What Is 7shifts? Plans, Employee Caps and What It Does

7shifts is restaurant software for rotas, tips and labour cost. Here is what each plan costs, how many staff it covers, and who it fits.

See the alternatives

Plans and staff caps checked on 31 July 2026.

Definition

What 7shifts is, in one sentence

What it is

7shifts is scheduling and labour software built only for restaurants. A manager plans the week around forecast sales, sends it to the team, then watches what the floor costs as a share of takings. Staff see shifts on their phones, trade them, book time off and clock in. Tips, tasks and restaurant payroll sit on top as paid extras. Most people searching this name are not buying anything. They are staff after the login, which is at 7shifts.com or in the 7shifts app. The rest of this page is written for the person paying the bill.

Who needs this

Restaurant and bar operators, from one site up to a group. The problem it solves is covering Friday night without overspending on labour, and paying out tips fairly afterwards. If your hours are billed to a client, or checked later by somebody who was not there, this is not the shape of tool you need.

In practice

What 7shifts actually does for a restaurant

The eight jobs below are what the software is bought for. Three of them are paid extras on any plan below the top one, which is where the real bill comes from.

Planning the week

The main job. A manager fills in who works which service, splits front of house from kitchen by role, copies a good week across, and sends it out. 7shifts leans on last year's sales to suggest how many people the shift needs, which is the part a general tool cannot do.

Labour as a share of sales

Restaurants do not judge staffing in hours, they judge it in percent of takings. 7shifts pulls sales from the till and shows the labour percentage while the week is still being planned, so an expensive Saturday gets caught before it happens.

Clocking in

7shifts has a time clock, but it starts on the Essentials plan, not the free one, and it runs through a separate app called 7punches on the tablet or POS device. Reviewers who set it up hands on all mention that extra step.

Swaps and open shifts

Somebody cannot make Thursday. They offer it up, a colleague claims it, and the manager approves the trade instead of reading twenty messages about it. Unclaimed services can be posted for anyone qualified to pick up.

Tips

7shifts works out tip pools by hours, by role or by a rule you set, then declares them. It is a real gap in most rivals. It is also a paid extra worth $49.99 a month for each location unless you are on the top plan.

POS and payroll

7shifts reads sales from tills like Toast, Square and Clover, and sells its own restaurant payroll. Payroll costs $39.99 a month for each location plus $6 for every person paid, and it is folded into the top plan.

Labour law tools

Break warnings, overtime alerts, state rules and clock-in attestations. These sit on the Pro plan and above. It is the closest thing 7shifts has to a compliance record, and it is aimed at labour law rather than at billing.

Team chat and hiring

One-to-one and group chat, announcements, a manager log book on higher plans, and job posting for new staff. The aim is that a restaurant runs its whole floor from one app rather than a group chat nobody can moderate.

Pricing

What each 7shifts plan costs and how many staff it covers

7shifts charges for each restaurant, not for each person, then caps how many people that restaurant may have. Reviews miss the cap, and it is the number that decides your plan.

Comparison dimension	Comp (free)	Essentials	Pro	Premium
Price a month, each location	$0	$39.99	$79.99	$134.99
Paying monthly instead of yearly	$0	$44.99	$89.99	$149.99
How many staff it covers	Up to 15	Up to 30	Up to 60	No limit
How many sites	One only	Pay for each	Pay for each	Pay for each
Rotas, swaps and availability	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time clock	No	Yes	Yes, plus more rules	Yes, plus more rules
Time off balances that build up	Requests only	Requests only	Yes	Yes
Labour cost and labour law tools	No	No	Yes	Yes
Tip pooling	Add-on, $49.99	Add-on, $49.99	Add-on, $49.99	Included
Payroll	Add-on, $39.99 plus $6 each	Add-on, $39.99 plus $6 each	Add-on, $39.99 plus $6 each	$6 for each person paid
Task lists	Add-on, $12.99	Add-on, $12.99	Add-on, $12.99	Included

Read off the 7shifts pricing page on 31 July 2026. Two reviews ranking for this term still say the free plan covers 30 staff and still use the retired plan names.

Fit check

Who 7shifts is the wrong tool for

What it is

Anyone who is not a restaurant. Every part of 7shifts assumes covers, tills, tips and a floor team, so an agency, a builder or a clinic ends up paying for a shape of software that does not match how they work. It is also priced for a busy site. One restaurant with 12 staff pays nothing, but a small office of 12 people pays the same $39.99 a month as a restaurant of 30 once it needs the time clock, because the fee follows the address and not the headcount. And it will not tell you what a job cost a client, because restaurants do not bill by the project.

Who needs this

We make TimeTracker, so here is the honest version. If your problem is covering next Friday, buy 7shifts and stop reading. We fit one narrow case: a group whose approved hours get checked later, by a payroll audit, a franchise head office or a labour claim, and who needs the record to hold still afterwards.

Fact sheet

7shifts and TimeTracker side by side

These are not rival products. One plans a restaurant week, the other proves where hours went. Every figure came off the vendor's own pricing page.

7shifts

Restaurant scheduling and labour software. It plans the week against forecast sales, pools tips, and shows labour as a share of takings.

Best for: Restaurants and bars covering a floor team, where labour percentage and tips are the numbers that matter.
Pricing: Free Comp plan for one location and up to 15 staff, with no time clock. Then $39.99, $79.99 and $134.99 a month for each location, capped at 30, 60 and unlimited staff. Payroll, tips and tasks are paid extras below the top plan.

Rotas built against forecast sales
Labour cost as a share of sales
Tip pooling and declaration
POS integrations
Time clock from Essentials up
Restaurant payroll and hiring

Compare the alternatives

Best fit

TimeTracker

A stricter time and attendance tool. Approved hours lock, and every change made after that is on the record, so the numbers survive being checked.

Best for: Teams whose hours get billed to a client or checked by somebody who was not there.
Pricing: Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month when you pay yearly. One price wherever your people work.

Approvals that lock the period
Every edit after approval recorded
Location rules with geofence and IP
Rounding keeps the real duration
Time off with real accrual policies
Hours by client, project and task

Start free

Pros and cons

The real strengths and limits of each

We build TimeTracker, so read the second card knowing that. Both write-ups follow one rule. Strengths and limits carry equal weight, nothing is invented, and every price was read off the vendor's own site on the date shown.

7shifts

Best for

Restaurant operators whose weekly headache is covering service without blowing the labour budget.

Pricing

Free for one location and up to 15 staff, then $39.99, $79.99 and $134.99 a month for each location, capped at 30, 60 and unlimited staff. Payroll is $39.99 plus $6 for each person paid.

Checked 31 July 2026

Where it wins

Ties staffing to forecast sales, which is how restaurants actually decide who works
Tip pooling is built in, and most rivals have nothing for it at all
Reads sales from tills like Toast, Square and Clover, so labour percentage is live
A free plan that really is free for one small site, no card needed
Staff get shifts, swaps, chat and time off requests in one phone app

Where it falls short

The free plan caps at 15 staff and has no time clock. Two reviews ranking for this term still say 30
The price follows the address. A second and third site multiply the fee
Tips, tasks and payroll are paid extras on every plan below the $134.99 one
Everything assumes a restaurant, so it fits awkwardly anywhere else
No client billing and no project cost, because restaurants do not bill by the job

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Teams who bill hours to a client, or whose approved hours get audited afterwards.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly.

Checked 31 July 2026

Where it wins

Approved periods lock against edits, and every change afterwards is recorded
Rounding to 6, 15 or 30 minutes always keeps the exact raw duration beside it
Location rules can block a clock-in from outside an allowed place, not just log it
Time off runs on real accrual policies, with balances, requests and approvals
One price wherever people work, so a second site costs nothing extra

Where it falls short

No rota, no tip pooling, no till link. 7shifts wins all three and they are the whole job here
Priced per person at $15 a month, so a floor team of 40 costs far more than one location fee
Free plan covers 3 people, and everyone signs in as themselves on their own device
A clock-in needs a connection, so it will not work in a dead spot
Payroll data leaves as a CSV file that somebody has to load by hand

See all 7shifts alternatives

Which to pick

Are you covering a floor, or proving hours?

Choose 7shifts when…

You run a restaurant and need next week covered.
7shifts plans the week against sales. We have no rota at all.
Tips have to be pooled and declared fairly.
7shifts pools tips by hours or role. We do nothing here.
You want labour cost as a live share of takings.
7shifts reads the till for it. We never see your sales.
One site, 15 staff, and the budget is zero.
The 7shifts free plan covers exactly that, minus the time clock.
Staff should swap shifts between themselves.
7shifts handles offers, claims and approvals. We cannot help.

Choose TimeTracker when…

Approved hours must not change quietly afterwards.
The period locks on approval and every later edit is recorded.See how
You bill hours to a client who questions the invoice.
Hours sit against a client, a project and a task, ready to show.See how
You round billable time and must show the real figure too.
Both the exact duration and the rounded one are stored.See how
A clock-in should only count from an approved place.
Location rules use geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits.See how
Leave balances need real accrual, not a spreadsheet.
Time off runs on policies with accrual, requests and approvals.See how

FAQ

Common questions about 7shifts

There is no People Also Ask box on this search, so these are the questions the ranking pages ask, answered straight.

What is 7shifts?: 7shifts is scheduling and labour software made only for restaurants. A manager plans the week against forecast sales, sends it to the team, and watches labour as a share of takings. Staff see shifts, swap them, book time off and clock in from the same phone app. Tips, tasks and payroll are sold on top.
Is 7shifts free?: Partly. The free Comp plan covers one location and up to 15 staff, and it has no time clock, so it plans the week but does not record it. Several reviews still say 30 staff, which is out of date. Paid plans start at $39.99 a month for each location. Ours is free for up to 3 people and $15 a person after that.
How much does 7shifts cost?: $39.99, $79.99 and $134.99 a month for each location, billed yearly. Paying monthly costs $44.99, $89.99 and $149.99. Each tier caps staff at 30, 60 and unlimited. Payroll adds $39.99 plus $6 for each person paid, tips $49.99 and tasks $12.99, all for each location. Checked 31 July 2026.
Where do employees log in to 7shifts?: At 7shifts.com or in the 7shifts app on iPhone and Android, using the email your manager invited. Staff cannot create their own account for a restaurant, so if the login does not work, ask your manager to resend the invite. There is no login here. This page is about what the software does.
Can employees clock in from their phones?: Yes, from the Essentials plan up. The free plan has no time clock. 7shifts also runs a tablet clock through a separate app called 7punches, which reviewers who set it up all mention as an extra step. Our time clock app can block a punch made outside an allowed place, not just record where it happened.
Does 7shifts integrate with my POS?: Yes. 7shifts connects to the common restaurant tills, including Toast, Square and Clover, and pulls sales in so labour cost can be shown as a percentage of takings. That link is the reason it fits restaurants better than a general tool. TimeTracker has no POS connection of any kind.
Does 7shifts do payroll?: Yes, its own restaurant payroll, folded into the Premium plan and sold as an add-on below it for $39.99 a month for each location plus $6 for every person paid. It also passes approved hours to outside payroll tools. TimeTracker does neither. We export timecards, leave and balances to CSV for you to load.
Is 7shifts suitable for multi-location businesses?: Yes, and this is where the bill grows. 7shifts charges for each location, so three restaurants means three fees, and the staff cap applies to each one. Groups do get cross-site reporting for it. We charge per person instead, at $15 a month, so a second site adds nothing on its own.
Can 7shifts help reduce labor costs?: That is its main pitch. It shows labour as a share of forecast sales while the week is still being planned, warns before somebody tips into overtime, and flags missed breaks. Those tools sit on the Pro plan and above, so the cheapest paid plan does not include them.
What are the pros and cons of 7shifts?: For a restaurant the pros win: sales-based planning, tips, till links and a real free tier. The cons are the per-location price, the staff caps, and paid extras for tips, tasks and payroll. It is the wrong tool outside hospitality. If you need hours that survive an audit, compare us in the 7shifts alternatives roundup, or read our explainer on When I Work.

Need proof of hours, not a restaurant rota?

7shifts is the better buy for covering service, and we will not pretend otherwise. If your problem is hours that have to stand up when a client, a head office or an auditor asks, try TimeTracker free for up to 3 people.

Start free