7shifts Review

7shifts prices by the restaurant, not by the head, which is the right model for a kitchen that doubles its roster every summer and the wrong one for a four-person coffee cart. Toolradar data: 7shifts is the joint second most-listed alternative among the 56 food and restaurant tools in Toolradar's October 2026 ranking, the software directory we run, and its directory page lists it as freemium.

This review prices Comp, Essentials, Pro and Premium against Homebase, Sling, Deputy and When I Work, and works the bill for a 25-person site and a three-location group. Every price was read on the vendor's own pages in October 2026.

7shifts is a restaurant team platform built around the shift schedule. It bundles scheduling, a time clock, labor compliance, team chat, a manager log book, task lists, tip pooling and payouts, hiring and onboarding, training, and a US payroll add-on. The vendor sells it to bakeries, bars, cafes, pizzerias, quick service and multi-location groups, and the feature names on the site reflect that: Manager Log Book, Tip Management, Labor Compliance, On-Demand Pay.

Unlike Deputy or When I Work, which are general-purpose per-user schedulers, 7shifts assumes front of house and back of house, tip pools and POS sales data. That focus is the reason to pick it, and the reason a non-restaurant team should look at our shift scheduling software ranking instead.

Sign-up opens a 14-day trial of the Pro plan with no credit card, and when the trial ends the account drops to the free Comp plan or to a paid plan the owner chooses. 7shifts bills monthly or annually by credit card, with ACH on request. A customer who cancels pays the current month and nothing more, unless they signed an enterprise term agreement.

The Comp plan is where most owners start: one location, up to 15 employees, basic scheduling and one-way announcements. The daily loop is short. Build the schedule from a template, publish it to the mobile app, let staff swap shifts and request time off, then approve timesheets before they go to payroll. Franchises and groups can ask for a negotiated plan, which 7shifts says it offers but does not price.

7shifts lists four plans per location per month in USD, with the annual rate about 10% below the monthly rate: Comp free, Essentials $44.99 monthly, Pro $89.99 monthly and Premium $149.99 monthly, with the annual figures in the table. Prices were read in October 2026 on the 7shifts pricing page and its own comparison pages, and the payroll rate on the vendor's payroll guidance, which also states the 14-day Pro trial.

Scenario one, a single restaurant with 25 staff that needs a clock: Essentials on annual billing is $479.88 a year, and on monthly billing $539.88. At that headcount Homebase Essentials costs $30 a month, Sling Business $85 ($3.40 per user on annual billing), When I Work Pro $125 and Deputy Core $162.50. 7shifts sits second on price and first on restaurant features.

Scenario two, a three-location group with 40 staff per site that runs payroll through 7shifts: Pro on annual billing is $239.97 a month for the three sites, and payroll adds three location fees and 120 employee fees, $839.97, for roughly $1,080 a month before tip management. The same group on Homebase Essentials would pay $90 for scheduling and $49 + $720 for payroll, about $859 a month, with fewer restaurant-specific tools.

Three gotchas move the bill. The 30-employee cap on Essentials doubles the per-location price at the 31st hire. Add-ons are per location, so a three-site group pays Tip Management three times. And the payroll fee counts employees paid, not employees scheduled, so seasonal staff on the books push it up. Competitor prices come from the Homebase, Sling, When I Work and Deputy pricing pages. Methodology: list prices checked on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026, in USD before tax, with the scenario arithmetic shown.

Buy 7shifts for a US restaurant with 16 to 30 staff on one address, or for a group whose sites each run above 30 and fit Pro's 60-employee cap, or Premium's unlimited headcount above that. The per-location model rewards big rosters, and the tip, log book and compliance modules are the ones a general scheduler does not have.

Skip it for a site of 15 or fewer that needs a time clock, because Comp lists only basic scheduling and the step to a paid tier is the full location rate. Homebase Basic is free for one location and up to 10 people with a clock included, and Sling is free for up to 30 users for scheduling alone. Our free employee scheduling apps ranking covers that bracket.

A team that is not a restaurant should also pass. The modules are built around POS tips, front and back of house and labor laws for hourly food service. For a clinic, a retail chain or a cleaning company, Deputy or When I Work price per head and carry fewer unused modules; our Homebase vs Deputy head to head covers that choice.