TimeTracker vs 7shifts: Two Different Problems
7shifts runs a restaurant week, with rotas, tips and labour cost. TimeTracker records hours that get approved, locked and billed. Work out which you need.
Free to start. No credit card needed.
Which of these two problems is yours?
7shifts is restaurant software and TimeTracker is not. 7shifts plans the week from forecast sales, pools tips and reads your till, and we do none of it. Buy 7shifts if the job is covering service. Pick TimeTracker only when hours have to be approved, locked and proved later, or billed to a customer.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
TimeTracker and 7shifts are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Anyone deciding between TimeTracker and 7shifts for time tracking should start with the quick verdict above.
Compare the two products at a glance
Both tools solve time tracking. Here is what each one includes, side by side.
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
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
See how they stack up
Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for both tools, side by side.
Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Which one fits your team
Choose TimeTracker when…
Approved hours must not change quietly once someone signs them off.
The period locks on approval, and any edit made afterwards is kept on the record with who made it.See how
You round billed time but still owe someone the exact figure.
Rounding to 6, 15 or 30 minutes stores the raw duration beside the rounded one, so both are there.See how
A punch made from outside the site should be turned away, not logged.
A geofence, an IP range or an accuracy limit stops that punch before the hours ever count.See how
Those hours have to land on a customer invoice at month end.
Approved time turns into invoice lines, so the amount you bill matches the hours that were signed off.See how
The hours have to break down by customer and job, not by service.
Each entry carries its client, project and task, so one report answers where the month went.See how
You run several sites and do not want the bill to follow the address.
We charge $15 for each person a month wherever they work, so opening a second site adds nothing on its own.See how
Choose 7shifts when…
Your week starts with 7shifts working out who covers each service.
7shifts leans on last year's sales to suggest the cover a service needs. TimeTracker has no rota at all.See how
Your floor team pools tips and 7shifts has to split each share.
7shifts divides a pool by hours, by role or by a rule you set, then declares it. We do nothing here.See how
Labour as a share of takings is the number you watch each week.
7shifts shows that percentage while the week is still being drawn up, so a costly Saturday gets caught early.See how
Your till is Toast, Square or Clover and 7shifts should read it.
7shifts pulls sales in from the common restaurant tills. TimeTracker never sees your sales figures at all.See how
You want restaurant payroll from 7shifts sitting next to the hours.
7shifts sells its own payroll, at roughly $6 for each person paid. TimeTracker only hands you a file to load.See how
One site, 15 staff or fewer, and the budget for this is zero.
The free 7shifts Comp plan covers exactly that, though it carries no time clock, so hours go unrecorded.See how
Popular features
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→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→See where the time really goes
Break hours down by client, project, and team member. Find the work that pays off and the projects that run over.
Explore Reports & Dashboards→Use cases this solves
Audit Trail and Compliance
Approved periods lock, and every change made after that stays on the record for whoever asks later.
Explore→Timesheet Approvals
A manager signs off the week before anyone bills or pays it, and the hours stop moving after that.
Explore→Invoicing From Tracked Time
Turn approved hours straight into an invoice, so the bill and the timesheet never drift apart.
Explore→
Compare other tools
Frequently asked questions
- Is 7shifts a time tracking tool or a scheduling tool?
- A scheduling tool first. Rotas, swaps and time off requests come on every 7shifts plan, but the time clock only starts on Essentials, so the free plan draws the week without recording it. For the plan by plan detail, read what 7shifts is.
- What does the free 7shifts Comp plan leave out?
- The 7shifts Comp plan is free for one location and up to 15 staff, and it has no time clock, no labour cost tools and no tip pooling. Some reviews still say 30 staff, which is out of date. Our free plan covers 3 people and does include clock in and out, though approvals sit on the paid plan.
- How many staff does each 7shifts plan cover?
- Fifteen on the free Comp plan, 30 on Essentials at $39.99, 60 on Pro at $79.99, and no cap on Premium at $134.99, each per month for each location. Grow past a cap and 7shifts moves you up a tier. We charge $15 for each person, with nothing above that one plan, and team time reporting comes with it.
- Can TimeTracker run a restaurant instead of 7shifts?
- No. TimeTracker has no rota, no tip pooling and no till link, so an operator who needs next Friday covered should buy 7shifts and stop reading. We only fit a site whose hours get checked by somebody who was not there, see audit trail and compliance.
- Which costs less for one site with 25 staff?
- 7shifts, by a wide margin. Those 25 people fit the Essentials plan at $39.99 a month for the location. The same 25 on TimeTracker cost $375 a month, or $300 billed yearly. You are paying that gap for timesheet approvals and a period that locks, so only buy it if you need them.
- Does TimeTracker do anything with tips?
- Nothing at all, and 7shifts pools and declares tips by hours, by role or by your own rule. That is a real gap on our side and we will not pretend otherwise. What we do instead is tie every hour to a customer, see time tracking by client.
- Can an approved week be changed without anyone seeing?
- Not in TimeTracker. Once a manager approves a period it locks, and any later edit is written down with who made it and when. Approvals are on our paid plan, not the free one. See how exception based approvals keep the review short.
- Is the exact punch time kept when TimeTracker rounds?
- Yes. Rounding to 6, 15 or 30 minutes stores the rounded figure and the exact raw duration side by side, so nobody has to guess which one is real. That matters most when you bill those hours to somebody outside the business.
- Which one fits a catering firm that bills its hours?
- Catering sits closer to our buyer than a restaurant does, because the hours go to a customer rather than onto a floor plan. Hours carry a client, a project and a task, and approved time becomes a bill, see invoicing from tracked time. 7shifts has no client invoicing at all.
- What else is worth comparing with 7shifts?
- Start with the roundup of 7shifts alternatives, which lines up the scheduling tools and the hours tools next to each other. If you want the current prices and staff caps first, our explainer on 7shifts has them.
Need hours that hold up later?
If your week is about covering service, 7shifts is the better buy. If it is about hours a client or an auditor will question, start free with 3 people here.
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