Is BambooHR or DATEV better?

Neither clearly leads. BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee and DATEV at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, BambooHR or DATEV?

BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee and DATEV at On request.

Does BambooHR or DATEV run on more platforms?

BambooHR runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. DATEV runs on Windows, Web.

What is BambooHR best used for?

BambooHR is most often used for hr system of record with employee data and documents, time off tracking and approvals, applicant tracking and onboarding, performance reviews and 1:1s on the pro tier. Of those, hr system of record with employee data and documents and time off tracking and approvals are not what DATEV is typically brought in for.

What can BambooHR do that DATEV cannot?

BambooHR covers Employee database, Time-off management, Benefits tracking, Performance reviews. DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

HR · head to head

BambooHR vs DATEV

BambooHR

HR software with heart

From: $10/month per employee
Rated: -

Full review Website

DATEV

Accounting

German accounting, payroll and tax software built around the tax adviser rather than the business

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: BambooHR organisations of 25 or fewer employees pay a flat rate starting at $250 a month, so a very small team pays far more per head than the listed per-employee price; DATEV dATEV does not publish transparent per-customer pricing the way a SaaS vendor does; your real cost is buried in your tax adviser's fee note, so comparing it against Lexware or sevdesk on price is genuinely hard.
They diverge on capability: BambooHR covers Employee database, DATEV covers Unternehmen online.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BambooHR and DATEV actually diverge.

Attributes where BambooHR and DATEV differ
Attribute	BambooHR	DATEV
Starting price	$10/month per employee	On request
Pricing model	subscription	quote
Platforms	Web, Ios, Android, Api	Windows, Web
Category	HR	Accounting
Founded	2008	Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in BambooHR

Employee database
Time-off management
Benefits tracking
Performance reviews
Onboarding
Reporting & analytics
Mobile access
Document management

Only in DATEV

Unternehmen online
Lohn und Gehalt
Rechnungswesen
Jahresabschluss
DATEV DMS
Meine Steuern
DATEV-Schnittstelle

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

BambooHR

HR system of record with employee data and documentsnot DATEV
Time off tracking and approvalsnot DATEV
Applicant tracking and onboardingnot DATEV
Performance reviews and 1:1s on the Pro tiernot DATEV
Compensation planning and benchmarking on Elitenot DATEV

DATEV

A German GmbH that wants its Steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoeboxnot BambooHR
A payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to German statutory deadlines without an external bureaunot BambooHR
An SME preparing an e-Bilanz and audit-ready GoBD document archivenot BambooHR
A tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflownot BambooHR

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

BambooHR

Organisations of 25 or fewer employees pay a flat rate starting at $250 a month, so a very small team pays far more per head than the listed per-employee price
Per-employee pricing starts at 26 employees, from $10 on Core
Performance management, 360 reviews and recognition all require Pro at $17 per employee per month
Compensation management, salary benchmarking and advanced analytics are Elite only at $25 per employee per month
Compliance training is rationed by tier, at 1 course on Core against 300 on Elite

DATEV

DATEV does not publish transparent per-customer pricing the way a SaaS vendor does; your real cost is buried in your tax adviser's fee note, so comparing it against Lexware or sevdesk on price is genuinely hard.
The board has decided to wind down the Austria-specific portfolio: existing products remain usable to 31 December 2028, are free of charge during 2029, and cannot be used after 31 December 2029, so any Austrian entity on DATEV has a forced migration dated in advance.
It is built for German statutory practice, so a group with subsidiaries outside the DACH region will run DATEV for Germany and something else everywhere else, with a consolidation step in between.
Large parts of the suite are still Windows desktop software installed on a workstation or terminal server, which means IT overhead most companies no longer budget for when they think they are buying cloud accounting.
The lock-in is social as well as technical: because your adviser holds the installation and the history, changing accounting software usually forces you to change or retrain your adviser, which is a far bigger decision than a software migration.

Pricing, plan by plan

BambooHR

$10/month per employee

No published plan breakdown. See the BambooHR review.

DATEV

On request

DATEV Unternehmen online$undefined/month
- Receipt and bank data exchange with your tax adviser
- Cash book and master data modules
- Ordered and usually rebilled through the adviser
DATEV Mittelstand$undefined/month
- In-house financial accounting and invoicing
- Payroll modules licensed separately
- Per-workplace licensing
Lohn und Gehalt$undefined/month
- German payroll runs and statutory electronic filings
- Priced by number of payslips
- Typically operated by the adviser on the client's behalf

Which should you pick?

Choose BambooHR if

You need employee database.
You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
You also want time-off management.

BambooHR review

Choose DATEV if

You need unternehmen online.
You work on Windows, Web.
You also want lohn und gehalt.

DATEV review

Questions people ask

Is BambooHR or DATEV better?: Neither clearly leads. BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee and DATEV at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BambooHR or DATEV?: BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee and DATEV at On request.
Does BambooHR or DATEV run on more platforms?: BambooHR runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. DATEV runs on Windows, Web.
What is BambooHR best used for?: BambooHR is most often used for hr system of record with employee data and documents, time off tracking and approvals, applicant tracking and onboarding, performance reviews and 1:1s on the pro tier. Of those, hr system of record with employee data and documents and time off tracking and approvals are not what DATEV is typically brought in for.
What can BambooHR do that DATEV cannot?: BambooHR covers Employee database, Time-off management, Benefits tracking, Performance reviews. DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BambooHR: Does BambooHR offer a free trial?

Yes, BambooHR offers a free trial available at bamboohr.com/signup/.

Source

DATEV: Can I buy DATEV directly without a tax adviser?

In practice, no for most of the range. Membership of the cooperative is restricted to the tax and legal professions, and companies get access through their adviser or as a client of one.

BambooHR: How is BambooHR pricing calculated?

Pricing varies depending on the number of employees at your organization and the features you select. Contact BambooHR at 1-866-387-9595 for a free price quote specific to your company size.

Source

DATEV: Is DATEV usable outside Germany?

It operates in Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, but the depth is German. The Austrian product line is being discontinued with a hard end date of 31 December 2029.

BambooHR: Is payroll included in the core plan?

Payroll and time tracking are offered as separate add-on solutions, not included in the base HR modules. The payroll add-on provides seamless data flow, comprehensive reporting, full-service tax filing, and dedicated customer support.

Source

DATEV: What is the DATEV-Schnittstelle everyone mentions?

It is the standard export format German invoicing and ERP tools produce so bookkeeping data can be handed to a DATEV-based adviser. Supporting it is effectively a requirement to sell accounting-adjacent software in Germany.

BambooHR: In which countries can I use BambooHR?

BambooHR is available in 150+ countries worldwide.

Source

DATEV: Does DATEV handle e-invoicing under the German B2B mandate?

Yes, the accounting and invoicing modules were extended for the XRechnung and ZUGFeRD formats that the German B2B e-invoicing rules require.

BambooHR vs DATEV

BambooHR

DATEV

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in BambooHR

Only in DATEV

What people use each for

BambooHR

DATEV

Where each one falls short

BambooHR

DATEV

Pricing, plan by plan

BambooHR

DATEV

Which should you pick?

Choose BambooHR if

Choose DATEV if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on BambooHR

More on DATEV

Keep looking

Other head to heads