7shifts vs Homebase: Which Scheduling App Actually Fits Your Restaurant?
August 24, 2026 · 11 min read
These are the two schedulers independents actually shortlist, and the homebase-vs-7shifts question comes down to one trade: 7shifts is restaurant-only software with tips and labor forecasting in its bones; Homebase is a general small-business platform with a better free tier and a lower price. Both charge per location, not per employee. We verified every price on this page against the vendors' published 2026 rates on August 24, 2026, then ran the numbers for a real 25-person restaurant. Here is the honest answer, including when the best restaurant scheduling app for you is the free one.
The Verdict
7shifts for restaurants running on tips and tight labor targets. Homebase if you want the best free tier in scheduling.
Built only for restaurants. Sales-based labor forecasting, tip pooling, BOH/FOH scheduling, and 50+ restaurant POS integrations. Mid tier runs $76.99/location/mo.
General small-business scheduler with restaurant chops. Stronger free tier, cheaper mid tier at $70/location/mo ($56 billed annually), and better built-in hiring.
Both charge per location, not per employee, so neither punishes you for staffing up. The real decision is restaurant-specific depth versus price. Pricing below was checked against both vendors' published rates on August 24, 2026.
Quick Glance: Feature by Feature
Twelve things restaurant operators actually shop on. The edge column is our call for a typical independent restaurant.
| Feature | 7shifts | Homebase | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per location, flat. Unlimited staff on The Works and up | Per location, flat. Unlimited staff on all paid plans | Tie |
| Free tier | 1 location, up to 30 employees | 1 location, up to 10 employees | 7shifts |
| Scheduling | Restaurant templates, BOH/FOH role splits, station scheduling | Solid drag-and-drop; AI schedule builder on Plus and up | 7shifts |
| Time clock & geofence | Mobile + tablet punch, GPS-fenced clock-ins | GPS clock-ins from Essentials, POS-terminal time clock | Tie |
| Labor forecasting vs sales | Projected sales from POS data, weather-aware, labor % targets | Sales forecasts and labor targets on higher tiers | 7shifts |
| Tip pooling / payouts | Tip pooling add-on (~$24.99/loc/mo) plus instant tip payouts | Tip Manager add-on, $25/loc/mo | 7shifts |
| Payroll | $39.99/mo + $6 per employee paid | $39/mo + $6 per employee paid | Tie |
| Hiring & onboarding | Job postings and onboarding docs on paid tiers | Free job posts, applicant tracking, paid boosts from $79 | Homebase |
| Compliance alerts | Break, overtime, and Fair Workweek tools (top tier) | Break/overtime alerts; HR Pro advisors on All-in-One | Tie |
| POS integrations | 50+ restaurant POS: Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, TouchBistro | 7 POS partners: Square, Clover, Toast, Shopify, Lightspeed, PAR, GoDaddy | 7shifts |
| Team messaging | Included free, shift-based chat | Included free, all plans | Tie |
| Mobile app | iOS + Android, staff and manager apps | iOS + Android, highly rated | Tie |
Feature availability per vendor plan pages and integration directories, checked August 24, 2026. Add-on prices per POSUSA's Q1 2026 verification (7shifts) and Homebase's published add-on rates.
2026 Pricing, Side by Side
Both vendors price per location per month with unlimited employees on their upper tiers, which matters in an industry where a single location can carry 40 names on the roster across a year. Homebase rates come straight from its published pricing page, checked August 24, 2026. 7shifts blocks automated checks of its pricing page, so its figures are cross-verified against its own archived pricing page (April 2026), POSUSA's Q1 2026 review, and Homebase's June 2026 comparison page, which all agree on the numbers below.
| Plan | Per location/mo |
|---|---|
Comp 1 location, up to 30 employees. Scheduling, time clock, availability, team chat. | $0 |
Entrée Up to 30 employees per location. Schedule templates, budgeting basics, reporting. | $34.99 |
The Works Unlimited employees. Labor forecasting vs sales, overtime alerts, manager log book. | $76.99 |
Gourmet Adds labor compliance tools, task management, engagement scores, webhooks. | $150 |
Monthly billing shown. 7shifts discounts annual billing on paid tiers; exact annual rates are quoted in-app. Payroll: $39.99/mo + $6 per employee paid. Add-ons per location/mo: tip pooling $24.99, task management $12.99, manager log book $14.99.
| Plan | Per location/mo |
|---|---|
Basic 1 location, up to 10 employees. Scheduling, time clock, messaging, POS sync. | $0 |
Essentials Unlimited employees. GPS clock-ins, late alerts, advanced scheduling. | $30$24 billed annually |
Plus AI schedule builder, PTO controls, departments and permissions. | $70$56 billed annually |
All-in-One Onboarding, labor cost management, HR & compliance advisors. | $120$96 billed annually |
Payroll add-on: $39/mo + $6 per employee paid. Tip Manager $25/loc/mo, Task Manager $13/loc/mo, background checks $30 each, job post boosts from $79.
Budget note: scheduling software should land around 0.1–0.3% of sales for a typical independent. If a $900/year line item is hard to place, map it against your fixed costs in our restaurant budget template before you commit to an annual plan.
Worked Example: 25 Employees, One Location
A typical full-service independent: 25 people on the roster (12 servers and bartenders, 8 kitchen, 3 support, 2 managers), one location, on each vendor's mid tier with the in-house payroll add-on. Monthly billing, list prices as of August 24, 2026.
- The Works (per location)$76.99
- Payroll base$39.99
- Payroll, 25 employees × $6$150.00
Monthly total$266.98
Per year$3,204
- Plus (per location)$70.00
- Payroll base$39.00
- Payroll, 25 employees × $6$150.00
Monthly total$259.00
Per year$3,108
Read on the numbers: with payroll included the gap is $96 a year, noise on a restaurant P&L. Skip payroll and compare scheduling alone: The Works costs $923.88/year against Plus at $840 monthly-billed, or $672 on Homebase's annual rate ($56/mo). That $252/year spread buys 7shifts' sales-based labor forecasting, which routinely saves more than that in one over-scheduled Saturday. Build the schedule either tool will manage in our free employee schedule template first, so you know your real shift pattern before you pay anyone.
Annual Cost Estimator
Mid tiers only (The Works vs Plus), list prices checked August 24, 2026. Payroll adds each vendor's base fee plus $6 per employee paid per month.
7shifts · The Works
$3,204/yr
Monthly billing; annual-billing discounts quoted in-app.
Homebase · Plus
$3,108/yr
$2,940/yr if you commit to annual billing ($56/loc/mo).
At 25 employees and one location, the free 7shifts Comp plan covers you (limit: 30). Difference on monthly billing: $96 per year in Homebase's favor.
Restaurant-First vs SMB-Generic: Why It Matters
This is the deepest difference between the two, and it explains almost every gap in the feature table. 7shifts builds for one customer: food service. Homebase builds for every hourly small business, from salons to retail to coffee shops, and restaurants are one segment among many.
Where 7shifts shows its kitchen DNA
- Forecast-driven scheduling. It pulls projected sales from your POS and flags when scheduled labor blows past your target labor percentage, before you publish the schedule.
- BOH/FOH structure. Departments, stations, and role-based scheduling mirror how a kitchen and floor actually run.
- Tips as a first-class feature. Pool configurations, points systems, and instant tip payouts. When tips are half your staff's income (see our bartender salary breakdown), tooling here is not optional.
- POS depth. 50+ restaurant POS integrations, including Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and TouchBistro, per its integration directory.
Where Homebase's breadth wins
- The free tier is genuinely usable. Scheduling, time clock, messaging, and POS sync at $0 for a 10-person café is the best free deal in scheduling.
- Hiring is built in. Free postings to major job boards plus applicant tracking. Pair it with our server and restaurant manager job descriptions and you can post a role in ten minutes.
- HR backup on the top tier. All-in-One includes access to certified HR advisors, useful when you have no HR department, which is every independent.
- Simpler learning curve for teams that only need schedules, punches, and payroll.
Compliance: break laws and predictive scheduling
Both platforms alert on missed meal breaks and overtime thresholds. The gap is Fair Workweek. Oregon statewide plus cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles require advance schedule notice (typically 14 days) and predictability pay when you change shifts late. 7shifts ships dedicated Fair Workweek tooling on its Gourmet tier; Homebase leans on general alerts plus its HR advisors. If you operate in a covered city, that alone can justify 7shifts' top tier, one predictability-pay claim costs more than a year of software.
Hiring and onboarding, honestly compared
Homebase treats hiring as a core product: post free, track applicants, boost listings from $79 when a role is urgent. 7shifts includes hiring tools but they feel like an add-on to scheduling. Either way the software only surfaces candidates; the screen is on you. Our restaurant interview questions bank covers FOH, BOH, and management rounds so the interview is not improvised.
Choose 7shifts If / Choose Homebase If
Choose 7shifts if…
- Tips move through your building daily: you pool, split by points, or pay out same-day
- You schedule against a sales forecast and manage to a labor percentage target
- You run Toast, TouchBistro, Revel, or another restaurant-specific POS
- You operate under a Fair Workweek law (NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, SF, LA, or Oregon)
- You split schedules by station and department, not just by role
- You have 11-30 employees and want a free plan that actually fits a restaurant roster
Choose Homebase if…
- You have 10 or fewer employees and want everything free
- You hire constantly and want free job posts with applicant tracking built in
- You run Square, Clover, or Shopify and want tight terminal-level time clock sync
- You want the cheapest paid mid tier, especially on annual billing ($56 vs $76.99)
- You want on-call HR advisors without hiring an HR consultant
- You also run a non-restaurant business and want one scheduler for both
Worth a Look: Sling, When I Work, Deputy
If neither finalist fits, three per-user schedulers cover the edge cases. Note the pricing model change: these charge per employee, so they undercut 7shifts and Homebase on small teams and overtake them on big ones. Figures are approximate list prices from 2026 pricing checks; confirm on each vendor's site.
The budget pick. Per-user pricing that stays cheap for small rosters, solid scheduling and messaging. No restaurant-specific forecasting or tip tooling, and per-user math flips against you past roughly 40 employees.
Clean, fast scheduling with a well-liked mobile app and shift-swap flow. Generic by design: fine for a café, thin for a full-service restaurant that manages labor against sales.
The compliance heavyweight. Strong wage-and-hour rule engine and Fair Workweek support across industries. Per-user pricing makes a 30-person restaurant cost more than 7shifts' flat rate, and it is not food-service-native.
Related Tools & Guides
Employee Schedule Template
Free printable weekly schedule to map shifts before you buy software
Restaurant Budget Template
Slot software costs into a full monthly operating budget
Restaurant Interview Questions
FOH, BOH, and management questions to screen the candidates either app finds
Restaurant Manager Job Description
Post the role that will actually run your scheduling software
Bartender Salary Guide
What tipped staff really earn, and why tip tooling matters