Competitor Comparison
Same Depth. None of The Per-User Fees
Homebase is free for one location. Add a second and you’re paying $24.95–$99.95
per location, per month. Cloud Time Manager stays free as you grow.
per location, per month. Cloud Time Manager stays free as you grow.
If you're Choosing Between Them,
Here's The Short Version
Deputy
Deputy is one of the most-respected workforce management platforms — used by 390,000+ workplaces globally according to their site, and consistently rated highly on Capterra and G2. Three plans: Lite at $5/user/month for basic scheduling and time tracking, Core at $6.50/user/month for auto-scheduling and demand forecasting, Pro at $9/user/month for advanced compliance and SSO. Add-ons for HR ($2/user), Messaging+ ($1.95/user), and Analytics+ ($1.50/user) stack on top, plus a $30 minimum monthly spend per invoice.
Cloud Time Manager
Cloud Time Manager covers the same scheduling and time-tracking depth — auto-scheduling, geofencing, biometric kiosk, demand forecasting, labor law compliance — and it’s free for HMS merchants. No per-user fee, no monthly minimum, no add-on stack.
What you Actually Pay
- Cloud Time Manager
$0 /user/month
No hardware. No setup fees. Cancel anytime.
- Software platform: $0/month — completely free
- All scheduling and time-tracking features included
- Auto-scheduling, geofencing, biometric kiosk — included
- No minimum monthly spend
- All reporting and analytics included
- Built-in messaging — no upgrade tier
- All compliance features included
- Free forever for HMS merchants
- Deputy
$200–$500 hardware + $11+/month
Extra costs often not shown upfront.
- Lite: $5/user/month — basic scheduling and time tracking
- Core: $6.50/user/month — auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, biometrics
- Pro: $9/user/month — SSO, advanced compliance, location hierarchies
- $30 USD minimum monthly spend per invoice
- HR add-on: $2/user/month
- Messaging+ add-on: $1.95/user/month
- Analytics+ add-on: $1.50/user/month
- Payroll add-on (US, via Paycor): $8/user + $49 base
Side-by-Side Feature Table
Feature
Per-user pricing
Monthly minimum
Drag-and-drop scheduling
Auto-schedule engine
Demand forecasting
GPS geofencing
Biometric kiosk
Offline-first mobile
Real-time dashboard
Shift swap & pickup
Minor labor law engine
On-demand pay
Messaging
Analytics
Free trial
Deputy
$5–$9 per user/month
$30 USD per invoice
Yes — strong
Core tier and above
Core tier and above
Yes (Lite+)
Core tier and above
Limited
Yes
Yes
Fair-workweek alerts
Limited
Basic; Messaging+ add-on for full
Basic; Analytics+ add-on for advanced
31 days
Cloud Time Manager
$0 per user
None
Yes
Included on every plan
Included
Yes (every plan)
Kiosk PIN included; biometric on roadmap
Full offline punch queue
WebSocket — instant updates
Yes
State-specific rules, auto-enforced
Built-in earned wage access
Built-in, full functionality
Full reporting included
Free forever for HMS merchants
Honest Assessment
Enterprise operators who specifically need SSO, location hierarchies, and a dedicated customer success manager — Deputy Pro is built for that profile.
Multi-country operators serving Australia, the UK, and the US who want billing and support in local currency. Deputy is Australian-headquartered and runs strong in those markets.
Brands that explicitly want to be associated with the major Deputy customer logos (Hampton by Hilton, Dutch Bros, Ace Hardware, F45) for credibility purposes.
Five things Deputy Time doesn't do as well
Cost — significantly
25 employees on Deputy Core is 25 × $6.50 = $162.50/month, or $1,950/year. Add Messaging+ and Analytics+ and you’re at $249.13/month. Cloud Time Manager is $0 for the same 25 employees with messaging, analytics, and every other feature included.
No tier-gated features
Deputy splits features across Lite, Core, and Pro — auto-scheduling and biometrics are Core+, SSO is Pro-only, and analytics depth requires the Analytics+ add-on. Cloud Time Manager includes everything on every plan because there are no plans — there’s just the platform.
Offline-first mobile
Deputy’s mobile app works online; offline support is limited. Cloud Time Manager queues punches locally with zero connectivity and syncs automatically — standard on every plan, every device. Critical for crews in remote locations or buildings with poor signal.
Minor labor law engine
Deputy has fair-workweek and break compliance alerts. Cloud Time Manager has a full state-specific minor-labor rules engine that auto-enforces school-night limits and max daily/weekly hours for under-18 workers — important for restaurants, retail, and quick-service operators with teen staff.
No add-on stack
Deputy’s true cost includes the per-user fee plus the add-ons most operators end up needing — Messaging+, Analytics+, and HR. Each is small individually, $1.50–$2 per user per month, but they compound. Cloud Time Manager has no add-ons; everything is in the base platform.
Switching from Deputy
Deputy-to-CTM migrations follow the standard pattern. The annual plan limitation is the main thing to plan around:
- Export your employee roster, schedule templates, and timesheet history from Deputy
- Import employees into Cloud Time Manager
- Recreate your scheduling rules — break planning, labor budgets, overtime caps
- Set up your geofences (CTM uses Leaflet maps for boundary drawing)
- Workers download the CTM mobile app and set their password
- Run parallel for one pay period to validate
- Cancel Deputy at the end of your billing cycle (annual plans don't refund mid-term)
On the annual plan
Deputy’s annual plans don’t refund if you cancel mid-term. The cleanest migration window is the final month of your annual contract — run CTM in parallel for the last 30 days, validate hours and exports match, and cancel at renewal. The free CTM tier means you’re not double-paying.
See more comparisons
Same Depth. Zero Per-User Fees
Auto-scheduling, geofencing, real-time dashboards. Free for everone.