Comparison

When I Work Staff Scheduling vs Homebase

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

When I Work Staff Scheduling

This app streamlines employee scheduling and time tracking for businesses. It enhances team communication, accountability, and helps manage labor costs effectively. Features include shift swapping, time clock, and payroll integration.

Highlights
  • Employee scheduling
  • Time tracking
  • Team communication
  • Shift swapping
  • Time off requests
  • Labor forecasting
  • Payroll integration
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Join more than 200,000 workplaces running on When I Work to reduce chaos, costs, and turnover with employee scheduling and time tracking for the modern workforce. When I Work is an employee scheduling app that does more than just save you time on scheduling. It also helps you improve communication, eliminate excuses, boost accountability among your staff, track time and attendance, and grow your business. “2026 Shortlist” - Capterra “2025 Category Leader” - Getapp "Fastest Implementation" - G2 Crowd MANAGERS LOVE IT: • Easy to use time clock to clock in and out • Message with staff 1:1 or in groups • Monitor and approve shift trades and time off requests • View the entire staff schedule anywhere at anytime • Create a work calendar to efficiently plan schedules • Quickly alert staff of changes and updates to the schedule • Messaging and scheduling permissions for easier management • Geofencing features to prevent buddy punching EMPLOYEES LOVE IT: • Clock in and out of shifts from the app • Instantly trade shifts with coworkers • View work schedules from anywhere at anytime • Pick up extra hours with open shifts • Check the work calendar to easily request time off • Privately message coworkers 1:1 or in groups within the app • Easily check who's working which shifts WHEN I WORK FEATURES: When I Work is employee-focused and built exclusively for shift-based workplaces. We monitor our systems 24/7/365 to give you and your employees peace of mind that your data is safe and secure. Choose When I Work to get the best in: • Team management - Onboard new employees, approve time off requests, review shift trades, and fill shifts in seconds. • Team accountability - Shift confirmation, mobile clock in, shift task lists, team task lists, and chat ensure everyone is on the same page. • Team communication - Notify your team of changes instantly and communicate with coworkers 1:1 or in group chats. • Team empowerment - Your team can manage availability, submit time-off requests, and collaborate on shift trades. • One-click scheduling - Build your entire work schedule in one click with Auto Scheduling. • Confident shift coverage - Receive shift confirmations from employees and be notified immediately of swaps and drops. • Share schedules - Publish the schedule and your whole team is instantly notified of their shifts. • Labor forecasting - Easy-to-use labor tools help you manage your labor budget efficiently. • Control overtime costs - Get overtime alerts and labor reporting to make managing labor costs easier. • Schedule enforcement - Limit clock ins to shifts and locations to ensure that everyone is where they need to be at the right time. • Payroll integration - Import your timesheets to quickly and accurately process payroll. • Labor reports - Use labor distribution to manage costs and forecast for the future. Terms of use: https://wheniwork.com/terms Privacy policy: https://wheniwork.com/privacy

About

Homebase

Manage employee schedules, track time and attendance, and streamline payroll for your small business. This app helps owners save time on HR tasks, hiring, and team management, integrating with popular payroll providers.

Highlights
  • Employee scheduling and shift planning
  • Time clock and attendance tracking
  • Payroll management and paycheck processing
  • HR and hiring tools
  • Shift reminders and time-off requests
  • Integration with payroll providers
Features
Read full description

Homebase is the easy-to-use app for small business owners who need to build work schedules, set up a time clock, manage payroll, hire employees, manage HR and more. Join 150,000+ small businesses already using Homebase to run their hourly teams, and save 5+ hours every month! Homebase is more than just an employee scheduling app. With Homebase, you can manage payroll, track employee hours, let your team clock in and out, build schedules with our schedule planner, manage costs, and monitor sales — all in one place. Your team's hours are sent automatically to timesheets, so you can review them for payroll. Homebase payroll makes it easy to pay your team. Our payroll tools save you hours and include built-in compliance monitoring. Build and share employee schedules in minutes. Manage multiple teams, approve time off requests, & enable shift trades. Create schedule planner templates or use our AI scheduling assistant to save even more time. Trusted at scale: 1.3B+ hours tracked, 7M+ paychecks processed, and $5B+ in payroll run through Homebase. Homebase has been recognized for small business time clock, payroll, and employee management: Best Payroll Services 2026, Forbes Best Employee Time Clock Software Reviewed in 2026, People Managing People Best Employee Scheduling Software 2025, B2B Reviews Best Payroll Services for 2025, PC Mag Best workforce scheduling software for small businesses – Zendesk Best overall time clock for small business 2025 – Fit Small Business Best for Overall Experience, Best Employee Scheduling Software – Business.com “Best employee communication tool ever!” - Theresa Fouquette, Owner, Bliss Small Batch Creamery “I’m saving hundreds of hours.” – Primo Stropoli, owner of Tetta’s Market Employee scheduling for small businesses is easier with Homebase. Manage shifts, payroll, HR, hiring, timesheets, team attendance and more from your phone. Download Homebase today! HOMEBASE FEATURES EMPLOYEE PAYCHECK & PAYROLL MANAGEMENT - Payroll management made simple with automated calculations - Generate employee time clock sheets with our payroll app - Handle time clock sheets and paycheck processing right in the app -Payroll app that works with providers like Gusto, Intuit QuickBooks Online Payroll, or Square SMALL BUSINESS SHIFT SCHEDULING APP - Use templates to quickly build & share schedules - Send shift reminders through our schedule planner - Use an employee availability schedule tracker - Manage time-off requests for each employee EMPLOYEES CAN CLOCK IN & OUT WITH ATTENDANCE TRACKING - See employee scheduling, hours, breaks, overtime, clock-in, and clock-out time - Get time clock alerts when employees are approaching overtime - Clock in with top POS systems like Clover, Square, Toast, & more TEAM ATTENDANCE & SCHEDULE PLANNER - Payroll & scheduling that work together to get wages right - Clock in and clock out directly with Homebase small business scheduling tools - See shift notes, expected earnings, & employee scheduling in one place - See time clock data, time-off requests, & shift trades EMPLOYEE & TEAM COMMUNICATION - Create group chats & connect with the team - Message employees & coworkers across your company HOMEBASE PLANS - Basic plan free for up to 10 employees - Essentials $24.49/mo with advanced employee scheduling - Plus $59.99/mo with hiring & PTO tracking - All-in-One $99.95/mo with hiring, onboarding & HR - Payroll, Tip Manager, Task Manager, & more available to add to any plan Subscribe to a paid plan for more features. The Account charges payment upon confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Auto-renewal may be disabled at any time in your settings after purchase. For more info, see the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Get support via phone, email, & chat. Terms of use: https://app.joinhomebase.com/terms Privacy policy: https://app.joinhomebase.com/privacy

Screenshots

When I Work Staff Scheduling4 screens
Homebase4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: When I Work Staff Scheduling at none against Homebase's 4. When I Work Staff Scheduling also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (90% vs 76%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Homebase sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $30.00 per month. When I Work Staff Scheduling asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for When I Work Staff Scheduling against 4.8 for Homebase. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 58K and 97K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of When I Work Staff Scheduling's written reviews are positive against 76% of Homebase's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on November 4, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
When I Work Staff Scheduling versus Homebase: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWhen I Work Staff SchedulingHomebase
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (58K ratings) — better4.8 (97K ratings)
Positive reviews89.8% of reviews — better75.9% of reviews
Number of ratings58K97K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#108#60 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size235 MB188 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWhen I Work, Inc.Pioneer Works, Inc.

Customer experience

When I Work Staff Scheduling

All ratings58,007 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral1.8%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews1,458 reviews
Positive89.8%
Neutral2.9%
Negative7.3%

Homebase

All ratings96,768 ratings
Positive95.6%
Neutral2.3%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews1,513 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.8%
Negative18.4%

User reviews

When I Work Staff Scheduling

From 58K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Convenient for scheduling
  • 💡 Helpful for shift swapping and communication
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 👍 Effective for managing staff

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate some features
  • 🔍 Lack of customization options
  • 🔍 Issues with shift approval and time-off requests
  • 🔍 Problems with the messaging/chat functionality

Homebase

From 97K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Convenient features
  • 💰 Helpful cash out option
  • 📅 Useful scheduling and shift management
  • 💬 Good communication tools

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitches and bugs
  • 🔁 Inconsistent performance
  • 🔒 Location access issues
  • 💬 Notification problems
  • 🗓️ Limited calendar/schedule view options

Bugs and requests

When I Work Staff Scheduling

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes frequently
  • Unreliable notifications and alerts
  • Syncing issues between mobile and web versions
  • Problems with location-based clock-in/out features

Requested features

6 requests
  • Allow employees to view Sunday schedules
  • Improve shift drop/swap process
  • Add a sick day request feature
  • Provide more flexibility in availability settings
  • Enhance the calendar view and scheduling tools
Show 1 more
  • Improve the messaging/chat experience

Homebase

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inconsistent location access
  • Unresolved message notification issues
  • Freezing/crashing on login or clock-in
  • Delayed app updates and sync issues

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved calendar/schedule view options
  • Direct message reply functionality
  • Ability to delete chat threads
  • Automatic read notification clearing
  • Shift-level details in shift trading

In-app purchases

None

When I Work Staff Scheduling

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Homebase

Subscriptions4
  • Homebase Essentials Plan$30.001 Month
  • Homebase Plus Plan$70.001 Month
  • Homebase Essentials Annual$289.001 Year
Show 1 more
  • Homebase Plus Plan Annual$669.991 Year

Questions

Is When I Work Staff Scheduling free?
When I Work Staff Scheduling is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Homebase free?
Homebase is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, When I Work Staff Scheduling or Homebase?
When I Work Staff Scheduling is rated higher. When I Work Staff Scheduling averages 4.8 out of 5 from 58K ratings, while Homebase averages 4.8 from 97K ratings.
Do When I Work Staff Scheduling or Homebase have ads?
Homebase shows ads; When I Work Staff Scheduling does not.
Which is updated more often, When I Work Staff Scheduling or Homebase?
When I Work Staff Scheduling ships an update weekly, and Homebase weekly. Most recently, When I Work Staff Scheduling was updated on November 4, 2026 and Homebase on November 4, 2026.
Which is more popular, When I Work Staff Scheduling or Homebase?
When I Work Staff Scheduling currently peaks at #108 in the App Store charts, and Homebase at #60. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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