Homebase vs 7shifts vs Turnozo: Pricing & Features

Three tools. Three very different approaches to the same problem.

Turnozo is built for simplicity: scheduling + time tracking, one price, no tiers. Homebase leads with a free plan and bundles hiring and HR alongside scheduling. 7shifts is purpose-built for restaurants with POS integration and labor forecasting.

I built Turnozo, so I'm biased. I'll be straightforward about where the others are better. You can verify everything here by checking each product's pricing page.

I tested all three: built schedules for a 15-person team, clocked employees in and out, tested shift swaps on mobile, exported timesheets. Here's what I found.

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Quick Comparison

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Pricing: What You Actually Pay

Turnozo: €2.47/employee/month

One plan. Everything included: scheduling, time tracking, GPS clock-in, geofencing, timesheets, availability management, shift swaps, open shifts, calendar sync, mobile app.

No tiers. No per-location fees. No add-ons.

Homebase: Free to $99.95/location/month

Homebase charges per location, not per employee. This is great if you have one location with 40 employees. Less great if you have three locations with 5 employees each.

The pricing trap: shift swaps require Plus ($59.95/mo). Most teams need shift swaps. That makes the real starting price for a usable Homebase experience $59.95/month for most businesses.

Notice the per-location model: 10 employees and 50 employees pay the same at one location. That's great for large single-site teams. For multi-location businesses, costs double or triple.

Common complaint on Reddit: Homebase's cancellation process is frustrating. Multiple users report difficulty canceling subscriptions and unexpected charges after cancellation. Worth noting before you commit to a paid plan.

7shifts: Free to $150/location/month

7shifts also charges per location. Their tiers are restaurant-industry focused:

Important context: 7shifts laid off 19% of staff in January 2024. This raised questions about the company's financial trajectory. They're still operating and the product works well, but it's worth knowing if you're making a long-term commitment.

The real pricing comparison

For a 20-person team needing scheduling + time tracking + shift swaps:

For a 20-person team across 2 locations:

Turnozo's per-employee model scales linearly. Location-based pricing doubles with two sites.

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Feature Deep Dive

Scheduling

7shifts has the most powerful scheduling engine. Auto-scheduling based on availability, labor targets, and sales forecasts. If you run a restaurant where Friday dinner needs 12 staff and Tuesday lunch needs 4, 7shifts auto-generates the schedule using POS data. That's genuinely powerful and saves hours per week for busy restaurant managers.

Homebase has solid scheduling with good extras. Auto-scheduling on paid plans, open shifts, and a clean drag-and-drop interface. Where Homebase stands out is the ecosystem: job posting, applicant tracking, onboarding, and payroll all connected to your schedule. New hires flow from the job post into the schedule seamlessly.

Turnozo is the fastest to build a schedule manually. Drag-and-drop with availability overlay and instant conflict detection. I built a full 2-week schedule for 15 people in about 8 minutes. No auto-scheduling, which means you have full control but also full responsibility. For managers who want to decide who works when (not an algorithm), this is a feature.

Time Tracking

Turnozo: One-tap GPS clock-in from mobile. Geofencing available. Automatic timesheets with overtime flagging. All included. Worked reliably on both iOS and Android in testing.

Homebase: Time clock included on all plans (even free), but the free version is basic: no GPS, no overtime alerts, no break tracking. Paid plans add geofencing, overtime controls, and break management. The paid time tracking is solid.

7shifts: GPS clock-in via mobile app or through POS terminal integration (employees clock in through Toast/Square at the register). Tip tracking built in. Break compliance tracking for jurisdictions that require it. The POS clock-in is a restaurant-specific advantage that no other tool matches.

Shift Management

Turnozo: Employee-initiated shift swaps with manager approval. Open shift broadcasting to qualified employees. First to accept gets the shift. Simple and effective.

Homebase: Shift swaps require the Plus plan ($59.95/mo). On the free and Essentials plans, swaps require manual manager intervention (text/call coordination). This is a significant limitation since shift swaps are a daily reality for most teams.

7shifts: Shift trading and drop shifts included from the Entrée plan. Employees can post shifts for trade, and qualified coworkers can pick them up. Works well in restaurant environments where covering shifts is constant.

Beyond Scheduling

Homebase is the broadest platform. Hiring tools (job posts, applicant tracking, offer letters), HR features (document storage, employee onboarding), and payroll processing. If you're currently using separate tools for hiring, scheduling, and payroll, Homebase consolidates them.

7shifts goes deep on restaurant operations. POS integration, tip pooling, labor cost vs. sales reporting, manager logbook for shift-to-shift communication. These aren't scheduling features, but they're indispensable for restaurant managers.

Turnozo stays focused. Scheduling, time tracking, timesheets, availability. That's the product. If you need hiring tools, use a hiring tool. If you need payroll, use a payroll tool. Turnozo does scheduling well and doesn't try to be everything.

Mobile Experience

7shifts has separate manager and employee apps. The employee app is clean and simple. The manager app is feature-dense with labor reports, schedule editing, and approval workflows. Splitting them was a smart design decision.

Homebase puts everything in one app: scheduling, time clock, messaging, hiring. It works but can feel crowded. Employees see job listings alongside their shifts, which doesn't always make sense.

Turnozo is mobile-first. The app is the primary interface. Schedule, clock-in, availability, shift swaps. all in a clean interface. GPS clock-in worked reliably every time in testing.

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Pros and Cons Summary

Turnozo

Pros:

• Cheapest option for multi-location teams
• All features included in one price, no tier math
• Fastest setup (scheduling in 15 minutes)
• Simple and clean interface
• Reliable GPS clock-in with geofencing

Cons:

• No built-in team messaging
• No payroll integrations (yet)
• No auto-scheduling or demand forecasting
• No hiring or HR tools
• Newer product, smaller user community

Homebase

Pros:

• Genuinely useful free plan
• Hiring + scheduling + payroll in one platform
• Strong ecosystem for single-location businesses
• Good onboarding experience
• Large user community

Cons:

• Shift swaps locked behind $59.95/mo plan
• Multi-location pricing stacks quickly
• Free plan deliberately limited to push upgrades
• Cancellation process is frustrating (documented Reddit complaints)
• GPS and advanced time tracking require paid plans

7shifts

Pros:

• Best-in-class restaurant scheduling
• POS integration with labor forecasting
• Tip pooling and compliance tracking
• Auto-scheduling based on sales data
• Separate manager/employee apps

Cons:

• Overbuilt and overpriced for non-restaurant businesses
• Key features locked behind $77-150/mo tiers
• 19% staff layoff in Jan 2024 raises trajectory concerns
• Free plan extremely limited (basic scheduling only)
• Per-location pricing expensive for multi-site operations

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The Bottom Line

If you run a restaurant: 7shifts. Nothing else understands the restaurant workflow as well. The POS integration and labor-vs-sales forecasting genuinely save money.

If you want free-to-start with hiring tools: Homebase. The free plan is real, and the ecosystem (hiring + scheduling + payroll) is the broadest on this list. Just know that shift swaps cost $59.95/month.

If you want simple scheduling + time tracking at a fair price: Turnozo. One price, everything included, set up in 15 minutes. We don't try to replace your chat app, your hiring tool, or your payroll system. We just make scheduling fast and painless.

Try all three. Turnozo has a 30-day trial, Homebase has a free plan, 7shifts has a free plan. Make the decision with real usage, not marketing pages.

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Related Reading

• 7 Best Homebase Alternatives for more options beyond these three
• 7 Best When I Work Alternatives for the broader comparison
• Homebase vs. When I Work: Head-to-Head
• What Does Scheduling Software Cost? for the full pricing landscape
• For the complete picture: Best Employee Scheduling Software Compared