HRPeople management & AMI Recruitment / ATSSource, screen, hire Automate100+ UK HR workflows AI AgentsHR Assistant, Recruitment, Documents, Counsel Time & presenceClocks, badges, gateways IntegrationsPayroll + 50 connectors
In the spotlight

Meet AMI — your AI agent stack.

AMI runs interviews, processes payslips, drafts documents and analyses reports inside your Sense tenant. Not a chatbot — a team of agents.

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In the spotlight

AMI conducts the first-round interview.

Inside the Sense ATS, AMI screens candidates, scores against your role criteria, and feeds the result back into the pipeline.

How AMI interviews work →
In the spotlight

Workflows named for UK HR.

Not generic templates. Fit Note After 7 Days, Buy/Sell Holidays, Flexi Time, TOIL Cycle Carryover — UK-specific and switch-on-ready.

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In the spotlight

Six AI agents working on your HR.

Counsel is the new AMI agent. Reads your live contracts, policies and roster — then answers in three seconds. Replaces the £16-per-employee advice line. Coming in 8 weeks.

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In the spotlight

The only HR system that builds its own location hardware.

Sense Badge with Lone Worker and SOS apps. Sense Gateway for indoor presence. Fire roll-call in one tap. Nobody else does this.

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In the spotlight

TrustID powers right-to-work.

UKVI-compatible IDVT checks built into the ATS and onboarding flow. Audit-ready evidence. Sponsorship licence reporting on Elite.

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UK HR software comparison

Sense HR vs BambooHR.

Looking for a UK alternative to BambooHR? Here's an honest comparison of Bamboo's US-led HR software against Sense HR, a UK-built platform with time & attendance, AI agents and free implementation included.

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Updated 2026
Public pricing Based on public pricing and feature lists
UK HR specialists Reviewed by UK HR specialists
Sense HR vs BambooHR.
At a glance

Who is each platform best for?

Sense HR — Best for

UK businesses that need UK-built HR software, not US-led. Teams from 50 to 1,000+ employees with frontline staff. Companies that want T&A and clocking built in, not bolted on. Buyers who value free UK implementation and migration. HR teams who want AI agents (AMI, AMI, Sense Automate) included. UK payroll integration (Sage, Xero, BrightPay) out of the box.

BambooHR — Best for

US-based small businesses or US HQ with UK office. Office-led teams up to ~250 employees. Buyers who prefer a globally recognised HR brand. Customers happy with quote-only pricing in GBP. Teams who don't need time clocks or location tracking. Businesses already settled on a US payroll partner.

When to choose which

It depends on what you actually need.

Choose Sense HR if you're a UK business that needs more than office HR.

Sense is built for UK businesses that have a mix of office, hybrid and frontline workers — not just desk-based staff. UK statutory leave, UK payroll integrations and a UK-based support team are included by default. You need time & attendance, clocking or work patterns included, not bolted on. You want AI agents (AMI, AMI, Sense Automate) doing real HR work. You're scaling beyond 250 employees and Bamboo feels tight. You want a free, hands-on UK implementation with data migration. You need UK compliance (SSP, SMP, right-to-work, DBS) handled natively. Your team is moving from spreadsheets, Breathe or older HR tools.

Choose BambooHR if you're a US-led business with a small UK office.

BambooHR has strong global brand recognition and works well for office-led businesses in the US who happen to have UK employees, but it isn't purpose-built for the UK. Your headquarters is in the US and the UK is a smaller satellite. You only need core HR — no clocking, work patterns or frontline tools. You're comfortable getting pricing on a custom quote. You're happy to configure UK statutory leave manually. Your team is under ~250 people and you don't expect rapid scale. You don't need integrated UK payroll (Sage, BrightPay).

FAQs

Common questions on the Bamboo comparison.

Is Sense HR a UK alternative to BambooHR?+
Yes. Sense HR is UK-built and UK-supported HR software designed for UK businesses. We handle UK statutory leave (SSP, SMP, SPP), UK payroll integrations (Sage, Xero, BrightPay) and right-to-work checks natively — without the configuration overhead of using a US-led platform like Bamboo in the UK.
How does BambooHR pricing compare with Sense HR pricing?+
BambooHR uses quote-only pricing in the UK, so it's hard to compare like-for-like. Sense HR publishes pricing from £2 per employee per month with free implementation, migration and training included. For most UK SMEs, total cost of ownership comes out meaningfully lower on Sense.
Does Sense HR include time & attendance like BambooHR's add-on?+
Yes — and it's included, not an add-on. Sense HR ships with full time & attendance, shift scheduling and a choice of hardware clocks (Sense Clock, Anviz FacePass, Anviz C2 Pro). BambooHR offers Time Tracking as a paid add-on but doesn't support hardware clocks or shift scheduling. See how Sense T&A works at /time-and-attendance.html.
Can Sense HR migrate my data from BambooHR?+
Yes. Switching from BambooHR to Sense HR is included free in our implementation. We extract employee records, holidays, documents and historic data from Bamboo and load it into Sense. A UK implementation specialist handles the project end-to-end — typical go-live is 2–4 weeks.
How does AI differ between Sense HR and BambooHR?+
BambooHR offers "Ask BambooHR", a question-answering assistant. Sense HR ships four AI agents: AMI (conversational HR assistant), AMI (recruitment AI that screens and ranks candidates), Sense Automate (attendance AI) and our AMI Payroll agent (explains pay queries to employees). These are agents that take action, not just retrieval bots.
Is BambooHR cheaper than Sense HR for small UK businesses?+
Bamboo doesn't publish UK pricing publicly so it's hard to say. From reported customer pricing, Bamboo tends to land at the higher end for SMEs in the UK once Time Tracking, Performance and Payroll add-ons are stacked. Sense HR is transparently priced from £2 per employee per month, with most modules included in the base tier.
Does Sense HR scale beyond BambooHR's typical customer size?+
Yes. BambooHR is positioned at small businesses up to around 250 employees. Sense HR runs comfortably from 50 employees to 1,000+ and supports multi-entity, multi-company structures, complex shift patterns and frontline workforces — use cases that often push customers off Bamboo.
Is Sense HR data hosted in the UK?+
Yes. Sense HR data is hosted in UK data centres and we're fully UK GDPR compliant with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications. BambooHR primarily hosts data in the US, which can create data residency considerations for some UK and EU customers.

See why UK businesses pick Sense over Bamboo.

Free implementation. Free migration. Free UK training. UK support. AI included. T&A included. From £2 per employee per month.

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