TimeTracker vs Homebase: Full Comparison
Homebase runs an hourly team end to end, from rotas to payroll. TimeTracker only tracks time, but it adds approvals, locking and client invoices.
Free to start. No credit card needed.
Our quick verdict on these two
For most people comparing these two, we are the wrong product. Homebase runs a whole hourly team: rotas, hiring, onboarding, chat, its own payroll and a time clock. We only do time and attendance. If you are staffing a shop, a cafe or a site, buy Homebase. If your hours get billed to a customer or checked by an auditor, that is us.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
TimeTracker and Homebase are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Anyone deciding between TimeTracker and Homebase for time tracking should start with the quick verdict above.
Compare the two products at a glance
Both tools solve time tracking. Here is what each one includes, side by side.
TimeTracker
Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem.
- Best for
- Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.
- Pricing
- Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.
- One-click task timers
- Timesheet submission and approvals
- Effective-dated billing and cost rates
- Live project budgets and profitability
- Client invoicing and payments
- Client portal with a cost firewall
- Reports and dashboards
- Expense tracking with billable markup
Homebase
Priced per location instead of per user, and free for one location with up to 10 employees, which makes it the cheapest real option for a single small site.
- Best for
- Single-site small businesses like cafes and shops that want free scheduling and a time clock for a small crew.
- Pricing
- Free for 1 location up to 10 employees. Essentials about $24/location/mo annual ($30 monthly), Plus about $56, All-in-One about $96, all per location.
- Free plan for 1 location, up to 10 staff
- Scheduling and shift swaps
- Time clock with breaks
- PTO and time-off controls
- Team messaging
- Hiring and onboarding tools
See how they stack up
Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for both tools, side by side.
Pricing checked 2026-07-30. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Which one fits your team
Choose TimeTracker when…
Your hours get billed to a customer and the invoice has to match.
Approved hours become invoice lines, so the bill matches the timesheet. Homebase does not build client invoices.See how
An auditor may ask who changed a timesheet after it was signed off.
Approved periods lock, and every edit made after approval is added to the record instead of quietly replacing it.See how
You round billable time but still need the exact minutes on file.
Rounding is half-up to 6, 15 or 30 minutes, and the exact raw duration is stored beside the rounded one.See how
You want a clock-in blocked outside the site, not just recorded.
Location rules use geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits to stop the punch. They are on the paid plan.See how
You need last year's timesheets to still be there this year.
We do not prune old timesheets. Homebase Basic, the free tier, keeps them for 90 days and then drops them.See how
You want to know if a project made money before it finishes.
Cost rates and budgets compare cost against price while the work is still running, not after the invoice.See how
Approvals matter and you do not want to climb tiers to get them.
Approvals sit in our one paid plan at $15 a user a month, or $12 billed yearly. There is no higher tier above it.See how
Choose Homebase when…
You need next week's shifts set and sent to everyone's phone.
Homebase covers scheduling, shift trades and availability. We do not do any of that and are not going to.See how
You run one site with up to 10 staff and want to pay nothing.
Homebase Basic is free at that size. Our free plan stops at 3 people, so Homebase goes further for a small crew.See how
Twenty people work at one address and cost decides it.
Homebase Essentials is $30 a month for the whole location. Twenty seats here is $300 a month. That gap is real.See how
Staff need to punch in on a shared tablet or on the till.
Homebase supports a shared device. With us everybody signs in as themselves, so there is nothing to share.See how
You hire and onboard hourly staff every few weeks.
Homebase posts the job, screens applicants and runs the onboarding paperwork. We only handle time and attendance.See how
You want one company to run the schedule and the payroll.
Homebase sells its own payroll at a $39 monthly base plus $6 for each person paid. We do not run payroll at all.See how
Your team needs a chat channel tied to who is working today.
Homebase has team messaging built in, so a shift note reaches the person on it. We have no chat of any kind.See how
Popular features
Timesheets your team submits on time
Hours build into a timecard as people work. Send the week for approval, lock it once it is signed off, and bill from a number that cannot quietly change.
Explore Timesheets→Bill for every hour you earn
Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.
Explore Billing→See where the time really goes
Break hours down by client, project, and team member. Find the work that pays off and the projects that run over.
Explore Reports & Dashboards→Use cases this solves
Timesheet Approvals
A manager signs off the week and the period locks, so billed hours cannot drift afterwards.
Explore→Audit Trail and Compliance
Every change after approval is added to the record, so an auditor can see who changed what.
Explore→Invoicing From Tracked Time
Turn approved hours into invoice lines without retyping them into another tool.
Explore→
Compare other tools
Frequently asked questions
- Is Homebase cheaper than TimeTracker?
- For one site, yes, and it is not close. Homebase charges per location, so Essentials at about $30 a month covers 20 people. We charge per seat, so the same 20 people cost $300 a month. Here is what that money buys on the billing side.
- What is Homebase, in one line?
- Homebase is an app for running an hourly team: rotas, hiring, onboarding, team chat, its own payroll and a time clock, all priced per location. We wrote up the plans, the limits and the six paid add-ons in what Homebase is.
- Does TimeTracker do shift scheduling like Homebase?
- No. Homebase makes the rota, handles swaps and reads availability. We have none of that. What we have is scheduled hours, which is just the expected figure a timecard is measured against. If shifts are the job, buy Homebase. If timesheets are the job, that is us.
- Which one keeps timesheet history longer?
- We do. Homebase Basic keeps timesheets for 90 days, then they are gone, and paid Homebase plans hold them longer. We do not prune old timesheets, so a week from last year is still there when somebody asks. See audit trail and compliance.
- Can either tool send a client an invoice?
- Only us. Homebase is built for paying staff, not for billing a customer, so it has no client invoices. With us, approved hours become invoice lines. See how invoicing from tracked time works. Invoicing is on the paid plan.
- Are approvals free in TimeTracker?
- No. Approving timesheets, timecards, expenses and leave is on the paid plan at $15 a user a month, or $12 billed yearly. The free plan covers 3 people who can submit, not approve. The good part is we have one paid plan and nothing above it. See timesheet approvals.
- Can TimeTracker stop a clock-in from the wrong place?
- Yes, on the paid plan. Location rules use geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits to block the punch, not just note where it came from. Homebase records location on its paid plans instead. More on time tracking.
- Does TimeTracker run payroll like Homebase?
- No. Homebase sells its own payroll at a $39 monthly base plus $6 for each person paid, and it attaches to any plan. We do not run payroll. Hours come out as a file you hand to whoever pays your staff, which is a paid feature. See data export.
- What does rounding do to the real minutes?
- Nothing. Rounding is half-up to the nearest 6, 15 or 30 minutes and is set once for the whole workspace. The exact raw duration is kept beside the rounded one, so you can always show what really happened. More on timesheets.
- Is there a closer comparison to Homebase than this one?
- Homebase competes hardest with rota tools, so TimeTracker vs When I Work covers much the same ground against a different shift app. This page is about the split between staffing a site and billing the hours.
- What else should I look at besides Homebase?
- If the rota is the real need, stay with shift tools. If the hours end up on an invoice or in front of an auditor, look at us. The rest of the field is listed on Homebase alternatives.
Hours that get billed or audited?
Start free for up to 3 people. When you need approvals, locking and invoices, there is one paid plan at $15 a user a month and nothing above it.
Start free for 3 people