Homebase alternative: stop paying by the storefront
James Dean
Homebase alternative: stop paying by the storefront
Homebase is built for a single shop: schedule the week, punch the clock, ping the group. Paid plans are per location, not per person. Open a second site and you buy the product again. Need tasks? Add-on. Need payroll? Add-on. Need tips? Another add-on.
Pebb is one employee app for every site and the office behind them. You pay per user. Basic is $2.50 per user per month for chat, shifts, clock-in, timesheets, and a directory. Premium is $4 and adds calls, a news feed, PTO, tasks, forms, a wiki, analytics, and SSO. Unlimited Spaces on both plans. A second warehouse does not mint a second invoice.
This Homebase alternative is for 11–80 person construction, field, security, warehouse, and multi-location teams. A restaurant group is a fair example. It is not the only beachhead. If you run two job sites, two gates, or two floors, per-storefront pricing is the wrong meter.
At a glance
Pick Pebb if you have more than one site, or you will next year, and you want chat, shifts, GPS clock-in, and (on Premium) calls, PTO, tasks, forms, and a wiki billed per person. Spaces are unlimited. Chat is org-wide, outside those Spaces. Full trial, no credit card. Pebb does not run payroll.
Pick Homebase if you are one shop, especially under 10 people on their free Basic plan, or one packed location that only needs schedule + punches. Homebase also wins if native payroll or Tip Manager are why you opened the app. Keep those. Do not keep paying per door just to message the team.
Pricing and plans
USD. Homebase figures from joinhomebase.com/pricing, August 2026. Paid Homebase plans are per location.
Basic: $0 — 1 location, up to 10 employees
Essentials: $30/mo or $24 annual per location
Plus: $70/mo or $56 annual per location
All-in-One: $120/mo or $96 annual per location
Task Manager: $13 per location
Payroll: $39 + $6 per employee
Tip Manager: $25 per location
Pebb has no free plan. Basic $2.50/user. Premium $4/user. Trial is everything, no card. See Pebb pricing for the split.
Ten people
Homebase Basic, 1 location: $0. Stay if that shop is the whole company.
Pebb Basic: $25. Chat, shifts, clock-in, timesheets, directory.
Pebb Premium: $40. Adds calls, feed, PTO, tasks, forms, wiki, analytics, SSO.
Homebase Essentials, 2 locations: $60/mo ($48 annual). The free plan does not cover location two.
Homebase Essentials, 3 locations: $90/mo ($72 annual).
Twenty-five people
Same headcount. The bill is the doors.
Pebb Basic: $62.50
Pebb Premium: $100
Homebase Plus, 1 location: $70 ($56 annual)
Homebase Plus, 2 locations: $140 ($112 annual)
Homebase Plus, 3 locations: $210 ($168 annual)
Homebase Plus, 1 location + Task Manager: $83
Homebase All-in-One, 3 locations: $360 ($288 annual)
Homebase Payroll on top: +$39 + $6 per employee (25 people paid through it is another $189)
Pebb Premium at $100 usually beats Homebase the moment you have two locations. Homebase can still win one small shop on schedule-and-punch.
Forty people
Homebase paid tiers charge per location, not per extra person. Forty people in one location on Plus is still $70. Forty people in three locations on Plus is still $210. Pebb Premium for 40 is $160. Pebb Basic is $100.
That is the fork: one fat roster behind one door favors Homebase. Two or three doors favors Pebb, and you get calls, a wiki, forms, and tasks without add-ons.
Pros and cons
Pebb
Pros
Per user, any number of sites. Location two is a space, not a subscription.
Unlimited Spaces on Basic and Premium. Managers space = feed + group chat + private files. New York space = shifts + clock-in + forms.
Chat is org-wide, outside Spaces. Time Off is org-wide on Premium.
Tasks, forms, wiki, calls, news feed included on Premium — not $13/location add-ons.
GPS clock-in with optional near-branch validation. Open shifts. Full trial, no card.
Cons
No free plan. One shop under 10 people is cheaper on Homebase Basic at $0.
One packed location on Plus ($70) can beat Pebb Premium ($100 for 25).
Pebb does not run payroll or tip pooling.
No hiring ATS. No Tip Manager.
Mobile needs a connection. Offline does not fully work.
Homebase
Pros
Free for one location, up to 10 employees.
A large hourly roster behind one door can be a good deal, because the meter is the location, not the headcount.
Native payroll add-on, Tip Manager, Task Manager. Real shop plumbing. Pebb does not replace payroll or tips.
Cons
Every new storefront is another full plan. Three Plus locations is $210 before tasks, tips, or payroll.
Tasks are $13 per location. Tips $25 per location. Payroll $39 + $6 per employee.
A field crew is not a storefront, and still gets billed like one if you model each site as a location.
You can still lose the crew to iMessage because the product is a location’s schedule tool, not the company app.
Who each is for
Pebb is for
11–80 people, frontline plus office.
Construction, field, security, warehouse, multi-location retail or facilities. Restaurants yes — not only restaurants.
District managers tired of duplicating the stack each time a door opens.
Teams that need “who’s on,” GPS clock-in, and a real workplace (chat, and on Premium calls + wiki) in one login.
Homebase is for
One shop. Especially ≤10 people on Basic at $0.
One high-headcount location that only needs schedule, punches, and light messaging.
Operators who bought Homebase for payroll or Tip Manager. Those are real products. Pebb does not replace them.
If the other quote on your desk is hub-priced instead of location-priced, read the Connecteam alternative. Same job, different meter.
Feature by feature
Clock-in and GPS
Winner: Homebase for a single shop’s time clock. Pebb if you punch on a phone across sites.
Homebase is built so a location collects punches. That is the product. One floor, one clock, one bill.
Pebb clock-in can GPS-stamp the punch and optionally require the person near a branch. Not live breadcrumb tracking. Enough for a warehouse floor or a job site where you need “they punched here,” not a map of the afternoon.
Two warehouses should not require two Homebase subscriptions to collect those punches.
Scheduling
Winner: Homebase for one location that lives on the roster. Pebb for multi-site without a new bill.
Homebase is a scheduler you buy per door. Essentials, Plus, and All-in-One are location SKUs.
Pebb: shift scheduling and open shifts on Basic and Premium. The roster lives next to chat. A second site is another space, same subscription.
If a single packed shop is the whole company, Homebase’s meter matches the work. If the pain is three crews across three addresses, stop buying the scheduler three times.
Chat and calls
Winner: Pebb.
Homebase messaging is a sidebar on a schedule tool. Useful. Not a workplace. Crews that still live in iMessage are telling you the schedule app never became the company app.
Pebb chat is on Basic, org-wide, outside Spaces. Premium adds voice and video calls and a news feed. That is the difference between “ping the closer” and “the company lives here.”
PTO
Winner: Pebb Premium for org-wide time off without climbing a location tier.
Homebase’s meter is still the storefront. Add a site, add a bill.
Pebb Time Off is org-wide on Premium. Request, approve, see it against the roster. One policy layer, not a perk you unlock by upgrading every storefront.
Tasks, forms, and wiki
Winner: Pebb Premium.
Homebase Task Manager is $13 per location. Three floors is $39 before anyone checks a box.
Pebb Premium includes tasks, digital forms, and a wiki. A Managers space can hold private files and a feed. A site space can hold the opening checklist. You do not buy an add-on per door to assign a task.
Payroll
Winner: Homebase, if you want the vendor to run payroll. Pebb does not run payroll.
Homebase Payroll is $39/month + $6 per employee, on top of the location plan. Tip Manager is $25 per location. That is restaurant and shop plumbing. Use it if that is why you bought Homebase.
Pebb timesheets leave the building. Your payroll system still files payroll. Do not switch expecting paychecks to print from Pebb. They will not.
Spaces vs locations
Winner: Pebb.
Homebase sells locations. Location two is another Essentials / Plus / All-in-One. Tasks, tips, and payroll add-ons also multiply by location.
Pebb sells people, then gives you unlimited dynamic Spaces:
Managers — feed, group chat, private files.
New York — shifts, clock-in, forms.
Chat stays org-wide, outside Spaces. Time Off stays org-wide. A field team split across sites does not pay a per-location fee to exist.
What a week looks like on Pebb
Monday the district lead publishes rosters into two site spaces. Open shifts sit in each. Nobody buys a second Plus plan because a new bay opened.
Tuesday warehouse staff clock in on their phones. GPS stamps the punch. Near-branch validation is on for the north floor, off for a roaming field pair who only need a stamp.
Wednesday a form in the site space: closing checklist, photos, done. Tasks did not cost $13 extra for that floor.
Thursday a supervisor starts a Premium call from the org-wide chat because the cooler died. Friday’s roster already sees the Time Off request that came in Wednesday.
Friday timesheets close in Pebb and go to payroll — which is still payroll, not Pebb. That is a multi-location week billed per person.
Setup and switching
Create a workspace. Invite with a link. One space per site or crew. Floor spaces get shifts and clock-in. A Managers space gets the feed and private files. Chat is already company-wide.
Run both products for a week on one location if you want. The floor will tell you which app they open first. Leave Homebase Payroll or Tip Manager where it earns its keep. You are not required to blow up tax filing to give people a real workplace.
Trial is the full product. No credit card. This is not a six-week IT project.
Who should stay put
Stay if you are one shop, under 10 people, and Basic at $0 is doing the job. You do not have a software problem.
Stay if you are one packed location, lots of hourly people, and all you need is schedule + punches. Essentials at $30 or Plus at $70 can beat Pebb Premium at $4 × headcount.
Stay if payroll or Tip Manager is the reason you log in. Pebb does not run payroll. Pebb does not pool tips.
Leave the per-location bill when the actual pain is door number two, a field crew that is not a “storefront,” or a team that still lives in iMessage because Homebase never became the company app.
FAQ
Is Pebb cheaper than Homebase?
One location, lots of people, schedule-and-punch only: Homebase Essentials at $30 or Plus at $70 can win. Two or more locations, or you want tasks / PTO / calls / wiki in the same app: Pebb’s per-user price usually wins. Three sites on Plus is $210/month before add-ons. Pebb Premium for 25 people is $100. For 40 people it is $160.
Does Pebb charge per location?
No. Unlimited Spaces are on Basic and Premium. You pay per user.
Does Pebb include payroll?
No. Homebase sells payroll as $39/month + $6 per employee. Pebb does not run payroll. Timesheets leave the building.
Can employees clock in from their phones?
Yes. GPS clock-in, with optional near-branch validation. Not live tracking.
What’s missing if we leave Homebase?
Native payroll and Tip Manager, plus whatever you liked about a single-location scheduler. If those are core, keep them. Don’t keep paying per location just to message the team.
Basic or Premium?
Basic: chat, shifts, clock-in, timesheets, directory. Premium ($4): calls, news feed, PTO, tasks, forms, wiki, analytics, SSO. Trial includes everything.
Is this only for restaurants?
No. Construction, field, security, warehouse, and multi-location ops are the core. Restaurants are one example.
How do Spaces differ from Homebase locations?
A Homebase location is a bill. A Pebb space is a container you turn tools on for — not extra billed. Chat and Time Off are org-wide, not trapped inside a site.
Does Pebb work offline?
Not fully. The phone needs a connection. Admit that before you migrate a basement with no signal.
How fast can we switch?
Invite, Spaces per site, parallel week, cut over. See pricing, then Sign Up For Free.
One app. Every location. One price.
Stop buying the same product once per door.
