Homebase is a cloud-based employee scheduling, time tracking, and team communication software for small businesses. It is used to automate and streamline employee scheduling and time tracking, and to provide businesses with visibility into labor costs. Homebase also offers features for team communication, hiring, onboarding,< and compliance.
Homebase earned the top spot (with an overall score of 4.38 out of 5) in our best employee scheduling software for small businesses guide. It has a free version, but it’s limited to one location and up to 20 employees. Meanwhile, its paid version starts at $24.95 per location per month and includes unlimited employees.
Deciding Factors
| Best For | Small businesses with limited employees and only one location that need a free scheduling software |
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| Free Plan/Trial |
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| Pricing |
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| Key Features |
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| Ease of Use |
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| Customer Support |
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Who I Recommend Homebase For
Homebase ranked as the best in both our employee scheduling software guide and free employee scheduling software buyer’s guide because it has comprehensive scheduling, time tracking, and payroll features that I found convenient and affordable for small businesses.
It is also ideal for the following:
- Growing businesses with one physical location that employ hourly workers: Homebase is free for businesses that have one physical location. While its free plan is limited to up to 20 employees, its Essential plan allows you to add unlimited employees in one location for only $24.95 per month. In addition, you get time tracking, team messaging, and applicant tracking features.
- US-based small businesses needing to pay hourly workers who work various shifts: Homebase offers a full-service payroll option suited for hourly teams that syncs with its time tracking features. It automatically calculates hours, breaks, overtime, and PTO; converts timesheets into wages; and pays employees, the state, and the IRS. The payroll feature is available in all US states and is an add-on to any Homebase plan.
- Companies in need of time-keeping and HR tools for employees who work in the field: Homebase’s time and attendance software comes with a GPS locator, so you always know where employees are clocking in. It is one of our top picks in our best time tracking software guide. It also helps you perform HR functions like job board posting, applicant tracking, performance management, labor cost budgeting, onboarding, and labor law research.
When to Use Something Else
- Businesses with multiple locations: Homebase is free only for businesses with one location. Moreover, its free version is limited to 20 users only. So, if you have two or more locations, you must purchase its paid plans. If you don’t want to pay more to schedule or track your employees’ work hours in more than one location, we recommend using 7Shifts because its free version allows up to 30 users. Learn more about 7Shifts and how it compares to Homebase in our best retail employee scheduling software guide.
- Budget-conscious business owners: While Homebase offers a comprehensive solution for businesses, it is not the cheapest option. If you are on a budget, we recommend SocialSchedules because its paid plans cost less.
Looking for something different? Read our guide to the best time and attendance software to find other services that may work for you.
Why You Can Trust Fit Small Business
Homebase Alternatives
| Best for | Free Plan | Paid Plans Start At | Cloud Storage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Businesses needing an all-in-one time-keeping and HR tool | Limited to 1 location and up to 20 employees | $24.95 per location per month | 4+ years |
| Visit Homebase | ||||
 | Restaurants that operate in multiple locations with complex employee shifts | Limited to 1 location and up to 30 employees | $34.99 per location per month | Inactive users remain in database as long as their shifts are still on a previous schedule |
| Visit 7Shifts | ||||
 | Multilocation and global entities that share employees in multiple sites | Up to 100 shifts per month | $4.50 per user per month | 7 years |
| Visit Deputy | ||||
 | Businesses with multiple locations and follows strict labor laws | Limited to 1 department per location and up to 10 scheduled workers | $15.99 per location per month | 7 years |
| Visit Social Schedules | ||||
7Shifts is designed specifically for restaurants. It allows you to schedule, pay, and engage your team all in one place, and offers tip management where you can tip out immediately, create tip pools, and sync to payroll. Homebase has automated tip management, as well.
Both offer free plans that are limited to one location; however, 7Shifts allows up to 30 employees, whereas Homebase sets its limits on its free plan to 20 employees. For businesses with more than one location, Homebase is cheaper per location than 7Shifts ($24.95 per month vs $34.99 per month).
Read more about 7Shifts in our Best Free Employee Scheduling Software buyer’s guide.
omebase and Deputy are comparable in terms of their scheduling and time tracking capabilities. Where Homebase shines is in its ability to sync timesheets and run payroll for employees. Deputy does not offer payroll. Alternatively, Deputy offers task management features that help you dive deeper into an employee’s timesheet. Homebase does not have this feature.
In terms of scheduling, Deputy caters best to businesses in retail, healthcare, and hospitality with more than one location. Deputy’s pricing is per employee per month, starting at $4.50 for scheduling. However, each product has an additional add-on price. Homebase is an all-inclusive HR and scheduling tool that is priced per month with unlimited employees (with the exception of its free plan, which is limited to one location and up to 20 employees).
To help you compare, you can learn more about Deputy’s features and offerings in our Deputy review.
Both Homebase and SocialSchedules excel at scheduling, compliance, and team communications, making either an optimal choice for businesses with strict labor laws. Additionally, they both offer time clocks that let your employees clock in and out directly through the app. Where they are different is that Homebase offers payroll directly through its software, whereas SocialSchedules offers only payroll integration with a third-party payroll provider.
As far as pricing for their paid plans, SocialSchedules is slightly cheaper, starting at $15.99 per month per location for unlimited employees. However, even for its smallest paid plan, Homebase comes with advanced scheduling and time tracking features, whereas SocialSchedules has limited features.
Read more about SocialSchedules in our guide to the Best Restaurant Scheduling Software & Apps.
Homebase Pricing
3.75 / 5
Homebase’s Basic Plan is free for businesses in a single location, but is limited to 20 users only. It has three paid plans—Essentials, Plus, and All-in-One—for businesses with more than one location or more than 20 employees. All paid plans have scheduling, time, and attendance functions, including job posting and applicant tracking features for unlimited employees.
See our table below to compare all four of Homebase’s plans.
| Basic | Essentials | Plus | All-in-One | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing($/Month/Location)* | $0 | $24.95 | $59.95 | $99.95 |
| Number of Locations | 1 | More than one location | ||
| Time Tracking; Scheduling and Availability; Messaging; Hiring | Basic | Advanced | ||
| Remote Working/Fieldwork | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Productivity and Communication | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budgeting and Labor Cost | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| API Access | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Support and Integration | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll($/Month) | $39 base fee + $6 per active employee | |||
| Job Posting Boost($/Post) | Starts at $79 | |||
| Automated Tip Manager | $25 per month per location | |||
Want to know which Homebase plan will fit your budget? Use our online calculator to compute the estimated monthly and annual fees.
Homebase Monthly Plan Calculator
Homebase Scheduling Functionality
4.75 / 5
Homebase enables you to create schedules and avoid overtime using its templates. It makes it easy to see your team’s availability, preferences, and time off. You can also fill in gaps on the schedule as it helps you manage open shifts, shift trades, and shift covers. The up-to-date schedule can then be automatically shared with the team. Features include:
- Advanced and auto-scheduling
- Labor forecasts
- Online schedule builder
- Open shifts, shift trades, and covers
- Sales forecasts and labor targets
Homebase HR Features
Homebase is designed to help employers hire the right staff, manage their schedules, track their performances, and pay them on time. It provides free employee accounts and mobile app access. It supports multiple role types and wage rates, updates your employee profiles, helps create an employee handbook, and tracks your employees’ performance.
Also, it allows you to handle timesheets, payroll reports, and message logs. It updates you with any labor law changes at both state and federal levels and syncs your break time and overtime settings as required by the state.
Although HR features were not part of the original review analysis (per our scoring), I feel these are important to deciding if Homebase is right for you. Here are some of its top-notch features to help managers and business owners simplify scheduling and time tracking, payroll, and other elements of employee management, such as hiring.
Time Tracking & Attendance
Along with scheduling, Homebase also tracks employee hours. It monitors your employees’ clock-in/out times, including overtime work and breaks. For companies with workers in the field, the GPS locator will let you know when and where your employees clocked in/out.
Its time clock is accessible using any device, and you can easily download your timesheets for payroll processing. If you want to gauge how effective your scheduling process is, the actual versus scheduled hours feature will be helpful; you can also see your labor costs versus your sales.
Time tracking features include:
- Availability approvals
- Customized break and overtime settings
- GPS locations and photos
- Overtime alert
- Paid time off (PTO) policies
- Prepare timesheets for payroll
- Prevent early clock-ins
- Time clock
- Time off requests and restrictions
- Track breaks and overtime
Time tracking can be complicated if you don’t have the proper process and tools. Check out these expert tips and advice on how you can track employee hours efficiently.
Team Communication
Aside from sending up-to-date schedules to your team through text or email, you can also send notifications and attachments using Homebase’s free mobile app. Homebase’s direct messaging feature is not typical of all-in-one HR software. It is tailored for companies with field workers who need secure messaging to control access and messaging between teams/departments in real-time.
Business owners can also give automated reminders for schedules and shifts, confirm schedules and messages, add personal instructions or notes to employees, and share daily reports to your managing team.
Team communication features include:
- Automated reminders and texts to staff
- Built-in messenger
- Employee shift feedback and personal notes with shifts
- See when employees view your schedules and messages
- Manager logs
Hiring
Homebase can help you recruit the best talent in the hiring market by promoting your job openings on Craigslist, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. It offers templated job postings based on job title or you can create your own custom job post. You can even add applicant screener questions to job posts—and once you hire them, it can have new employees electronically sign new hire documents and also securely store staff forms.
Payroll Processing
Employers can easily process payrolls from timesheets using Homebase Payroll. For an additional fee of $39 per month plus $6 per employee per month, you can use this feature to calculate paychecks, send direct deposits to your employees, and automatically pay and file payroll taxes. Your employees can also have access to their W-2s, 1099s, and pay stubs on-demand using the Homebase mobile app.
Customer Support & Integrations
Homebase has a team of reliable customer support representatives, and you can reach them via email, phone, or chat on weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT. There are also help guides and video tutorials that are available on the website. For those subscribed to the All-in-One plan, HR Pro Advisers are available to answer your HR questions.
Homebase also syncs seamlessly with leading POS, payroll, business tools, and job boards.
- POS integrations: Upserve, Toast, Vend, Square, Shopify, and more
- Payroll integrations: Gusto, ADP, Paychex, Rippling, Intuit QuickBooks, and more
- Business tools integrations: Restaurant365, Ctuit, BevSpot, and Shopventory
- Job boards: ZipRecruiter, Indeed, Craigslist, Glassdoor, Facebook, and more
Homebase Reporting
5.00 / 5
Homebase earned perfect marks in our criterion for reporting because it offers a wide range of reports, both templated and customizable. Reporting features include:
- Multiple role types and wage rates
- Staff performance tracking
- Team roster and profiles
- Complete timesheet edit history
- Historical timesheets and reports
- Message logs
- Schedule compliance alerts
- Basic and advanced labor cost reports
- Employee performance reports
Ease of Use
4.8 / 5
Homebase is very easy to set up and use. It has an intuitive user interface that you can get accustomed to easily while you use its work schedule builder tools or time tracking features. Employers and employees receive real-time updates and notifications on schedules and other important information. Homebase has a team of support representatives that you can access via phone, chat, or email.
Homebase excels in the following ease of use areas:
- Easy to set up and use
- Intuitive user interface
- Robust scheduling features in the mobile app
- Mobile app makes team communication easy
- Access to HR experts
- Responsive customer service
Homebase User Reviews
3.5 / 5
| Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
|---|---|
| No setup or hidden fees | Mobile app glitches |
| Caters to an unlimited number of employees | Only one location and administrator for the free version |
| Hiring tools are included in the Basic plan | Reported integration issues |
Most Homebase reviews are positive, with users pointing out that setting it up is easy. Others find its user interface intuitive and schedule builder easy to navigate, while others praise its robust scheduling and time tracking feature. Users complained of bugs in the software, but they raved about the responsiveness to the service’s customer support.
At the time of publication, Homebase earned the following scores on popular user review sites:
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5 based on 1,000+ reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 based on 100+ reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated Homebase
You can view the full methodology of how we evaluated each software in our best employee scheduling software guide.
Meet the Experts
The following contributors collaborated throughout many different phases of evaluation to deliver this final review of Homebase.
 | Jennifer Soper has 25+ years of writing and content design experience, working with small businesses and Fortune 100 companies. For over a decade, Jennifer worked as an HR generalist, providing expertise in accounting, payroll, and HR by implementing payroll and benefits best practices and creating onboarding and employee-relations documentation. |
|---|---|
 | Robie Ann Ferrer is an HR expert writer at Fit Small Business, focusing on small business HR and payroll software content. She has over eight years of content writing experience, handling different topics. Robie also worked as an HR specialist for 10 years where she managed various facets of HR—from payroll and benefits to employee services and HR systems. |
 | Genevieve has more than 13 years of writing experience, working with different clients in various industries. Genevieve also worked as an HR Head of a local manufacturing company, and has helped small businesses set up their business and HR processes. |
Homebase Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Homebase trustworthy?
Based on user reviews on different review websites, Homebase is a reliable time-tracking app that has helped organizations with their payroll process. We especially like its compliance features, such as the ability to set break and overtime rules, because it simplifies the process for small business owners.
Does Homebase track employee activity?
Homebase tracks employee activity to some extent. This includes employee clock-in and clock-out locations, break times, and time-offs. It also uses GPS snapshots to record your employees’ location at the time of clock in, out, and breaks in between. However, it does not track employee activity in real time. This means that Homebase cannot track where an employee is at any given time or what they are doing.
Is Homebase a secure app?
Homebase’s security measures ensure that their clients’ data are always protected. They have an onsite engineering team that makes sure their security remains up-to-date. It uses industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including: employee, two-factor authentication, and regular security audits.
Take advantage of Homebase’s all-in-one 14-day free trial today.
