Homebase vs. ZoomShift

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

ZoomShift

Best for

Best for small businesses with hourly staff that want a free or low-cost schedule, time clock and team chat in one app.

Small and mid-sized

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

Full Comparison

Criterion	Homebase	ZoomShift
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.	Free plan; Starter from 2 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, counting managers and employees. Starter is 2 US dollars billed annually or 2.50 US dollars billed monthly; Premium is 4 US dollars billed annually or 5 US dollars billed monthly. The free Essentials plan covers up to 20 users at one location.
Free trial	14-day free trial of the All-in-One plan, no credit card required	14-day free trial of all features, no credit card required; free Essentials plan for up to 20 users
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	Businesses with hourly employees; the vendor names retail, restaurants, food and beverage, hospitality, services and healthcare
API	Yes, API access for custom integrations on the All-in-One plan	Not stated
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a tablet time clock	Cloud, in the browser, with free iPhone and Android apps
Made in	Not stated	United States
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 schedule with shift and scheduling templates, copying of weekly schedules, positions and locations, shift notes and private manager notes; the free plan schedules up to two weeks ahead at one location, Starter removes those limits
Shift swaps and open shifts	Employees trade, cover and claim open shifts, from the Essentials plan	Shift cover requests and swaps from the Starter plan, with every qualified team member notified and an optional manager approval step; open shifts can be offered to the team
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	Staff set availability preferences and request time off from the Starter plan, with a PTO tracker that tallies accrued and used balances
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	Time clock on phone or computer and a kiosk mode with PIN, feeding timesheets with breaks tracked; Premium adds a geofenced time clock, blocking of early and late clock-ins, and a schedule versus timesheets report
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	Real-time labour costs including overtime and gross pay, a comparison of scheduled and actual hours and costs, and labour cost forecasting from schedules planned ahead
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	Paid or unpaid breaks calculated into timesheet totals, and on Premium overtime warnings, custom overtime per employee, blocking of overtime, and prevention of overlaps between shifts, availability and time off
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	A customisable payroll report on the Starter plan, with timesheets exported as a CSV for use in other payroll software
Team messaging and notifications	Real-time team messaging, custom messenger channels and announcements from Essentials, with automated reminders and notifications to employees	Shift reminders and schedule changes by email, text and push notification, shift confirmation, and a team chat with group and direct messages, file sharing and read status
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, free iPhone and Android apps for managers and staff, a kiosk time clock, and calendar app sync on the Starter plan
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	Not stated
AI features	Yes	Yes
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	Chat, 24/7, Phone	Not stated
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding, Live online demos and webinars
Company size	Small and mid-sized	Small and mid-sized
Integrations	Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify, PAR, GoDaddy, ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks, Square Payroll, Heartland, SurePayroll	Not stated

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

Starting price Homebase Free plan; Essentials $30 / location / month ZoomShift Free plan; Starter from 2 US dollars / user / month
Free trial Homebase 14-day free trial of the All-in-One plan, no credit card required ZoomShift 14-day free trial of all features, no credit card required; free Essentials plan for up to 20 users
Hosting Homebase Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a tablet time clock ZoomShift Cloud, in the browser, with free iPhone and Android apps
Users Homebase Small businesses with hourly staff in restaurants, retail, beauty and wellness, medical and veterinary practices, home services, hospitality, education and caregiving ZoomShift Businesses with hourly employees; the vendor names retail, restaurants, food and beverage, hospitality, services and healthcare
Shift planning and templates Homebase Weekly schedule building on the free Basic plan, advanced scheduling from Essentials and an AI-powered scheduling assistant from Plus ZoomShift Drag-and-drop schedule with shift and scheduling templates, copying of weekly schedules, positions and locations, shift notes and private manager notes; the free plan schedules up to two weeks ahead at one location, Starter removes those limits

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

ZoomShift

Strengths

Free plan for up to 20 users
14-day trial of all features with no credit card
Subscriptions can be paused for months when the schedule is not needed
No cancellation fee or minimum contract, by the vendor's FAQ

Limitations

Timesheets, the time clock, shift swaps and time off need a paid plan
Geofencing and overtime warnings are limited to the Premium plan
No named payroll provider integration; hours leave as a CSV export
The scheduling FAQ says there is no auto-scheduling, while the pricing page lists it on Premium

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.

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ZoomShift

Essentials 0 US dollars / user / month Free up to 20 users. Employee schedule, team communication, automatic reminders, shift notes and confirmation, unlimited positions, scheduling up to 2 weeks ahead, 1 location.
Starter 2 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, billed annually, or 2.50 US dollars billed monthly. Unlimited users and locations, templates, availability and time off, shift swaps, timesheets and time clock, payroll report, calendar sync, PTO and break tracking.
Premium 4 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, billed annually, or 5 US dollars billed monthly. Adds auto-scheduling, overtime warnings, geofenced time clock, schedule versus timesheets, change history, custom role permissions, priority support and personalised onboarding.

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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.

ZoomShift

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

ZoomShift https://www.zoomshift.com/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-06

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