Connecteam vs Homebase 2026: Deskless Team Apps Compared

Homebase is the cheaper pick for a single location with more than 10 staff: Essentials costs $24 a location a month on annual billing with unlimited employees. Connecteam wins for teams of 10 or fewer, whose free plan covers every hub, and for groups spread across several sites, because its $29 hub price covers the first 30 users wherever they work. Prices read on both vendors' pricing pages, October 2026.

The billing unit decides this matchup more than any feature does. Homebase charges by physical location and ignores headcount; Connecteam charges by hub (Operations, Communications, HR & Skills) and ignores locations. A restaurant with 25 people under one roof pays less on Homebase, while a cleaning company with 60 staff across five sites pays less on Connecteam, and the gap in both directions is wide enough to settle the choice before anyone opens a demo.

Toolradar data: on Toolradar, the software directory we run, the Connecteam alternatives page lists 6 options, 4 of them with a free plan, while the Homebase alternatives page lists 8, only 1 of them with a free plan, as of October 2026. The two products also have a side-by-side comparison on Toolradar.

At a glance

Prices from Connecteam's pricing page and Homebase's pricing page, read October 18, 2026. Both vendors list prices in US dollars.

How the two pricing models work

Connecteam sells hubs, not seats. Each hub is a separate subscription with four tiers: Basic, Advanced, Expert and Enterprise. A paid tier covers the first 30 users for one flat monthly price, and each user past 30 adds a per-user fee. On the Operations hub, which holds the time clock and scheduling, that fee is $0.80 a user on yearly Basic and rises to $4.20 on yearly Expert; the Communications and HR & Skills hubs charge less per extra user. A team that wants time tracking, chat and onboarding buys three hubs, so the bill grows with the scope you buy, not only with headcount.

Homebase sells locations. Each paid tier (Essentials, Plus, All-in-One) is priced per physical business address with unlimited employees, and Homebase defines a location as the place where you carry out operations. On monthly billing the tiers cost $30, $70 and $120 a location; on annual billing $24, $56 and $96. A business with one shop never pays more as it hires, but a business that opens a second site doubles its software bill overnight.

That difference is the whole comparison in miniature. Connecteam rewards spread-out teams with fewer than 30 people per hub; Homebase rewards dense single sites with many hourly workers. Before comparing features, count your locations and your headcount, then run both numbers. The deeper tier breakdowns sit on our Connecteam pricing and Homebase pricing pages.

Four team bills, side by side

The bills below use only the list prices on each vendor's page. Connecteam totals add the per-user fee for every user past 30; Homebase totals multiply the per-location price. Payroll is left out here and covered in its own section.

At one site, Homebase is cheaper once a team outgrows the free tiers, by $34 a month on annual billing for the 25-person restaurant and by more as headcount climbs past 30, since Connecteam starts charging per extra user. Connecteam's chat sits in a separate hub, so the like-for-like comparison with Homebase Essentials, which includes team communication, needs two Connecteam hubs.

Across five sites, the order flips. Connecteam's Operations Basic covers all 60 people for $53 a month on annual billing, less than half of what five Homebase Essentials locations cost. Adding Connecteam's Communications hub for chat brings the yearly-billed total to $97, still below the Homebase figure. A business adding locations faster than it adds staff should expect Connecteam to pull further ahead with each new site.

The 8-person case is a tie on price but not on scope. Connecteam's Small Business plan includes all hubs and, in Connecteam's words, all features for up to 10 users, while Homebase Basic is limited to basic scheduling and basic time tracking at one location. For a team of 10 or fewer, Connecteam's free plan gives you more.

Scheduling and time tracking

Both apps cover the daily job of a shift manager: building a schedule, publishing it to phones and clocking people in. The differences sit in the tiers.

Homebase puts advanced scheduling and advanced time tracking on Essentials, alongside team communication, and adds an AI scheduling assistant, PTO and time-off controls, departments and permissions on Plus. Its feature list includes shift trading and open-shift claiming, location-based clock-in on the mobile time clock, overtime alerts, early clock-in prevention and automatic clock-out at the end of a shift. For a restaurant or retail floor, Essentials covers most of what a manager needs.

Connecteam's Operations hub is built around field and job-based work. Basic includes real-time clock in and out with GPS, unlimited jobs for clients or projects, basic scheduling, open shifts and a payroll integration. Advanced adds up to 10 geofence sites and schedule templates; Expert adds unlimited geofences, automatic shift assignment, up to 12 schedules and API access. Connecteam also offers a kiosk mode so several workers can clock in on one shared device.

Pick Homebase for a fixed floor, pick Connecteam when the work moves. A crew that clocks in at a different client address each day needs Connecteam's job tracking and geofences, which start on its Advanced tier. A café where everyone clocks in at the same counter gets what it needs from Homebase Essentials at a lower price.

Payroll: Homebase runs it, Connecteam connects to it

Homebase sells payroll as an add-on on every plan, at $49 a month base plus $6 per employee paid, or $29 a month for teams of up to 5. A current offer gives 6 months of payroll and the Plus plan free when you add payroll, a limited-time promotion per the pricing page. For a 25-person site, payroll after the offer costs $199 a month on top of the scheduling plan, computed from those listed rates.

Connecteam's pricing page lists a payroll integration on its Operations tiers rather than a payroll service, so timesheets flow to the provider you already use. If you want scheduling, time tracking and payroll on one login, Homebase is the shorter path. If an accountant already runs payroll in another system, Connecteam's integration avoids paying twice. Either way, check that your payroll provider is on the vendor's integration list before you sign.

Communication, HR and the rest

Connecteam sells communication and HR as hubs of their own. The Communications hub covers unlimited personal and group chats and a company feed on Basic, scheduled messages and anonymous surveys on Advanced, and auto-translated feed updates on Expert. The HR & Skills hub covers time-off approvals and recognition badges on Basic, e-sign documents and unlimited courses on Advanced, and more e-sign documents and unlimited time-off policies on Expert.

Homebase bundles communication into Essentials and puts onboarding, labor cost management and HR and compliance tools on All-in-One. It sells extras as add-ons: Tip Manager at $25 a location a month, Task Manager at $13 a location a month, background checks at $30 each, job post boosts from $50 a post and a Hiring Assistant from $99 a month.

Connecteam is the stronger pick for training and internal communications at scale, because those are full hubs with their own tiers rather than features inside a scheduling plan. Homebase is the simpler buy for a restaurant or shop that wants chat and the basics of HR without managing three subscriptions.

Free plans and trials

Connecteam offers two free options. Small Business covers up to 10 users with every hub, and teams of 11 to 30 can pick the Limited plan after the trial, which Connecteam describes as free for life with the essentials of each hub but not everything in the trial. Every account starts with a 14-day trial with no credit card.

Homebase Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees, with basic scheduling, basic time tracking and point-of-sale integration. New accounts get a 14-day trial of All-in-One; with no plan picked at the end, Homebase moves the account to Basic. A team that grows past 10 people or opens a second site has to pay. For a team of 11 to 30 that only needs the basics, Connecteam's Limited plan is the only free option of the two.

Which one should you choose?

Choose Homebase if you run one or two locations with many hourly staff, want payroll in the same app, and like a single plan that bundles scheduling, time tracking and chat. Restaurants, cafés and retail stores fit this profile, and the per-location price stays flat as you hire. Our Homebase review covers its weaknesses, and Homebase vs Deputy and Homebase vs When I Work show how it fares against per-user rivals.

Choose Connecteam if your team works across many sites or in the field, has 10 or fewer people, or needs training and internal communications as much as scheduling. Cleaning, construction, home services and multi-site franchises fit here. The Connecteam review covers what the hubs leave out.

Look wider if face-verified clock-in or demand forecasting is a hard requirement: our best shift scheduling software and best time clock software rankings compare the tools that sell those features. Teams that want to stay at $0 should also read best free employee scheduling apps.

How we compared them

Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, wrote this comparison for HRpresso readers. Plans, prices, per-user fees, free plans, trials and features come from Connecteam's pricing page and Homebase's pricing page, both read on October 18, 2026. The team bills are our own arithmetic from those list prices and exclude taxes, promotions and add-ons unless named. Toolradar counts come from its live alternatives pages that month. HRpresso's publishing rules are on the about page.

FAQ

Is Connecteam or Homebase cheaper in 2026?

It depends on your locations. For one site with more than 10 staff, Homebase Essentials on annual billing is cheaper than Connecteam's $29 Operations Basic hub, and much cheaper once you add Connecteam's chat hub. For five sites with 60 staff, Connecteam's Operations Basic costs $53 a month on annual billing against $120 for five Homebase locations.

Does Connecteam have a free plan?

Yes. The Small Business plan is free for up to 10 users and includes every hub. Teams of 11 to 30 can use the free Limited plan, which keeps the essentials of each hub but not every feature. Homebase's free Basic plan covers one location and up to 10 employees with basic scheduling and time tracking.

Does Homebase charge per employee?

No. Homebase charges per location with unlimited employees: $30, $70 or $120 a location a month on monthly billing, or $24, $56 and $96 on annual billing. Its payroll add-on is the exception, at $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid.

Can Connecteam run payroll?

Connecteam's pricing page lists a payroll integration on its Operations plans, which sends timesheet data to the payroll provider you use. Homebase sells its own payroll add-on, so a business that wants payroll and scheduling in one app has the shorter path on Homebase.

Which is better for field teams, Connecteam or Homebase?

Connecteam. Its Operations hub tracks time against unlimited jobs with GPS on the Basic tier, adds geofences on Advanced and automatic shift assignment on Expert, and bills the first 30 users flat no matter how many sites they visit. Homebase prices each physical location, which suits fixed premises such as restaurants and shops.

Cite this: HRpresso, "Connecteam vs Homebase 2026: Deskless Team Apps Compared", October 2026.

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