Is BambooHR or Passbolt better?

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

Which is cheaper, BambooHR or Passbolt?

Passbolt has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $10/month per employee for BambooHR and Free for Passbolt.

Does BambooHR or Passbolt run on more platforms?

BambooHR runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Passbolt runs on web, windows, mac, linux, api.

Can I use Passbolt for free?

Yes. Passbolt has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee.

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 Passbolt is typically brought in for.

What can BambooHR do that Passbolt cannot?

BambooHR covers Employee database, Time-off management, Benefits tracking, Performance reviews. Passbolt covers Password sharing and folders, Groups and role-based access, Browser extensions and CLI, Open API.

Software · head to head

BambooHR vs Passbolt

BambooHR

Software

HR software with heart

From: $10/month per employee
Rated: -

Full review Website

Passbolt

Software

Open-source password manager for teams with self-hosted or cloud deployment

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Passbolt has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
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; Passbolt pro Edition requires a minimum of 10 users, making it costlier for very small teams.
They diverge on capability: BambooHR covers Employee database, Passbolt covers Password sharing and folders.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BambooHR and Passbolt actually diverge.

Attributes where BambooHR and Passbolt differ
Attribute	BambooHR	Passbolt
Starting price	$10/month per employee	Free
Pricing model	subscription	open-source
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web, Ios, Android, Api	web, windows, mac, linux, api
Founded	2008	Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).

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 Passbolt

Password sharing and folders
Groups and role-based access
Browser extensions and CLI
Open API
LDAP provisioning and SSO
Activity audit log

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 Passbolt
Time off tracking and approvalsnot Passbolt
Applicant tracking and onboardingnot Passbolt
Performance reviews and 1:1s on the Pro tiernot Passbolt
Compensation planning and benchmarking on Elitenot Passbolt

Passbolt

Self-hosting a team password manager for data sovereigntynot BambooHR
Provisioning vault access from an existing LDAP/AD directorynot BambooHR
Sharing credentials across engineering or IT teams via folders and groupsnot BambooHR
Automating credential retrieval through the CLI or open APInot 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

Passbolt

Pro Edition requires a minimum of 10 users, making it costlier for very small teams.
Community Edition lacks SSO and LDAP provisioning, which many organizations need for onboarding at scale.
Self-hosting the Community Edition requires infrastructure and maintenance effort compared to fully managed competitors.
Enterprise-tier support and HA consulting require custom, quote-based pricing rather than transparent rates.

Pricing, plan by plan

BambooHR

$10/month per employee

No published plan breakdown. See the BambooHR review.

Passbolt

Free

Community EditionFree
- Unlimited users
- Password sharing and folders
- Role-based access control
Pro Edition$4.9/month
- Minimum 10 users, billed annually
- LDAP/AD provisioning
- Single sign-on
Enterprise Edition$undefined/month
- High availability and disaster recovery consulting
- White-glove migration
- Custom feature development

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 Passbolt if

You need password sharing and folders.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
You also want groups and role-based access.

Passbolt review

Questions people ask

Is BambooHR or Passbolt better?: Neither clearly leads. BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee and Passbolt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BambooHR or Passbolt?: Passbolt has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $10/month per employee for BambooHR and Free for Passbolt.
Does BambooHR or Passbolt run on more platforms?: BambooHR runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Passbolt runs on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
Can I use Passbolt for free?: Yes. Passbolt has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. BambooHR starts at $10/month per employee.
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 Passbolt is typically brought in for.
What can BambooHR do that Passbolt cannot?: BambooHR covers Employee database, Time-off management, Benefits tracking, Performance reviews. Passbolt covers Password sharing and folders, Groups and role-based access, Browser extensions and CLI, Open API.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Passbolt: Is Passbolt free to use?

Yes. The Community Edition is free forever with unlimited users, including password sharing, folders, groups, role-based access, browser extensions, a CLI, and an open API.

Source

Passbolt: What does the Pro Edition cost and add?

Pro Edition costs $4.90 per user per month billed annually, with a 10-user minimum, and adds LDAP/AD provisioning, single sign-on, account recovery escrow, activity audit logs, and next-business-day support.

Source

Passbolt: What license is Passbolt distributed under?

All Passbolt editions, including Pro and Enterprise, are distributed under the AGPL v3 open-source license.

Source

BambooHR vs Passbolt

BambooHR

Passbolt

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in BambooHR

Only in Passbolt

What people use each for

BambooHR

Passbolt

Where each one falls short

BambooHR

Passbolt

Pricing, plan by plan

BambooHR

Passbolt

Which should you pick?

Choose BambooHR if

Choose Passbolt if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on BambooHR

More on Passbolt

Keep looking

Other head to heads