What Is Sling Scheduling? Plans, Prices and What It Does

Sling is a shift scheduling app for hourly teams, now sold as Sling by Toast. It is not Sling TV. Here is what it does and what each plan really costs.

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Plans and prices checked on 31 July 2026.

Definition

What Sling is, in one sentence

What it is

Sling is an app for building and sharing employee shift schedules, owned by Toast and now branded Sling by Toast. A manager lays out who works when, publishes it, and the team reads it on their phones. Staff request time off, claim open shifts, trade with each other and message the group. Clocking in, labour cost and PTO balances sit on the paid tiers above. Worth saying early: this has nothing to do with Sling TV, the streaming service. Staff looking for a rota sign in at getsling.com or in the Sling app. The rest of this page is for whoever pays the bill.

Who needs this

Managers of small hourly teams in cafes, bars, shops, clinics and warehouses, where the weekly problem is filling next week's shifts without spending much on the software that does it. If your hours end up on a customer invoice instead of only on a payslip, this is not the shape of tool you are looking for.

In practice

What Sling actually does day to day

Six of these come with the free plan. The last two do not, and which tier they sit on is the thing most reviews of Sling skip over.

Building next week

The core job. Drag shifts onto a week, split people by role or location, copy a week that worked and reuse it, then publish. Sling will also let you build schedules months ahead, which matters for teams that plan a season rather than a week.

Open shifts and trades

A shift nobody is assigned to can be posted for anyone qualified to claim. Someone who cannot make Tuesday offers it up and a colleague takes it, with the manager approving the swap. This is on the free plan, which is unusual.

Time off requests

Staff ask for days off in the app and a manager approves or declines. On the free and Premium plans that is all it is, a request queue. Tracking what each person has left to take is a Business-plan feature in Sling.

Messaging and news

One-to-one messages, group threads and a newsfeed for announcements aimed at particular teams or sites. The pitch is that the rota and the conversation about the rota live in the same place instead of a group chat.

Clocking in

Staff clock in and out from their phones against the shift they were given. This is the line most people get wrong: it is not on the free plan. Mobile time tracking starts on Premium, and shared-device clocking starts on Business.

Labour cost and overtime

Sling shows what the published week will cost in wages and warns when somebody is heading into overtime. Comparing that against sales is the number hospitality operators actually manage to, and it arrives with Premium.

Reports for payroll

Total hours worked and wages earned, pulled out at the end of a period so somebody can run payroll from them. Reporting is a Business-tier feature in Sling, so the cheaper paid plan records hours without summarising them.

No-shows and sick calls

Marking who did not turn up and who called in sick, so the pattern is visible rather than remembered. Both are Business-plan tools in Sling, alongside PTO balances and the shared-device clock.

Pricing

What each Sling plan costs and what it includes

Two numbers per tier, because Sling advertises the yearly rate first. Monthly billing costs $2.00 and $4.00 a user. The 15% saving is what turns those into $1.70 and $3.40.

Comparison dimension	Free	Premium	Business
Per user a month, billed monthly	$0	$2.00	$4.00
Per user a month, billed yearly	$0	$1.70	$3.40
How many people it covers	Up to 30	No cap	No cap
Shift scheduling and swaps	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time off requests	Yes	Yes	Yes
Clock in from a phone	No	Yes	Yes
Labour cost and overtime	No	Yes	Yes
Shared-device clocking	No	No	Yes
Reports on hours and wages	No	No	Yes
PTO balances, not just requests	No	No	Yes
Hours against a client or project	No	No	No

Read off the Sling pricing page on 31 July 2026, where the yearly rate is shown first and the monthly rate struck through. Only one of six ranking reviews shows both prices.

Fit check

Where Sling stops being the right answer

What it is

At the point where an hour has to be charged to somebody. Sling records that a person worked a shift, which is exactly what you need to run a payslip and pay a floor team. It does not record what that hour was spent on, so it cannot tell you what a job cost, which customer owes for it, or whether the work made money. There is no client, no project and no invoice anywhere in it. That is a deliberate choice by Sling and it keeps the product cheap and simple. It just means the answer to "what did we earn on the Henderson fit-out" is not in there.

Who needs this

We make TimeTracker, so take this as read. If your question is who works Saturday, buy Sling and close this tab. We fit a narrower case: teams who charge customers for their time and need every hour to arrive attached to a client, a project and a rate that will survive being queried.

Fact sheet

Sling and TimeTracker side by side

These solve different problems. One fills a rota cheaply, the other works out what recorded time is worth. Every figure came off the vendor's own pricing page.

Sling

Cheap shift scheduling for hourly teams, now Sling by Toast. Free for 30 people, with clocking and labour cost sold on top.

Best for: Small hourly teams whose weekly job is publishing next week's rota without paying much for the tool.
Pricing: Free for up to 30 users, scheduling only. Premium is $2.00 a user a month billed monthly or $1.70 billed yearly. Business is $4.00 or $3.40. The phone clock starts on Premium; reports, PTO balances and shared-device clocking start on Business.

Free for up to 30 users
Shifts, swaps and open shifts
Time off requests
Phone clock from Premium up
Labour cost and overtime
Team messaging and newsfeed

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Best fit

TimeTracker

Time recorded against the work it paid for. Every hour lands on a client, a project and a task, so an invoice can be built from it.

Best for: Teams who charge customers for their hours, or who have to show what a job actually cost.
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 rate wherever your people work.

Hours by client, project and task
Billable time with exact and rounded kept
Approvals that lock the period
Location rules with geofence and IP
Time off with real accrual policies
Required notes on every entry

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Pros and cons

The real strengths and limits of each

We build TimeTracker, so weigh the second card accordingly. One rule governs both write-ups: strengths and limits get equal room, nothing is invented, and every price was read off the vendor's own site on the date shown.

Sling

Best for

Small hourly teams who want a working rota published this week for as close to nothing as possible.

Pricing

Free for up to 30 users with scheduling only. Premium $2.00 a user a month billed monthly, $1.70 billed yearly. Business $4.00 or $3.40. Phone clocking starts on Premium; reports, PTO balances and shared-device clocking on Business.

Checked 31 July 2026

Where it wins

A free plan that takes 30 people, far past where most free tiers stop
$2.00 a user a month for the paid tier, and $1.70 if you pay yearly
Swaps and open shifts are on the free plan, not held back for a paid one
Schedules can be built months ahead, which suits seasonal planning
Rota, messaging and announcements sit in one app staff already have

Where it falls short

The free plan has no time clock. It publishes the rota and records nothing
Reports and PTO balances are Business-tier, so hours are logged but not summarised below $4.00
The advertised $1.70 and $3.40 are yearly rates; monthly is $2.00 and $4.00
No client, project or invoice anywhere, so it cannot cost a job
Owned by Toast now, so restaurants get the roadmap first

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Teams whose hours turn into an invoice, or get questioned by the person paying it.

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

Every hour carries a client, project and task, so a job can be costed
Rounding to 6, 15 or 30 minutes keeps the exact duration too, side by side
Approved periods lock, and edits made afterwards stay on the record
Location rules can stop a clock-in from outside an allowed place, not just log it
Notes or a task can be required on every entry, so timesheets arrive complete

Where it falls short

No rota builder at all. Sling wins the whole scheduling job by default
$15 a user a month against Sling's $2.00, which is seven times the price
Free plan stops at 3 people, so a 30-person team pays from day one
Everyone signs in as themselves, and Sling's shared-device clocking has no equal here
Payroll data leaves as a CSV that somebody loads by hand

See all Sling alternatives

Which to pick

Are you filling a rota, or billing the hours?

Choose Sling when…

You need next week's shifts published by Friday.
Sling builds and sends the rota. We have no rota at all.
Thirty people and a budget of nothing.
The Sling free plan covers exactly that, minus the clock.
Staff should trade shifts among themselves.
Sling handles offers, claims and approval. We cannot.
Everyone clocks in on one tablet by the door.
Sling does shared-device clocking on Business. We do not.
Wage cost has to be visible before the week starts.
Sling prices the published rota. We never see wage rates.

Choose TimeTracker when…

Hours get charged to a customer who checks the invoice.
Every entry carries a client, a project and a task.See how
You need to know what a finished job actually cost.
Time rolls up by project, so the margin is visible.See how
You round billable time and must show the real figure.
The exact duration and the rounded one are both stored.See how
Approved hours must not change quietly later on.
The period locks on approval and later edits are recorded.See how
Leave needs real balances, not an approval queue.
Time off runs on accrual policies with opening balances.See how

FAQ

Common questions about Sling

The searches around this term are mostly staff hunting for a login, plus a lot of confusion with Sling TV. Both are answered straight below.

What is Sling?: Sling is a shift scheduling app for hourly teams, owned by Toast and now sold as Sling by Toast. Managers build and publish the week, staff read it on their phones, ask for time off, claim open shifts and trade with each other. Clocking in, wage cost and PTO balances are paid features above the free plan.
Is Sling the same as Sling TV?: No, and they are not related. Sling TV is a live television streaming service from Dish. Sling at getsling.com is employee scheduling software. Searching the bare word gets you the TV service almost every time, so add the word scheduling if the rota app is what you want.
Is Sling scheduling free?: Yes for up to 30 people, with one catch worth knowing. The free plan does scheduling, swaps, time off requests and messaging, but it has no time clock, so it publishes the week and records nothing about it. Clocking in starts on the $2.00 plan. Ours is free for up to 3 people and $15 a person after that.
How much does Sling cost?: Premium is $2.00 per user a month and Business is $4.00, billed monthly. Paying yearly saves 15% and brings those to $1.70 and $3.40, which are the numbers the pricing page shows first and most reviews repeat as though they were the monthly rate. There is a 15-day trial. Checked 31 July 2026.
Where do employees log in to Sling?: At getsling.com or in the Sling app on iPhone and Android, with the email address your manager used to invite you. Staff cannot open an account for a workplace themselves, so if the sign-in fails, ask your manager to send the invite again. There is no login on this page.
Does Sling have a time clock?: Yes, from the Premium plan up. Staff clock in and out from a phone against the shift they were rostered, and Business adds clocking from one shared device. Our time clock app works differently: it can block a punch made outside an allowed place rather than only recording where it happened.
Does Sling do payroll?: Not itself. Business-plan reports total up hours worked and wages earned so somebody can run payroll from those figures, and Toast ownership means restaurant customers get pushed toward Toast's own products. TimeTracker does not run payroll either. We export timecards, leave and balances as CSV files for whoever does.
Can Sling track time against a client or project?: No. Sling records hours against a shift and a location, which is what paying staff needs. There is no client, project or invoice in the product, so it cannot answer what a job cost or who should be billed for it. That gap is what project profitability covers here.
Who is Sling best for?: A cafe, bar, shop, clinic or small warehouse of roughly 5 to 30 hourly staff, where publishing next week matters more than anything that happens to the hours afterwards. It fits badly when the same hours have to reach a customer invoice, or when somebody outside the team will audit them later.
What are the pros and cons of Sling?: The price is the pro and it is a big one: 30 free users, then $2.00 a head. The cons are that the free plan cannot record hours, that reports and PTO balances wait until the $4.00 tier, and that nothing ties an hour to a customer. If billing is your problem, compare us in the Sling alternatives roundup, or read our explainer on When I Work.

Billing the hours, not just filling the rota?

Sling is the cheaper and better buy for covering next week, and we will not pretend otherwise. If your hours end up on a customer invoice, set up a project in TimeTracker and see what it earned. Free for up to 3 people.

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