Homebase Review 2026: Pricing, Pros and Cons
Reviewed November 1, 2026 by Loïc Joachim
A broad scheduling, time clock and HR toolkit for hourly teams, with a free plan for small single location businesses.
| Best for | Small US restaurants and shops with one location and under 10 staff. |
|---|---|
| How staff clock in | Tablet kiosk, Mobile app |
| Free plan | Yes |
| 20 staff | $30 / month |
| 50 staff | $30 / month |
| 100 staff | $30 / month |
| Made in | USA |
| Website | joinhomebase.com |
Prices are in US dollars for the cheapest plan that includes a time clock, as of our last review. Check the vendor's site for current pricing.
Our Homebase review
Homebase does a lot more than time tracking and you get a lot for your money. Scheduling, team messaging, hiring and an optional payroll service all sit alongside the time clock, and paid plans are priced per location rather than per employee, which is good value for bigger teams.
The free plan is genuinely usable for a very small business, but it is narrow: up to 10 employees, one location, and only 90 days of timesheet history. Most of the things that make a time clock trustworthy, such as location based clock-in, photos at clock-in, overtime and break rules, and long term records, start on the $30 per location Essentials plan, and overtime alerts and blocking early clock-ins are only on the $120 All-in-One plan.
Our honest view is that it is not particularly well designed. It feels like what happens when a large team of developers who are not close to the problem keeps adding features: everything is there somewhere, but nothing feels simple. That said, you can do much worse, and for a small US hospitality business that wants scheduling and time tracking in one place it is a reasonable choice.
Pros
- Free plan covers basic time tracking and scheduling for up to 10 employees at one location
- Does a lot beyond the time clock: scheduling, hiring, team chat, payroll add-on
- Priced per location rather than per employee on paid plans
Cons
- Free plan only keeps timesheets for 90 days and is capped at 10 employees and one location
- Overtime and break preferences, location based clock-in and photo capture need a paid plan
- Overtime alerts and blocking early clock-ins are only on the top All-in-One plan
- The interface tries to do everything and none of it feels designed around how people actually clock in
Homebase features
- Tablet kiosk app
- Clock in from a phone
- Desktop app
- Proprietary hardware clock
- Paper card punching
- PIN entry
- NFC cards or tags
- Face recognition
- Fingerprint reader
- GPS location checks
- Cloud based
- Ongoing subscription
- Locks you into their hardware
Looking for something simpler?
Timeclock.Kiwi was built by people who were fed up with time clocks that take three screens and a training session to use. Staff tap their name and a PIN on any tablet, a photo is taken in the background, and hours export straight to your payroll. You pay per kiosk, not per employee, from $5 a month.
Free for 3 months, no credit card required.
Homebase alternatives
- 7shifts Restaurant scheduling software with a separate time clock app called 7punches.
- Connecteam An all in one app for deskless teams with a time clock, scheduling, chat and forms, priced with a flat base for the first 30 users.
- Gusto A leading US payroll provider whose time tools and kiosk come with the Plus and Premium payroll plans.
- Smartplan A UK scheduling app with a punch clock on tablet and mobile.