For over a decade, BambooHR has been the go-to HRIS for small businesses—known for its intuitive design, accessible pricing, and approachable service model. But this week, that positioning is beginning to shift.

BambooHR officially unveiled a new Elite package, designed to attract larger and more complex organizations, and it comes with an entirely new set of capabilities: compensation management, custom analytics, benchmarking, and premium support. It’s the company’s most overt signal yet that it’s aiming to compete not just with Gusto, Zenefits and Namely —but also with players like Paylocity, HiBob and even the lower end of Workday’s customer base.

From SMB Hero to Mid-Market Contender

Historically, BambooHR has dominated the small business HRIS space, earning strong marks for usability and support. But that strength has often become a weakness when trying to win over companies with 500+ employees, who often need more control, more data, and more structure.

The new Elite tier, now live on Bamboo’s pricing page, was built with exactly those needs in mind.

Here’s what’s new:

• 📊 Custom Dashboards & Analytics – Visual reporting tools (charts, curves, graphs) that help leadership teams make faster, data-informed decisions.
• 💸 Compensation Management & Budgeting – Allocate budgets by department or location, layer in Mercer benchmarking data, model raise scenarios, and run comp cycles—all from within Bamboo.
• 👥 Premium Support Services – Elite customers will be supported by Bamboo’s most senior reps and receive perks like monthly service hours, annual business reviews, and early access to product rollouts.

According to Bamboo’s team, these capabilities have been in beta testing for 8+ months, and were built in close partnership with customers managing teams of 500–2,500 employees.

Why This Matters

The Elite release isn’t just a product update—it’s a strategic move to capture the mid-market. For years, BambooHR has watched as customers grew out of the system and migrated to more enterprise-grade tools. The Elite tier is an attempt to keep those companies in the ecosystem—and win over others that might’ve otherwise gone straight to a Paycor or Paycom.

It also plays into broader industry themes we’ve tracked at OutSail:

• ✅ Customers want more functionality without leaving behind intuitive UX. Bamboo is betting that you don’t need to sacrifice design to get enterprise-grade capabilities.
• 📈 The convergence of HRIS and strategic planning tools. With budgeting, headcount forecasting, and benchmarking in one place, Bamboo is starting to move up the value chain.
• 🤝 Service still matters. While many platforms chase automation, Bamboo’s decision to add more white-glove service tiers for complex orgs shows a commitment to keeping support a differentiator.

What’s Next?

Bamboo also teased a few forward-looking updates during their Elite launch conversations, including:

• An evolving AI assistant (Ask BambooHR 2.0) with more business health insights.
• Continued rollouts of deeper planning tools, including manpower and vacancy forecasting.

At OutSail, we’ll be updating our BambooHR profiles and demo guides accordingly—and keeping a close eye on whether this move pushes more buyers to consider Bamboo in mid-enterprise evaluations.

Bottom line: BambooHR is no longer content to be just “the small business HRIS.” With Elite, they’re throwing their hat in the ring for a much bigger customer base.