Free Employee Scheduling Apps in 2026

In our check, most tools that market free scheduling are a trial with a free label. The rota is the part vendors give away first and charge for later, so a manager can build a week of shifts and then meet a paywall when the team grows.

This guide splits eight tools into two groups: three that list a free plan and five that offer only a trial.

We count a tool as free when its pricing page lists a free plan, not a trial.

Hrpresso data: of the eight tools we priced for this page (n = 8), three list a free plan that keeps scheduling on, and each one caps the staff count or the locations.

Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks the same tools, for example Sling and Homebase.

Methodology: we checked each vendor's own pricing page on 10 October 2026, recorded the staff cap, the location cap and the features each free tier includes, and priced the first paid step in US dollars where the vendor publishes them.

Where a page publishes only pounds, we say so rather than convert. If you need clock-ins more than a rota, read our free time clock guide instead.

Free employee scheduling software lets a manager build a weekly rota, publish it to staff phones, and handle shift swaps and open shifts without a spreadsheet. The word free covers three different offers: a free plan with a cap on people or locations, a trial that ends in a paid plan, and a free tier that covers clock-ins while scheduling costs more.

This guide counts only the first as free.

The other two are shown so you can spot them before you sign up. For the wider set of rota and shift tools, see our time clock software guide and shift scheduling guide.

A trial is the quickest way to waste a week. You build the rota, load your staff, and the bill arrives the day the trial ends, when the schedule is already live for your people. A capped free plan works differently: you know the ceiling before you start.

A 10-person cap is fine for a six-person cafe and a blocker for a 12-person one.

Pick by headcount and location count first, then by features. Our free applicant tracking guide makes the same split between trials and real free tiers in hiring software.

Three free plans exist in this group: Sling's Free plan for up to 30 users, Homebase's Basic plan for up to 10 employees at one location, and Connecteam's Small Business plan for up to 10 users. The other five publish only trial periods.

Deputy and When I Work list dollar prices, while Planday, Rotacloud and Shiftie publish pound prices only.

Prices checked on 10 October 2026 on Sling pricing, Homebase pricing, Connecteam pricing, Deputy pricing, When I Work pricing, Planday pricing, Rotacloud pricing and Shiftie pricing.

Sling for a team of up to 30 that needs a rota and open shifts at no cost, with clock-in added later on Premium.

Homebase for one site of up to 10 employees that also wants clock-in on a shared tablet.

Connecteam for up to 10 users that run one schedule and need real-time clock in and out.

Skip the trial-only tools unless you have a fixed evaluation window.

If you are choosing a whole HR stack rather than a rota, our HRIS guide for small businesses covers the core HR side, and our applicant tracking guide covers hiring.