PunchHomebase vs Buddy Punch: Pricing and Features
Homebase vs Buddy Punch: Pricing, Gating, and the Option Most Crews Miss
The short answer: Homebase bills per business location with unlimited employees and puts time off on its Plus tier. Buddy Punch bills per user plus a $19 monthly base fee and puts geofencing, offline punching, and kiosk mode on its Pro tier. For ten people who need both time off and geofencing, Homebase runs $70 a month and Buddy Punch runs $88.90 a month on annual billing. Punch is $44.99 a month flat for up to ten people with all of it included. Numbers below come from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
Two Different Ways to Grow Your Bill
Homebase charges per location. Its pricing FAQ defines a location as a physical address where you operate, and counts two addresses as two locations even in the same city. Employees inside a location are unlimited on paid plans.
- Basic: $0 per location per month, one location, up to 10 employees
- Essentials: $30 per location per month
- Plus: $70 per location per month
- All-in-One: $120 per location per month
- Payroll add-on: $49 per month plus $6 per employee paid
Buddy Punch charges per user, plus a flat base fee on every tier. Billed annually:
- Starter: $4.99 per user per month, plus $19 base
- Pro: $6.99 per user per month, plus $19 base
- Advanced: $12.99 per user per month, plus $19 base
Billed monthly those rates are $5.99, $7.99, and $13.99. Administrator accounts are free on Buddy Punch, which is worth knowing when you price it.
So Homebase gets more expensive when you open an address. Buddy Punch gets more expensive when you hire a person. Which one hurts depends on which of those you do more often.
The Gating Is the Real Story
Both vendors put commonly needed features above the entry tier, and they gate different things.
Homebase gates time off. PTO and time-off controls arrive on Plus at $70 per location per month, along with departments and permissions. Essentials at $30 tracks time without tracking time off.
Buddy Punch gates the field features. Starter includes GPS on punches, time off tracking, job tracking, and payroll integrations. Pro is where geofencing, offline mode, QR code scanning, PIN and kiosk punch, webcam on punches, break compliance, and API access appear.
That last grouping matters for anyone running a crew. If your reason for buying a time clock is "I want punches restricted to the job site" or "my guys work where there is no signal," those are Pro features on Buddy Punch, not Starter features.
What Ten People Actually Pay
Ten people, one location, with both time off tracking and geofenced punch in. Pricing the tier that does the job, not the tier in the headline.
| | Plan with time off and geofencing | Monthly cost at 10 people | | --- | --- | --- | | Homebase | Plus, $70 per location | $70.00 | | Buddy Punch | Pro, $19 base plus $6.99 per user, annual | $88.90 | | Punch | Team, flat, everything included | $44.99 |
The Homebase figure is its month-to-month rate; Homebase shows a 20% discount for annual billing. The Buddy Punch figure is its annual rate, the cheaper of its two. Punch is $44.99 either way.
On monthly rather than annual billing, Buddy Punch Pro at ten people is $98.90. At twenty people it is $158.80 on annual billing, because $6.99 of it repeats per head. Homebase holds at $70 for that one location regardless of headcount, and doubles to $140 the day you open a second address.
Punch is $44.99 for up to ten members, with nothing gated and nobody billed per head.
Where Each Model Breaks
Homebase breaks on the second address. The product is shaped around a storefront. Two shops means paying twice. Note that job sites are not locations in Homebase's definition, so a crew working out of one office and driving to thirty sites is fine. Two physical business addresses is where it bites.
Buddy Punch breaks on headcount, and on the feature you came for. The per-user rate means seasonal hiring is a recurring cost decision. And the three capabilities a field crew is most likely to need, geofencing, offline punching, and a shared kiosk, all sit on Pro rather than Starter, so the entry price on the pricing page is rarely the price you end up paying.
Why Teams Choose Punch Over Both
Punch wins on the model, not just the number.
Flat per workspace. Not per location, so a second address is free. Not per user, so a hire is not a line item. Seven plans cover workspaces of up to 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 members, and the price moves only when a workspace outgrows its plan, never with each individual hire.
Nothing gated. Geofenced punch in, offline punching, shared-iPad kiosk mode with PIN, split shifts, PTO and time-off requests, manager approvals with bulk approve and reject, weekly and bi-weekly pay periods, overtime presets for 50+ countries, Reports with exports, QuickBooks Online integration plus QuickBooks and Excel CSV export, and Square integration are on every plan. The three things Buddy Punch reserves for Pro and the one thing Homebase reserves for Plus are all included at the entry tier.
Offline punching that does not fail. A punch in a basement, a rural site, or a parking garage queues on the device and syncs when signal returns. For crews who work past the edge of coverage, this is the difference between a time record and an argument.
A geofence, never a camera. Punch verifies a shift against a job-site boundary and does not do photo-at-punch or facial recognition. Buddy Punch offers webcam on punches and Homebase offers photo time punches; Punch takes the position that a location check proves attendance without pointing a lens at someone's face at 6 a.m. That is a deliberate choice about how crews should be treated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Buddy Punch or Homebase cheaper?
For ten people at one location needing both time off and geofencing, Homebase Plus is $70 a month and Buddy Punch Pro is $88.90 a month on annual billing. Buddy Punch grows faster with headcount because it charges per user. Homebase grows faster with locations because it charges per location.
Does Buddy Punch include geofencing on the cheapest plan?
No. Buddy Punch lists basic geofencing as a Pro feature. Starter includes GPS on punches, which records location with a punch, but not the restriction of punches to an approved boundary.
Does Homebase charge per employee?
No. Homebase charges per business location and allows unlimited employees within a location on paid plans. The free Basic plan covers one location and up to 10 employees.
Which one works without cell service?
Buddy Punch lists offline mode as a Pro feature. Punch includes offline punching on every plan, with the punch queued on the device and synced when signal returns.
What is a good alternative to both?
Punch charges one flat price per workspace with every feature on every plan, which removes both failure modes: no second bill for a second location, and no new charge for each hire. Ten people is $44.99 a month, and the 14-day trial needs no credit card.
Price What You Actually Need
Compare these two at their entry tiers and you will compare two plans that are each missing something you came for. Price the tier that includes it and the math changes.
Punch removes the exercise: one flat price per workspace, every feature on every plan, no per-user fee, no per-location fee. The 14-day free trial starts at signup, no credit card required.
Compare Punch against your current time clock →
Competitor pricing and feature gating in this article were taken from joinhomebase.com/pricing and buddypunch.com/pricing in September 2026. Vendors change pricing; confirm current terms on their sites before you buy.