Time Clock by Homebase vs Square
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Time Clock by Homebase
This app simplifies employee time and attendance tracking, reducing payroll errors and ensuring labor law compliance. It offers features like early clock-in prevention, overtime alerts, and photo verification to prevent time theft. Seamless integration with payroll and POS systems streamlines operations.
- Employee time and attendance tracking
- Payroll export
- Labor law compliance
- Overtime prevention
- Photo verification
- Offline mode
- POS and payroll integration
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The Homebase time clock makes it easy to track your employees’ time and attendance -- for free. The Homebase time clock helps you: Reduce payroll headaches. Accurately track your employees’ hours, and easily edit time cards when necessary. Then easily export to run payroll. Stay compliant with labor laws. Integrated timesheets make it easy to see who took a break and when. And employee time cards, including edit history, are stored securely in the cloud to ensure FLSA compliance. Save on labor costs. Set up early clock-in prevention and get notified when employees are about to hit overtime. Eliminate buddy punching and time theft. Automatically snap a photo so you can be sure the right person is clocking in and out. The Homebase time clock app for iPad works seamlessly with all of our time clock apps using a secure PIN. So your employees can clock in on your iPad and clock out from their smartphone, computer, or your point of sale terminal. And there’s a built-in offline mode, so you’ll never miss a clock out—even with unreliable wi-fi. The Homebase time clock integrates with popular payroll providers to make running payroll a breeze. Employee time cards are automatically formatted for easy import. - Gusto - Intuit Quickbooks Online Payroll - Square Payroll - Heartland - ADP - And more The Homebase time clock also integrates with leading point-of-sale systems, so your employees can clock in and out for shifts right from your POS. - Clover - Square - Toast - Revel - Lightspeed - Upserve - And more
Square
This app is a comprehensive point-of-sale system designed for restaurants. It helps manage orders, payments, online ordering, menus, and table layouts. Gain insights with real-time sales reports and improve staff efficiency for dine-in, takeout, and online orders.
- Order and payment processing
- Online ordering site creation
- Menu management
- Table and floor management
- Real-time sales reports
- Offline payment acceptance
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The Square for Restaurants Point of Sale app helps you manage front- and back-of-house operations for your full-service restaurant, quick-service restaurant, fast-casual restaurant, bar, or brewery. Get the powerful point-of-sale system designed to serve guests who are dining in, getting takeout, or ordering online. Handle orders, set up menus, manage table layouts, accept payments, enable coursing, get insights from real-time sales reports, and more. ORDERS & PAYMENTS * Turn tables faster and keep lines moving. Increase staff efficiency with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface. * Empower servers to get every order right with the ability to enter orders the way people talk. * Take orders even when you’re short-staffed with QR codes. ONLINE ORDERING * Create a free, customizable online ordering site. * Manage all orders from your POS, including in-person, online, and third-party delivery orders. * Reach more diners with Google, Instagram, and Facebook selling integrations. MENU MANAGEMENT * Create and customize your menus from the office, remotely, or directly from your POS. * Keep service running smoothly with your staff always in the know of what’s selling and what’s about to sell out. FLEXIBLE PAYMENTS * Accept all major credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay so you never have to turn a diner away. * Set up automatic tipping, move or assign checks to your staff, reopen closed checks, and manage voids with just a few taps. * Never miss a sale with offline payments. Learn more at https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/offline-payments-guide. * Square handles all PCI compliance fees or chargebacks on your behalf. * Get deposits in your bank account as fast as the next business day or access your sales instantly with a Square Checking account. Learn more at squareup.com/us/en/banking. FLOOR MANAGEMENT * Customize your floor plan with intuitive click-and-drag layouts. * Tip out staff, close out the cash drawer, manage comps and voids, and run close-of-day reports all from the POS. * Keep tables turning by monitoring their real-time status. * Stay on pace with coursing — letting the kitchen know when to hold or start firing dishes. SUPPORT * Customer support available to guide you through any questions. Learn more about Square for Restaurants and set yourself up from Square Dashboard before activating this app on an iOS device: https://squareup.com/us/en/point-of-sale/restaurants
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Square at 4.3 against Time Clock by Homebase's 2.3. Square also leads on ratings volume (4.2K vs 37) and update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly). Time Clock by Homebase's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.1). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Square holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Square has 4.2K ratings behind it against 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 38% of Time Clock by Homebase's written reviews are positive against 34% of Square's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Time Clock by Homebase ships an update monthly, Square every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Time Clock by Homebase | Square |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.3 (37 ratings) | 4.3 (4.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.5% of reviews — better | 34.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 37 | 4.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 792 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Pioneer Works, Inc. | Block, Inc. |
Customer experience
Time Clock by Homebase
Square
Bugs and requests
Time Clock by Homebase
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Square
Reported bugs
5 issues- Orders not processing correctly
- Transactions not completing
- Inventory updates not syncing
- Shift reports not printing properly
- Card reader disconnection issues
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to split items across checks
- Hold/save orders functionality
- Improved inventory management
- Better reporting and analytics
- Mobile app for managing the restaurant
In-app purchases
Time Clock by Homebase
No in-app purchases
Square
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Time Clock by Homebase free?
Is Square free?
Which has better reviews, Time Clock by Homebase or Square?
Do Time Clock by Homebase or Square have ads?
Which is updated more often, Time Clock by Homebase or Square?
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