The self-hosted Homebase alternative
Rostera — Self-hosted staff shift scheduler — a weekly rota, exact hours, double-booking caught. Own it once, run it on your own server, and stop paying Homebase every month.
Stop renting Homebase
3 months of Homebase equals this one-time price.
Assumption: The entry PAID tier on annual billing, per location. Homebase is the one rival on this product that does not meter people — employees are unlimited and the location is the unit — so a big single-site team is where it is strongest and a multi-site operator is where it costs. Rostera is $69 once, for any number of staff on any number of sites you run it on under its licence.
How Homebase pricing grows with you
Homebase meters by LOCATION rather than by employee, and adds payroll as a second meter with its own base fee plus a per-head rate.
“payroll is available as an add-on on all plans for a standard $39 base fee per month plus $6 per employee” — their own page, read 2026-09-03
What Homebase does that we don't
Homebase keeps a genuinely free tier for a single site of up to ten people, with scheduling in it rather than behind a trial.
“basicget started with homebase and set up a new team.$0/ location / month for 1 location, up to 10 employees” — their own page
Who should stay with Homebase
Stay with Homebase if you want hiring, messaging, payroll and time clocks in one hosted account across sites. Rostera is the rota itself — a weekly schedule, exact hours and double-bookings caught — bought once and run on your own server. Full honest limitations are on the product page.
Why owning beats renting Homebase
- One payment. No monthly, per-seat, or per-location fees — the license is perpetual.
- Your data stays on your server. It never lives in Homebase's cloud.
- No plan ceilings. Records and users are limited by your hosting, not a pricing tier.
- It keeps working if the vendor doesn't. Self-hosted software can't be sunset or price-hiked out from under you.
Fair trade-offs: you host it, back it up, and apply updates yourself — see the product page for honest limitations, and the full Rostera vs Homebase comparison.
Sources
- Homebase — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source “basicget started with homebase and set up a new team.$0/ location / month for 1 location, up to 10 employees ... essentialssimplify the process of tracking & managing shifts.$30$24/ location / month unlimited employees ... payroll is available as an add-on on all plans for a standard $39 base fee pe”
Competitor prices change — always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown. This vendor is tracked in the Price Observatory — every figure verbatim, dated, re-checked quarterly.