HR · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Homebase?

KINDA· weekend project

The scheduling half is ordinary software: a weekly grid of shifts per person, availability and time-off requests, a time clock on a shared tablet, and timesheets with overtime totals and a CSV for payroll. One agent session builds that for one site. The weekend goes on what staff touch: a phone-friendly page every employee can open, one-time sign-in links, shift swaps a manager approves, and clocking rules that must match local overtime and break law. Payroll and tax filing are a different business and stay out. A mistake in time records affects what people are paid.

$30/moprice

$360you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyAdvanced · Real infrastructure or OAuth work.

TimeA weekend; staff sign-in, the kiosk and email take the time

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 and argon2 compile native modules, so build tools must be installed.
A tablet for the time clockAny browser tablet or old phone left at the workplace.
SMTP credentialsA transactional provider's free tier is plenty for a small crew.
A server with HTTPSA $5 VPS with Caddy, or a tunnel, so staff can open it on their phones.

Before you buildHomebase Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees. If that fits your crew, you may not need to pay or build anything.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a shift schedule and time clock for one small business to replace Homebase. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: Fastify with server-rendered pages (Eta) and a little vanilla JS that
works on a phone. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4820 with /manager, /me and /clock.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/shifts.db: employees (name, role, hourly rate, 4-digit PIN
hashed with `argon2`), shifts, availability, time-off and swap requests, punches (in, out,
source) and an edit log. Times are stored in UTC and shown in the TZ from .env with `luxon`.
- Manager page: a week grid of people by day. Click a cell to add or edit a shift, copy last
week, publish the week, and see hours and cost per person and per day. Warn on overlaps,
on shifts in someone's unavailable hours, and above MAX_WEEK_HOURS from .env.
- Staff page /me: sign in with an emailed one-time link; see published shifts, set weekly
availability, request time off, and offer a shift to a colleague. Managers approve in one click.
- Time clock /clock: a kiosk page for a shared tablet where staff pick a name, enter the PIN and
clock in or out, and a list shows who is on the clock. /me can clock in too, with an optional
geolocation check against a radius from .env.
- Timesheets: weekly totals per person with overtime above OVERTIME_HOURS from .env. Managers can
edit a punch only with a reason, and every edit is logged. Export CSV with hours and pay.
- Email: `nodemailer` sends the published schedule, swap decisions and a reminder when someone has
not clocked in 15 minutes after a shift starts.
- Single business, no billing, no telemetry. Out of scope: payroll and tax, break and overtime
law rules, hiring, POS integration, a native app.
- README: running behind Caddy or a tunnel, a warning that time records affect wages so check local
rules before relying on them, and a backup of shifts.db.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Homebase.

Add web push to the shift app in this folder. Requirements:

- Make /me installable (manifest and service worker) and let an employee turn on notifications with the
  Push API; store subscriptions per employee and send with the `web-push` library and VAPID keys from .env.
- Send a push when a schedule is published, a swap is decided and 15 minutes before a shift.
- Remove subscriptions that return 404 or 410, and fall back to email when an employee has none.
- Update the README, and note that iPhone needs the app added to the home screen.

Add a weekly labor report to the shift app in this folder. Requirements:

- A page at /manager/report with scheduled and actual hours and cost per day and per person, plus
  projected overtime for staff who would pass OVERTIME_HOURS.
- Let the manager enter expected sales per day and show labor cost as a percentage of it.
- Export the same table as CSV, and mark days with missing punches.
- Update the README.

Add a rules file to the shift app in this folder. Requirements:

- A rules.json that holds daily and weekly overtime thresholds, the unpaid break length and when a break
  is due, read at startup and validated with `zod`.
- Flag shifts and punches that break a rule on the manager page, without changing any time.
- Do not ship defaults copied from any law: leave the file empty and explain in the README that the
  owner must read the local rules and enter them.

What you lose

Native mobile apps with push alerts for shifts and reminders
Payroll with tax filing, and the POS and payroll-provider connections
Overtime and break rules kept up to date for your state, and alerts when labor law changes
Hiring tools: job posts, background checks and onboarding paperwork
AI scheduling assistance, labor-cost targets from sales, HR advisors and handbook review

Why people still pay

A small owner gets schedules, a time clock, timesheets, team messaging and a payroll hand-off on every employee's phone without running any of it. The free plan covers up to 10 people at one location, so the paying owners are those with bigger crews, more sites, or who want labor alerts and HR help.

Moatcollaboration compliance & regulation integrations

Do the math

Homebase or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Homebase, 1 yr$360

Your own copy, 1 yr$46running + build session

You keep$314pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · A $5 VPS runs it; SMTP at this volume fits free tiers. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Homebase

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Homebase

1Timesheets: open the Timesheets tab, set the date range of the pay period and click Download in the upper right. Homebase's payroll integration pages describe provider-specific formats; we did not confirm a plain CSV option.
2Basic keeps timesheets for up to 90 days and paid plans for 4 years or more, so download older pay periods before you downgrade.
3We found no documented export for schedules, employee records or documents: contact support before you close the account.
4Homebase asks you to contact support first if you need help downloading data before an account is closed.

2 · Cancel Homebase

1To drop to the free plan, sign in on the desktop site, open the profile menu, choose Manage Plan and start the Basic plan; if you pay through a POS or payroll partner you are sent to their site.
2To close the company, open Billing from the profile menu and select Delete Company; contact support first if you have several locations.
3Payroll is cancelled separately: Settings, Plan & Billing, Manage next to Payroll billing, then Cancel Subscription. Homebase asks for details to wrap up outstanding tax filings and bills the last payroll on the first business day of the next month.
4Plan changes take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.

Basic only fits one location and up to 10 employees: a bigger business cannot stay on Basic.
Support articles disagree on refunds (a full refund within 30 days of purchase, or case by case with none for annual plans): ask in writing before paying for a year.
Leaving payroll means you take over the tax filings Homebase was handling: line up the replacement first.
Tell staff before you switch: shift swaps, time-off requests and the time clock all live in the app.
Several support articles need a login, so these steps come from search excerpts of the help center: check them on your account screen.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Homebase's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

Frappe HROpen sourceGPL-3.0 HR and payroll suite with leave, attendance reports and geolocation check-in and check-out; a full ERP-style install.★ 8.9k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, iOS, AndroidVisit ↗HorillaOpen sourceLGPL-2.1 HR software with attendance and time tracking and biometric integration; v1 is deprioritized and v2 is the active branch.★ 1.5k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗KimaiOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 time-tracking app with timesheets and reports; for tracking hours, with no shift scheduling.★ 5.1k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

The numbers

Homebase pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Basic	$0	$0	1 location, up to 10 employees, basic scheduling and time tracking, POS integration, timesheets stored for 90 days.
Essentials	$30	$24	Unlimited employees, shift trades and open shifts, availability and time-off requests, overtime and break settings, location-based clock-in, team messaging, attendance reports, timesheets kept 4+ years.
Plus	$70	$56	Everything in Essentials plus an AI scheduling assistant, PTO policies and time-off controls, departments and manager permissions.
All-in-One	$120	$96	Everything in Plus plus employee onboarding, labor cost management, HR advisors, handbook review and labor-law change alerts.

Free tier: 1 location, up to 10 employees, timesheets kept 90 days; no overtime and break settings, shift trading or advanced reports.
Billing: Per location per month, monthly or annual (annual is 20% cheaper). The 14-day All-in-One trial needs no card, and an account that picks no plan afterwards moves to Basic. Plan changes start at the next billing cycle. Support articles disagree on refunds: one says full refund within 30 days, another says case by case.
Hidden costs: Every physical address counts as a location, so a second site doubles the bill. Payroll is an add-on: $49 a month plus $6 per paid employee, or $29 for teams up to 5, after a 6-month promotion. Tip Manager is $25 a location, Task Manager $13 a location, background checks $30 each and the Hiring Assistant starts at $99 a month.
Source: www.joinhomebase.com

Also on the list

Gusto$55/mo · HRNOT REALLY

Toggl Track$12/mo · Time trackingKINDA

Connecteam$35/mo · HRKINDA

Questions

Homebase, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees, with basic scheduling, basic time tracking and a POS integration.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Native mobile apps with push alerts for shifts and reminders, Payroll with tax filing, and the POS and payroll-provider connections.

About $30 a month on the Essentials (per location) plan, $360 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

Native mobile apps with push alerts for shifts and reminders; Payroll with tax filing, and the POS and payroll-provider connections; Overtime and break rules kept up to date for your state, and alerts when labor law changes; Hiring tools: job posts, background checks and onboarding paperwork; AI scheduling assistance, labor-cost targets from sales, HR advisors and handbook review. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.