7shifts vs. Sling

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

Sling

Best for

Best for restaurants, shops and other hourly teams that schedule by shift and want labour costs in view while they plan.

Small and mid-sized

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

Full Comparison

Criterion	7shifts	Sling
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.	Free up to 30 users; from $1.70 / user / month Premium is $1.70 per user per month billed annually or $2.00 billed monthly; Business is $3.40 annually or $4.00 monthly. Paid plans charge only for active users and prorate anyone deactivated.
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	Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
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	Hourly teams in restaurants, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, call centres, caregiving, entertainment, emergency services and non-profits
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	Yes, a REST API documented at api.getsling.com
Hosting	Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app	Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
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	Shift scheduling, shift templates and long-term scheduling on the free plan; Premium adds reusable weekly schedule templates and day parts, and Business assigns shifts automatically
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	Available shifts and shift offers on the free plan; Premium adds shift swaps and slots on available shifts, and Business adds shift acceptance
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	Time-off requests on the free plan; Premium adds unavailability so schedules follow staff availability, and Business adds PTO management
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	A mobile time clock on Premium and a kiosk clock on a shared device on Business, with timesheets, timesheet approvals and edit history, geofencing, early clock-in prevention, auto clock-out, break attestation, and tracking of no-shows, sick call-outs and late arrivals
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	Labour cost management against sales and budgeting while scheduling from Premium; Business imports projected sales data to compare with actual sales and adds labour reports
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	From Premium: mandatory meal and rest breaks applied to shifts, break attestation, overtime tracking, premium pay for missed breaks and clopening rules for mandated rest between shifts; Business adds holiday pay
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 reports on the Business plan that aggregate and sync hours for payroll processing, including sync to Toast Payroll
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	Private messaging, announcements, news sharing and shift alarms that remind staff of upcoming shifts on the free plan; Premium adds group messaging and SMS shift alarms, and Business BCC messages and newsfeed restrictions
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, iOS and Android, with mobile time tracking from Premium and a kiosk clock on a shared device on Business
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	Point-of-sale and payroll integrations with Toast, Square, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager and POSiTouch, calendar synchronisation, and a REST API documented at api.getsling.com
AI features	stated Yes	No
MCP-ready	stated Yes	No
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	Not stated	Email helpdesk
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials
Company size	more entries Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Small and mid-sized
Integrations	Not stated	Toast, Square, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager, POSiTouch

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 Sling Free up to 30 users; from $1.70 / user / 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 Sling Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
Company size 7shifts Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Sling Small and mid-sized
Hosting 7shifts Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app Sling Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
AI features 7shifts Yes Sling No

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

Sling

Strengths

Shift scheduling is free for up to 30 users
Labour costs shown against sales while the schedule is being built
Point-of-sale integrations sync employees, timesheets and sales data
Only active users are billed, with proration when someone leaves

Limitations

Time tracking needs a paid plan; the free plan covers scheduling and communication
Kiosk time clock and reports are limited to the Business plan
No client invoicing or project-based time tracking

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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Sling

Free $0 Up to 30 users. Shift scheduling, time-off requests, available shifts, long-term scheduling, news sharing and private messaging.
Premium $1.70 / user / month Billed annually, or $2.00 billed monthly. Adds mobile time tracking, labour cost management, overtime tracking, group messaging and calendar synchronisation.
Business $3.40 / user / month Billed annually, or $4.00 billed monthly. Adds kiosk time tracking, reports on hours and wages, no-show and sick call-out tracking and PTO management.

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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.

Sling

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.

Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.

What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.

A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.

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

Sling https://www.getsling.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-27

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