Homebase alternative
Your team's hours and time off, next to your clients.
A time clock, timesheets, time off, hiring and Team chat in the same app as your CRM, deals and invoices. Every plan has unlimited users, and the week exports for payroll.
Free plan, no card. Add your team and invite them by email.
Homebase and Alori, side by side.
HomebaseAloriFrom a clock-in to payroll.
Watch a teammate clock in, the week get approved, a time off request get answered and the hours go out for payroll.
- 1Clock in from My space
- 2Approve the week
- 3Answer time off, with who else is off
- 4Export the hours for payroll
What changes on Monday.
- 01
BeforeA shift scheduler for a team that doesn't work in shifts
With AloriA clock, an approved week and time off, nothing more to set up
- 02
BeforeAdd-ons for payroll, hiring and tasks
With AloriHiring, onboarding and tasks included, hours exported for payroll
- 03
BeforeThe team in Homebase, the clients in a CRM
With AloriOne app for the team and the clients they work for
The bot meets every applicant first.
Post an opening and it shows on your career page. When someone applies with a phone number, the bot texts them your questions, one at a time, then gives you a fit from 1 to 5.
- Keep the usual questions or write up to 5 of your own.
- Click Hire and their employee file and first-day list start on their own.
- Contracts are signed in the app with a finger.
Team chat, with your bot in it.
It has channels, direct messages, threads and voice rooms you drop into. Write @Sam in any channel and he answers there: who is off, whose week waits for approval, which client is waiting.
- Voice rooms are always open: click one and you're talking.
- Invite a client or a contractor to one channel as a guest.
- Every plan has unlimited users, so everyone can join.
Change it by asking.
Your app isn’t frozen on day one. Write what you need, the way you’d text it. Alori makes the change and shows you before anything goes live.
- Who is off next week?
- Approve everyone's hours for last week
- How much overtime did Theo do this month?
- Post an opening for a part-time support rep
The full guide
Everything above, in detail: how it works, what it replaces and what it does not.
Short answer: Alori is a Homebase alternative for small software companies and agencies whose people clock in, ask for time off and get hired in one app while clients, deals and invoices sit in another. Alori puts the time clock, timesheets, time off, hiring, onboarding and Team chat next to your CRM, with unlimited users on every plan. It does not build shift schedules, so a business run on hourly shifts should stay on Homebase. Switching is adding your team and inviting them by email.
Why teams leave Homebase
Homebase is a solid scheduling and time clock app for hourly teams. Teams that don't run on shifts leave it for these reasons:
- Homebase plans a shift schedule per location. A software company or agency mostly needs a clock, an approved week and time off, next to the client work.
- Paid plans run $30 to $120 a location a month, and payroll, tip management, the task manager and the hiring assistant cost extra.
- Hours and team messages are in Homebase while clients, deals and invoices are in a CRM, so you keep two lists of people and two logins.
What you pay
Homebase, as listed on its pricing page in November 2026 (monthly billing):
| Team of 5, one location | Homebase | Alori |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Basic: 1 location, up to 10 employees | Free plan, no card needed |
| Paid plans | Essentials $30, Plus $70, All-in-One $120 a location a month | Solo from $99 a month, Business from $249, unlimited users |
| Hiring assistant | Add-on, from $99 a month | Included: the bot texts applicants on your credits |
| Payroll | Add-on | Not included: export approved hours to your payroll provider |
| CRM, deals and invoices | Not included | Included |
If all you need is a free schedule and time clock for one location, Homebase costs less. Alori pays off when it replaces the time clock, the HR tool, the team chat and the CRM together. See pricing.
What Alori replaces
- A time clock: people clock in and out from My space, on a computer or a phone. Ask Sam works too: "clock me in".
- Timesheets show each person's week, day by day. Approve a week, fix a day, or add hours someone forgot. An approved week is locked until you reopen it.
- For payroll, Export to CSV gives one line per person per week: regular hours, overtime past 40 hours, hours worked on a statutory holiday and the total. Pay rates are never in the file.
- People ask for time off from their phone. You answer under To answer, see who else is off then, and they hear back in the app and by email. Each file shows what is left, and a team calendar shows time off, birthdays and start dates.
- Post an opening and it shows on your website's career page. When someone applies with a phone number, the bot texts them your questions and gives a fit from 1 to 5. Click Hire and their file starts.
- A first-day list starts by itself: contract, tax forms, app invite, equipment. Upload a contract and click Ask to sign: they sign in the app with their finger.
- Team chat has channels, direct messages, threads and voice rooms, with Sam, your team bot, in the chat. See the Slack alternative.
- The client work around it: customers, deals, tasks and invoices, with project time you can bill in one click.
What Alori doesn't do yet
Shift scheduling: Alori does not build or publish shift schedules, and has no open shifts, shift trades or schedule templates. There is no location-based clock-in or GPS, no clock on a shared tablet or a POS, no tip pooling, no labor forecast from your sales, and no payroll. If you schedule hourly shifts in a restaurant or a store, stay on Homebase. Alori works with your payroll provider (Gusto, ADP, Paychex or another) through the hours file. There is no direct connection.
How to switch
- Start free. Describe your business. Alori builds your app with Employees and Team chat.
- Add your team. Click Add an employee for each person, or paste your Homebase team list into Ask Sam: "Add these employees". Pick Hourly for anyone who keeps a timesheet, then invite each person by email so they get My space.
- Bring time off that's already approved. Tell Ask Sam "add vacation for Maya from December 22 to January 2", and check the days a year for each kind of time off.
- Run your first week. Your team clocks in from My space. On Friday, approve the weeks under Timesheets and click Export to CSV for payroll. Past Homebase timesheets don't come over: export them from Homebase for your records.
Questions
Another question? Ask it when you start.
Yes for software companies and agencies that need a time clock, timesheets, time off and hiring next to their clients and invoices. For a restaurant or store that schedules hourly shifts, Homebase fits better.
Alori has a free plan with no card needed, and unlimited users on every plan. For one location's schedule and time clock alone, Homebase's free Basic plan costs less. Alori costs less when it also replaces your HR tool, team chat and CRM.
Your team: paste the list into Ask Sam or add each person. Upcoming time off can be added by chat. Past timesheets and shift schedules stay in Homebase; export them for your records.
No. Alori has no shift schedule, open shifts or shift trades. Its Schedule shows your team's calendars side by side, one column per person in the Day view, but it is not a shift planner.
No. Approve the week under Timesheets, click Export to CSV and enter the hours with your payroll provider. See the Gusto alternative for how Alori works next to payroll.
Small software companies and agencies, usually under 50 people. See how Alori handles team management.
Related pages
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