Connecteam is a team management platform with features for time tracking, scheduling, messaging, and onboarding. And customers say its tools and granular customization capabilities make managing remote teams easier. But it leaves a few things to be desired as a platform for small business owners. Specifically:
- Connecteam doesn’t have payroll tools. You have to export timesheets to a third-party solution, which is cumbersome at best and error-prone at worst.
- Connecteam doesn’t have auto-scheduling features. Employee timetables are easy to create, but Connecteam can’t auto-populate shifts based on previous data like other platforms.
- Connecteam can help you with employee onboarding, but not hiring. That puts you at a disadvantage if you need to expand your small business team quickly.
- Connecteam can be overwhelming to use. It’s a powerful tool with customizable features. But that doesn’t make it practical for someone who’s new to team management software, as they might have trouble using the platform to its full potential.
Connecteam can help you with the everyday aspects of team management. However, it’s not designed for busy small business owners who need a simple yet comprehensive system to hire, pay, and schedule hourly team members.
But thankfully, there’s Homebase. And in this article, we’ll explore what makes our platform the right fit for time-pressed small business owners who need help with everything from scheduling and time tracking to hiring and payroll.
We’ll also review seven other trustworthy Connecteam alternatives, evaluating each based on use case, features, and pricing, so you can decide which will work best for you.
The 8 best Connecteam alternatives
- Homebase: Best all-in-one solution for team management
- Deputy: Best for quick employee scheduling
- QuickBooks Time: Best for delegating job assignments
- Paychex: Best for administering employee benefits
- UKG Ready: Best for actionable workforce analytics
- Rippling: Best for managing global teams
- Toggl: Best for efficient project tracking
- Buddy Punch: Best for monitoring remote workers
1. Homebase: Best all-in-one solution for small businesses
As an all-in-one team management solution, Homebase combines the tools employers rely on for time tracking, scheduling, and communication in one easy-to-use platform — all of which you can use with a free plan.
But with our features for compliance, payroll, and hiring and onboarding, Homebase is also ideal for small business owners who have to handle their own HR and administrative processes. What’s more, our HR Pro option gives you access to an extensive human resources library along with a team of experts who are ready to answer questions and review your internal policies.
Scheduling
With drag-and-drop features, Homebase lets you create employee schedules quickly. And you can share them just as easily — just hit Publish, and the platform will notify your team it’s ready via the mobile app, text, and email.
And if you often struggle with scheduling conflicts, Homebase can help. Teammates looking for someone to swap or fill in for them can simply click Find Cover or Trade Shift on their scheduled hours and select the teammate they want to switch with. Then, all they have to do is submit a request for managerial approval.
But Homebase’s most handy scheduling features are our templates and auto-population capabilities. Once you’ve built one timetable with our platform, it uses previous data to fill in future schedules automatically. You can also create reusable templates based on specific schedules for long-term use.
Time tracking
Team members can track their hours from any device with the Homebase mobile app. Our free time clock lets employees punch into work on their phones, which is ideal for those moments when they arrive during peak business hours and can’t get to the nearest clock in station.
And you don’t have to worry about early sign ins, either. You can enable geofences that prevent team members from starting their shifts before they get to work.
The best part about Homebase time tracking is that it automatically converts employee hours into timesheets that are ready for payroll processing. You won’t have to export hours and wages to a bookkeeping tool or copy and paste data into a separate spreadsheet.
Team communication
When employee schedules fluctuate and you’re working with different staff members every day, you need a reliable communication tool you can use to send updates and coordinate daily tasks and duties.
To that end, Homebase has a built-in messaging feature that lets managers reach out to employees individually or sort team members based on when they’re working so they can relay relevant details to the people that need to see them.
Homebase communication also integrates with our hiring tools so you can get in touch with job applicants and send them onboarding documents as soon as you bring them on board, too.
HR and compliance
Navigating ever-changing labor laws can be intimidating, especially for small business owners who don’t have an in-house professional to help them. That’s why we offer our own tools for onboarding, document storage, and time off management.
We also go the extra mile and notify you about updates to federal and state labor laws and give you access to HR experts for guidance and assistance. We’ll even create a customized employee handbook for you, so you can compile your policies and procedures in one convenient resource.
Homebase pricing
A free Homebase account gives you everything you need to manage a small hourly team and includes up to 20 employees at one business location. It comes along with features for basic time tracking, scheduling, and communication, as well as point of sale integrations and access to email support.
We offer more advanced features with our paid plans, which we price per location rather than per employee, ensuring your costs stay the same as your team expands. Our tiered plans include:
- Essentials — All the free plan features, plus payroll integrations, team communication tools, advanced scheduling and time tracking, shift notes, late clock in alerts, geofencing tools, and access to live support for $24.95 per month.
- Plus — Everything in Essentials plus tools for hiring, retention and performance tracking, time off controls, and departments and permissions for $59.95 per month.
- All-in-one — All Homebase tools, including HR and compliance, new hire onboarding, labor cost controls, business insights, and document storage features for $99.95 per month.
You can also add payroll to any plan for $39 per month plus $6 per active employee. Bonus: Users can save 20% on their overall cost when they sign up for an annual plan.
2. Deputy: Best for quick employee scheduling
Deputy is a staff management platform that lets you schedule team members, track hours, message employees, and stay ahead of compliance. And similar to Homebase, one of Deputy’s best and most powerful features is its scheduling tool, which saves you time with reusable templates and the ability to post open shifts for staff to claim.
Although Deputy lacks many of the features Homebase has, like payroll and hiring tools, it’s a good option for business owners who are looking to simplify repetitive team management tasks like creating schedules and monitoring employee hours.
Features
- Employee scheduling
- Time tracking tools
- Timesheets
- Labor compliance
- Team messaging
- Mobile app
Deputy pricing
Deputy has a 31-day free trial. After that, you can opt for one of the paid plans, including:
- Scheduling — Unlimited scheduling tools for $3.50 per user per month.
- Time and Attendance — Unlimited time tracking and timesheets for $3.50 per user per month.
- Premium — Scheduling and attendance for $4.90 per user per month.
- Enterprise — Designed for businesses with more than 250 employees. Contact Deputy’s sales team for a custom quote.
3. QuickBooks Time: Best for delegating job assignments
QuickBooks Time is an employee time tracking and scheduling platform that makes it easier to run both on and off-site teams. Although the platform doesn’t have dedicated messaging features, what sets it apart is the job assignment tool, which lets you create and designate specific roles as you create employee timetables.
This type of feature is particularly useful if, say, you run a cafe with a drive-through and need to know you’ve got a staff member covering your window, kitchen, cash register, and any other roles you need.
Features
- Time tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Mobile app
- Project tracking
- Time off management
- Geofencing
QuickBooks Time pricing
QuickBooks Time has a 30-day free trial. Otherwise, it has two paid plans:
- Premium — Time tracking, scheduling, and time off management for $10 per month and $8 per user per month.
- Elite — Premium features plus tools for mileage tracking, project management, and geofencing for $20 per month and $10 per user per month.
4. Paychex: Best for administering employee benefits
A good employee benefits package makes your business more attractive to job seekers while offering team members security. However, it can be challenging to put a benefits package together. That’s what makes Paychex such a useful platform — besides its tools for onboarding, time tracking, and payroll, you can use it to provide, manage, and track staff benefits. It also provides tools for managing flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and 401(k) plans.
It’s worth noting that a platform like Paychex may not be best suited to small business owners with hourly teams. It’s a more practical choice for medium or large businesses with dispersed workers looking to streamline their current benefits process.
Features
- Payroll
- Time and attendance
- Document storage
- Retirement services
- Health benefits administration and management
Paychex pricing
Paychex pricing isn’t readily available.
5. UKG Ready: Best for actionable workforce analytics
When you’re looking for ways to make work better for your team members, analytics and reporting dashboards are where you should turn — that’s where a platform like UKG Ready can make life easier.
UKG is a well-known HR software solution with payroll, time tracking, talent management, and analytics tools, and it caters its services to small businesses with the scaled-back UKG Ready platform. And what impresses us most is its insights and recommendations. UKG Ready can track time data and let you know when employees might be at the point of fatigue or ready to leave, helping you stay ahead of burnout and turnover issues before they get out of control.
Features
- HR and compliance tools
- Time and attendance features
- Payroll
- Talent management
- Analytics and reporting dashboards
UKG Ready pricing
You won’t find pricing on UKG’s website.
6. Rippling: Best for managing global teams
Unlike other HR platforms, Rippling also incorporates IT and finance tools, making it easier to share information and resources across departments. It’s also a great choice for companies that need to pay employees in multiple locations across the globe, especially when you consider that different countries use different currencies and have their own tax rules.
While Rippling isn’t an appropriate alternative for small business owners that are new to managing teams and handling processes like payroll and compliance, it’s a strong contender for larger and more well-established companies with their own HR and operations departments.
Features
- Time and attendance tools
- Payroll
- Benefits management
- Learning management
- IT and finance tools
Rippling pricing
Rippling starts at $8 per user per month, and plans increase in cost based on the features you need.
7. Toggl: Best for efficient project tracking
The tricky thing about pricing work for clients is knowing how long projects take to complete. Toggl makes that less complicated by letting you sort the tasks you track by department. It also allows you to track the time you spend on subtasks, so you always know which part of every project demands the most time. And if you add the Toggl Chrome extension, you can track time without having to switch between tabs.
Toggl isn’t ideal for small businesses in the restaurant, wellness, retail, hospitality, or other shift-based industries that don’t charge clients per project. But it’s a useful tool for professional service-based companies that deal with billable hours and invoicing.
Features
- Time tracking
- Project management
- Reporting
Toggl pricing
Toggl has a free plan for up to five users, which includes unlimited time tracking, projects, and clients. If you have more users and need more features, paid plans include:
- Starter — Everything in the free plan plus tools for task tracking, connecting multiple calendars, and project time estimates and alerts for $10 per user per month.
- Premium — All Starter tools plus team time tracking reminders, time audits, and analytics for future project planning for $20 per user per month.
- Enterprise — All Toggl tools, expert support and assistance, and customization for unlimited users at a custom price.
8. Buddy Punch: Best for monitoring remote workers
Like Homebase, Buddy Punch is an employee management platform that streamlines processes for scheduling, time tracking, and payroll, giving team members more control over their schedule and availability. Buddy Punch also provides an extra sense of security if you run a team of remote workers.
With its IP locking tool, you can control which devices your employees clock in from. This may be handy if you provide staff with a specific computer or device you want them to punch in from and use throughout the day. Additionally, Buddy Punch has GPS tracking that allows you to check where people clock in, so you’ll have extra assurance they’re starting their shifts in the right place.
Features
- Time tracking
- Scheduling
- Built-in payroll
- Mobile app
Buddy Punch pricing
Buddy offers a 14-day free trial. After that, you can sign up for one of the paid plans:
- Standard — Includes tools like time tracking, time off management, and alerts and reminders, as well as payroll integrations for $19 per month and $3.49 per user per month.
- Pro — All Standard features, plus scheduling, shift trades and covering tools, and scheduling tools for $19 per month and $4.49 per user.
- Enterprise — All features and single sign-on (SSO) and API access for a custom price.
Upgrade your team management routine with Homebase
Finding the right team management platform shouldn’t be complicated, but it can feel overwhelming when there are so many tools on the market with features your small business doesn’t need. In the end, you want a solution that’s easy to implement and serves as a one-stop shop.
Homebase is your best bet for a few reasons:
- A free account only takes a couple of minutes to set up.
- It includes everything you need to manage a small team, with tools for time tracking, scheduling, hiring, and team communication.
- If you upgrade your plan, you’ll get even more helpful built-in features for payroll and HR and compliance.
- We price our plans per location and not per employee to keep your subscription costs down as your team expands.
- You can access almost all of our tools with the Homebase mobile app.
**The information above is based on our research on Connecteam alternatives. All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms, such as G2 and Capterra, in March 2023.
Remember: This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.
