7shifts vs. Humanity Schedule

At a glance

Best for

Best for restaurants, from a single cafe to multi-location groups and franchises, that schedule front and back of house against sales and labor laws.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Humanity Schedule

Best for

Best for organisations with frontline shift workers that need schedules checked against labour rules, from a single site to many locations.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	7shifts	Humanity Schedule
Starting price	Free for 1 location and up to 15 employees Comp is the free plan. The paid plans are Essentials (up to 30 employees, unlimited locations), Pro and Premium (unlimited employees and locations), paid monthly or annually; companies that joined before July 2, 2025 keep the earlier plans Entrée, The Works and Gourmet.	From $2.75 / employee / month Essentials plan for up to 250 employees, billed annually. Professional starts at $3.75 per employee a month billed annually, with volume discounts; Enterprise is quoted on request. The vendor states annual billing saves 20% against monthly billing. Managers and administrators with a login count as employees, and employees added mid-term are prorated.
Free trial	14-day free trial with access to the features of The Works plan, no credit card needed; afterwards the free Comp plan or a paid plan	30-day free trial of the Professional plan, no contract or credit card required
Users	Quick-service and full-service restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, bars and breweries, pizzerias, bakeries, juice bars, pubs, caterers, franchises and multi-location groups	Organisations scheduling frontline staff in shifts; TCP names healthcare, manufacturing, business services, hospitality, retail, construction, education, public safety and government
API	Yes, a REST API at api.7shifts.com/v2 with OAuth for partners, webhooks and a read-only MCP server; API access depends on the plan	Open API, available as an add-on on the Professional and Enterprise plans
Hosting	Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app	Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android
Shift planning and templates	Drag-and-drop schedule builder with availability and time off shown while planning, unlimited customisable templates per role, season or location, any published schedule reusable as a template, and auto-fill of shifts from past schedules and availability	Drag-and-drop schedules in daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly views, filtered by department, location, date and position, with schedule templates, one-click publishing and unlimited schedules and locations on every plan. Professional adds auto-fill of empty shifts by availability, skills and labour rules, re-assignment of vacant shifts by seniority or weekly hours, and Demand Scheduler, which builds a schedule from a forecast; shift tasks are an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise.
Shift swaps and open shifts	Shift Pool lets employees offer up shifts or pick up open ones, with manager approval on every change, and shows which staff are available to cover sick, late or no-show shifts	Employees swap, pick up, release and drop shifts with automatic or manual manager approval, request coverage from colleagues and pick up full or partial open shifts in the app or by text. A released shift or a last-minute callout can start AI-assisted backfill, which ranks replacements by availability, pay, location and workload and sends SMS offers in phases until someone accepts.
Availability and time off	Employees submit availability changes and time-off requests in the app, managers approve them from anywhere, and PTO and sick time are tracked for scheduling and payroll	Employees set ad-hoc or recurring availability and request time off from the mobile app; managers see upcoming time off, leave balances and pending approvals, with custom leave types on every plan
Time clock and attendance	Clocking in and out with the 7punches app on a smartphone or a tablet at the restaurant, break and approaching-overtime notifications, timesheet approval, punch audit reports of missed clock-ins and timesheet edits, and a live view of who is clocked in	Clock-in and clock-out for shifts and breaks on the mobile app, timesheets for every employee, and geofencing with GPS location tracking on every plan; the app also offers webcam capture and passwords for clock-in security, and a dashboard shows who is clocked in, late or on leave
Labour cost and forecasting	AI sales forecasting from historical sales and labor data to predict staffing needs, labor budgets set and tracked while scheduling, and real-time labor against sales once a POS is connected	On Professional, a budget view compares the daily and weekly hours and cost of scheduled shifts with a budget, Demand Scheduler forecasts demand from uploaded historical data, a staffing checker compares coverage with demand by hour and position, and an HPPD scheduler compares scheduled nursing hours with targets. Labor Optimizer, an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise, combines clocked hours with upcoming shifts to project weekly hours and cost and flag potential overtime, with optional daily email or SMS alerts.
Breaks, overtime and labour rules	Real-time alerts for local labor law violations while scheduling, required breaks set up and enforced, overtime alerts, fair workweek support for California, DC, Nevada, New York and Philadelphia, scheduling restrictions for minors under 16 and 18, tracking of expired certifications, and tip credit calculations and reporting	On Professional, a rules engine with built-in or custom policies, paid and unpaid meal and rest breaks, minor rules synced with school calendars, Fair Workweek guardrails for advance notice and right-to-rest, overtime thresholds based on FLSA, state or industry rules, skills and certifications, a conflict checker before and after assignment, and event logs of every schedule edit and request
Payroll export and integration	Approved punches and tips exported to the existing payroll provider, or paid through 7shifts Payroll, with tip pooling fed by synced sales and time data and on-demand pay offered alongside	Payroll export of timesheets on every plan; HRIS and HCM integration that syncs scheduling data, employee details and leave balances is an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise, with ADP, Oracle, Workday and BambooHR named
Team messaging and notifications	Direct and group messaging with attachments, one-way announcements with read receipts, automated reminders for shifts, breaks and tasks, a manager log book, task management, shift feedback and training videos sent through the app	SMS, email and in-app notifications for published schedules, changes and shift assignments, shift reminders 1 or 24 hours before a shift, a message wall for announcements and events, and messages to employees; Professional adds employee communications
Platforms and mobile app	Web app, a free mobile app for managers and employees, and the 7punches time clock app on a smartphone or a tablet at the location	Web app plus mobile apps for iOS and Android, also compatible with Apple Watch
Integrations and API	Integrations with POS, payroll, analytics, hiring, back office and training tools; a REST API at api.7shifts.com/v2 for sales, time punches, employees, schedules and reports, with webhooks, an embed SDK, OAuth for partners with endpoint access tied to the plan, and a public read-only MCP server	Open API as an add-on on Professional and Enterprise for custom solutions; payroll export on every plan and HRIS/HCM integration from Professional, with ADP, Oracle, Workday and BambooHR named
AI features	Yes	Yes
MCP-ready	stated Yes	No
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	Not stated	Email helpdesk, Phone
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	Not stated
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	Not stated	ADP, Oracle, Workday, BambooHR

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price 7shifts Free for 1 location and up to 15 employees Humanity Schedule From $2.75 / employee / month
Free trial 7shifts 14-day free trial with access to the features of The Works plan, no credit card needed; afterwards the free Comp plan or a paid plan Humanity Schedule 30-day free trial of the Professional plan, no contract or credit card required
Hosting 7shifts Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app Humanity Schedule Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android
MCP-ready 7shifts Yes Humanity Schedule No
Users 7shifts Quick-service and full-service restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, bars and breweries, pizzerias, bakeries, juice bars, pubs, caterers, franchises and multi-location groups Humanity Schedule Organisations scheduling frontline staff in shifts; TCP names healthcare, manufacturing, business services, hospitality, retail, construction, education, public safety and government

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

7shifts

Strengths

Free Comp plan for one location and up to 15 employees
14-day free trial with no credit card needed
Fair workweek support for California, DC, Nevada, New York and Philadelphia
Scheduling, time clocking, tip pooling and payroll in one platform
Public MCP server and a documented REST API with webhooks

Limitations

Built for restaurants; the product pages, templates and tip features address food service
Comp is limited to one location and Essentials to 30 employees
The MCP server is read-only and exposes GET endpoints only
API endpoint access for partner integrations depends on the customer's plan

Humanity Schedule

Strengths

30-day free trial of the Professional plan, with no contract or credit card required
Essentials includes clocking in with geofencing and payroll export
AI-assisted backfill sends SMS shift offers to ranked replacements until one accepts
Rules for breaks, minors, Fair Workweek notice and FLSA overtime thresholds on Professional

Limitations

Auto-fill, demand forecasting, labour budgeting and compliance rules need the Professional plan
Open API access is an add-on, and HRIS/HCM integration is an add-on below Enterprise
Essentials is limited to 250 employees
Enterprise pricing is quoted on request

Plans

Pricing

7shifts

Comp Free 1 location and up to 15 employees.
Essentials Not stated Up to 30 employees and unlimited locations.
Pro Not stated Unlimited employees and locations.
Premium Not stated Unlimited employees and locations.

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Humanity Schedule

Essentials $2.75 / employee / month Billed annually, for up to 250 employees. Drag-and-drop scheduling, shift swaps, availability and time off, multiple locations, notifications, clock-in with geofencing, basic reporting, payroll export, mobile apps and 24/7/365 customer support.
Professional $3.75 / employee / month Starting price, billed annually; volume discounts may apply. Adds auto-fill and demand-based scheduling, employee communications, compliance rules, labour cost and budgeting, skills and certifications, advanced reporting and SSO/SAML. Shift Tasks, Labor Optimizer and Open API access are add-ons.
Enterprise Not stated Custom quote. Adds Shift Tasks, Labor Optimizer and HCM integrations; Open API access is an add-on.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

7shifts

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

Humanity Schedule

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

How we check reviews

Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.

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Read the full version on our methodology page

Where this comes from

7shifts https://www.7shifts.com · checked against the official source on 2026-11-05

Humanity Schedule https://tcpsoftware.com/products/humanity/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-06

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.