Is Homebase really free?
Short answerYes, Homebase lists a Basic plan at no charge, limited to one location and up to ten employees [1]. The page says a 14 day trial of the All-in-One plan needs no credit card and falls back to Basic if you pick nothing [1]. Payroll and other extras cost extra.
The explanation
The limits are on the pricing page itself. Basic covers basic scheduling and time tracking, and caps the team at ten [1]. A business with more employees, or more than one location, is asked to move to a paid plan [1].
Add-ons are separate. Payroll is listed as an add-on with a base monthly fee plus a fee per employee paid, after an introductory period [1]. If payroll is the reason you want the tool, the real monthly cost is more than the plan alone suggests.
The lesson applies to any free plan: ask what happens when you grow, what is excluded, and what you pay for the pieces you will actually use. And ask whether the tool does the job you have, since this one is described around team schedules, not customer visits.
What to watch for
- Planning to grow past ten employees on the free plan [1].
- Leaving the trial without choosing a plan and being surprised by the fallback.
How Apex does it
In progress
Part of this is built. The rest is not. Status as of 2026-10-07; the badge shows the least-built feature involved.
Apex has no free plan. It is priced by number of users, with a 14 day trial that needs no card, and its design includes customer import from CSV and month-to-month cancelling, both in progress.
- AD09Month-to-month, cancel in-app(In progress)
- LD15Customer import from CSV/other software(In progress)
- OB01Guided setup wizard (under 10 minutes)(Built, rolling out)
Apex Flow Scheduler is in early access. See how we label status.
Sources
- Homebase pricing page (read 2026-10-07)
Where this question comes from: owners type it, or a close variant, into search boxes. It was returned by public search suggestions (Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo) when we collected them on 2026-10-06. We do not have search volumes.