--- title: "Deputy vs. Homebase: 2026 Comparison | Capterra" description: "I compare Deputy vs. Homebase on pricing, ease of use, and customer support, drawing on two years of verified Capterra review data to see which fits your business." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/resources/deputy-vs-homebase/" page_type: "article" language: "en" --- # Deputy vs. Homebase: Which Employee Scheduling Tool Fits Your Business? Written by: Baljeet Kaur Baljeet KaurAuthor Experience I’ve been a senior research specialist at Capterra since May 2019, focusing on the HR and project management software markets. Before I joined Ca... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/bkaur/) Published August 20, 2026 10 min read Table of Contents - [The verdict up front](#the-verdict-up-front) - [Deputy vs. Homebase pricing: what you'll actually pay](#deputy-vs-homebase-pricing-what-youll-actually-pay) - [Which fits your business?](#which-fits-your-business) - [How to choose between Deputy and Homebase](#how-to-choose-between-deputy-and-homebase) - [FAQ](#faq) Deputy and Homebase are the two names that come up most often when businesses are choosing their first dedicated [employee scheduling software](https://www.capterra.com/employee-scheduling-software/). Both carry strong ratings in Capterra's review data (4.6 for Deputy and 4.6 for Homebase, across 773 and 1,152 reviews respectively). On paper, they look nearly interchangeable. When I filtered that same review data down to just the last 24 months, a different picture emerged. Homebase's rating remains largely unchanged, slipping only from 4.6 to 4.6 across 135 recent reviews. Deputy's rating falls more noticeably, from 4.6 to 4.4, based on 59 recent reviews. The review themes differ as well: Deputy's lower ratings are more likely to mention app performance issues and slower support experiences, while Homebase's criticisms tend to focus on reporting limitations and features locked behind higher-priced plans. That gap between the all-time reputation and the recent user experience matters just as much as the more familiar trade-off between the two products: scheduling flexibility versus operational simplicity. I've narrowed this comparison down to the four places that trade-off shows up most clearly: pricing, scheduling and compliance capabilities, customer support, and payroll and HR functionality. Whichever of those matters most to your business is probably what should drive the decision. [Deputy](https://www.capterra.com/p/167811/Deputy/) scheduling (Source: Capterra) Free Employee Scheduling in [Homebase](https://www.capterra.com/p/153076/Homebase/) (Source: Capterra) ## The verdict up front Homebase wins on price and simplicity for small hourly teams. Deputy wins on scheduling depth and compliance for larger, multi-location operations. Here is the at-a-glance view.

	Deputy	Homebase
Overall rating, all-time	4.6 ( 773 reviews)	4.6 (1,152 reviews)
Overall rating, last 24 months	4.4 (60 reviews)	4.6 (135 reviews)
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Pricing model	Per user, per month	Per location, per month, unlimited employees
Entry price	$5.50 / user / month (billed monthly)	$30 / location / month (billed monthly)
Ease of use (all-time)	4.5	4.6
Customer support (all-time)	4.5	4.4
Value for money (all-time)	4.4	4.5
Best fit	Multi-location, compliance-heavy operations	Single-location and small hourly teams

**The difference between the recent and all-time ratings tells a more useful story than the overall score alone.** While both products hold strong all-time ratings, Homebase has maintained its 4.6 score over the last 24 months across a sizable review sample, suggesting a consistently positive user experience. Deputy's rating, meanwhile, drops from 4.6 to 4.4 in recent reviews. The decline isn't dramatic, but it may indicate more mixed customer sentiment in the last two years compared to Homebase. #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty **Best for compliance-heavy scheduling: Deputy.** Its strongest differentiator is labor compliance management. Reviewers operating across multiple locations or jurisdictions frequently point to built-in labor law controls, break compliance tracking, and award interpretation as reasons they chose Deputy over simpler scheduling tools. The trade-off shows up in the recent review data: its rating falls from 4.6 all-time to 4.4 in the last 24 months, with lower scores for customer support and value for money than Homebase. #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty **Best for operational simplicity: Homebase.** Its value proposition is remarkably consistent throughout the review data: scheduling, time tracking, team communication, and payroll support in a single platform designed for hourly workforces. It also maintains the stronger recent review profile of the two, with a 4.6 rating over the last 24 months across a larger sample size than Deputy's. The main limitation is depth. Businesses with complex compliance requirements or advanced workforce management needs may find themselves outgrowing the lower-tier plans, where reporting and analytics capabilities are more limited. Neither is the wrong choice. The rest of this piece breaks down where that trade-off actually plays out. ## Deputy vs. Homebase pricing: what you'll actually pay This is the first place I'd tell a business owner to look closely, because the pricing models work differently, not just at different price points. Deputy meters by user: every employee added raises the bill, regardless of how many locations they work across. Homebase meters by location: a single site pays one flat rate no matter how many employees are on the schedule, which makes it structurally cheaper for a lean crew at one address and structurally more expensive for a business with many small sites. I checked both vendors' current pricing pages rather than relying on Capterra's cached figure, and neither one holds up as stated. Deputy's Capterra profile headlines $9 per user per month, but Deputy's own site and Capterra's detailed pricing table both confirm the real entry point is Lite at $5.50 per user per month. Homebase's Capterra profile headlines $30 a month, but Homebase's own site confirms a genuinely free Basic plan for one location and up to 10 employees that Capterra's summary field leaves out entirely. | | Deputy (per user) | Homebase (per location) | | --- | --- | --- | | **Free plan** | No | Yes, one location, up to 10 employees | | **Entry paid tier** | $5 / user / month (Lite) | $30 / location / month (Essentials) | | **Mid tier** | $6.50 / user / month (Core) | $70 / location / month (Plus) | | **Top tier** | $9 / user / month (Pro) | $120 / location / month (All-in-One) | | **Model** | Per active user, $30 / month minimum | Flat per location, unlimited employees | | **Pricing theme, all-time** | 47 positive / 30 negative mentions, both well clear of the citation floor. | 72 positive / 64 negative mentions, well clear. | | **Pricing theme, last 24 months** | 6 positive / 4 negative mentions. The negative count sits just under the 5-mention floor, so treat it as a directional signal, not a confirmed theme. | 8 positive / 7 negative mentions, both clear the floor within this window. | Both products draw specific complaints about the cost structure itself, not just a generic "it's expensive." **What users say:** "It's expensive, as you pay per active user and there is a base charge as well. It adds up quickly!" Kiri G., Director, Retail, 51-200 employees (Capterra, October 2024) "In terms of value, I think Homebase offers a lot for the price, especially for small businesses. It's nice having scheduling, time tracking, messaging, and payroll-related tools all bundled together instead of having to juggle multiple apps." Jeff H., Front end Manager, Medical Practice, 51-200 employees (Capterra, June 2026) "It's a touch pricey if you have more than one store, and the customer support, while not terrible, does take a little time to get through to." Sean D., Owner, Restaurants, 201-500 employees (Capterra, October 2025) **Pricing changes.** Confirm current rates directly with Deputy and Homebase before deciding, the figures above are current as of August 17, 2026, but both vendors adjust pricing and packaging over time. ### How Deputy and Homebase compare on scheduling depth and compliance controls Deputy's scheduling tools go deeper on compliance, multi-state labor law, and award interpretation. Homebase's scheduling is simpler and faster to learn, but carries less built-in compliance logic. Deputy reviewers bring up scheduling itself more often, and with more specificity about compliance, than Homebase reviewers do. Two of every three Deputy reviews in the last 24 months mention scheduling in their pros (39 of 59), often tied to labor law, award rates, or multi-state rules, compared with under half of Homebase's recent reviews (65 of 135). Deputy's reviewer base also skews slightly larger: about 20% of its reviewers work at companies with 201 or more employees, versus about 15% for Homebase. **What users say** "Deputy is a low-cost platform that provides a good amount of customization. As a multi-state employer, it was important for us to have timecard attestations that were customizable to ensure we were covering our bases for all State laws, and Deputy was one of the few platforms that we found that enabled us to customize that feature." Katy W., Director, Talent Management, Computer Software, 201-500 employees (Capterra, December 2024) "I liked the fact that you can schedule your timing and tasks on homebase. Its ease of use is straight forwards as well." Natasha M., Founder, Retail (Capterra, June 2026) ### How Deputy and Homebase compare on platform reliability and stability Homebase's recent reviews report fewer reliability complaints than Deputy's. Deputy's functionality rating and reliability mentions both soften more in the last 24 months than Homebase's do. Reliability complaints (slow, glitchy, crashing, or freezing) show up in 11 of Deputy's 59 recent cons, about 19%, compared with 11 of Homebase's 135, about 8%. That lines up with the functionality rating gap in the same window: 4.1 out of 5 for Deputy versus 4.5 out of 5 for Homebase. **What users say** "Sometimes the app lagged or took a while to load, which was frustrating when I was in a rush. Also, there were times when schedule updates didn't show up right away, so I had to double-check with my manager." Angelica F., Tutor, Education Management, 201-500 employees (Capterra, September 2025) "Occasional glitches, iOS, macOS compatibility - wish the app functioned better for higher level needs- scheduling etc." Justin L., General Manager, Food & Beverages, 201-500 employees (Capterra, March 2026) ### How Deputy and Homebase compare on customer support responsiveness Homebase's customer support rating held up better than Deputy's in the last 24 months, and Deputy reviewers mention slow support responses at a higher rate. Customer support rating in the last 24 months runs 4.1 out of 5 for Deputy against 4.3 out of 5 for Homebase. Support-related complaints appear in 8 of Deputy's 59 recent cons, about 14%, versus 11 of Homebase's 135, about 8%. **What users say** "Customer services can sometimes take a while to respond to you." Sean E., Client Services Manager, Hospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees (Capterra, May 2025) "I love the scheduling features, doing payroll is super quick and easy, and if I need help with anything the Customer Support is always very helpful!" Julie D., Operations Manager, Mental Health Care, 51-200 employees (Capterra, November 2025) ### How Deputy and Homebase compare on payroll and HR depth Homebase bundles payroll, hiring, and HR compliance directly into its own plans. Deputy hands payroll off to a third-party partner, Paycor, and keeps its own product focused on scheduling, time tracking, and compliance. | | Deputy | Homebase | | --- | --- | --- | | Native payroll | No, partnered with Paycor: $8/user/month + $49/month base fee (US only) | Yes, built by Homebase: $39/month + $6/month per employee paid | | Native HR and compliance | Add-on: $2/user/month | Built into the All-in-One plan ($120/location/month) | | Native hiring and onboarding | Not offered | Built into the All-in-One plan | Integration and payroll mentions appear in 23 of Homebase's 135 recent pros, about 17%, versus 8 of Deputy's 59, about 14%. Homebase reviewers repeatedly describe the appeal of having scheduling, time tracking, and payroll under one roof rather than stitched together from separate tools. **What users say** "It's very simple and user-friendly. It does payroll, time tracking and scheduling all in one place. Previously, we had to use two separate apps to get all these features." Rita D., Executive Admin, Retail, 51-200 employees (Capterra, June 2026) "So easy for both admin and for staff to use. It also seamlessly integrates with our payroll, Rippling." Jacqueline D., Practice Manager, Medical Practice, 11-50 employees (Capterra, March 2025) ## Which fits your business? Company size and industry mix tell two different stories here. **Company size**. Deputy's reviewer base splits across two distinct clusters rather than concentrating in one place: about 30% are self-employed or unspecified-size businesses, another 30% sit at 51-200 employees, and a further 20% run at 201 employees or more. Homebase concentrates far more tightly around the classic small-business band: about 75% of its reviewers fall between 11 and 200 employees (36.5% at 11-50, 39.0% at 51-200), with only 4% self-employed and just 15% at 201 employees or more. That tells me Homebase's audience looks like a fairly uniform small-business base, while Deputy's spans everything from solo operators to organizations several times larger. **Industry mix is a real difference too, not a wash.** Homebase's reviewer base concentrates hard in food service: Food & Beverages and Restaurants together account for 25.5% of all reviewers, roughly one in four. Deputy's industry mix spreads more evenly, with Retail its largest single category at 12.1%, followed by Hospitality (10.8%), Food & Beverages (5.8%), Health, Wellness and Fitness (5.6%), Hospital & Health Care (4.6%), and Construction (3.3%). That tells me Homebase has found its strongest adoption in restaurants and food service specifically, while Deputy's usage is more distributed across retail, hospitality, health care, and skilled trades. | Factor | Choose Deputy if | Choose Homebase if | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricing model | You want cost to scale with headcount, not location, and don't mind per-user pricing rising as you add staff | You run one location with a small team and want a genuinely free plan, or want cost tied to locations rather than employee count | | Compliance and scheduling depth | You operate across multiple states or need built-in award and labor law interpretation | Your labor law needs are simpler and mostly single-state, and you'd trade compliance depth for a simpler scheduling tool | | Platform reliability, recent experience | You can tolerate a higher rate of recent lag and glitch complaints (about 19% of recent reviews) in exchange for compliance depth | You want the lower recent reliability-complaint rate (about 8%) and the steadier last-24-month rating | | Customer support | You're comfortable with Deputy's softer recent support rating (4.1 out of 5) | You want Homebase's stronger recent support rating (4.3 out of 5) and fewer slow-response complaints | | Payroll approach | You're fine routing payroll through a third-party partner, Paycor | You want payroll, hiring, and HR compliance built natively into the same platform | | Business size and mix | You run a mid-size or multi-location operation in retail, hospitality, or construction | You run a single or multi-location food, retail, or service business, especially food & beverage | ## How to choose between Deputy and Homebase If your business answers to multiple states' wage laws, runs shift patterns that need award interpretation, or already leans on a payroll partner like Paycor, I'd default to Deputy, especially if you're comfortable trading its recent dip in support and reliability scores for that compliance depth. If you want payroll, hiring, and HR compliance built natively into one platform, a genuinely free plan for a single location, or you're running a food, retail, or service business without complex multi-state rules, Homebase is still a defensible choice, just go in with eyes open that its scheduling logic won't go as deep on compliance as Deputy's. Either way, I'd read a current sample of each product's reviews directly on Capterra before deciding, not just the excerpts here, and check Capterra's [payroll software](https://www.capterra.com/payroll-software/) category if payroll ends up being the deciding factor. ## FAQ Is Deputy or Homebase better for multi-location businesses? Both support multiple locations, but Deputy's reviewer base skews toward businesses that need built-in labor law and award interpretation across states, while Homebase's multi-location tools sit in its higher-priced Plus and All-in-One plans. If your locations span states or countries with different wage rules, Deputy's compliance-first design tends to fit better. Which is cheaper, Deputy or Homebase? It depends on how you count users versus locations. Deputy starts at $5.50 per user per month, so cost scales directly with headcount. Homebase starts free for a single location with up to 10 employees, then charges per location rather than per user, costing less for a larger team at one site but more across several small locations. Software pricing changes, so confirm current rates with each vendor before deciding. Does Homebase or Deputy include payroll? Homebase builds payroll into an add-on it runs itself, priced at $39 a month plus $6 per employee paid, available on any plan. Deputy routes payroll through a third-party partnership with Paycor, priced at $8 per user per month plus a $49 monthly base fee, and only in the US. Which has better customer support, Deputy or Homebase? In the last 24 months of Capterra reviews, Homebase's customer support rating (4.3 out of 5) edges out Deputy's (4.1 out of 5), and reviewers mention slow support responses for Deputy more often than for Homebase in that same window. Does Deputy or Homebase work better for restaurants? Homebase's reviewer base skews more heavily toward food service. Food & beverage and restaurant reviewers together make up about a quarter of all Homebase reviews, versus 6% for Deputy, and Homebase's point-of-sale integrations with Clover and Square show up often in reviewer praise. Can I use Deputy or Homebase for free? Homebase offers a genuinely free Basic plan for one location and up to 10 employees, with no credit card required. Deputy doesn't have a permanent free plan, only a free trial, though its Lite plan starts at $5.50 per user per month. Do Deputy and Homebase integrate with QuickBooks and other payroll tools? Yes. Deputy integrates with QuickBooks Online, Gusto, ADP Workforce Now, Rippling, and Xero, among others. Homebase integrates with QuickBooks Online, Gusto, ADP Workforce Now, Rippling, Paychex Flex, and point-of-sale systems like Square and Clover. ## Capterra's 2026 Software Buying Trends Report ### Download our 2026 Software Buying Trends Report to see how successful software adopters avoid disappointment and how your business can, too. * * * ### Was this article helpful? * * * ## About the Author [### Baljeet Kaur](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/bkaur/) Baljeet has been a senior research specialist at Capterra for six years, helping businesses identify the right software based on their specific needs. She’s spent nearly a decade in the research field, sharpening her skills in competitive intelligence and marketing research, and juggling roles such as a content analyst and methodology developer. ### RELATED READING - [Best Employee Scheduling Software in 2026: My Picks Based on My Analysis of 2,678 Capterra Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/resources/best-employee-scheduling-software-reviews-analysis/) - [Applicant Tracking System Pricing in 2026: What Businesses Actually Pay](https://www.capterra.com/resources/applicant-tracking-system-pricing-2026/) - [Human Services Case Management Software: My 5 Picks From 900+ Verified Capterra Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/resources/human-services-case-management-software-reviews/) - [9 Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Business (2026)](https://www.capterra.com/resources/best-applicant-tracking-system/) - [The 7 Best Recruiting Agency Software of 2026: My Expert Picks Based on 2,100+ Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/resources/best-recruiting-agency-software/) - [Knowledge Base vs. Corporate Wiki Software: How to Choose the Right Internal Knowledge Tool For Your Team?](https://www.capterra.com/resources/knowledge-base-vs-corporate-wiki-software/) - [The 5 Best Compliance Management Software of 2026: My Expert Picks Based on 529+ Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/resources/best-compliance-management-software/) - [8 Best HR Software for Small Business in 2026: My Top Picks Based on 6,070+ Capterra Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/resources/human-resources-software-for-small-business/) - [Your Essential Guide to ADP Software](https://www.capterra.com/resources/what-is-adp/) This comparison is based on Capterra's verified reviews and ratings for Deputy and Homebase, current as of August 2026. Both products are listed in Capterra's [Employee Scheduling Software](https://www.capterra.com/employee-scheduling-software/) category, and all ratings, pricing, and feature data referenced in this guide come from their individual product pages within that category, not from third-party sources. To build this comparison, I: - Pulled overall ratings, review counts, and theme data directly from [Deputy's](https://www.capterra.com/p/167811/Deputy/) and [Homebase's](https://www.capterra.com/p/153076/Homebase/) Capterra pages, and the [Homebase vs. Deputy Capterra comparison page](https://www.capterra.com/compare/153076-167811/Homebase-vs-Deputy). - Analyzed a review-level export of each product's full review history, current as of August 17, 2026, to compute ratings and pros/cons themes across two time windows: all-time, and the last 24 months. - Surfaced a pro or con only when the underlying theme appeared in five or more distinct verified reviews within the window cited. - Sourced company size and industry mix from each product's reviewer profile data in the same export, using Capterra's standard company-size bands (for example, 11 to 50 employees), which are approximate correlations rather than exact counts. - Sourced pricing from each vendor's own published pricing page, cross-checked against Capterra's published pricing data, and noted where Capterra's listed starting price didn't match the vendor's actual lowest tier. - Did not rely on hands-on product testing. This guide reflects aggregated verified review data rather than a personal trial of either platform. **Editorial independence:** I select and compare products based on an objective methodology. While some vendors may pay Capterra when they receive web traffic or leads through this site, that has no influence on my methodology, ratings, or conclusions. Deputy's ratings reflect 773 verified reviews and Homebase's reflect 1,152, both as captured in the review export used for this analysis, current as of August 2026, matching Capterra's live displayed counts for both products at the time of writing. Ratings and review counts are subject to change as new reviews are published. Pros, cons, and quotes throughout this guide draw primarily from each product's last 24 months of reviews (59 for Deputy, 135 for Homebase). Both figures clear the minimum sample needed to support a themed claim, though Deputy's recent sample is thinner than Homebase's, a gap that widens compared with their all-time review counts (roughly 1:1.5 all-time versus roughly 1:2.3 in the last 24 months). Deputy's average rating over the last 24 months runs lower than its all-time average (4.4 versus 4.6), driven mostly by softer customer support and value-for-money scores. Homebase's recent average (4.6) stays close to its all-time figure (4.6). Pros and cons themes are identified through keyword matching across each review's stated pros and cons text, since this export does not include a pre-tagged theme field. This method offers a reasonable approximation of common patterns; individual reviews were spot-checked where the classification was ambiguous, and a small number of mismatched entries, where a review's stated "pro" field was actually a complaint, were excluded. _Software pricing changes. I recommend confirming current rates directly with Deputy and Homebase before making a purchasing decision._