HR had outgrown a folder and a spreadsheet. You needed a proper place for staff records. Not a document only one person could open. Something that tracked who was employed, their start dates, leave balances, and who had signed their contract. Something the whole team could access with the right permissions.

You searched. BambooHR came up. Good reviews. Reputable name. You signed up.

Now you have a full HR information system. The employee directory works. The leave approvals work. The document storage works. The rest of the platform sits untouched: performance reviews nobody has configured, an applicant tracking system no one has opened, onboarding workflows that were never set up, eNPS surveys that have never been sent.

The Three Things Your Business Actually Opens

The staff list. The leave requests. The documents folder.

That is the job most small businesses hired BambooHR to do. And BambooHR does all three.

It also does applicant tracking with job postings, structured performance review cycles, eNPS employee satisfaction surveys, onboarding workflow automation, compensation history and benchmarking, org chart analytics, time and attendance tracking, and payroll integrations. You pay for all of it. Most small businesses open three things.

What your BambooHR subscription pays for
  • Applicant Tracking System with job postings
  • Performance management and review cycles
  • eNPS employee satisfaction surveys
  • Onboarding workflow automation
  • Compensation history and benchmarking
  • Org chart with headcount analytics
  • Time and attendance tracking
  • Payroll integration
What most small businesses actually open
  • Employee directory with contact details
  • Leave requests and approvals
  • Document storage per employee
  • Start dates and employment status

Who BambooHR Is Actually Built For

BambooHR is a serious tool for HR departments managing 50 to 500 people. Companies running structured performance review cycles with a dedicated HR manager. Businesses with a recruitment pipeline and a talent acquisition function. Organisations that need compensation benchmarking and workforce analytics as part of their regular operations.

If your business is a small team with one person handling HR alongside other responsibilities, BambooHR is built for a different customer. You are using a fraction of the platform and paying for everything else every month.

The Cost of Paying for the Platform You Do Not Use

BambooHR does not publish pricing publicly. Typical costs run between A$8 and A$15 per employee per month depending on the plan and negotiated rate. At 10 employees and A$10 per person, that is A$100 a month.

Picture a small business that has been on BambooHR for three years. They use the employee directory, the leave approvals, and the document storage. The performance management module has never been configured. The applicant tracking system was opened once. They paid A$3,600 to access three features of a platform built for an HR department.

BambooHR at 10 staff over 3 years
A$3,600
A$100/mo. Per employee. Recurring.
Merebase Merebase staff records app
A$499
Once. No subscription fee after that.

What a Merebase staff records app Includes

A Merebase staff records app is built for the job your business actually has. You describe the fields you track, the leave types you approve, the documents you store per employee, and the status categories that fit your employment arrangements. The app is built to do exactly that.

What a Merebase staff records app includes:

Employee directory with custom fields. Leave requests and approval workflow. Document storage per employee. Start and end date tracking. Employment status. Search and filter. Unlimited records. A$499 once. You bring your own hosting. A basic plan runs A$5 to A$20 a month.

Note on scope: This covers HR admin and records. Payroll processing requires separate payroll software.

There is no applicant tracking module you will never configure. No performance review cycle to set up. No eNPS survey tool sitting idle. The app does the job. Nothing else takes up space.

A Note on Payroll

A Merebase staff records app handles the HR administration side: who is employed, their leave balances, their documents, and their status. It does not handle payroll processing, STP lodgement, or legally mandated calculations. Those require dedicated payroll software.

The two things work alongside each other. The staff records app is not a replacement for payroll software. It is a replacement for the spreadsheet and the shared folder that HR had outgrown.

No Per-Employee Pricing

BambooHR charges per employee. As your headcount grows, so does your monthly bill. A business with 15 staff pays 50 percent more than one with 10.

A Merebase app does not work that way. Unlimited employee records. The price does not change when you hire. There is no per-seat fee and no per-employee rate. You pay once for the build and once for your hosting.

Common questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to BambooHR for small businesses?
Yes. A Merebase staff records app built by Merebase does what most small businesses actually use BambooHR for: an employee directory, leave requests and approvals, and document storage per employee. A$499 once. No subscription fee. No per-employee pricing. You bring your own hosting.
Does a Merebase staff records app handle payroll?
No. A Merebase staff records app handles HR admin: the employee directory, leave tracking and approvals, document storage, start dates, and employment status. Payroll processing and STP lodgement are outside this scope and require dedicated payroll software.
What does a Merebase staff records app include?
A Merebase staff records app from Merebase includes an employee directory with custom fields, leave requests and an approval workflow, document storage per employee, start and end date tracking, employment status, and search and filter. Unlimited employee records. A$499 once, agreed in writing before payment.
Can a Merebase app scale as we hire more people?
Yes. A Merebase staff records app from Merebase includes unlimited employee records. There is no per-employee pricing. You can add as many staff as your business grows without the cost increasing.