sized businesses with a global workforce
Key:
We’ve created this guide with the help of experts and reviews from people who have used Charlie or BambooHR (or both). Contributors to this CharlieHR vs. BambooHR comparison guide include:
By seeking insights from a variety of people, we’ve made sure this guide is as useful (and transparent) as possible for someone looking for a BambooHR alternative or to compare Charlie with other options.
Get to know the essentials and both platforms’ core strengths.
CharlieHR is designed for small businesses in the UK, including those with no previous experience in using HR software. Many CharlieHR customers are looking for software that takes care of essential HR admin and allows them to scale and grow.
Here’s where Charlie shines:
BambooHR is a similar all-in-one HR platform, but it’s geared more towards larger businesses and those with more tailored or complex needs. Its features, experience, and pricing reflect this.
Here’s where BambooHR stands out:
Charlie is built with small businesses in mind. Our easy-to-use small business HR software is designed to make it easy for non-HR experts to handle routine HR tasks, store employee data securely, and enable growth when the time comes.
Get started with CharlieHR in as little as a day. While some HR platforms require months-long onboarding processes, Charlie is easy to set up — with most users ready to go within a week. This fast setup time saves you time right from the start, and doesn’t add to your already growing to-do list.
Charlie customers can enjoy:
👉 BambooHR takes between 4-6 weeks to set up fully, meaning you’re without a functioning HR platform for longer and you need to invest 4-6x more time and energy into the onboarding process.
Charlie is ideal for first-time HR software users, with everything you need to take care of basic HR needs. Our platform also has the structure required to make compliance with UK employment law possible.
Charlie users benefit from:
Charlie customers can also choose to upgrade and add an applicant tracking system (ATS) or advice services to their plan.
👉 BambooHR supports compliance with workflows for hiring and real-time legal guidance, but this is focused on US laws and requirements.
Charlie is modern, easy to navigate, and fuss-free. Find the feature you need instantly, add or edit information, and generate reports without having to study a help article first. We’ve designed Charlie to be easy to use for both admins and employees.
Charlie customers enjoy:
👉 Bamboo is generally easy to use, scoring 9.2/10 for ease of use and 9.0/10 for ease of admin. CharlieHR beats both ratings, scoring 9.6/10 for ease of use and 9.7/10 for ease of admin on G2.
Core HR shouldn’t be expensive, and with Charlie it isn’t. Teams can get started with Charlie for a budget-friendly price, with no hidden fees or setup costs. Pricing scales as you grow, with pricing brackets that mean you pay less per employee as you grow.
Charlie users benefit from:
👉 BambooHR’s full pricing is by quote only. Their pricing page suggests quotes start at £8.10 per month per employee, which is much higher than Charlie’s pricing, and doesn’t include built-in perks. Not all of the features are included in every BambooHR plan, while Charlie includes all features as standard.
BambooHR covers many of the same areas as Charlie, but the software itself is more complex, customisable, and in-depth — making it a better choice for bigger businesses.
From what you can do with the software to the pricing model, everything about BambooHR suggests that it would be a great fit for medium-to-large sized businesses. If your business falls into this category (or you plan to grow very quickly), there’s a lot you could benefit from with BambooHR.
BambooHR’s midsize+ features include:
👉 CharlieHR also stores employee data, creates reports, and has a library of integrations, but reporting and integrations are less comprehensive than BambooHR. For hiring, Charlie users can add Charlie Recruit to their monthly plan, but it’s not included as standard.
Bigger businesses often come with more complex policies, rules, and reporting requirements. BambooHR is equipped to handle this with customisable workflows, detailed insights, and an in-depth implementation process.
BambooHR users benefit from:
👉 CharlieHR is built for small UK businesses with simple HR needs, so companies with complicated processes may prefer another tool.
While Charlie is built for small businesses in the UK, BambooHR has more of a worldwide audience. Its primary market is the US, with many features tailored to US law or requirements — including compliance and payroll. Businesses with employees or a presence in different countries can benefit from BambooHR’s worldwide focus.
BambooHR’s global-ready features include:
👉 BambooHR is flexible to match the locality of your workers, while CharlieHR is designed for the UK, with holidays, date settings, and localisation to match. BambooHR and Charlie both have integrations with Xero and PayCaptain for UK payroll.
Charlie is designed for small teams and the built-in engagement features reflect that. BambooHR’s focus on larger businesses means there’s more included to help promote conversation and engagement between teams.
BambooHR’s engagement features include:
👉 CharlieHR’s employee engagement features include surveys, peer-to-peer praise, and repeating polls. BambooHR’s engagement options also include an employee community or forum element.
BambooHR offers different plan tiers, each one including slightly more features than the previous one. There are also optional modules you can add on, giving teams more flexibility over which features they want to use.
BambooHR’s add-ons include:
Customers in the US can also add payroll or benefits administration to their plan, but these are currently not available in the UK.
👉 BambooHR’s pricing is available by request only, with several plans to choose from. With Charlie, all our features are included in one simple plan, with pricing that adjusts in brackets as you grow. CharlieHR’s two optional add-ons are Charlie Recruit and Charlie Advice.
CharlieHR and BambooHR are both well-known options for UK small businesses, but their approach to pricing is very different. With Charlie, pricing increases alongside your employee numbers in a bracket system. BambooHR’s full pricing isn’t available online, but their plans start at a flat rate up to 25 employees, progressing to a per-employee model after this.
CharlieHR
BambooHR
1-4 team members
£5 per month*
0-25 employees: Flat rate of £200 per month
5-9 team members
£45 per month
10-14 team members
£45 per month
15-29 team members
£105 per month
25+ employees: Starting at £8.10 per month per employee
30-49 team members
£180 per month
50-99 team members
£315 per month
*For the first six months. £20 thereafter.
Small teams can save money with Charlie and enjoy a special discount off the standard price of CharlieHR. Teams with between 1-4 people benefit from our “HR for a fiver” plan where they get access to all features for just £5 per month.
Charlie is built for small businesses, but it’s also ready to support you as you grow. Instead of having to switch to another platform, you can simply add more functionality to CharlieHR so it meets your future needs.
CharlieHR’s support for growth includes:
👉 BambooHR is best for businesses that are already established, and their growth support reflects this with tools for global employment and compensation management.
Canvas is a London-based venue marketplace that helps event organisers find high-quality spaces. They initially chose BambooHR as their all-in-one HR platform, but quickly realised that it didn’t quite meet their needs.
Read case study
CEO Sascha Micel finally decided to make the move after the company was moved to an enterprise plan on BambooHR. The company already only used around 20% of the features, and this new plan didn’t match their needs.
After exploring other options, they settled on Charlie and have been with us ever since.
Company size: 5 team members + 7 freelancers
Goal with Charlie: To find a UK-focused platform that simplified HR tasks
How Charlie helps Canvas achieve their goal:
Where they are now:
Read case study
👉 See how BambooHR has supported businesses in the EMEA region in their customer success hub.
BambooHR has an impressive range of features, especially for businesses with a presence in multiple countries. For small UK-based businesses though, what BambooHR offers can feel overwhelming and unnecessary.
CharlieHR, with its focus solely on UK small businesses, is an ideal fit for new and growing companies that want a simple, straightforward way to manage HR.
CharlieHR’s advantages for small businesses include:
Read case study
It’s very easy to switch from BambooHR to CharlieHR. Export your data from BambooHR, then follow the simple step-by-step guide to get started with Charlie.
Holiday calculation is simple with CharlieHR. Employees can submit a request and see the change reflected in their pending balance. As soon as the request is accepted or denied, their leave allowance and balance is automatically updated.
Holiday calculations are less simple with BambooHR. Some user reviews suggest that the system can be difficult to use for leave management, with examples including no automatic flags for when someone requests too much leave, and an overall confusing experience trying to figure out remaining leave.
CharlieHR is a very secure platform, with both Cyber Essentials verification and ISO 27001 certification. BambooHR is DSS compliant and uses Defense in Depth and Zero Trust methods. For more information, see Charlie’s security page and BambooHR’s security page.
No, there’s no need to customise policies heavily to make Charlie work for your UK business. The default policies are already aligned with UK employment law with the correct holiday allowances.
BambooHR is available for UK businesses, but it’s more suitable for US companies as they are the target audience. UK businesses will need to adjust policies, workflows, and settings to make it work for their own requirements.
While there’s no direct pricing listed on BambooHR’s pricing page, from speaking to past customers we understand that BambooHR is often expensive for small businesses. Some businesses are also encouraged to upgrade to enterprise plans that are more costly and unnecessary for small businesses, which is one of the reasons why Canvas switched from BambooHR to Charlie.
It’s not immediately clear from BambooHR’s website, but from speaking to past customers we understand that there may be a setup or implementation fee for new users. Charlie, on the other hand, has no hidden fees and no setup costs.
It takes new users less than a week on average to get started with Charlie, and some businesses are up and running within a few days. BambooHR states that their average implementation time is between 4-6 weeks.
BambooHR might be a better choice than Charlie for medium-to-large sized businesses that have complex HR needs, detailed workflows or reporting requirements, or a global workforce.
