Homebase is one of the better-known subscription tools in its space — and at $24/location/mo (Essentials, annual; $30/mo monthly, unlimited employees), one of the recurring line items people most often look to replace. If you're searching for a Homebase alternative you pay for once and own forever, Shiftly is the OneTimeSuite answer: $29, one time.
Why people go looking for an alternative
Homebase runs $24/location/mo (Essentials, annual; $30/mo monthly, unlimited employees), and like most SaaS the bill never stops — cancel and you typically lose access to your own history. That's roughly $864 over three years. Shiftly flips that model: Self-hosted drag-drop scheduling, swaps, open shifts and live labor cost — no per-employee fees.
What Shiftly covers
- Drag-drop weekly schedule — Drag shifts between employees and days; shift templates like Morning or Close fill a week in two clicks.
- Availability and time off — Weekly windows and approved time off, with unavailable, time-off and double-booked conflicts flagged red on the grid.
- Shift swaps — Employee-to-employee swap requests with manager approval; approving reassigns the shift instantly.
- Open-shift pickup board — Post unfilled shifts and assign a claimer in one click.
- Labor cost estimate — Hourly rate times scheduled hours per employee and week, with an over-budget warning, all in integer cents.
The honest trade-off
Homebase will keep shipping features, integrations and managed infrastructure that a pay-once tool won't chase — if that ecosystem is genuinely load-bearing for your workflow, staying is a fair call. For the core job, the math favors owning the tool: $29 once against $24/location/mo (Essentials, annual; $30/mo monthly, unlimited employees) forever. One month of scheduling one small team more than pays for Shiftly, and it never bills per head again.
Also worth reading
Shiftly's main head-to-head is with When I Work — see the detailed comparison or the product page for the full feature list, FAQ and demo video.
Try Shiftly — $29, once
Self-hosted drag-drop scheduling, swaps, open shifts and live labor cost — no per-employee fees.