# Homebase

> Small-business scheduling, time clock and payroll, priced per location

Homebase is a scheduling and time clock app for small hourly teams such as restaurants, shops and service businesses. Managers build the weekly schedule, staff trade shifts and clock in on a phone, tablet, computer or POS terminal, and hours sync to payroll or to Homebase's own payroll add-on. Plans are priced per location, and one location with up to 10 employees is free.

- **Category:** Shift Scheduling
- **Made by:** Pioneer Works, Inc.
- **Website:** https://joinhomebase.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Homebase has a free plan. Paid plans start at $24 per location / month, billed annually (Essentials).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Basic plan, free for one location with up to 10 employees: basic scheduling and time tracking and a POS integration, with timesheets stored for 90 days.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial of All-in-One, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | $0 | One location and up to 10 employees: basic scheduling and time tracking, a POS integration, timesheets kept 90 days. |
| Essentials | $24 per location / month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly) | Unlimited employees. Adds shift trades and open shifts, availability, location-based mobile clock-in, payroll integrations and team messaging. |
| Plus | $56 per location / month, billed annually ($70 billed monthly) | Adds an AI scheduling assistant, PTO policies with accruals, departments and manager permissions. Shown at $0 for 6 months with the payroll offer. |
| All-in-One | $96 per location / month, billed annually ($120 billed monthly) | Adds onboarding paperwork with e-signatures, HR advisors and a custom handbook, overtime alerts, sales-based scheduling and API access. |

Read from https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Homebase before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save 20% with annual billing** (Annual discount): Annual billing brings Essentials, Plus and All-in-One to $24, $56 and $96 per location a month against $30, $70 and $120 monthly, or $72 to $288 a year saved. Source: https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing
- **6 months free on Plus and Payroll for new customers** (Other savings): New customers who set up payroll by December 15, 2026 and run it by January 20, 2027 get Plus free for 6 months and payroll free for 6 months for up to 50 employees. Source: https://www.joinhomebase.com/terms-eoy6-plus
- **Payroll at $29 a month for teams of 5 or fewer** (Other savings): Teams of up to 5 who start payroll in the same window get 6 months free, then $29 a month plus $6 per employee paid instead of $49, while they stay at 5 or fewer. Source: https://www.joinhomebase.com/terms-eoy6-payroll-xs

## Key features

- **Weekly schedule builder:** Managers build the week around availability and time-off requests, and staff trade, cover or claim open shifts. Plus adds an AI scheduling assistant.
- **Time clock on any device:** Staff clock in on tablets, computers, POS terminals such as Clover and GoDaddy, or the mobile app with location checks, and tablets can take a photo at each clock-in.
- **Timesheets to payroll:** Timesheets follow your overtime and break rules and sync to Gusto, ADP RUN, QuickBooks Online or Square Payroll, or feed Homebase's own payroll add-on.
- **Team messaging:** Messenger channels, announcements and shift notes, with confirmation when employees have seen the schedule or read a message.
- **Hiring and onboarding:** Job openings go out to online job boards, and All-in-One sends onboarding packets with W-4, I-9 and direct deposit forms for e-signature.
- **Labor cost controls:** All-in-One alerts managers before overtime, blocks early clock-ins, clocks staff out at shift end and reports labor against sales pulled from the POS.

## Good for

- Single-location shops and restaurants with up to 10 staff, on the free plan
- Owners who want POS sales and labor costs side by side
- Small businesses that want scheduling and payroll from one vendor

## Worth knowing

- Plans are priced per location: each separate address needs its own plan, and the free Basic plan covers only one location and up to 10 employees.
- Payroll is an add-on on every plan at $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid.
- Other add-ons cost extra: Tip Manager $25 and Task Manager $13 a month per location, background checks $30 each, Hiring Assistant from $99 a month.
- PTO accrual policies need Plus; onboarding paperwork, HR advisors and API access need All-in-One.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 3.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Homebase is the easy yes for a small shop or restaurant. It's free for one location of up to 10 people, and past that it's a flat $24 a month per location however many staff you have. Just watch the add-ons: payroll, tips and tasks all cost extra.

- **Value for money: B.** Essentials is $24 per location a month billed yearly, with unlimited employees, so 15 staff at one site pay $24. For a team that size that's in the cheapest quarter of this category. A second site means a second plan.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees, with scheduling, time tracking and a POS link, though timesheets are kept only 90 days. A small team can really run on it.
- **Features: B.** Weekly schedules around availability, shift trades and open shifts, clock-ins on phones, tablets or POS terminals, timesheets that follow your overtime rules and sync to payroll, plus hiring. The whole job, with an AI scheduling assistant on Plus.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.78 from 95,735 App Store ratings, more ratings than any other app in this category. Staff see shifts, trade them and clock in from the phone.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with tills like Square, Toast, Clover and Shopify and payroll like Gusto, ADP and QuickBooks. The API needs All-in-One, and there's no desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Homebase's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among shift scheduling apps

- Homebase's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 11 of the 12 other shift scheduling apps we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 8 of 12) and worst on platforms and integrations (B, above 1).
- Its paid plans start at $24 a month, against a middle price of $5.65 for the category: 8 of the 12 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/shift-scheduling

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Homebase you would be making payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 11 of the 12 other shift scheduling apps we grade. It costs $288 a year.

- You could make: Time off and employee records: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- You could not: Chat that a whole team counts on staying up.
- You could not: Jobs posted to dozens of job boards at once, which takes an agreement with each board.
- You could not: A rota the whole staff sees on their phones, with swaps and alerts.
- You could not: Clocking in from a phone, checked against where and when.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Square, Toast and Clover among them.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.8 out of 5 from 95,735 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id871544379

## Works with

Square, Toast, Clover, Shopify, Gusto, ADP, QuickBooks, Paychex

**Tags:** Shift scheduling, Time clock, Time off, Payroll, Team chat, Job board posting, Employee records

## Alternatives

- [When I Work](https://toolgpa.com/tools/when-i-work): Staff scheduling with auto-fill, shift trades and an add-on time clock. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/homebase-vs-when-i-work)
- [7shifts](https://toolgpa.com/tools/7shifts): Restaurant scheduling, time clock, tips and payroll, per location. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/7shifts-vs-homebase)
- [Sling by Toast](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sling): Free shift scheduling for up to 30 users, with paid time clock tiers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/homebase-vs-sling)
- [Deputy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/deputy): Shift scheduling, time clock and labor-law tools for hourly teams. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/deputy-vs-homebase)
- [Connecteam](https://toolgpa.com/tools/connecteam): Employee app for shifts, time clock, chat and HR, free up to 10 users. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/connecteam-vs-homebase)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/integrations
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/terms-eoy6-plus
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/terms-eoy6-payroll-xs

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/homebase
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).