Homebase offers free and paid plans for employee scheduling, time clocks, team messaging and payroll built for hourly workers at small businesses.
Homebase was built specifically for businesses that run on hourly labor rather than salaried, desk-based teams. Founded in 2014 by John Waldmann and Rushi Patel in San Francisco, the company started as a scheduling and time-tracking tool and has since grown into a full workforce operating system covering scheduling, time clocks, team messaging, hiring, onboarding, payroll and HR compliance.
The platform is designed around the realities of restaurants, retail stores, salons and similar small businesses: unpredictable shift swaps, tip pooling, overtime rules that vary by state or city, and a workforce that mostly clocks in on a shared tablet or phone rather than a desktop computer. Homebase syncs with popular point-of-sale systems to bring sales data directly into scheduling, so managers can staff up or down based on projected demand instead of guesswork.
Core features include drag-and-drop and AI-assisted schedule building, a shared team calendar with shift-swap and time-off requests, GPS- and photo-verified time clocks that prevent buddy punching, and built-in team messaging so managers can broadcast shift changes instantly. Labor cost forecasting tools show projected wage spend against sales in real time, helping owners avoid overtime surprises.
Beyond scheduling, Homebase offers hiring tools including job postings, applicant tracking and a hiring assistant, plus HR features like digital employee onboarding, document storage, and compliance tracking for break and scheduling laws. An integrated payroll add-on runs payroll directly from tracked hours, eliminating manual data entry between systems.
Homebase uses a freemium structure with a permanently free Basic plan for very small teams, and three paid tiers, Essentials, Plus and All-in-One, that unlock unlimited employees and progressively more advanced scheduling, HR and compliance functionality. Annual billing knocks roughly 20 percent off the monthly price on every paid tier.
Payroll, tip management, background checks, task management and recruiting tools are sold as optional add-ons rather than bundled by default, letting businesses pay only for what they use. A 14-day free trial of the top All-in-One tier lets new customers evaluate the full feature set before deciding which plan fits their team size and complexity.
Yes. The Basic plan is free forever for up to 10 employees at a single location and includes basic scheduling, time tracking and POS integration. Larger or multi-location teams need a paid Essentials, Plus or All-in-One plan.
Paid plans start at 30 dollars per month for Essentials, rising to 70 dollars per month for Plus and 120 dollars per month for All-in-One, with roughly 20 percent off if billed annually. Payroll, tip management and background checks are separate add-ons.
Payroll is not bundled by default; it is an add-on priced at 39 dollars per month plus 6 dollars per employee paid, and it runs directly off tracked hours and tips.
Homebase is built for hourly, shift-based businesses such as restaurants, retail stores, salons, healthcare practices, and home and repair services.
Yes, Homebase integrates with Square, Clover, Toast and Lightspeed, syncing sales data into scheduling and labor cost forecasting.
Common alternatives include When I Work, Deputy, 7shifts (restaurant-focused) and Sling, along with scheduling modules built into POS platforms like Toast and Square.