Employee ROI Calculator isn't an HR platform. It doesn't do payroll, benefits, or recruiting. It does one thing — shows you the real cost of your team and whether your projects make money. Here's how that stacks up.
Most HR software is built around managing employees — onboarding, time-off requests, performance reviews, payroll processing. That's important. But none of it answers the question that matters most to a business owner: is this person actually making me money?
Employee ROI Calculator doesn't replace your HR software. It answers the questions your HR software can't: what does each employee really cost per productive hour? Is this project profitable at my actual team cost? Should I hire or restructure?
| Feature | Employee ROI | BambooHR | Gusto | Rippling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real cost per productive hour | ✓ Core feature | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Project profitability calculator | ✓ 3 auto scenarios | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Team cost planning before signing contracts | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Off-books / cash worker tracking | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Works offline — no cloud required | ✓ Desktop app | ✗ Cloud only | ✗ Cloud only | ✗ Cloud only |
| Data stays on your computer | ✓ 100% local | ✗ Cloud servers | ✗ Cloud servers | ✗ Cloud servers |
| Employee records & HR database | Basic | ✓ Full HRIS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll processing | ✗ | Add-on (US only) | ✓ Core feature | ✓ Global |
| Benefits administration | ✗ | Add-on | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recruiting / ATS | ✗ | ✓ | Basic | ✓ |
| Free version available | ✓ Lite web calc | 7-day trial | ✗ | ✗ |
| Pricing | €50/mo flat | $10-25/employee/mo | $49 + $6/employee/mo | $8+/employee/mo |
| Cost for 20 employees | €50/mo | $200-500/mo | $169/mo | $160+/mo |
| Cost for 50 employees | €50/mo | $500-1,250/mo | $349/mo | $400+/mo |
BambooHR is a comprehensive HR management system designed for companies with 25 to 500 employees. It handles employee records, onboarding, performance reviews, time-off tracking, and recruiting. It's excellent at what it does — managing the administrative side of having employees.
What it doesn't do: tell you what each employee actually costs per productive hour when you include overhead, admin support, and non-billable staff. It doesn't generate project scenarios. It doesn't tell you whether a contract will be profitable before you sign it. And for a company with 20 employees, BambooHR costs $200-500/month versus €50/month flat for Employee ROI Calculator.
BambooHR manages your people. Employee ROI tells you if your people are making you money. They solve different problems. If you need a full HRIS, use BambooHR. If you need to know your real costs and project profitability, use Employee ROI. Many businesses need both.
Gusto is primarily a payroll platform with HR features added on top. It's excellent for US-based companies that need automated payroll processing, tax filing, and benefits administration. It handles the mechanics of paying people correctly and on time.
But knowing how to pay people correctly is not the same as knowing whether those people are profitable. Gusto tells you what you owe each employee. Employee ROI tells you what each employee costs you in reality — including the overhead, the non-productive staff, and the hidden costs that never appear on a payslip. Gusto is also US-only for its core features, while Employee ROI works for any country.
Gusto pays your team. Employee ROI tells you if your team is worth paying. If you're in the US and need automated payroll, Gusto is excellent. For project profitability and real cost tracking, Employee ROI fills the gap Gusto doesn't cover.
Rippling is the most feature-rich option — it combines HR, IT management, payroll, benefits, and device management in one platform. It's designed for growing companies that want everything in one place, including international payroll and compliance.
It's also the most complex and expensive. For a 50-employee company, Rippling costs $400+/month and requires significant setup time. It manages everything about your workforce — except the one thing that determines whether your business makes money: the real cost per productive hour and whether your projects are profitable at that cost.
Rippling manages your workforce infrastructure. Employee ROI manages your profitability. If you're a growing company with complex HR, IT, and global needs, Rippling makes sense. But for the question "is this project going to make money at my real team cost?" — you still need Employee ROI.
Most business owners track employee costs in spreadsheets. For years, that's what worked. The problem isn't the spreadsheet — it's what you forget to include. Rent per employee, admin overhead, non-productive staff costs, equipment depreciation, software licenses. And every time you need to quote a new project, you rebuild the formula from scratch.
Employee ROI Calculator is the spreadsheet you wish you'd built — except it generates three team scenarios automatically, tracks active jobs in real time, and handles every type of worker including off-books. And it costs less per month than the time you spend rebuilding formulas.
Spreadsheets work until they don't. If you've ever quoted a job, won it, and discovered three months later that it lost money — your spreadsheet missed something. Employee ROI was built to catch what spreadsheets miss.
Every other tool charges per employee. The more people you have, the more you pay. Employee ROI Calculator costs the same whether you have 5 employees or 500. Because the value of knowing your real costs doesn't change with headcount — it increases.
Try the Lite version in your browser — add your employees, describe a job, get three scenarios in 30 seconds. No account, no install, no credit card.
Try Free Lite Version → ← Back to Employee ROI