Homebase Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Juvy has over 10 years of content writing experience and was a licensed teacher. She has evaluated and written about dozens of payroll and HR software solutions for small business to provide the best answers to your software questions.
Homebase is an all-in-one employee scheduling, time tracking, and HR solution for small businesses. It offers labor forecasting, time off requests and restrictions, break and overtime tracking, a time clock, and an online scheduler. What differentiates it from other providers is its free unlimited scheduling plan for businesses with a single location and its HR/hiring tools, such as job recruiting and applicant screening.
What We Like
- 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
What's Missing
- One location, one administrator for the free version
- Mobile app glitches
- PIN with implementation does not always work
Deciding Factors
- Has a free plan with robust time-tracking and scheduling tools for businesses with one location
- Has in-house payroll option
- Per-location pricing scheme can make it costly for businesses with multiple sites
What We Recommend Homebase For
Homebase ranked as the best overall in our free employee scheduling software and best employee scheduling software guides. 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. No matter how many employees you hire, you won’t be charged additional fees if they all work in the same location. 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. Ranking #1 in our best time and attendance software guide, it automatically calculates hours, breaks, overtime, and PTO; converts time sheets into wages; and pays employees, the state, and the IRS. The payroll feature is available in all US states except Nevada.
- 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 our top pick for the best time tracking software, and can also help 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
- Budget-conscious businesses with multiple locations: Homebase is free only for businesses with one location, so if you have two or more locations, you must purchase its paid plans ranging from $24.95 to $99.95 per location, per month. If you don’t want to pay more to schedule or track your employees’ work hours in more than one location, we recommend you check out some of our recommended free employee scheduling software options.
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
 |  |  | |
Restaurants that operate in multiple locations with complex employee shifts | Multilocation and global entities that share employees in multiple sites | Businesses with multiple locations and follows strict labor laws | |
Best for | $0 to $76.99+ per location | $0 to $4.50+ per user | $0 to $39.99+ per location |
Monthly fees | $0 to $76.99+ per location | $0 to $4.50+ per user | $0 to $39.99+ per location |
Homebase Pricing
Homebase’s Basic Plan is free for users operating in a single location. It has three paid plans—Essentials, Plus, and All-in-One—for businesses with more than one location. All plans have scheduling, time, and attendance functions, including job posting and applicant tracking features for unlimited employees.
Basic | Essentials | Plus | All-in-One | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing ($/Month/Location)* | $0 | $24.95 | $59.95 | $99.95 |
Number of Location | 1 | More than one location | ||
Time Tracking; Scheduling and Availability; Messaging; Hiring | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Remote Working/Fieldwork | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Productivity and Communication | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Budgeting and Labor Cost | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
API Access | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Support and Integration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Payroll ($/Month) | $39 base fee + $6 per active employee | |||
Job Posting Boost ($/Post) | Starts at $79 | Included | ||
Onboarding and Document Storage ($/Month/Location) | $49 | Included | ||
HR Pro Advisers and Resources ($/Month) | $99 | Included | ||
*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 and HR Pro Advisors plus resources at $99 per month. 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 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.
Scheduling
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.
Time Tracking and Attendance
Along with scheduling, Homebase also tracks employee hours. It monitors your employees’ clock-in/out times, including overtime worked 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 time sheets 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.
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. 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
Hiring
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.
HR, Team Management & Reporting
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
Payroll Processing
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 time sheets 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.
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 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
Homebase Ease of Use
- Easy to set up and use
- Intuitive user interface
- Robust scheduling features are available in the mobile app
- Mobile app makes team communication easy
- Access to knowledgeable 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.
What Users Think About Homebase
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 830+ reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 based on 80+ reviews
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.
