Homebase vs. Rotageek

At a glance

Best for

Best for a small business with hourly staff at one or a few sites, where a per-location price beats paying per employee.

Small and mid-sized

Rotageek

Best for

Best for retailers and other multi-site operators who plan shift teams centrally against demand forecasts and labour budgets.

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	Homebase	Rotageek
Starting price	Free plan; Essentials $30 / location / month The free Basic plan covers one location and up to ten employees. Paid plans are per location per month with unlimited employees: Essentials $30, Plus $70, All-in-One $120. Payroll adds $49 a month plus $6 per employee, Tip Manager $25 and Task Manager $13 per location per month.	Not stated Prices are not published; Rotageek offers a demo and a package tailored to the business.
Free trial	14-day free trial of the All-in-One plan, no credit card required	Not stated
Team size	Priced per location per month, unlimited employees on the paid plans	Not stated
Users	Small businesses with hourly staff in restaurants, retail, beauty and wellness, medical and veterinary practices, home services, hospitality, education and caregiving	Shift teams across multiple locations; the vendor names retail, entertainment and leisure, care homes and hospices, and facilities management
API	Yes, API access for custom integrations on the All-in-One plan	Yes, a REST API with Swagger documentation and signed webhooks, plus CSV exchange by secure file transfer
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a tablet time clock	Cloud on Microsoft Azure; the vendor states that UK and European customer data is held in Europe
Shift planning and templates	Weekly schedule building on the free Basic plan, advanced scheduling from Essentials and an AI-powered scheduling assistant from Plus	Drag-and-drop rota building with saved shifts and rotating patterns, copying a week to future weeks, contracted and maximum hours totalled as shifts are added, multi-week and store-by-store views, activities within shifts linked to skills, and drafts hidden from staff until a manager approves them; the Auto Scheduling add-on drafts rotas to cover targets, rules and budgets
Shift swaps and open shifts	Employees trade, cover and claim open shifts, from the Essentials plan	Staff swap shifts with colleagues or drop them for cover in the app, dropped and open shifts go only to staff with the right skills and no clashing shift, and each site chooses manager approval or automatic approval of agreed swaps
Availability and time off	Availability and time-off requests from Essentials; Plus adds a team-wide time-off dashboard and PTO policies that track accruals and balances	Availability and shift preferences sent from the app, leave types with fixed or accrued allowances in hours or days, blocked key dates and percentage caps per role, time off in lieu, and leave approvers set by role and site
Time clock and attendance	Time clock on tablets, computers and point-of-sale devices with PIN, photo and GPS or geofence verification, timesheets that flag missed punches, breaks and overtime, availability and time-off requests, shift trading and cover from Essentials, and 90 days of timesheet storage on the free plan	Clocking in on the iOS and Android app, a web timeclock on approved shared devices, or third-party terminals such as Grosvenor, TimeMoto and Sign In App, with site boundaries, optional photos, break clocking, reasons for early or late clock-ins, and timesheets matched to planned shifts
Labour cost and forecasting	Labour cost management on All-in-One, with overtime alerts, reports on activity, sales and labour costs, and schedules built against forecasted sales and custom labour targets	Labour budgets in hours or money per location or task with live variance while the rota is built and against hours worked, dynamic schedule costing, and with the Forecasting add-on demand predicted in 15, 30 or 60-minute slots from footfall, transactions, orders or check-ins
Breaks, overtime and labour rules	Custom overtime and break preferences from Essentials, with the option for staff to waive breaks; the HR and compliance package on All-in-One notifies about changes to federal and state labour laws	Warnings on shifts that break working time rules on rest, shift length, days worked and breaks, set per person, site, contract or age, with hours left against each maximum; the vendor states that rules warn rather than block a rota
Payroll export and integration	Payroll integrations with providers such as ADP, Paychex, Gusto and QuickBooks, or Homebase's own payroll add-on, available on every plan and fed from the timesheets	Signed-off hours coded for basic, overtime and other pay by pay rules, sent to the payroll system by API, FTP or file in a layout agreed with the payroll team, with an optional payroll sign-off step
Team messaging and notifications	Real-time team messaging, custom messenger channels and announcements from Essentials, with automated reminders and notifications to employees	Messages to one, some or all staff received in the mobile app, and push and email notifications when a new or changed shift is approved
Platforms and mobile app	Web and iOS and Android apps, with a time clock on tablets, computers and point-of-sale devices and location-based clock-in on the mobile app	Web app, staff app for iOS and Android with calendar sync, web timeclock on shared devices, and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID, Okta and Google
Integrations and API	Point-of-sale and payroll connectors including Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify, PAR, GoDaddy, ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks, Square Payroll, Heartland and SurePayroll, with API access for custom integrations on the All-in-One plan	Public REST API to create and update people, leave and open shifts and pull approved rotas, timesheets and staffing gaps, signed webhooks for rota approval, timesheet sign-off and changes, scheduled CSV imports by secure file transfer, and integrations with HR, payroll, POS, booking and BI systems
AI features	Yes	Yes
Deployment	more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS)
Support	more entries Chat, 24/7, Phone	Chat
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	Guided onboarding
Company size	Small and mid-sized	Not stated
Integrations	more entries Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify, PAR, GoDaddy, ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks, Square Payroll, Heartland, SurePayroll	ELMO, Grosvenor, TimeMoto, Sign In App, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Deployment Homebase Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Rotageek Cloud (SaaS)
Hosting Homebase Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a tablet time clock Rotageek Cloud on Microsoft Azure; the vendor states that UK and European customer data is held in Europe
Support Homebase Chat, 24/7, Phone Rotageek Chat
Users Homebase Small businesses with hourly staff in restaurants, retail, beauty and wellness, medical and veterinary practices, home services, hospitality, education and caregiving Rotageek Shift teams across multiple locations; the vendor names retail, entertainment and leisure, care homes and hospices, and facilities management
API Homebase Yes, API access for custom integrations on the All-in-One plan Rotageek Yes, a REST API with Swagger documentation and signed webhooks, plus CSV exchange by secure file transfer

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Homebase

Strengths

Priced per location with unlimited employees, so the bill does not grow with the roster
A genuinely free plan for one location with up to ten employees
The time clock verifies punches by PIN, photo and GPS or geofence, including on point-of-sale devices
Payroll, hiring, HR compliance and tip pooling sit in the same product as the schedule

Limitations

Departments, permissions and PTO policies need Plus; HR compliance, labour cost controls and API access need All-in-One
Payroll, Tip Manager and Task Manager are separately priced add-ons on top of the plan
The free plan stops at one location, ten employees and 90 days of timesheet history
No client invoicing: hours are built for payroll rather than for billing work

Rotageek

Strengths

Dropped and open shifts are offered only to staff with the right skills who are free at that time
Labour budget and variance shown while the rota is built
Public REST API with webhooks for approved rotas and signed-off timesheets
Certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, as stated by the vendor
Works with existing clocking terminals such as Grosvenor, TimeMoto and Sign In App

Limitations

Prices are not published
Auto-scheduling, forecasting, labour modelling and insights are add-ons to the core package
Working time rules warn on a shift but do not stop a manager approving the rota
Third-party terminals, forecasts and integrations are set up with the vendor during implementation

Plans

Pricing

Homebase

Basic $0 Per location per month, for one location with up to ten employees. Scheduling and time tracking, a time clock on tablets, computers and point-of-sale devices, timesheets with 90 days of storage, point-of-sale integration and 24/7 AI chat support.
Essentials $30 Per location per month, unlimited employees. Everything in Basic plus advanced scheduling and time tracking, custom overtime and break preferences, availability and time-off requests, shift trading and cover, team messaging and live chat and phone support.
Plus $70 Per location per month, unlimited employees. Everything in Essentials plus an AI-powered scheduling assistant, a team-wide time-off dashboard, departments and permissions, and PTO policy automation.
All-in-One $120 Per location per month, unlimited employees. Everything in Plus plus employee onboarding and paperwork, certified HR advisers, HR compliance and handbooks, labour cost management with overtime alerts, business insights and API access for custom integrations.
Add-ons Not stated Payroll $49 a month plus $6 per employee, Tip Manager $25 per location per month, Task Manager $13 per location per month, background checks $30 per check, job post boosts from $50 per post and a Hiring Assistant from $99 a month.

Visit site

Rotageek

Digital Scheduling Not stated Core package; Auto Scheduling, Forecasting, Labour modelling and Insights are add-ons. Prices are not published.

Visit site

What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Homebase

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

Rotageek

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

How we check reviews

Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.

Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.

What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.

A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.

Read the full version on our methodology page

Where this comes from

Homebase https://joinhomebase.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-16

Rotageek https://www.rotageek.com/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-07

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.