Almost every “best employee scheduling software” article ranking in 2026 was produced by one of the scheduling vendors under review. Homebase publishes the “best Deputy alternatives” listicle. Deputy publishes the “Homebase vs When I Work” breakdown. The conflict of interest is structural, not accidental.
The verdict by size: a solo operator running one location should start with Homebase’s free plan — it genuinely delivers basic scheduling and a time clock at no cost, and for many single-site businesses it holds up indefinitely. A growing team of 10–30 people who prioritize clean mobile UX and predictable costs will find When I Work the cleaner fit, with transparent per-user pricing. Multi-location operators, or any business in a fair-workweek jurisdiction, will find Deputy earns its premium. Running a restaurant? Skip to the 7shifts section. (All prices are approximate as of mid-2026 — verify on each vendor’s pricing page before committing, as free tiers and plan structures change frequently.)
One note on compliance: predictive-scheduling and fair-workweek laws vary significantly by city and state. These tools can surface scheduling risk and document shift history, but they do not replace HR or legal counsel.
The Quick Comparison: Deputy vs When I Work vs Homebase at a Glance
All prices approximate as of mid-2026. Verify on each vendor’s pricing page. Per-user vs per-location pricing can look similar in the abstract and diverge sharply at your actual headcount — run the math before assuming one model is cheaper.
| Feature | Homebase | When I Work | Deputy | 7shifts (restaurants only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| True free tier | Yes (1 location, unlimited employees) | No | No | Yes (1 location, up to 15 employees) |
| Pricing model | Per location | Per user | Per user | Per location |
| Entry price (approx, verify) | Free / about $24.95/location/mo (Essentials) | About $2.50/user/mo (scheduling); about $4 with time clock | About $5/user/mo (Lite); about $6.50 (Core) | Free / about $39.99/location/mo (Essentials) |
| Time clock included | Basic (free tier) | Add-on cost at lower tiers | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-scheduling | Higher tiers | Higher tiers | Yes (Core+) | Yes |
| Compliance / fair-workweek tools | Basic overtime visibility | Basic overtime visibility | Strongest in class (overtime alerts, break planning) | Basic |
| POS / payroll integrations | Square native; payroll add-on | Payroll integrations available | Gusto, QuickBooks, others | Deep POS integration (restaurant-specific) |
| Mobile UX | Good | Best in class | Good | Excellent (restaurant workflows) |
| Free trial | Free plan (not a trial) | 14 days | 31 days | Free plan (not a trial) |
| Best for | 1-location solo operators | 10–30 person teams, UX priority | Multi-location, compliance-heavy, 25+ employees | Restaurants only |
Homebase: The Best Free Option — With Caveats
What the free plan includes
Homebase’s Basic plan is free for one location with unlimited employees. That covers basic shift scheduling and a time clock — enough to replace a spreadsheet or a notes app for a small team. The Square POS integration is included, which matters for cafes and retail shops already on Square. Among the tools reviewed here, this is the only genuinely usable free tier for a non-restaurant business.
That distinction is worth repeating: the free plan is not a crippled demo. A 12-person retail team posting weekly shifts and tracking punches can run on it indefinitely without hitting a paywall for core functions.
What it paywalls
Team messaging, advanced scheduling features, the hiring module, departments, and payroll all sit behind paid tiers. The Essentials plan runs approximately $24.95 per location per month; Plus is approximately $56; All-in-One is approximately $96 (verify at joinhomebase.com — pricing changes frequently).
The per-location pricing model is the hidden variable. One location is cheap. A second location changes the math, and the pricing at the second location may not be what operators expect. One user in r/restaurateur described the situation plainly: “Homebase quoted me differently for the second location which added up… I also use Square for POS so I’m really only using Homebase for chat and scheduling.”
Real friction points
Punch corrections require managerial intervention. A reviewer in r/restaurateur flagged this directly: “With HB, I have to email a manager to manually edit punches.” For teams with high clock-in volumes or lots of shift adjustments, that friction adds up.
GPS clock-in has drawn pushback from hourly employees. A reviewer on the Google Play Store described it as: “Very much a Nannycam, wants permanent GPS access for shift clocking.” Whether that’s a feature or a problem depends on the employer’s context, but it’s worth knowing before rollout.
Capterra ratings for Homebase hover around 4.6 (verify on Capterra — scores shift as review volume changes).
Who it’s for
A single-location operator replacing a scheduling spreadsheet for the first time should start with Homebase’s free plan. The cost barrier is zero. For most solo operators at one site, it holds up. The calculus shifts the moment team messaging becomes essential or a second location is on the horizon — at that point, compare per-location fees against When I Work’s per-user math.
For teams also evaluating best HRIS and payroll software for small business, note that Homebase offers a payroll add-on, but it’s a separate cost and not the most feature-complete option in that category.
When I Work: Best UX and Predictable Pricing for Growing Teams
Pricing model
When I Work has no free plan. The distinction from Homebase is real: 14-day trial, then paid. The per-user structure looks like this (approximate, verify at wheniwork.com): Essentials runs about $2.50 per user per month for scheduling only, or about $4 per user with the time clock. Pro is approximately $7 per user; Premium approximately $10.
The math at small headcount is straightforward. Ten employees with a time clock: roughly $40 per month. Twenty-five employees: roughly $100 per month. That scales predictably — which is the appeal. The risk is on the growth side: at 30 or more people, the per-user bill can exceed what Homebase charges for the same number of employees at a single location.
The UX advantage
When I Work holds a consistent edge on mobile experience. Shift swaps, availability submission, and schedule visibility are cleaner in the employee-facing app than in either of the other tools reviewed here. A reviewer on the Google Play Store captured the day-to-day appeal: “No question as to my shift — very easy to use.”
That matters more than it sounds. Scheduling software lives or dies on employee adoption. A tool that managers love but employees ignore generates constant workarounds. When I Work’s mobile UX reduces that friction.
The weak point is time-off-request transparency. A reviewer on the Google Play Store raised a concrete problem: “The app doesn’t show the day and time I put in my request for time off… now, I can’t prove my request was put in within the allotted time frame.” That’s not a catastrophic flaw, but it’s a gap that creates disputes in shift-heavy environments where time-off windows are competitive.
G2 ratings for When I Work run around 4.4 (verify on G2).
Who it’s for
When I Work is the strongest pick for teams of 10–30 with relatively stable headcount, where predictable per-user cost and clean employee UX matter more than the deepest compliance feature set. Per-user pricing rewards small teams and penalizes large ones — the break-even against Homebase’s per-location model depends entirely on team size, so the comparison math is worth running before committing.
For operators building out the full HR stack alongside scheduling, employee engagement tools for small teams and performance management software for small business pair naturally with When I Work’s shift data once the scheduling layer is in place.
Deputy: Most Powerful — and Most Likely Overkill for a 10-Person Team
Pricing and features
Deputy restructured its pricing in October 2025. Current approximate tiers: Lite at about $5 per user per month, Core at about $6.50, Pro at about $9 (verify at deputy.com — the restructure changed tier names and features). The free trial is 31 days, the most generous in this comparison.
At the Core tier, a 10-person team pays roughly $65 per month. What that buys: AI-driven auto-scheduling, demand-based labor forecasting, compliance safeguards including automatic break planning and overtime alerts, and tools that surface predictive-scheduling requirements in covered jurisdictions. Multi-location management is included at Core and above.
Deputy’s compliance tooling is genuinely in a different category from the other tools here. For businesses operating under fair-workweek laws — New York City, California, Oregon, Chicago, Philadelphia — the built-in scheduling-change tracking, advance-notice alerts, and document-ready audit trails have real operational value. These features help surface risk and build documentation; they do not replace HR or legal counsel, and employers in covered jurisdictions should confirm their specific obligations with a professional.
Some users report lag and occasional offline issues; support quality reviews are mixed at lower plan tiers. Overall ratings skew toward enterprise use cases — RFP.wiki has placed Deputy at approximately 4.9 (verify on RFP.wiki), but the review mix includes larger organizations that use more of the feature set.
When it’s overkill
A 10-person single-site team operating under standard labor law, without complex shift patterns or predictive-scheduling requirements, is paying Core prices for auto-scheduling and forecasting features that a simple shop will rarely use. Deputy earns its cost when the feature set is actually needed — not before.
The per-user model at a larger headcount also accumulates quickly. Twenty employees on Core is approximately $1,560 per year (about $6.50 x 20 x 12). Homebase Essentials for the same 20 employees at one location runs approximately $300 per year. The gap is large enough that the compliance and forecasting features need to be genuinely in use to justify it.
Who it’s for
Deputy is the right pick for operators running multiple locations, for any business in a fair-workweek jurisdiction that needs documentation-ready compliance workflows, and for teams with genuinely complex shift patterns — split shifts, fluctuating demand, positions requiring specific certifications. Under 15 people at a single site with standard labor law: the other tools do the job at lower cost. Three locations or a predictive-scheduling city: Deputy starts earning its premium.
Teams with high hourly turnover should also look at high-volume hiring tools for shift-based roles alongside scheduling — filling the shift roster and managing it are related problems that often need separate tool answers.
How to Choose: The Best Employee Scheduling Software for Your Team Size
The right tool depends on three variables: number of locations, team size, and regulatory environment.
One location, 1–15 employees, budget is the priority: Homebase’s free plan is the starting point. Upgrade to Essentials (approximately $24.95 per month) only when team messaging or advanced scheduling features become necessary — which may take a while, or may never happen.
One to two locations, 10–30 employees, mobile UX matters: When I Work Essentials with time clock runs approximately $40–$100 per month at that headcount. Run the per-user vs per-location comparison against Homebase before deciding, and check whether the second location would stay on the per-location or per-user math.
Multiple locations, OR a fair-workweek jurisdiction, OR 25-plus employees with complex scheduling patterns: Deputy Core or Pro justifies the cost. Start the 31-day trial and use it specifically to audit compliance exposure — that’s where the platform’s differentiation shows most clearly.
Square POS and one location: Homebase’s native Square integration is a genuine operational edge — shift data and sales data connect without middleware.
Restaurant: None of the three tools above is optimized for restaurant-specific workflows. The 7shifts section below covers why.
For teams still building the hourly workforce alongside the scheduling stack, hiring software to build your hourly team addresses the ATS side of the equation before schedules ever need to be managed.
Honorable Mention: 7shifts (Restaurants Only)
7shifts is a restaurant-specific scheduling platform. That specificity is not a limitation — it’s the product’s entire point, and it shows in what the platform delivers.
The integrations go deep on restaurant POS systems, tip pooling and tip-out management is built in, and labor cost is surfaced as a percentage of sales — the metric that actually matters to restaurant operators, not just total hours or headcount. No general small-business scheduling tool gets this right in the same way.
Pricing: a free Comp plan covers one location up to 15 employees. Essentials runs approximately $39.99 per location per month for up to 30 employees; Pro is approximately $79.99 per location per month (verify at 7shifts.com). G2 and Capterra ratings for 7shifts cluster around 4.7, the highest among the tools reviewed here (verify on both platforms).
The verdict is narrow but firm: a restaurant operator should evaluate 7shifts before committing to any of the three primary tools above. Tip pooling, POS-deep scheduling, and labor-cost-as-percentage-of-sales are features that restaurant operators genuinely need and that 7shifts builds around natively.
A non-restaurant business gains nothing from those features. For retail, clinics, hospitality, and service businesses, 7shifts has no meaningful advantage over Deputy, When I Work, or Homebase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Homebase really free, or is it a bait-and-switch?
The Basic plan is genuinely free for one location with basic scheduling and a time clock — one of the only true free tiers in this category. The catch is real but clearly bounded: team messaging, advanced scheduling, the hiring module, and payroll sit behind paid tiers starting at approximately $24.95 per location per month. “Free” is accurate for core scheduling and time-clock functions. “Free and fully featured” is not. A solo operator who needs to post a schedule and track punches can run on the free plan indefinitely. Verify current terms at joinhomebase.com.
When I Work vs Homebase: which is cheaper for a team of 15?
At 15 employees, When I Work Essentials with time clock runs approximately $60 per month (15 x about $4 per user). Homebase Essentials is approximately $24.95 per location per month regardless of headcount — meaningfully cheaper at 15 people, and the gap widens as the team grows within a single location. The calculus reverses if a second location is added, where Homebase charges per site rather than per employee. Verify current pricing on both before committing, as plan structures shift.
Does Deputy work for a small business with 10 employees?
Technically yes; practically it’s more than most 10-person single-site teams need. At Core (approximately $6.50 per user per month), a 10-person team pays roughly $65 per month for auto-scheduling, labor forecasting, and compliance tooling that a simple retail or cafe operation may rarely use. Deputy is most clearly worth the cost for multiple locations, complex shift patterns, or fair-workweek-law compliance in covered cities.
What is the best free employee scheduling software for small business?
Homebase offers the most complete genuinely free plan for non-restaurant businesses: one location, unlimited employees, basic scheduling, and a time clock. 7shifts has a free plan for restaurants with up to 15 employees at one location. When I Work and Deputy offer no free plan — 14-day and 31-day trials respectively. If “free forever” is the priority for a non-restaurant business, Homebase is the answer.
Do these tools handle predictive scheduling and fair-workweek compliance?
Deputy has the strongest built-in compliance features: overtime alerts, automatic break planning, and tools that surface advance-notice requirements and document schedule changes for audit purposes. When I Work and Homebase offer basic overtime visibility, with more capability available at higher tiers. Critical note: predictive-scheduling and fair-workweek laws vary significantly by city and state. These tools help surface scheduling risk and document records — they do not replace HR or legal counsel. Businesses operating in covered jurisdictions (New York City, California, Oregon, Chicago, Philadelphia, among others) should confirm documentation obligations with a qualified HR or legal professional.
The Verdict
Most small businesses don’t need Deputy. Most solo operators don’t need When I Work. The right tool is the simplest one that actually solves the scheduling problem at current team size — not the most feature-complete one that gets abandoned after month two.
One location, under 15 employees: create a Homebase account and use the free plan. It costs nothing to test and genuinely delivers on basic scheduling and time-clock functions.
Ten to 30 employees, mobile UX is the priority: start When I Work’s 14-day trial with the time clock tier.
Multiple locations, a fair-workweek jurisdiction, or genuinely complex shift patterns: start Deputy’s 31-day trial and use it specifically to audit compliance exposure — that’s where the platform’s differentiation concentrates.
The scheduling app a team actually uses consistently is worth more than the feature-complete one that gets gamed around with group chats after week three.
References
- Homebase pricing page — joinhomebase.com/pricing
- When I Work pricing page — wheniwork.com/pricing
- Deputy pricing page — deputy.com/pricing
- 7shifts pricing page — 7shifts.com/pricing
- Homebase review comparison, approximate pricing data — costbench.com
- When I Work and Homebase pricing comparison — itqlick.com
- Deputy pricing history and restructure (Oct 2025) — help.deputy.com
- Homebase ratings — Capterra
- When I Work ratings — G2
- Deputy ratings — RFP.wiki
- 7shifts ratings — G2 and Capterra
- r/restaurateur — Homebase multi-location cost and Square POS discussion thread
- r/restaurateur — Homebase punch correction workflow discussion thread
- Google Play Store — Homebase GPS clock-in review
- Google Play Store — When I Work ease-of-use and time-off-request reviews
