COMPARE:
Buddy Punch or Homebase for hourly time tracking
Buddy Punch against Homebase for tracking hours for an hourly team, with the same seven questions asked of each and neither one flattered. Mamba Labs builds Apify actors. We have nothing of our own in this category, so this page is two products and no pitch.
Last updated October 6, 2026
The short answer
Buddy Punch is the time clock with the stronger controls: GPS, geofences, photo punches and overtime rules. Homebase is the all in one for a single location shop or restaurant, free at the start. Pick on how many sites you run and how much you need to trust a punch.
The same questions, both tools
| Buddy Punch | Homebase | |
|---|---|---|
| What it actually does | Records when hourly staff clock in and out, from a phone, a kiosk or a browser, and exports the hours to payroll. | Schedules hourly staff, clocks them in and out, and runs payroll and team messaging from one app. |
| Coverage and hit rate | Time clock, GPS and geofencing, photo punches, scheduling, PTO and overtime rules, and payroll integrations. | Scheduling, time clock, chat, hiring, onboarding and payroll, built around a single location business. |
| What it costs | Per user per month with a base fee, in tiers set by features such as scheduling and GPS. | A free plan for one location, with paid tiers per location for the extra tools. |
| How it fits a workflow | Staff punch from any device, managers approve timesheets, payroll pulls the hours. | Built around the shift: schedule it, swap it in the app, clock it, pay it. |
| Where the data comes from | Your own staff's punches and schedules. | Your own staff, shifts and punches. |
| What it takes to set up | An afternoon. Add staff, set the rules, send the app link. | An afternoon for one location. |
| Where it stops | It tracks time. Hiring, team chat and payroll itself sit in other products. | Its free plan is per location, so a business with many sites pays per site and outgrows it. |
The same seven questions are asked on every compare page here, in this order, so two of these pages can be read against each other.
What each is actually better at
- Buddy Punch wins on what it actually does, where the data comes from. Time tracking and scheduling for hourly teams, with GPS punches, PTO and payroll exports.
- Homebase wins on coverage and hit rate, what it costs, what it takes to set up. Scheduling, time clock, team chat and payroll for hourly teams at shops and restaurants.
- Nobody wins on how it fits a workflow, where it stops. Buddy Punch and Homebase give the same answer on those, and we are not going to invent a difference.
Try them yourself
The honest answer
A business with staff in the field or across many sites should take Buddy Punch, because geofencing and photo punches stop the buddy punching the name refers to. It also exports cleanly to most payroll tools. A single coffee shop or store should start on Homebase's free plan, which covers scheduling and the time clock and adds chat and payroll when you want them. Homebase gets expensive per location as you grow, and Buddy Punch prices per user.
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