BambooHR Alternatives 2026: 6 Free Options
BambooHR alternatives: OrangeHRM, Horilla, Frappe HR, Zoho People and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•4 min read•Payroll, HR & Hiring
Verdict:BambooHR prices per employee from $10 on its Core plan (the page also shows $10.25 in its FAQ), with flat monthly rates of $250 to $650 for companies of 25 or fewer, and no free plan. That flat rate is the figure small companies should compare against, because it is much higher than a per-seat calculation suggests. The free routes split in two. Hosted: Zoho People has a forever-free edition with one administrator, and Homebase Basic covers up to 10 hourly employees at one location. Self-hosted: OrangeHRM Starter, Horilla and Frappe HR are open source and cover leave, attendance and, in the case of the latter two, payroll modules. The trade-off is operational. BambooHR is a managed product with support and a consistent interface; the open-source tools need a server, backups, upgrades and someone who owns them, and their payroll rules may not match your country. If you hold employee records, treat hosting and access control as part of the cost. Odoo's free plan is worth considering only if one app is enough, since a second app moves you to a paid plan. For a team under 10 with simple needs, Zoho People or Homebase is a quick way to test the change without installing anything. For teams over 25 that need performance reviews and onboarding checklists, expect to spend time configuring open-source modules.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OrangeHRM | Free (Starter edition is free and open source) | Web, Self-hosted | Teams that can self-host a classic HR system | Docs only |
| Horilla | Free (Free open source, self-hosted) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosters who want a broad open-source HRMS | Docs only |
| Frappe HR | Free (Free to self-host; Frappe Cloud hosting starts at $5 per month for Sites) | Web, Self-hosted | Technical teams that want payroll and leave under one licence | Docs only |
| Zoho People | Free (A forever-free edition with 1 administrator; the user cap is stated on the pricing page) | Web | Very small teams that want a hosted HR tool at no cost | Docs only |
| Odoo | Free (One App Free plan on Odoo Online, unlimited users) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Companies that want one HR app with no per-seat fee | Docs only |
| Homebase | Free (Basic plan at $0: up to 10 employees at one location, 90 days of timesheet storage); paid from $30 per location/month (Essentials) | Web | Small hourly teams at a single site | Docs only |
| Rippling | Paid from $8 per employee/month, plus a monthly base fee | Web | HR and payroll | Docs only |
| Gusto | Paid from $49 per month plus $6 per person (Simple) | Web | Payroll | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want a hosted HR tool at no cost for a tiny team (Zoho People is the pick)
- You can self-host and want a classic HR system (OrangeHRM is the pick)
- You want recruitment, leave and payroll in one open-source app (Horilla is the pick)
- You have an engineering team and want payroll and leave (Frappe HR is the pick)
- You manage hourly staff at one location (Homebase is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on BambooHR features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
BambooHR today: Paid from $10 per employee/month (Core) (BambooHR pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for BambooHR alternatives
BambooHR charges per employee: Core $10, Pro $17 and Elite $25 a month for companies over 25 employees, while smaller companies pay flat monthly rates of $250, $425 or $650. Performance management starts at Pro, and applicant tracking is capped at 5, 25 or 50 job openings by plan. Payroll, benefits administration and time and attendance are add-ons with no list price, so the quote decides the real cost.
OrangeHRM
Compared with BambooHR: OrangeHRM Starter is free and open source (GPL-3.0), where BambooHR lists Core at $10 per employee per month with no free plan. You self-host and maintain it, and the paid Advanced edition is a quote-based per-employee price.
Price: Free (Starter edition is free and open source) (OrangeHRM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. GPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 1.2k GitHub stars · latest release v5.9 (Jun 28, 2026) · last commit Jun 28, 2026
Best for: Teams that can self-host a classic HR system.
Worth knowing: Advanced is priced per employee per month by quote, with a 30-day free trial.
Horilla
Compared with BambooHR: Horilla is LGPL-2.1 and its README lists employee management, recruitment, onboarding, attendance, leave and payroll modules, all free to self-host. BambooHR is hosted with support; with Horilla you run the server and its upgrades.
Price: Free (Free open source, self-hosted) (Horilla pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. LGPL-2.1 (open source).
Project activity: 1.5k GitHub stars · latest release 2.2.0 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Self-hosters who want a broad open-source HRMS.
Worth knowing: README lists nine modules: employee management, recruitment, onboarding and offboarding, attendance, leave, payroll, performance, assets and helpdesk.
Frappe HR
Compared with BambooHR: Frappe HR is GPL-3.0 with payroll, leave and attendance, against BambooHR's $10 Core per employee. Self-hosting is free; Frappe Cloud sites start at $5 a month. Check that its payroll and tax rules fit your country before relying on it.
Price: Free (Free to self-host; Frappe Cloud hosting starts at $5 per month for Sites) (Frappe HR pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. GPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 9k GitHub stars · latest release v16.52.0 (Oct 22, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Technical teams that want payroll and leave under one licence.
Worth knowing: Covers payroll (salary structures, income tax slabs, payroll runs), leave and attendance. Check that payroll and tax rules fit your country before relying on it.
Zoho People
Compared with BambooHR: Zoho People has a forever-free edition with one administrator, and its paid plans require a minimum of 5 users. BambooHR has no free tier, though Zoho's pricing page showed no USD price we could quote for paid plans.
Price: Free (A forever-free edition with 1 administrator; the user cap is stated on the pricing page) (Zoho People pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Very small teams that want a hosted HR tool at no cost.
Odoo
Compared with BambooHR: Odoo's One App Free plan covers a single app with unlimited users, whereas BambooHR charges per employee. Adding a second app moves you to a paid per-user plan, so pick the one HR app you need before you commit.
Price: Free (One App Free plan on Odoo Online, unlimited users) (Odoo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. LGPL-3.0 (Community edition) (open source).
Project activity: 55.4k GitHub stars · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Companies that want one HR app with no per-seat fee.
Homebase
Compared with BambooHR: Homebase Basic is $0 for up to 10 employees at one location, with 90 days of timesheet storage. It is aimed at hourly teams and not a full HR file system like BambooHR, and payroll is a paid add-on.
Price: Free (Basic plan at $0: up to 10 employees at one location, 90 days of timesheet storage); paid from $30 per location/month (Essentials) (Homebase pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Small hourly teams at a single site.
Worth knowing: Plus is $70 and All-in-One $120 per location per month. Payroll is an add-on at $49 per month plus $6 per employee paid after a 6-month free period.
Other popular options (paid)
Rippling
Compared with BambooHR: Starts at $8 per employee per month plus a monthly base fee. Global Payroll and Global Contractors are quote-based, and eligible US VC-backed startups get six months of free access.
Price: Paid from $8 per employee/month, plus a monthly base fee (Rippling pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Gusto
Compared with BambooHR: Simple is $49 a month plus $6 per person, billed monthly. A payroll-first product, so unlike BambooHR you start from running payroll rather than employee records. Setup is free but there is no free plan.
Price: Paid from $49 per month plus $6 per person (Simple) (Gusto pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You want a hosted HR tool at no cost for a tiny team: Zoho People
- You can self-host and want a classic HR system: OrangeHRM
- You want recruitment, leave and payroll in one open-source app: Horilla
- You have an engineering team and want payroll and leave: Frappe HR
- You manage hourly staff at one location: Homebase
Limits of this review
Docs-only for OrangeHRM, Horilla, Frappe HR, Zoho People, Odoo, Homebase: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from BambooHR. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: BambooHR, OrangeHRM, Horilla, Frappe HR, Zoho People, Odoo, Homebase, Rippling, Gusto. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.