PunchHomebase vs ClockShark: Pricing and Features
Homebase vs ClockShark: Pricing, Features, and the Option Most Crews Miss
The short answer: These two do not bill the same way, so the comparison depends entirely on your shape. Homebase charges per business location with unlimited employees, which punishes a second storefront. ClockShark charges a monthly base fee plus a rate per user on a three-year contract, which punishes every hire. For a ten-person crew wanting time off tracking, Homebase runs $70 a month and ClockShark runs $170 a month. Punch is $44.99 a month flat for up to ten people with every feature included and no contract. Here are the real numbers, pulled from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
The Two Billing Models, Side by Side
Most of the confusion between these two comes from comparing a per-location price to a per-user price as if they were the same unit. They are not.
Homebase prices per location. Its own pricing FAQ defines a location as a physical address where you operate, and says multiple addresses are multiple locations even in the same city. Employees within a location are unlimited.
- Basic: $0 per location per month, limited to one location and 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
ClockShark prices per user, on top of a base fee.
- Standard: $40 per month base, plus $9 per user per month
- Pro: $60 per month base, plus $11 per user per month
ClockShark's pricing page also carries a line worth reading twice before you sign anything: "Contract term of three (3) years applies to all pricing plans." That is not a monthly subscription. That is a multi-year commitment on software you have used for fourteen days.
What Each One Puts Behind a Higher Tier
The sticker price is only half the question. The other half is whether the feature you actually need is on the plan you are pricing.
Homebase puts time off on Plus. PTO and time-off controls, plus departments and permissions, arrive at $70 per location per month. On Essentials at $30, you are tracking time without time off.
ClockShark puts time off on Pro. Paid time off, multi-department controls, advanced job costing, and shift wrap-up forms are all Pro features. On Standard at $40 plus $9 per user, PTO is not included.
So the honest version of "which is cheaper" has to name the tier that actually does the job. Comparing Homebase Essentials to ClockShark Standard compares two plans that both leave time off out.
What a Ten-Person Crew Actually Pays
Ten people, one location, time off tracking included. This is the comparison that matters, because it prices the tier that does the work rather than the tier in the headline.
| | Plan that includes time off | Monthly cost at 10 people | | --- | --- | --- | | Homebase | Plus, $70 per location | $70.00 | | ClockShark | Pro, $60 base plus $11 per user | $170.00 | | Punch | Team, flat, everything included | $44.99 |
Homebase and ClockShark figures above are the month-to-month rates each vendor lists; Homebase shows a 20% discount for annual billing. Punch is $44.99 either way.
ClockShark is the most expensive of the three at this size, and the gap widens with every person you add, because $11 of it is per head. Homebase holds at $70 no matter how many employees work that location, which is why it reads well for a single busy storefront. Open a second address and it becomes $140.
Punch is $44.99 for the Team plan, which covers up to ten members on the workspace. Nobody arrives as a per-user line item, and no feature is held back for a higher tier.
Where Each Model Breaks
Homebase breaks on the second location. The model is built around a storefront. If you run two shops, two branches, or two yards, you are paying for the software twice. A field crew that works out of one office but drives to thirty job sites a week is fine here, because job sites are not locations in Homebase's definition. A business with two physical addresses is not.
ClockShark breaks on headcount, and on the exit. At $11 per user on Pro, a crew that doubles from ten to twenty adds $110 a month. Seasonal hiring is a recurring cost decision instead of a staffing decision. And the three-year term means that if the software turns out not to fit, the contract does not care.
Both of them ask you to pay to fix the gating. In each case the feature that made you start looking, whether that is time off or job costing, sits one tier above where the pricing page puts your eye.
Why Teams Choose Punch Over Both
Punch wins on price, on the pricing model itself, and on what you get for it.
One flat price per workspace. Not per location, so a second address costs nothing extra. Not per user, so a seasonal hand is not a line item. Seven plans cover workspaces of up to 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 members, and the price changes only when a workspace outgrows its plan, never with each individual hire.
Every feature on every plan. There is no tier where time off appears, no tier where geofencing unlocks, no tier where the export you need finally shows up. Geofenced punch in, punch in and out with lunch, offline punching, split shifts, PTO and time-off requests, manager approvals with bulk approve and reject, shared-iPad kiosk mode with PIN, Reports with exports, QuickBooks Online integration plus QuickBooks and Excel CSV export, Square integration, and overtime presets for 50+ countries are all included at every level.
No multi-year contract. A 14-day free trial starts at signup with no credit card, and the plan is month to month after that. You are never three years into software you stopped liking in month two.
A geofence, never a camera. Punch verifies a shift against a job-site boundary. It does not do photo-at-punch or facial recognition, because a location check proves someone was on site without putting a lens in a crew member's face every morning. That is a deliberate product decision, not a missing feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Homebase or ClockShark cheaper?
It depends on your shape. For a ten-person crew at one location with time off included, Homebase Plus is $70 a month and ClockShark Pro is $170 a month. ClockShark costs more at that size and grows faster, because $11 of its price is charged per user. Homebase costs more once you run a second physical location, since it bills per location.
Does ClockShark require a contract?
ClockShark's pricing page states that a contract term of three years applies to all pricing plans. Confirm the current terms with ClockShark before signing, and read the commitment language carefully against your expected headcount over that period.
Does Homebase charge per employee?
No. Homebase charges per business location and allows unlimited employees within a location on its paid plans. Its free Basic plan is limited to one location and up to 10 employees.
Which one includes time off tracking?
Both put it behind an upgrade. Homebase includes PTO and time-off controls on Plus at $70 per location per month. ClockShark includes paid time off on Pro at $60 base plus $11 per user. Punch includes time-off requests on every plan.
What is a good alternative to both?
Punch is a flat price per workspace with every feature on every plan and no contract, which removes both failure modes at once: you are not billed again for a second location, and you are not billed again for every hire. A ten-person team is $44.99 a month.
Price the Tier That Does the Job
The mistake in most comparisons of these two is pricing the cheapest plan instead of the plan that includes the thing you needed. Do that honestly and the numbers move a lot.
Punch skips the exercise. One flat price per workspace, every feature on every plan, no per-user fee, no per-location fee, and no multi-year contract. 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 clockshark.com/pricing in September 2026. Vendors change pricing; confirm current terms on their sites before you buy.