Homebase vs Gusto (2026): Payroll Costs for Hourly Teams

Quick Verdict: Start with the Schedule-to-Payroll Workflow

Shortlist Homebase when running shifts, clocking time and coordinating an hourly workforce are the main operational problem, and its location-based plans plus native payroll fit the business. Shortlist Gusto when payroll, benefits administration and employee records are the main purchase, then choose the appropriate time-and-attendance option. A cafe owner replacing paper rotas and a professional-services firm replacing payroll software are not buying the same starting point, even if both employ twenty people.

The old shortcut—Homebase does schedules, Gusto does payroll—is incomplete. Homebase sells native payroll as an add-on; Gusto offers native scheduling on eligible packages. There is also a third arrangement: Homebase handles time and scheduling while Gusto processes payroll through the documented integration. That arrangement creates two subscriptions and a transfer to reconcile. It should not be confused with either vendor's single-system workflow or assumed to carry every timecard field automatically.

Research method: official pricing and help documentation checked October 19, 2026. This is a documentary comparison, not a hands-on payroll, funding-speed or tax-filing test. Examples concern US employees and regular USD subscription prices, excluding wages, payroll taxes, insurance premiums and exceptional fees. They are not tax, legal or individualized HR advice. The Homebase review, Gusto review and HR/payroll category provide broader context; the dated sources below support the current plan claims.

Regular Pricing: Separate the Location Plan from Payroll

Homebase pricing separates the scheduling subscription from Payroll. Basic is free for an eligible single location with up to ten active employees. Monthly Essentials, Plus and All-in-One are $30, $70 and $120 per location. The plan guide lists annual-billing equivalents of $24, $56 and $96. Paid scheduling plans permit unlimited employees at the location, but payroll still adds its own $49 monthly base and $6 per person paid during the month.

Gusto's regular prices are Simple at $49 monthly plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22. Simple is single-state payroll; Plus and Premium support multi-state payroll. Time tracking and scheduling are included on Plus/Premium. Simple can add Time & Attendance Plus at $6 per person monthly after its trial. The add-on does not turn Simple into a multi-state payroll package, and no Gusto annual-payment discount is assumed in this comparison.

Promotions should be a separate worksheet, not the headline comparison. Homebase's six-month Plus and Payroll offer has eligibility, activation deadlines and different start events for its two free periods. Gusto's October packaging notice also distinguishes new-customer entitlements from legacy arrangements. Use a dated renewal quote and the features actually required, following the SaaS spending guide, rather than comparing a promotion on one side with full price on the other.

Twenty Employees at One or Two Locations

Assume twenty distinct active W-2 employees, all paid every month, one company and FEIN, one shared pay schedule, and one payroll state. Twenty is the total workforce, not twenty employees at every location. There are no contractors, introductory discounts or optional benefits in these examples. Homebase's native Payroll component is $49 + 20 × $6 = $169 monthly. Add one Plus location at $70 for $239 total, or two Plus locations at $140 for $309. Essentials is a lower-cost alternative if its features suffice: $199 for one location or $229 for two.

Gusto Simple is also $169 for twenty billable employees, but that number excludes native time tracking and scheduling. Adding Time & Attendance Plus for all twenty adds $120, producing $289. Plus costs $320 and includes those native capabilities; Premium is $620. The Gusto-side totals do not acquire a second company base just because the same employer has another worksite. If the operation needs payroll in two states, remove Simple from the shortlist and evaluate Plus or Premium instead.

With annual Homebase Plus, the combined one-location budget is $56 + $169 = $225 monthly equivalent, or $2,700 across twelve unchanged months. Two locations become $281 equivalent, or $3,372 yearly. These combine an annual scheduling commitment with monthly payroll charges; they are not single all-inclusive annual invoices. The packages differ in benefits, permissions, time tools and support, so the table establishes costs under explicit assumptions, not equivalent functionality or measured savings. Use the software evaluation checklist to record any required add-ons before selecting a row.

Seasonal Staffing: Active and Paid Are Different Billing Counts

Homebase's payroll FAQ describes a monthly fee per unique person paid, regardless of how many pay runs include them. Unpaid people on the roster do not incur that person fee. This payroll definition is separate from the active-employee limit on free scheduling. A roster of twenty active workers does not qualify for Basic merely because only eight receive pay that month; evaluate scheduling eligibility and payroll usage independently.

Gusto's billing guide counts employees not marked dismissed, even if unpaid that month. Someone dismissed partway through the month still appears on that month's invoice. US contractors use a different rule: the per-person fee applies in months they are paid. Do not apply the contractor rule to an employee on unpaid leave or a seasonal worker still employed by the business. Employee status should reflect the real employment relationship, not be changed simply to reduce a software bill.

For one Homebase Plus location with twenty active workers but only eight paid, the illustration is $70 + $49 + 8 × $6 = $167. Twenty paid produces $239. Gusto Simple remains $169 with all twenty employees active; Plus remains $320. This does not establish matching feature sets, and it does not prove that Homebase waives its base in a no-payroll month. Budget ongoing bases until the provider confirms otherwise. The small-business payroll guide helps separate subscription billing from the larger payroll and employment obligations.

Scheduling and Time Tracking: Gusto Is Not Missing from the Comparison

Homebase's basic proposition remains shift scheduling and time capture, with paid tiers adding controls. Plus includes PTO/time-off controls, departments and permissions; All-in-One adds onboarding and HR tools. There is an official feature-label discrepancy: the support plan table places labor-cost management in Plus, while the current marketing card positions it under All-in-One. Verify the exact forecasting or overtime-control feature you require instead of assuming every capability under that broad label is included in Plus.

Gusto's scheduling documentation describes publishing shifts up to six months ahead and organizing workers by groups such as role, department or location. Workers can belong to several groups, and time-off information can be shown in schedules. Availability, shift coverage and scheduled-versus-worked review are part of the documented workflow. Its existence does not establish that every Homebase rule has a one-to-one equivalent, but claiming Gusto has no scheduling is no longer accurate.

Evaluate a real requirement using a permission-safe sample: one worker swaps a shift, works a second role at another rate and forgets a clock-out. Check who corrects the record, what audit trail remains and whether approved hours reach payroll. A schedule is a plan; the timesheet records work; payroll pays approved earnings. The time-tracking guide covers a broader category, but a generic timer is not automatically an employee-attendance, overtime or payroll solution.

Multiple Locations: Native Payroll and an Integration Have Different Rules

Homebase's multi-location payroll guide supports locations under the same FEIN and pay schedule. Each location needs a paid Homebase plan, while the payroll service base does not multiply merely because another location is added. Link the existing employee profile to the second worksite rather than creating a duplicate person. A regular payroll collects the linked timecards across locations, and the location report splits earnings by where they were earned.

Separate FEINs are not just additional scheduling locations: Homebase requires a separate account for the other business under the documented arrangement. A second state may also introduce new registration and tax requirements even when the employer stays the same. Gusto's per-company pricing and Plus multi-state coverage should not be interpreted as unlimited separate legal employers under one base fee. Get the account structure and provider eligibility confirmed before extrapolating the two-location example to a franchise group.

Most importantly, native Homebase multi-location payroll is not proof that the Homebase-to-Gusto connector combines every location correctly. Both integration guides contain a warning about multiple Homebase locations feeding one Gusto account, despite setup language about connecting individual locations. Treat that as an unresolved integration constraint, not a gap you can wish away by purchasing Gusto Plus. For businesses connecting several systems, the complete SaaS stack guide is a useful place to map which system owns each employee and pay-period record.

Using Homebase with Gusto: What Transfers and What Does Not

The Homebase integration guide documents regular, overtime, double-overtime and multi-role hours, PTO and wage rates. Tips and break penalties do not sync, and contractor-hour export is unsupported. The operational instructions require selecting a date range and clicking Export to Gusto. Although the introduction uses automatic-export language, its FAQ explicitly says an export must be triggered. This is a prepared time-data transfer, not permission for the integration to submit payroll without review.

The Gusto-side guide also describes new hires flowing toward Homebase and timesheets flowing toward Gusto. Check payroll IDs, names, emails and pay-period boundaries before import/export. Newly imported workers with email addresses can receive invitations, so connecting a real account is not a harmless demo. Correcting and re-exporting a period overwrites the previous export rather than guaranteeing that the new rows append safely to existing edits.

This combined setup can be worth evaluating if Gusto already handles payroll well and Homebase solves a specific scheduling need. Price the Homebase scheduling plan and the appropriate Gusto plan—not Homebase's native Payroll add-on plus another payroll provider by default. The current minimum Homebase tier for this connector was not conclusively established in the reviewed documentation. Confirm eligibility and multi-location behavior, then reconcile missing fields manually where appropriate. The automation planning guide explains why a connected workflow still needs an owner for exceptions.

Payroll Coverage and Funding: Check the First Payday, Not Just the Marketing

Both vendors advertise US payroll-tax calculation and filing, but coverage needs to match the employer. Homebase's unsupported taxes and forms list includes Form 8027 tip reporting and specified local taxes. It also lists taxes calculated but not remitted, such as New York SDI/PFL and Hawaii SDI. A full-service label therefore does not mean every jurisdiction, form or contribution is handled. Ask a qualified payroll or tax professional which obligations apply to your workforce; this comparison does not make that determination.

Gusto's funding-speed guide starts most new employers on four-day processing. Two-day access requires the stated waiting period and a successful debit; next-day and faster options remain subject to eligibility and limits. The pricing page sells a Simple next-day add-on while the speed guide uses broader included wording, so do not promise free next-day funding on every Simple account. Buying a plan with next-day marketing does not by itself guarantee the first deposit date.

Before switching, confirm identity/business verification, bank verification, tax-account setup, historical wage loading and the first submission cutoff. Weekends and bank holidays affect standard processing. Keep the old provider's responsibility for outstanding filings distinct from the new provider's start date. The Gusto, Rippling and Deel guide covers adjacent platform choices, but US payroll, international contractor payments and employer-of-record employment are different services with different eligibility and prices.

Permissions: Reviewing a Timesheet Is Not Payroll-Admin Access

Homebase's Payroll Admin permissions are broad. The owner can authorize managers or general managers to run payroll, view all team wages and historical payroll costs, access reports and update payroll-related fields, including banking information. Two-factor authentication is required. A person who only needs to approve a local shift should not automatically receive this role; do not describe it as a narrowly location-scoped approval permission.

Gusto's payroll approvals feature is available on all plans, but assigning edit-only payroll permissions requires Plus or Premium. Enabling approvals disables Payroll on AutoPilot and payroll automations. A nominated approver is not proof of an unbypassable two-person control: review what full-access administrators can still submit and which payroll types the current approval workflow covers. Do not infer universal coverage from the presence of an approval button.

Use least-privilege roles for the owner, payroll preparer, accountant and shift manager. Verify who can see wages, tax forms and bank details, and remove access when responsibilities change. Exported payroll files need restricted storage and a deliberate retention policy; avoid sending them into unapproved chat, email or AI systems. For general account-security hygiene, the password-manager guide is a starting point, not a replacement for payroll-specific permissions and the vendor's security controls.

Benefits, Extras and Promotions: Compare Renewal Costs

Gusto's pricing says health-insurance administration has no extra Gusto charge when Gusto is the broker, but premiums still apply. Keeping an outside broker is a separate per-eligible-employee integration cost under current terms. Workers' compensation, retirement arrangements and tax-advantaged benefits also have their own costs or provider agreements. Homebase's payroll FAQ points to individual/family health-insurance assistance through Stride and other partner services; that is not automatically the same group-benefits administration package.

Keep those benefits and add-ons outside the base-payroll comparison until requirements are known. Tip-management services, priority support, amendments and failed-funding charges can change the bill too. The Gusto alternatives guide can help when the actual need is a different HR or benefits model, not simply cheaper scheduling.

Under Homebase's six-month offer terms, new customers must complete payroll setup by December 15, 2026 and run their first payroll between September 15, 2026 and January 20, 2027. Checkout requires a valid credit card after the 14-day trial. Plus is free for six months from checkout; Payroll is free for six months from the qualifying first payroll, so the clocks need not end together. The offer applies to locations added during the offer period, but free payroll covers up to 50 employees; each additional employee costs $6 per month. Missing the January 20 first-payroll deadline invalidates the offer and starts standard pricing. Confirm eligibility and each component's renewal quote; the regular-price tables above deliberately exclude this promotion.

Switching and Records: Export Before You Close the Old Payroll

Homebase's report documentation covers payroll journals, CSV summaries, location breakdowns and pay statements. Its tax-record screens show filings and payments handled by Homebase, not every transaction processed by an earlier provider. Gusto's report/export guide includes payroll journals, tax documents and an annual payroll-data workbook. A successful download is not proof that the new provider imported every year-to-date balance, deduction or filing responsibility.

The Gusto cancellation guide describes continued access to past forms and payroll information, but it does not establish an unconditional lifetime export guarantee. Homebase's employer access period after cancellation was not established here. Preserve authorized records before closure in either case, and agree which provider will handle each remaining quarter and year-end form. Insurance and retirement arrangements also need their own transition instructions rather than an assumption that canceling payroll cancels every related service.

Confirm final fees in writing. Homebase's fee schedule describes post-cancellation filings at $200 per filing, while its cancellation guide describes a $200 continuation fee more generally. Gusto also has election-dependent filing charges and retroactive billing. Do not promise one flat fee or free year-end service for every cancellation. Use the accounting-software category to plan the bookkeeping handoff, and have the responsible payroll professional reconcile the old and new totals before cutover.

Final Choice: Evaluate One Pay Period Without Triggering Real Payments

Start with a vendor-supported demo or synthetic records. Test a missed punch, a shift swap, two hourly rates, approved PTO and a worker shared between locations. Inspect the payroll preview and permissions, not just the scheduling screen. If real records are necessary for onboarding, use the employer's authorized process and confirm which actions send invitations, initiate payments or start tax filings. Do not submit two live payrolls merely to compare vendors, and do not assume a test account is consequence-free.

Choose Homebase provisionally when its location plan, paid-person payroll model and documented shift workflows fit the operation. Choose Gusto provisionally when the needed payroll, benefits and native time package fit better, accounting for active employees and state requirements. Keep both only if the integration's exclusions and reconciliation work are acceptable. The resources hub can structure the decision, but the final evidence is a correctly scoped workflow and a confirmed renewal quote—not a universal cheapest winner or a guarantee that payroll software removes the employer's obligations.