7shifts charges per location, not per employee. Pro is $89.99/location/month, or $79.99 on annual billing. Add a second location and the same plan doubles before payroll add-ons. Several alternatives offer flat per-employee pricing that scales more predictably, especially for multi-location businesses.
Technically yes, but the interface, terminology, and integrations are all restaurant-focused. Features like tip management, POS integrations (Toast, Square), and labor-vs-sales forecasting only make sense for food service. If you run a retail store, gym, or warehouse, you'll be paying for features you can't use.
Sling is the cheapest starting point because it offers free basic scheduling for up to 30 users. Homebase is also free for one location with up to 10 employees, and Connecteam's Small Business plan is free for up to 10 users. For a paid option with scheduling and time tracking, Turnozo Essential is €9.99/month for up to 10 employees and one location; Pro is €2.99/active employee/month for the whole workforce from employee 11 or the second location.
You can export your employee list from 7shifts. Schedule templates will need to be rebuilt, but for a small team that takes 30-60 minutes. Most alternatives let you import employee data via CSV.
The Comp plan covers up to 15 employees at one location with basic scheduling. But it doesn't include time tracking, team messaging, or shift swap approvals. Most teams outgrow it within a few months and face the jump to Essentials at $44.99/month, or $39.99 on annual billing.
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If you're searching for 7shifts alternatives, the real question is usually not "what other scheduling apps exist?" It's one of these:
Which 7shifts competitor costs less in 2026?
What is better for a small restaurant than 7shifts?
Which alternative handles scheduling + time tracking without per-location pain?
That matters because 7shifts is not expensive in the abstract. It's expensive in a very specific way.
The per-location pricing catches people off guard. One location can feel manageable. Add more sites, more managers, or a larger team and the cost escalates fast. If you do not actively use the restaurant-specific extras, the math gets worse. For the wider market context behind this category, use the employee scheduling statistics page as a benchmark companion.
This guide focuses on the 7shifts alternatives that make the strongest case in 2026, especially for small restaurants, multi-location teams, and operators who want scheduling plus time tracking without paying restaurant-software premiums. I build Turnozo, so take my comments on our own product with a grain of salt. I'll be honest about where competitors beat us.
7shifts vs Deputy for restaurants
Choose 7shifts when restaurant fit is the priority. Its POS-linked labor forecasting, tip management, and food-service workflows are the clearer match for restaurants. Choose Deputy when scheduling minors, break rules, and broader workforce compliance are the deciding issues. Deputy is not as restaurant-specific, while 7shifts is less useful outside food service.
Real Cost: Scheduling + Time Tracking
Annual costs are shown in USD for equivalent features: scheduling + time tracking + reports. Turnozo's EUR price is converted at the rounded ECB reference rate of €1 = $1.14. Free/basic plans with fewer features exist.
The best 7shifts alternative depends on why you're leaving.
If you want lower pricing for a small restaurant, the key issue is per-location cost.
If you want better fit outside restaurants, the key issue is whether 7shifts' tip pooling, POS integrations, and labor forecasting are wasted on you.
If you want simpler scheduling + time tracking, the key issue is whether your team needs fewer moving parts and less app friction.
Quick comparison table
Tool
Starting price
Free tier
Time tracking
Best for
Turnozo
Essential €9.99/mo
Paid after 14-day Pro trial
Yes (GPS)
Small teams wanting simplicity
Homebase
Free (1 loc, 10 employees)
Yes
Yes
Single-location businesses
When I Work
$2.50/user/mo
No
Add-on ($4/user)
Mid-size teams with complex schedules
Connecteam
Free (10 users)
Yes
Yes
Teams needing an all-in-one hub
Sling
Free (30 users)
Yes
Paid plan only
Budget-conscious small teams
Deputy
Core $6.50/user/mo annual
No
Yes
Enterprise compliance needs
Planday
£2.99/user/mo (5-user min)
No; 30-day trial, no card
Yes
European hospitality businesses
1. Turnozo
Price: Essential is €9.99/month for up to 10 employees and one location, with every feature included. Pro is €2.99/active employee/month from employee 11 or the second location, billed across the whole workforce. New accounts get a 14-day Pro trial with no card required. Prices exclude VAT.
Turnozo is what we're building. Simple drag-and-drop scheduling, GPS time tracking, shift swaps, availability management, and automatic timesheets. Essential is €9.99/month for up to 10 employees and one location, with every feature included. Pro keeps the same feature set for larger teams. No per-location fees.
Where we differ from 7shifts: we're not restaurant-specific. No tip management, no POS integrations, no labor-vs-sales forecasting. If those are features you rely on, we're not the right fit.
Where we win: pricing clarity and simplicity. Essential is €9.99/month for up to 10 employees and one location, with every feature included. A 20-person team on Pro pays €59.80/month total across any number of locations. A two-location team on 7shifts Essentials runs $89.98/month before add-ons.
Why switch from 7shifts: You want straightforward per-employee pricing, you don't need restaurant-specific features, or you're tired of the time clock living in a separate app.
Why stay with 7shifts: You need POS integration, tip pooling, or labor forecasting against sales data.
Price: Free for 1 location (up to 10 employees). Paid plans start with Essentials at $30/month per location, or $24 on annual billing.
Homebase bundles scheduling, time tracking, hiring tools, and basic HR into one platform. The free tier is genuinely useful for a single-location business. Clock in/out works from any device, and the scheduling interface is intuitive.
The catch is the same as 7shifts: per-location pricing. That free tier is one location only and stops at 10 employees. A second location means paying, and Essentials at $30/month per location adds up fast for multi-site businesses. AI scheduling, departments, and labor controls sit on higher tiers.
Why switch from 7shifts: You want free scheduling + time tracking for a single location, or you need hiring tools built in.
Why stay with 7shifts: Homebase's restaurant-specific features are lighter. No tip management, no POS sales integration for labor forecasting.
Homebase homepage
3. When I Work
Price: $2.50/user/month for scheduling. With time tracking, Essentials is $4/user/month.
When I Work is one of the bigger names in shift scheduling. Clean interface, reliable mobile app, good shift-swapping workflow. The scheduling module at $2.50/user is the headline price, but most hourly teams need time tracking too, which pushes Essentials to $4/user/month.
The upside over 7shifts: per-employee pricing instead of per-location. For a 30-person team, When I Work scheduling-only Essentials costs $75/month before seat-bundle rounding. 7shifts Essentials at 30 employees is $44.99 per location, or $39.99 on annual billing.
Downside: time tracking is a paid toggle, so the $2.50/user number is not the clock-in price. Their seat-bundle billing also rounds rosters up.
Why switch from 7shifts: Per-employee pricing scales better for multi-location, and you don't need restaurant-specific features.
Why stay with 7shifts: 7shifts' scheduling UI is arguably more polished for restaurant workflows (splitting front/back of house, labor curves).
When I Work homepage
4. Connecteam
Price: Free for up to 10 users. Basic starts at $29/month on annual billing or $35 month-to-month per hub for the first 30 users.
Connecteam positions itself as an all-in-one employee management app. Scheduling, time tracking, communication, training, forms, task management. For very small teams of up to 10 users, the free plan is one of the most feature-complete options available.
It's the Swiss Army knife approach. Good at many things, best-in-class at few. The scheduling interface works but isn't as refined as dedicated scheduling tools. Where it shines is for teams that also need internal communication, onboarding checklists, or digital forms alongside scheduling.
Past 10 users, Basic starts at $29/month on annual billing or $35 month-to-month per hub. Operations, Communications, and HR are billed as separate hubs, and users above 30 cost more.
Why switch from 7shifts: You need more than just scheduling (comms, training, task management) in one app, or your team has up to 10 users and wants everything free.
Why stay with 7shifts: The scheduling experience itself is more purpose-built. Connecteam's scheduling is functional but generic.
Connecteam homepage
5. Sling
Price: Free for up to 30 users (scheduling only). Premium at $2/user/month. Business at $4/user/month.
Sling (owned by Toast) offers free scheduling for teams up to 30. That's generous. The scheduling interface is clean, shift creation is fast, and the mobile app works.
The problem: time tracking isn't included in the free plan. You need Premium ($2/user/month) for that. And there are persistent complaints about mobile sync issues, shifts showing differently on the phone versus desktop, and notifications arriving late.
Since Toast acquired Sling, the product has leaned harder into restaurant integration. If you're already on Toast POS, Sling's integration is tighter than most alternatives. If you're not a Toast shop, the integration doesn't help you.
Why switch from 7shifts: Free scheduling for up to 30 people is hard to beat on price. Good option if you genuinely only need basic scheduling.
Why stay with 7shifts: Sling's mobile reliability issues and limited reporting are a step down from 7shifts' more mature platform.
Sling homepage
6. Deputy
Price: Lite $5/user/month on annual billing or $5.50/user/month on monthly billing. Core $6.50/user/month annually or $7.25/user/month monthly. Pro $9/user/month annually or $10/user/month monthly.
Deputy is built for compliance-heavy industries. Demand forecasting, labor law compliance tools, fair workweek support, detailed audit trails. For a large team with complex regulatory requirements, it's one of the most capable options.
For small teams, it's overkill. Core at $6.50/user/month on annual billing is more expensive than several alternatives on this list. And features like demand-based auto-scheduling and advanced compliance tools sit above Lite.
Why switch from 7shifts: You need robust compliance tools, multi-industry support, or you're scaling past 100 employees and need enterprise-grade features.
Why stay with 7shifts: Deputy's per-user pricing is higher for a small single-location restaurant team (30 employees on annual Core at $6.50/user = $195/month vs 7shifts Essentials at $44.99/month, or $39.99 on annual billing).
Deputy homepage
7. Planday
Price: €3.49/user/month (Starter). Plus at €5.49/user/month.
Planday is a European scheduling tool (Danish, now owned by Xero) that works well for hospitality and retail across Europe. Per-employee pricing, built-in time tracking, and payroll integrations with European systems (Xero, Visma, etc.).
The advantage for EU-based teams: GDPR compliance is native, pricing is in euros, and the product is designed around European labor law patterns. The Starter plan at €3.49/user includes scheduling and time tracking.
The downside: it's pricier than the cheapest options on this list, the mobile app gets mixed reviews, and the revenue forecasting features that justify the price only help if you're in hospitality.
Why switch from 7shifts: You're based in Europe and want EUR pricing with European payroll integrations. Or you need multi-industry support beyond restaurants.
Why stay with 7shifts: 7shifts' restaurant-specific features (tip management, labor-vs-sales) are stronger. And for a US-based restaurant, 7shifts' integrations (Toast, Square, ADP) are more relevant.
Planday homepage
Tip
If you are leaving 7shifts because of price, compare the tiers that actually
give you scheduling plus time tracking. Comparing a free scheduling tier to a
paid full-stack alternative is fake math.
How to decide
Stay with 7shifts if:
You run a restaurant with POS integration needs
Tip management and labor-vs-sales forecasting matter to your business
You have 15 or fewer employees (free plan works)
You're single-location
Switch if:
Per-location pricing is eating your budget
You run a non-restaurant business (retail, gym, warehouse, cleaning)
You don't use POS integration or tip management
The separate 7punches time clock app frustrates your team
You've outgrown the free plan and the jump to $39.99/month feels steep
The bottom line: 7shifts is built for restaurants, and it does restaurant scheduling well. But "built for restaurants" also means "not built for everyone else." If you're comparing the restaurant-specific tradeoff, use the restaurant staffing statistics benchmark first: high turnover and tight labor-cost ranges make scheduling valuable, but they do not automatically justify per-location pricing. If you're outside food service, or if the per-location pricing model doesn't work for your setup, compare the general-purpose tools above on the features and pricing model your team actually needs.
Important
The biggest pricing mistake with 7shifts comparisons is pretending every team
needs the same tier. Restaurants that actually use POS-linked labor tools may
justify 7shifts. Everyone else should be ruthless about cutting features they
never touch.
