Gusto vs Homebase Payroll: Which Fits an Hourly Workforce Business

By SoftwareSift Team.

Gusto's Simple plan starts at $49 a month plus $6 a month per person for single-state payroll. Homebase starts free on its Basic platform tier (up to 10 employees, one location) and adds payroll as a flat $39-a-month-plus-$6-per-employee line. These are not two prices for the same shopping cart. Gusto is built and ranked as a payroll platform, while Homebase is a scheduling platform that happens to sell payroll on the side. For a business with hourly or shift-based staff, the real question is not which one costs less. It is whether that business needs Homebase's scheduling-plus-payroll combination, or whether Gusto's payroll-plus-time-tracking setup covers the same ground on its own.

Quick Comparison

Prices verified against Gusto's and Homebase's own pricing pages as of Q3 2026. This is a use-case comparison, not a price sum: the two products are not priced against the same base unit, so no row above adds a Gusto figure to a Homebase figure.

Gusto: Full Pricing and Feature Breakdown

Gusto runs three plans, each a flat base fee plus a per-person add-on, with no Annual/Monthly billing toggle on the plan itself. Simple is $49 a month plus $6 a month per person, covers single-state payroll, unlimited payrolls per month, tax filings and payments, and basic PTO policies and holiday pay. Plus is $80 a month plus $12 a month per person and adds multi-state payroll, next-day pay, and native time tracking. Premium is $180 a month plus $22 a month per person and adds a dedicated service advisor, access to certified HR experts, performance and compensation management, custom reports, and payroll migration and account setup. Every tier files payroll taxes automatically, and Gusto's own product page states more than 500,000 businesses use the platform. The gap that matters for an hourly-shift buyer: time tracking is not part of the Simple tier. It exists as an add-on called Time & Attendance Plus, priced at $6 a month per person after a free trial and listed as available with the Simple plan.

Homebase: Full Pricing and Feature Breakdown

Homebase runs four platform tiers: Basic ($0/location/month), Essentials ($24/location/month billed annually or $30/location/month billed month-to-month), Plus ($56 annually or $70 month-to-month), and All-in-One ($96 annually or $120 month-to-month, per location), each priced around scheduling, time tracking, and labor-cost features rather than payroll. Payroll itself is a separate add-on at every tier: $39 a month plus $6 a month per employee paid, unchanged by which platform tier or billing state is selected. What that add-on includes is a genuinely full-service payroll product: automated tax calculation, filing, and payment; direct deposit; W-2 and 1099 generation; wage garnishments; employee self-service; and unlimited payroll runs, per Homebase's own payroll page. Homebase's own customer survey (385 product users, October 2024, margin of error plus or minus 5 percent at 95 percent confidence) reports an average savings of 5 hours a month and $3,500 a year from using Homebase Payroll. That is a vendor-reported figure worth weighing alongside the certified price, not a substitute for it.

Head-to-Head: The Real Fork, Not the Price

The fork is scheduling-plus-payroll versus payroll-plus-time-tracking, and it is worth pricing out on a single worked scenario: a single-location restaurant with 12 hourly employees that needs both shift scheduling and payroll run correctly, not just one or the other.

All figures are list prices from each vendor's own certified pricing page, arithmetic on the per-person rates stated there. Homebase's two rows are the same add-on at two different platform-billing states; they are not mixed into one figure.

At this specific headcount and this specific need (scheduling and payroll together, single location), the certified list prices put Homebase's bundle $52 to $58 a month below Gusto Simple plus its time-tracking add-on. That does not make Homebase the cheaper product in general. Gusto's Time & Attendance Plus and Homebase's included scheduling are not proven to be identical in depth, and a business that only needs payroll (no scheduling at all) would drop the add-on entirely and pay Gusto's $121 a month outright, undercutting Homebase's $135-to-$141 total. The number only holds for the specific case where both scheduling and payroll are genuinely required.

When to Choose Gusto

Choose Gusto if payroll is the primary need and shift scheduling is not: a professional-services firm, a small office with salaried staff, or any business whose employees do not work rotating hourly shifts. Gusto's Simple plan at $49 a month plus $6 a month per person is a direct payroll purchase with automatic tax filing and no scheduling overhead to pay for or ignore. Choose Plus ($80/mo + $12/mo per person) instead of adding Time & Attendance Plus to Simple if the business operates in more than one state, since multi-state payroll is not included on Simple at any add-on price.

When to Choose Homebase

Choose Homebase if shift scheduling, time clocks, and labor-cost tracking are the primary need and payroll is secondary: restaurants, retail stores, salons, and other hourly-workforce businesses that would otherwise be buying a separate scheduling tool anyway. Because the payroll add-on's price is fixed at $39 a month plus $6 a month per employee regardless of platform tier or billing state, the tier decision should be made purely on which scheduling features (advanced scheduling, PTO controls, labor cost management) the business actually needs.

Which Should You Choose?

If a business is shopping for payroll and nothing else, Gusto is the more direct purchase: it is built around that job. If a business already needs shift scheduling, time clocks, and labor-cost visibility, and payroll can ride along on the same login for $39 a month plus $6 a month per employee, Homebase's bundle is worth pricing against a standalone payroll purchase before deciding, using the certified figures above rather than either vendor's marketing framing.

See the full product reviews: Gusto payroll pricing on SoftwareSift | Homebase payroll pricing review on SoftwareSift. For the complete ranked field, see the best payroll software guide, or compare all eight platforms at a fixed headcount in real cost of payroll at 10 employees, all 8 compared. To confirm Homebase's current numbers, visit Homebase's official pricing page directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Gusto or Homebase cheaper for payroll?

They are not priced on the same basis, so there is no single cheaper answer. Gusto's Simple plan ($49/mo + $6/mo per person) bundles payroll into the plan price. Homebase's payroll is a separate add-on ($39/mo + $6/mo per employee) on top of a scheduling platform fee. Compare them for your actual need (payroll only, or payroll plus scheduling), not as a flat price-per-person.

Does Gusto include shift scheduling like Homebase does?

Not on the Simple plan. Time tracking is an add-on on Simple (Time & Attendance Plus, $6/mo per person after a free trial) and becomes a native, included feature starting on the Plus plan ($80/mo + $12/mo per person). Homebase includes basic scheduling and time tracking starting at its free Basic tier.

Does Homebase's payroll price change if you need multi-state payroll?

Homebase's own pricing and payroll pages do not specify a multi-state limitation or an extra multi-state fee for payroll, so this comparison does not certify a multi-state answer either way. Gusto's multi-state payroll is explicitly included starting on the Plus plan.

Which one should a restaurant or retail shop with hourly staff choose?

Generally Homebase, because the scheduling and labor-cost tools that justify its platform fee are exactly what that business already needs, and payroll rides along at a fixed $39/mo + $6/mo per employee. A business in that segment considering Gusto should price in the Time & Attendance Plus add-on, not just the base Simple plan, to get an accurate comparison.

Deciding between tools in this category? See our data-ranked comparison: Best Payroll Software for Small Business (2026).