Short answer: Pick Homebase if you run a shop, restaurant, or salon at one or two physical locations and want scheduling, time clocks, and payroll in one place. Pick Connecteam if your people work in the field or across job sites (cleaning, landscaping, home services, construction) and you want GPS clock-ins, checklists, and team chat in one app. Both have a free plan for small teams (Homebase: up to 10 employees at one location; Connecteam: its Small Business Plan for teams under about 10 users), so you can try either without paying.
Disclosure: the links on this page to Homebase and Connecteam are plain links to their official sites. We have no affiliate relationship with either and earn nothing if you sign up. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
Quick comparison
| Homebase | Connecteam | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Basic: 1 location, up to 10 employees | Small Business Plan: all hubs, ‘free for up to 10 users’ on the plan card (FAQ says ‘less than 10’); no payroll integration. A separate Limited plan is free for up to 30 users with fewer features |
| How pricing works | Per location, per month, unlimited employees on paid plans | Flat price per hub for the first 30 users, then a small per-user fee |
| Entry paid plan | Essentials $30/location/mo | Operations Basic $29/mo (billed yearly) or $35 monthly |
| Mid plan | Plus $70/location/mo | Operations Advanced $49/mo yearly or $59 monthly |
| Top self-serve plan | All-in-One $120/location/mo | Operations Expert $99/mo yearly or $119 monthly |
| Payroll | Built-in add-on: $49/mo base + $6 per employee paid ($29/mo for teams up to 5); first 6 months free is a limited-time offer | Payroll integration on paid plans (connects to your payroll provider); not included in the free Small Business Plan |
| GPS clock-in | Not listed on the pricing page (check with Homebase) | GPS location stamps from Operations Basic; geofences from Advanced |
| Free trial | 14 days of All-in-One, no card (then falls back to free Basic) | 14 days of the Expert plan, no card |
Prices come from each vendor’s official pricing page as of October 2026. They change often, so confirm before you buy.
How the pricing really compares
The two companies charge in different ways, and that decides most matchups.
Homebase charges by location. A single-location business pays $30, $70, or $120 a month no matter how many employees it has. Add a second storefront and the bill doubles. The free Basic plan covers one location with up to 10 employees, basic scheduling, basic time tracking, and point-of-sale integration, but it only keeps timesheets for 90 days (paid plans keep them for 4+ years).
Connecteam charges by hub. It splits features into three hubs: Operations (time clock, scheduling, forms, tasks), Communications (chat, updates, directory, surveys), and HR & Skills (time off, courses, documents, onboarding). Each hub has its own plan, and each price covers your first 30 users. Operations is the one we priced in detail; the Communications hub also shows Basic $29 and Advanced $49 per month, but we couldn’t confirm every Communications and HR & Skills price, so check those before budgeting for them. Past 30, you add a per-user fee (for Operations, $0.80 a user per month on Basic yearly, $2.50 on Advanced, and $4.20 on Expert).
Some examples using the listed prices:
- 8 employees, one location: both can be free. Homebase Basic and Connecteam’s Small Business Plan both fit.
- 20 employees, one location, scheduling plus time clock: Homebase Essentials is $30/month. Connecteam Operations Basic is $29/month billed yearly. Close to a tie.
- 20 employees across three locations: Homebase Essentials is $90/month (3 x $30). Connecteam Operations Basic is still $29/month yearly, since it doesn’t charge by location.
- 20 field workers who need geofenced clock-ins and repeating shifts: Connecteam Operations Advanced at $49/month yearly is the natural fit.
Where Homebase wins
- Payroll in the same app. Homebase sells its own payroll add-on that pulls hours straight from timesheets, calculates wages, pays by direct deposit, and files taxes. Connecteam lists payroll as an integration on paid plans, so you’d still need a payroll provider.
- Restaurant and retail extras. POS integration is free, and a Tip Manager add-on ($25/month per location; a $13/month Task Manager add-on also exists) pulls tips from your POS and builds the tip pool.
- Unlimited employees per location. A busy single-location shop with 40 hourly staff pays the same as one with 12.
- Hiring tools. Job posts and applicant tracking are listed as included, with paid boosts and a Hiring Assistant if you want them. (Connecteam also has hiring features.)
Where Connecteam wins
- Field and multi-site teams. GPS location stamps on clock-ins start on the cheapest paid plan, geofence sites start on Advanced, and Expert has unlimited geofences and auto-assigned shifts.
- Checklists and forms. Unlimited checklists, forms, and tasks are on Operations Basic, which helps cleaning crews, inspections, and job-site sign-offs.
- More generous free plan. The Small Business Plan includes all hubs and most features for small teams (no payroll integration), while Homebase’s free plan covers basic scheduling and time tracking only.
- Flat pricing across locations. No per-location charge, so it stays cheap as you open new sites.
- Team communication and training. Chat, a company feed, a knowledge base, and courses live in the same app if you add those hubs.
Who should choose which
Choose Homebase if:
– You have one or two physical locations (a restaurant, café, retail store, or salon)
– You want scheduling, time clocks, and payroll from one vendor
– You manage tips through a POS
Choose Connecteam if:
– Your team works at client sites or moves between jobs
– You need GPS or geofenced clock-ins and job checklists
– You have several locations and don’t want to pay per location
– You want chat, training, and HR documents in the same app
Bottom line
For a single storefront that wants payroll handled too, Homebase is the simpler buy. For mobile crews and multi-site teams, Connecteam gives more for the money, and its free plan covers more features on paper. Neither has been hands-on tested by us yet. Since both offer a free 14-day trial of their top plan with no credit card, the best move is to load one real week of schedules into each and see which one your team actually uses.
Try Homebase free | Try Connecteam free
Related guides
- Connecteam review for cleaning companies (coming soon)
- When I Work alternatives (coming soon)
- About BizStackPicks
Last checked: 2026-10-17. Prices and limits come from each vendor’s official pricing page on that date and can change.