Homebase Vs. Clockify (2026): Which Time Tracking Tool Is Right For You?

You're comparing two different tools here. Homebase is built for running shift-based teams. Think restaurants, retail stores, salons. You build employee schedules, people clock in and out, and you run payroll. Think freelancers logging billable hours, agencies tracking client work, teams that need to know who spent how long on what.

Here's why that matters. You run a coffee shop? You need to know if you're overstaffed during the Tuesday lunch slump. You run a design agency? You need to know if that client project is eating more hours than you're billing for. Different problems, different tools.

We'll walk through pricing, what each one actually does, and the real situations where one makes more sense than the other.

Homebase vs. Clockify: Quick take

Pick Homebase if you're building weekly schedules for hourly shifts. Someone calls out Tuesday morning and you need coverage fast. You want to see labor costs next to sales numbers. You want payroll to run from the same place you're tracking time.

Pick Clockify if you're tracking hours across different projects or clients. You need unlimited free users. You're fine exporting timesheets to your existing payroll system. You bill clients based on hours worked.

When Homebase makes sense:

• You're rebuilding schedules every week based on who's available
• You run one location with up to 10 people (that's free)
• You want to see if last Saturday's sales justified your staffing levels
• You're tired of running payroll separately from time tracking
• Your team clocks in from their phones and you see GPS snapshots
• Tips get pooled and go straight into paychecks

When Clockify makes sense:

• You're tracking billable hours for client projects
• You have a lot of people who need to log time (unlimited free users)
• Different projects have different budgets you're tracking against (Pro plan required)
• The same person works on five different things in a day
• You already have a payroll system you like and just need the hours
• People forget to start timers and browser extensions and desktop auto-tracking tools help

What is Homebase?

You're running a restaurant, coffee shop, retail store, or salon. Every week looks different. Someone's sick, someone else needs Wednesday off, you're short on Saturday night. Homebase is where you build those schedules, track who's working, run payroll, and message your team when things change.

It's built for hourly shift work. Not project tracking or billable hours. Actual shifts where people clock in at 8am and clock out at 4pm.

The AI tools handle stuff you're probably tired of doing manually. Building schedules based on who's available and what you can afford, walking you through payroll questions, helping move new hires from application to first shift. Less time on paperwork, more time actually running things.

Here's what you can do with it:

• Start free, no credit card. One location, up to 10 people. You get scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and POS connections.
• Add payroll and run it without juggling separate systems. Hours go straight into paychecks. Taxes get calculated and filed for you.
• See if you're overstaffed or understaffed. Connects to your Square or Clover POS and shows labor costs next to actual sales. Tuesday was slow but you had five people on? You'll see it.
• Stop the group text chaos. Built-in team messaging keeps work conversations separate from personal texts. Need someone to cover a shift? The message goes to everyone who might be available.
• Know your team clocked in from the right place. GPS location tracking and optional photo verification at clock-in prevent buddy punching without making it weird.
• Handle tips without doing math. Tip Manager pools and splits tips however you set it up, then adds them to paychecks automatically.

More than 150,000 small businesses use Homebase. Works with Square, Clover, and QuickBooks.

What is Clockify?

Clockify is for tracking time across projects. If you're billing clients by the hour, managing multiple projects at once, or just need to know where everyone's time is going, that's what it does.

It started as a time tracker. Now it does scheduling, budgets, and invoicing, but you need paid plans for most of that. The free version gives you one thing: unlimited users can track time.

What it's good at:

• Truly free for unlimited users. Not a trial. Your whole team can track time without paying anything.
• Track time across different projects and clients. A designer working on three client projects in one day logs hours to each one separately.
• Browser extensions and desktop auto-tracking. Browser extensions and a desktop app help capture work activity automatically when people forget to start timers.
• Export to your payroll system. Clockify doesn't run payroll. It tracks the hours, and you export them to QuickBooks or Gusto or whatever you use.
• Kiosk mode for shared devices. One tablet, multiple people clock in and out.

Clockify connects with the tools project teams already use. Asana, Trello, Jira, Slack. If your workflow lives in those apps, Clockify plugs right in.

Homebase vs. Clockify pricing (2026): What you'll actually pay

Homebase charges per location. It doesn't matter if you have 5 people or 50. Clockify charges per person. It doesn't matter if they're tracking one project or twenty.

Homebase pricing

Basic: $0/month One location, up to 10 people. Scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, POS connections. Free, no credit card.

Essentials: $30/month per location Everything in Basic plus better time tracking tools and alerts. Unlimited team members.

Plus: $70/month per location Essentials plus labor cost forecasting against your sales data, PTO tracking.

All-in-One: $120/month per location Everything in Plus, plus hiring, onboarding, and HR compliance tools.

Homebase Payroll (add-on): $39/month + $6 per employee Automatic tax filing, direct deposit, W-2s and 1099s included. Works across multiple states and locations. Team members can access earned wages early.

The thing about per-location pricing: hire three more people next month and your plan stays $70. Only payroll costs go up.

Clockify pricing

Free: $0 Unlimited users can track time across unlimited projects. Want scheduling? You'll need to upgrade.

Basic: $3.99 per user/month (annual billing) Free features plus some admin controls. No scheduling, no time off management, no GPS.

Standard: $5.49 per user/month (annual billing) Basic plus invoicing, time off requests, and timesheet approvals. Still no scheduling.

Pro: $7.99 per user/month (annual billing) Standard plus scheduling, project budgets, GPS tracking, and expenses.

Enterprise: $11.99 per user/month (annual billing) Pro plus custom permissions, single sign-on, and priority support.

Clockify doesn't run payroll. You export hours to Gusto or QuickBooks and handle it there.

Cost comparison

You run a 16-person hair salon. Biweekly payroll, commission tracking, the usual.

With Homebase:

• Plus plan: $70/month
• Payroll: $39 base + $96 for 16 people = $135/month
• Total: $205/month for scheduling, time tracking, and payroll with tax filing

With Clockify:

• Pro plan (the only tier with scheduling): 16 × $7.99 = $127.84/month (annual billing)
• Payroll service: Gusto or QuickBooks separately, typically $100–150/month for 16 people
• No connection to sales data from your POS
• Total: $228–278/month for time tracking and outside payroll

You run a 6-person marketing agency. Not ready for payroll yet. Just need time tracking.

With Homebase:

• Basic plan: $0/month
• Covers scheduling, time tracking, and messaging for up to 10 people at one location

With Clockify:

• Free plan: unlimited time tracking, no scheduling
• Want scheduling? Pro plan: 6 × $7.99 = $47.94/month (annual billing)
• Free tier works if you only need time tracking

Payroll: Homebase does it, Clockify doesn't

This is the clearest difference between the two tools.

With Homebase, hours tracked go straight into paychecks. Taxes are calculated, filed, and paid. W-2s go out in January. You're not exporting spreadsheets or doing math.

Here's how it works:

• Someone works 42 hours? Homebase calculates overtime at time-and-a-half, then figures out federal, state, and local taxes and files everything electronically.
• Payday comes and direct deposits hit accounts automatically. No bank account? Print a check.
• Tips from last week? Tip Manager already pooled and split them. They go into paychecks with proper tax withholding.
• People working in three different states? Homebase handles the different tax rates and filing requirements for each.
• New hire paperwork (I-9s, W-4s) happens in the app with e-signatures and gets sent to state agencies automatically.

"Before Homebase I was manually tallying up my team's work hours and entering them into payroll, crossing my fingers I hadn't made any mistakes. Now our entire team logs in and out quickly and easily with the Homebase app, and all I have to do is send their hours to my payroll program with the click of a button."

With Clockify, you track the hours and export them to your payroll service. It tracks:

• Different hourly rates for different people or types of work
• Breaks (on paid plans)
• Which hours are billable vs. non-billable
• Labor costs per project

You customize pay periods, run reports, then export as a CSV or connect to your payroll service.

The real difference: You're running a cafe with 12 team members. Thursday afternoon you realize payroll is due tomorrow. With Homebase, you review flagged timecard exceptions, approve the hours, and run payroll. Done. Taxes filed, money sent.

With Clockify, you export the timesheet, log into Gusto or QuickBooks, import the hours, review everything there, and process payroll through that system. Two apps instead of one.

Running payroll separately from where you track time? Homebase keeps it in one place. Free to start.

Scheduling: Shift work vs. project work

Homebase scheduling is built for shift work where labor costs need to match your actual sales. The AI looks at past patterns, sales forecasts, and who's available to help you build smarter schedules.

Homebase scheduling:

• Save weekly schedules as templates
• Forecast staffing needs based on projected revenue from your POS
• Let team members claim open shifts from their phones
• Team members coordinate shift trades and you approve before anything is confirmed
• Automatic shift reminders reduce no-shows

Clockify scheduling organizes project assignments with calendar views. It's available on Pro and Enterprise plans only.

Clockify scheduling:

• Calendar view for assignments and availability
• Schedule people across different projects
• Assignment notifications and reminders
• Export and print schedules

Which one fits? Building weekly schedules where people call out last-minute and labor cost percentages matter? Homebase handles shift operations. Assigning people to client projects and tracking who's working on what? Clockify works for agencies at Pro and above.

Time tracking: Clocks vs. timers

Homebase time tracking focuses on shift verification, break compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and preventing time theft through GPS and time clock verification. Timesheets connect directly to payroll.

Homebase time tracking:

• GPS location tracking and optional photo verification at each clock-in
• Blocks early clock-ins to prevent wage padding
• Sends required meal break notifications based on hours worked and local laws
• Alerts you before team members hit overtime thresholds
• Auto clock-out for people who forget to punch out
• Tracks different hourly rates when team members work multiple roles

Clockify time tracking works across project assignments with manual timers, desktop auto-tracker, and project/task logging. The free tier supports unlimited users with unlimited time tracking.

Clockify time tracking:

• Manual timer and kiosk modes
• Desktop auto-tracker and browser extension capture work automatically
• Assign time to projects and tasks
• Mark hours as billable or non-billable
• Time approvals require Standard tier or higher

Which one fits? You need shift attendance verification, buddy punch prevention, and break compliance for hourly workers in restaurants or retail? Homebase is built for that. Tracking time across multiple projects where team members need flexible entry methods and unlimited free access? Clockify works for agencies and project teams.

HR and compliance

Homebase handles what small businesses with hourly teams actually need: onboarding paperwork, time off policies, break law compliance, and access to certified HR advisors on the All-in-One plan.

Homebase HR:

• Collects I-9s and W-4s electronically with e-signatures
• Configures PTO policies with automatic accrual based on hours worked
• Enforces meal and rest breaks that vary by state and local laws
• Stores timecard records for required federal retention periods
• Employee policy templates that reflect current labor regulations

Clockify's HR features are limited. Time off management requires Standard tier or higher.

Clockify HR-related features:

• Time off requests and approvals (Standard and above)
• Attendance tracking via kiosk and reporting
• User role management and permissions
• Calendar integration for availability views

Pros and cons

Homebase

Pros:

• Free for up to 10 people at one location, no credit card required
• Labor costs and scheduling in one view, tied to your POS sales data
• GPS location tracking and optional photo verification at clock-in, priced per location not per person
• Payroll runs from the same place you track time
• AI-powered hiring and scheduling tools reduce administrative work
• Tip pooling and distribution built into payroll

Cons:

• Built for hourly shift work only. Salaried office teams aren't a fit.
• Payroll is an add-on ($39/month + $6 per employee), not included in plan pricing
• Multiple locations mean multiple subscriptions

Clockify

Pros:

• Genuinely free forever for unlimited users and unlimited projects
• Multiple tracking methods (timer, kiosk, browser extension, desktop app)
• Predictable per-user pricing as you grow
• Project budgets and profitability tracking on paid plans
• Built-in invoicing on Standard and above
• Browser extension and desktop auto-tracking capture time without manual timers

Cons:

• Scheduling requires Pro or Enterprise plan, not available free
• No payroll. You export hours to a separate service.
• Built for project tracking, not shift coverage. When someone calls out, that's not what it's designed for.
• No POS connection, so you can't see labor costs against actual sales
• GPS location tracking requires a paid plan

‍The bottom line

Pick Homebase if you're running shifts at a coffee shop, restaurant, retail store, or salon where schedules change every week and you want to see labor costs next to actual sales. Payroll runs from the same place you're tracking time.

Pick Clockify if you're tracking billable hours across projects or clients. The unlimited free users matter more than integrated payroll, and you're fine exporting timesheets to Gusto or QuickBooks.

Homebase connects your schedule to revenue from your POS so you know if you overstaffed a slow Tuesday before it happens. Photo and GPS at clock-in prevent buddy punching. Payroll runs with automatic tax filing.

Clockify gives you unlimited people tracking unlimited hours for free, which is hard to beat if you're starting out or running a small agency. But payroll is separate, and you won't see how labor costs stack up against sales.

Try Homebase free. No credit card. Scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging for up to 10 people at one location.

Pricing information was verified in June 2026. Clockify pricing confirmed at clockify.me/pricing. Homebase payroll fees confirmed at support.joinhomebase.com. Ratings sourced from Capterra; verify on publish day as review counts change frequently.