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
Shift Scheduling Comparison
7shifts vs. Tanda
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for Australian employers with hourly staff under Modern Awards who want rosters, time and attendance, award-interpreted pay and payroll in one system.
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | 7shifts | Tanda |
|---|---|---|
| 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 12.80 dollars + GST / user / month Price for the bundle of HR, Payroll and Workforce Management. The pricing page shows a dollar sign plus GST and does not name the currency. Prices for the individual modules are given on request. |
| 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 trial set up by the vendor on request |
| 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 | Australian employers with hourly staff; the vendor names hospitality, retail, healthcare, professional services, early learning, pharmacy, clubs, franchises, quick service restaurants, restaurants and grocery |
| 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 with OAuth authorisation and webhooks |
| Hosting | Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app | Cloud, in the browser, with a mobile app and a tablet time clock app |
| Made in | Not stated | Australia |
| 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 | Rosters built from templates for a typical week or specific events, or generated from staff's regular hours; shifts are copied, pasted or dragged and named by title or team, a heads-up view shows who works, for how long and at what cost, and rosters can be planned weeks ahead. Published rosters go to staff in the app, where they accept shifts or flag a problem |
| 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 | Staff request replacements or offer to cover shifts in the app with manager approval, and vacant shifts are offered to staff by push notification. Suggested replacements are filtered by availability, by qualifications such as an RSA or blue card and by a minimum number of hours between shifts, with award-interpreted cost differences shown for each candidate |
| 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 | Staff apply for leave and unavailability in the app and see their leave balances; managers approve requests on the go in a leave planner calendar, split requests above the balance into paid and unpaid leave, add custom events to discourage or block leave in peak periods, and manage time off in lieu |
| 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 | Time Clock app that turns an Android or Apple tablet into a time clock for shift starts, finishes and breaks, plus GPS clock-ins from the mobile app that flag clock-ins away from an approved location. Timesheets are built from clock-ins, and shifts that match the roster can be auto-approved |
| 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 | Roster costs shown while the roster is built, and Live Insights with sales, wage cost and wages as a percentage of revenue through the day against expected numbers, by location. Staffing levels can be planned from historical sales, foot traffic and weather data, with sales streamed from over a dozen supported point-of-sale integrations |
| 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 | Over 30 vendor-maintained Modern Award templates and custom rules for enterprise agreements, breaks added to rosters and timesheets according to the award, minimum break durations enforced at clock-in, and roster validations that warn about overtime, qualification risks, maximum hours and days, staff rostered on leave or shifts in different locations; the vendor states that pay rates are updated after Fair Work wage rulings |
| 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 | Tanda Payroll runs pay inside the same system, including STP filing and superannuation contributions; award-interpreted timesheets and leave also export to ADP, Xero, Ascender, Attache, iPayroll, iChris, Ready Pay, WageEasy, Aurion and TriniTEQ |
| 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 | Push notifications for shifts that need filling and for pending requests, shift reminders with multiple alerts, announcements with acknowledgement requests and attached documents, and manager notifications when staff are late, work past their finish time, go into unexpected overtime or miss a required break |
| 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 at my.tanda.co, the Tanda mobile app for staff and managers, and a separate Time Clock app for Android and Apple tablets from Google Play and the App Store |
| 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 | REST API (v2) with OAuth authorisation code or personal access tokens, covering rosters, schedules, shifts, timesheets, leave, availability, clock-ins, payroll and users, with webhooks and code samples on GitHub; integrations with payroll, point-of-sale and HR systems such as ADP, Xero, Square, Lightspeed, SwiftPOS, Redcat and ELMO |
| AI features | stated Yes | No |
| MCP-ready | stated Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Not stated |
| Integrations | Not stated | ADP, Xero, Ascender, Attache, iPayroll, iChris, Ready Pay, WageEasy, Aurion, TriniTEQ, Beam, Square, Lightspeed, Vend, SwiftPOS, Redcat, Impos, Doshii, Tenzo, Peiso, Tip Sheet, vSure, WorkJam, ELMO, ROLLER, Kidsoft, Allara Global, etrainu, Paytime |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
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 Tanda From 12.80 dollars + GST / 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 Tanda Free trial set up by the vendor on request
- Hosting 7shifts Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app Tanda Cloud, in the browser, with a mobile app and a tablet time clock app
- AI features 7shifts Yes Tanda No
- MCP-ready 7shifts Yes Tanda 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
Tanda
Strengths
- Rostering, timesheets, payroll and HR bundled from 12.80 dollars plus GST per user per month
- Over 30 Modern Award templates maintained by the vendor's compliance team
- Replacement suggestions filtered by availability, qualifications and rest time between shifts, with cost differences shown
- Documented REST API with OAuth and webhooks
Limitations
- Prices for the individual modules are only given on request
- The pricing page does not name the currency of its dollar price
- No self-serve trial; a free trial is arranged through the vendor
- Award templates and payroll are built around Australian Fair Work rules
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.
Tanda
- HR + Payroll + Workforce Management 12.80 dollars + GST / user / month All three modules in one discounted subscription.
- Workforce Management Not stated Rosters, time and attendance and leave. Price on request.
- Payroll Not stated Pay runs from timesheets, entitlements and STP filing. Price on request.
- HR Not stated Hiring, onboarding and staff records. Price on request.
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.
Tanda
- 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
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
7shifts https://www.7shifts.com · checked against the official source on 2026-11-05
Tanda https://www.tanda.co · checked against the official source on 2026-11-07
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.