2023 Homebase Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives
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 an overall score of 4.40 out of 5 and earned the top spot in our best employee scheduling guide. It has a free version, but it’s limited to up to 10 employees. Meanwhile, its paid version starts at $24.95/location per month.
Overall Score:
4.40 / 5
Pros
- Easy to set up and navigate
- Can handle an unlimited number of employees
- Job posts, applicant tracking, and employee scheduling are included in the free option
Cons
- One location, one administrator for the free version
- Mobile app glitches
- PIN with implementation does not always work
What We Recommend Homebase For
As previously noted, Homebase ranked as the best in our employee scheduling software guide. It also is our top choice for free employee scheduling software. It has comprehensive scheduling, time tracking, and payroll features that small business owners find convenient and affordable. Employers can build their workers’ schedules in just a few clicks and share them with the team within minutes using the Homebase mobile app. It also notifies your workers of their upcoming shifts, and you can manage shift trades immediately to ensure smooth business operations.
In short, Homebase is best for:
- 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.
- 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 Homebase Would Not Be a Good Fit
- 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. Read our 7Shifts review for more information.
- 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. Learn more about it in our SocialSchedules review.
Looking for something different? Read our guide to the best employee scheduling software to find other services that may work for you.
Homebase Alternatives At a Glance
Best for | Paid Plans Start At | GPS Tracking | Cloud Storage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Businesses needing an all-in-one time-keeping and HR tool | $24.95/location/month | ✓ | 4+ years |
 | Restaurants that operate in multiple locations with complex employee shifts | $34.99/location/month | ✓ | Save 12 hours per month |
 | Multilocation and global entities that share employees in multiple sites | $3.50/user/month | ✓ | 7 years |
 | Businesses with multiple locations and follows strict labor laws | $15.99/location/month | ✓ | 7 years |
Homebase Deciding Factors
Supported Business Types | Small businesses that need a free scheduling software |
Free Plan/Free Trial |
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Pricing |
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Standout Features |
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Ease of Use |
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Customer Support |
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Homebase’s Basic Plan is free for businesses in a single location, but is limited for up to 10 users only. It has three paid plans—Essentials, Plus, and All-in-One—for businesses with more than one location. All plans have scheduling, time, and attendance functions, including job posting and applicant tracking features for unlimited employees.
Basic | Essentials | Plus | All-in-One | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing ($/Month/Location)* | $0 | $24.95 | $59.95 | $99.95 |
Number of Locations | 1 | More than one location | ||
Time Tracking; Scheduling and Availability; Messaging; Hiring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Remote Working/Fieldwork | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Productivity and Communication | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Budgeting and Labor Cost | N/A | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
API Access | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Support and Integration | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Payroll ($/Month) | $39 base fee + $6 per active employee | |||
Job Posting Boost ($/Post) | Starts at $79 | |||
*Save 30% when you pay annually.
Want to know which Homebase plan will fit your budget? Use our online calculator to compute the estimated monthly and annual fees.
Homebase has additional services like job posting boosts at $79 per post. If you sign up for the premium All-in-One plan, both HR Pro Advisors and onboarding and document storage are included. Homebase also comes with a Payroll service, which can be added to any plan for a monthly base fee of $39 and $6 per active employee per month.
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
Schedule your team from any browser or mobile device. (Source: Homebase)
Homebase 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 time sheets, 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.
HR, team management, and reporting features include:
- Free employee accounts and mobile app access
- Multiple role types and wage rates
- One place to post jobs and track applicants
- Staff performance tracking
- Team roster and profiles
- Complete time sheet edit history
- Historical time sheets and reports
- Message logs
- Schedule compliance alerts
- Set standard breaks and overtime for your state
- Basic and advanced labor cost reports
- Employee performance reports
Homebase Other Features
Homebase is designed to help employers hire the right staff, manage their schedules, track their performances, and pay them on time. 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.
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 gadget, 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 time sheets for payroll
- Prevent early clock-ins
- Time clock
- Time off requests and restrictions
- Track breaks and overtime
Homebase totals hours and overtime, as well as subtracts break times.
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.
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. 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
Free messaging app for your team
Homebase can help you recruit the best talent in the hiring market by promoting your job openings on Craigslist, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. 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.
Since Our Last Update:
Homebase has expanded its payroll availability to more US states. It now serves Alaska and Indiana, leaving Nevada as the only state not supported.
Employers can easily process payrolls from timesheets using Homebase Payroll. For an additional fee, 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.
Homebase has a team of reliable customer support representatives, and you can reach them via email, phone, or chat on weekdays, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time. 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
- 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 is very easy to set up and use. It has a very 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.
| 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. Although there were some mentions of bugs in the software, it was brought up that the service’s customer support was very responsive.
At the time of publication, Homebase earned the following scores on popular user review sites:
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5 based on 900+ reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 based on 100+ reviews
Homebase Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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 the ability to set break and overtime rules, because it simplifies the process for small business owners.
Homebase tracks employee activity to some extent. This includes employee clock-in and clock-out locations, break times, and time-offs. It also tracks employee interactions with the app, such as when they view their time sheets or submit time off requests. 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.
Homebase uses this data to track employee attendance and productivity, as well as to provide insights into employee behavior. This data can be used to improve scheduling, identify areas where time is being wasted, and make informed decisions about the business.
Yes. However, it is only available on the mobile app. It uses GPS snapshots to record your employees’ location at the time of clock in, out, and breaks in between. This information can be used to prevent time theft and ensure that employees are only paid for the time they actually work. To use it, employees must have their location services turned on and be within range of a cellular network. Homebase does not continuously track employees’ location during their shift.
Homebase puts premium in security to ensure that their clients’ data are always protected.
They have an on-site 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.
Bottom Line
Homebase is an affordable and reliable employee scheduling and time tracking platform that many small businesses find useful. Its hiring and HR features help separate it from competitors, and its free plan makes it easy for businesses to try, risk-free. Sign up to use Homebase for free today.
