Homebase review

Homebase combines scheduling, time tracking, payroll, hiring, HR and team communication in one app for businesses with hourly, shift-based staff. The homepage names restaurants, retail, beauty and wellness, medical, and home services as examples.

Managers can build and share schedules, track availability, and record hours, breaks and overtime through mobile or tablet clock-ins. Payroll can use tracked hours to calculate wages, taxes and tips. The hiring tools cover job posts, candidate screening and interview booking; HR tools handle onboarding, tasks and compliance.

Pricing is per location, per month. The Basic plan is free for one location and up to 10 employees. Paid plans start with Essentials at $30 per location monthly. The pricing page also lists a 14-day free trial. It shows monthly and annual selectors, but does not publish annual prices. Payroll is priced separately as an add-on, so “all-in-one” does not mean every function is included in the plan price.

Homebase’s main advantage is keeping shift planning and attendance records together. Schedules, availability and clock-ins sit alongside time tracking, so the workflow is aimed at hourly teams rather than office calendars. The payroll feature can use tracked hours to calculate wages, taxes and tips, which may cut down on moving time data between systems.

The plan ladder also gives small teams a free starting point and lets them add capacity as they grow. Basic covers one location and up to 10 employees, while Essentials, Plus and All-in-One list unlimited employees. Essentials adds advanced scheduling and time tracking plus team communication; Plus adds an AI-powered Scheduling Assistant, PTO and time-off controls, departments and permissions. All-in-One adds HR and compliance, with employee onboarding listed without payroll.

Hiring tools and team messaging extend the product beyond schedules and timecards. For an operator who wants those functions under one roof, Homebase has broad coverage. The trade-off is that some capabilities sit in higher plans or cost extra, so compare the full bill rather than just the entry price.

The free plan is tightly capped: Basic covers one location, up to 10 employees and timesheets stored for up to 90 days. Businesses with more staff or locations need a paid plan. Essentials starts at $30 per location per month; Plus is $70 and All-in-One is $120. Those are monthly prices, and the pricing page does not publish annual rates, so there is no sourced annual-cost comparison to make.

Payroll is an additional charge, not a listed inclusion in those plan prices. The pricing page lists it at $49 per month plus $6 per employee paid, or $29 per month for teams of up to five; it also advertises the first six months free. Check the terms before treating that promotion as a lasting price. Other extras include Tip Manager at $25 per location monthly, Task Manager at $13 per location monthly, and background checks at $30 each. Job-post boosts start at $50 per post, and Hiring Assistant starts at $99 monthly. Costs can climb once you add the tools that make the platform useful.

Homebase’s Basic plan is free for one location and up to 10 employees. Paid plans are priced per location, per month: Essentials is $30, Plus is $70, and All-in-One is $120. That is a $40 jump from Essentials to Plus, then $50 to All-in-One. The higher tiers add features such as the AI-powered Scheduling Assistant, time-off controls, and HR and compliance tools. The pricing page lists a 14-day free trial, but annual prices are not published, despite an annual selector.

Payroll is an extra cost, not part of the listed plan prices: $49 per month plus $6 per employee paid, or $29 per month for teams of up to five. The listed offer makes payroll free for the first six months. Other add-ons include Tip Manager at $25 per location monthly and Task Manager at $13. Budget separately for hiring extras: background checks are $30 each, boosted job posts start at $50, and Hiring Assistant starts at $99 monthly.

Homebase combines scheduling, time tracking, payroll, hiring, HR, and team communication, so switching means checking how each of those workflows will move—not just rebuilding a rota. The published materials do not say whether Homebase imports schedules, employee records, timesheets, or payroll history from another system. Data export options and formats are also not published here. Confirm both sides of that handoff with Homebase before you commit, especially if you need historical records for payroll or compliance.

There is a practical plan constraint: Basic covers one location and up to 10 employees; larger teams need a paid plan. Payroll is priced separately, so compare the full cost with your current stack rather than the scheduling price alone. We were not given Reddit posts or comments for this review, so we can’t responsibly attribute reasons for leaving Homebase to users. Ask about cancellation, access to records after cancellation, and export timing before switching in or out.