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Best 7shifts Alternatives for 2026, Free and Paid

7shifts is built for restaurants and it is good at that. If you run one, two tools here fit better than we do, and this page says which.

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Why people switch

Why people look for a 7shifts alternative

What it is

A 7shifts alternative is another scheduling tool you move to when 7shifts stops fitting your restaurant. Price is the usual reason. It charges per location, from $39.99 a month after the free Comp plan, so a second and third site multiply the bill even though headcount is unlimited on every tier. Some also find it too restaurant-shaped once they run catering, events or other work that is not covers on a floor. Below we compare three real alternatives, and we are upfront that TimeTracker is not one of them if what you need is a rota.

Who needs this

A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Meet both products

Compare the two products at a glance

TimeTracker and this competitor cover the same job in different ways. Here is what each one includes.

Best fit

TimeTracker

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem.

Best for
Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.
Pricing
Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.
  • One-click task timers
  • Timesheet submission and approvals
  • Effective-dated billing and cost rates
  • Live project budgets and profitability
  • Client invoicing and payments
  • Client portal with a cost firewall
  • Reports and dashboards
  • Expense tracking with billable markup
Start tracking free

7shifts

Built only for restaurants. It reads sales forecasts and POS data to build the rota, tracks labour as a percentage of sales, and handles tip pooling, none of which a general scheduler does.

Best for
Restaurants and hospitality groups that schedule around covers and want labour cost against sales.
Pricing
A free Comp plan for one location and up to 15 staff, with no time clock. Then Essentials $39.99 (30 staff), Pro $79.99 (60 staff) and Premium $134.99 (unlimited), per month per location. Payroll adds about $6 a month for each employee paid.
  • Sales-forecast based scheduling
  • Labour cost as a share of sales
  • Tip pooling and declaration
  • POS integrations
  • Time clock with break rules
  • Team chat and announcements
Full comparison

See how the alternatives stack up

Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for TimeTracker and every tool in this comparison.

Comparison dimensionTimeTrackerBest fit7shiftsHomebaseConnecteamOnTheClock
CategoryProject time trackingTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendance
Best forAgencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill.Restaurants and hospitality groups that schedule around.Single-site small businesses like cafes and shops that.Deskless and field teams that want scheduling, a time.Small businesses that want a simple time clock with GPS.
Starting price$12/user/monthFreeFreeFree$4/user/month
Top strengthTies every time entry to a task, so hours and money are.The only tool here that ties the rota to forecast sales.A real free plan that covers scheduling and a time clock.The free tier is unusually generous: 10 users with every.Clean, intuitive dashboard that needs little training

Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.

Every option, in full

Each 7shifts alternative, and who it suits

Each tool below covers a different kind of team, so this is not a ranking. We list what each one does badly as well as what it does well, with the date we last checked its pricing.

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.

Checked 13 July 2026

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem. A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Where it wins

  • Ties every time entry to a task, so hours and money are the same record instead of two systems to reconcile
  • Live budget and profitability rollups instead of a month-end spreadsheet
  • Timesheet approval locks numbers before they hit an invoice, so billed hours cannot silently drift
  • No screenshots, keystroke logging, or GPS tracking, by design

Where it falls short

  • Newer product than long-established time trackers, so its integration marketplace is still small
  • No native payroll run; timesheets export for an external payroll tool instead
  • Built for client-project delivery, not a general work OS, so it will not replace a wiki or a sprint board

7shifts

Best for

Restaurants and hospitality groups that schedule around covers and want labour cost against sales.

Pricing

A free Comp plan for one location and up to 15 staff, with no time clock. Then Essentials $39.99 (30 staff), Pro $79.99 (60 staff) and Premium $134.99 (unlimited), per month per location. Payroll adds about $6 a month for each employee paid.

Checked 31 July 2026

Built only for restaurants. It reads sales forecasts and POS data to build the rota, tracks labour as a percentage of sales, and handles tip pooling, none of which a general scheduler does. A restaurant or small hospitality group rostering hourly floor and kitchen staff, where labour percentage and tips are the numbers that matter.

Where it wins

  • The only tool here that ties the rota to forecast sales, which is how restaurants actually decide staffing
  • One flat fee per location, so headcount inside a tier's cap does not raise the bill
  • Tip pooling and declaration are built in, and most rivals have nothing for this

Where it falls short

  • Per-location pricing means a second and third site multiply the bill
  • Each tier caps staff at 15, 30 and 60, so growth forces an upgrade
  • The free Comp plan has no time clock, so hours still need another tool
  • Everything is shaped around restaurants, so it fits awkwardly anywhere else
  • No client billing or project profitability, because restaurants do not bill by the project
  • Payroll is a per-employee add-on on top of the location fee

Homebase

Best for

Single-site small businesses like cafes and shops that want free scheduling and a time clock for a small crew.

Pricing

Free for 1 location up to 10 employees. Essentials about $24/location/mo annual ($30 monthly), Plus about $56, All-in-One about $96, all per location.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on Homebase

Priced per location instead of per user, and free for one location with up to 10 employees, which makes it the cheapest real option for a single small site. A single cafe, shop, or restaurant with under 10 hourly staff that wants a rota and a clock without paying anything.

Where it wins

  • A real free plan that covers scheduling and a time clock for up to 10 staff
  • Per-location pricing is cheap when one site has a lot of part-time people
  • Bundles hiring and messaging, so a small shop needs fewer tools

Where it falls short

  • Per-location pricing gets expensive fast once a business runs several sites
  • Built for hourly shift work, with no client billing or project profitability
  • The free plan stops at one location and 10 employees

Connecteam

Best for

Deskless and field teams that want scheduling, a time clock, chat, and HR in one phone app.

Pricing

Two free-for-life plans: Small Business for up to 10 users with every hub, and Limited for up to 30. Paid plans are per hub and one flat fee covers the first 30 users, from $29 a month billed yearly. Extra users above 30 cost $0.50 to $5 each. Yearly saves 18%.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on Connecteam

Sold as three separate hubs (Operations, Communications, HR) rather than one product, and free for life for up to 10 users with every hub and feature switched on. A 10 to 200 person field, retail, or hospitality operation whose staff work from phones and who wants one app for shifts, clocking, and team comms.

Where it wins

  • The free tier is unusually generous: 10 users with every hub and feature, not a stripped-down trial
  • Genuinely built for phones, which suits crews with no desk and no company laptop
  • Covers scheduling, clocking, chat and HR in one app, so a small operation can drop several tools

Where it falls short

  • Buying by hub means the tool you want can sit in a hub you were not planning to pay for
  • Live GPS and breadcrumbs stop at user 11 and only return on the top Expert tier
  • No client billing, invoicing, or project profitability, so agency work needs another tool
  • Doing many jobs at once means each one is shallower than a specialist product

OnTheClock

Best for

Small businesses that want a simple time clock with GPS, PTO, and scheduling included at the base tier.

Pricing

No free plan, 30-day trial. $4 per employee a month plus a $5 monthly base fee, so 2 employees is $13 a month. Payroll adds $6 per employee plus a $40 base fee, and a one-time $250 onboarding fee.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on OnTheClock

GPS tracking, geofencing, and PTO accrual come standard on the base plan, features most rivals gate behind higher tiers. Small businesses under 100 employees that want straightforward time tracking, scheduling, and PTO with clean payroll exports.

Where it wins

  • Clean, intuitive dashboard that needs little training
  • Strong review scores: 4.7/5 on Capterra, 4.5/5 on G2
  • GPS, geofencing, and PTO included at the base tier, not a premium add-on

Where it falls short

  • Payroll is not included; it's a separate paid add-on
  • Reporting and analytics are more basic than larger workforce platforms
  • Fewer native integrations than bigger rivals like QuickBooks Time
Why switch

Reasons teams switch

Popular features

Time Tracking

Employee time tracking your team will actually use

One click starts a timer, or people type hours in by hand. Every entry ties to a client, project, and task, so the record stays clean.

Explore Time Tracking→
Timesheets

Timesheets your team submits on time

Hours build into a timecard as people work. Send the week for approval, lock it once it is signed off, and bill from a number that cannot quietly change.

Explore Timesheets→
Billing

Bill for every hour you earn

Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.

Explore Billing→
Use cases

Use cases this solves

More comparisons

Compare other tools

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free version of 7shifts?
Yes, the Comp plan, but it is smaller than most reviews say. It covers one location and up to 15 staff, and it has no time clock. Paid tiers are $39.99, $79.99 and $134.99 a month per location, capped at 30, 60 and unlimited staff. Read off the 7shifts pricing page on 31 July 2026. Full breakdown in what 7shifts is and what each plan includes.
What is the difference between 7shifts and Homebase?
Both charge per location and both have a free tier, so the split is focus. 7shifts is restaurant-only: it forecasts covers, tracks labour as a share of sales and pools tips. Homebase is general small business, cheaper at the entry paid tier, and adds hiring and payroll. Pick 7shifts if tips and sales forecasting matter.
Can your boss see your messages on 7shifts?
Treat any chat inside a workplace tool as visible to the business. Managers and admins generally have access to team messaging in scheduling apps, and the account belongs to the employer. If that bothers you, keep personal conversation on a personal app.
Does TimeTracker do restaurant scheduling?
No, and it is not close. There is no rota builder, no sales forecasting, no tip pooling and no POS link. For a restaurant, 7shifts, Homebase or Connecteam are the right tools. TimeTracker records and bills hours through timesheets, which is a different job entirely.
What is the cheapest 7shifts alternative for one restaurant?
Homebase, because its free plan covers one location with up to 10 staff and includes both scheduling and a clock. Above 10 staff it is about $24 a location a month, still under the $39.99 that 7shifts charges after its Comp plan. See the Homebase alternatives for the full picture.
Why does 7shifts get expensive with more sites?
Because the fee is per location, not per person. One busy restaurant is good value, but three sites means three times $39.99 or more before any payroll add-on, which is about $6 a month for each employee paid. Each tier also caps staff, at 15 on the free plan, 30 on Essentials and 60 on Pro, so a big floor team pushes you up a tier as well.
Can 7shifts invoice a customer?
No. It costs labour against sales and can run payroll, but it does not raise a customer invoice, and neither do Homebase, Connecteam or OnTheClock. That only matters if you bill someone for time, such as catering or event work, in which case see invoicing from tracked time.
Is any of this useful if I run catering or events, not a dining room?
That is the one case where a project tracker beats a restaurant scheduler. Catering and events are jobs with a client, a quote and a margin, not shifts on a floor, so tracking them by client and project tells you which bookings were actually worth taking.
Is switching from 7shifts hard?
Moving to another restaurant scheduler means rebuilding rotas, roles and any POS link, so allow a fortnight of overlap. Tips and payroll history are the fiddly parts. Whatever you move to, export your data to CSV before you close the account.
Which 7shifts alternative is right for me?
One restaurant on a budget, Homebase free. A deskless team wanting chat and checklists too, Connecteam. Cheap clocking for a small crew, OnTheClock. Billing clients for catering or event work rather than rostering a floor, TimeTracker, where hours feed project profitability directly.
A professional team working on a laptop at a warm wooden desk in an office.

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