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. ZoomShift
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for small businesses with hourly staff that want a free or low-cost schedule, time clock and team chat in one app.
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | 7shifts | ZoomShift |
|---|---|---|
| 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 plan; Starter from 2 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, counting managers and employees. Starter is 2 US dollars billed annually or 2.50 US dollars billed monthly; Premium is 4 US dollars billed annually or 5 US dollars billed monthly. The free Essentials plan covers up to 20 users at one location. |
| 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 | 14-day free trial of all features, no credit card required; free Essentials plan for up to 20 users |
| 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 | Businesses with hourly employees; the vendor names retail, restaurants, food and beverage, hospitality, services and healthcare |
| 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 | Not stated |
| Hosting | Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app | Cloud, in the browser, with free iPhone and Android apps |
| Made in | Not stated | United States |
| 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 schedule with shift and scheduling templates, copying of weekly schedules, positions and locations, shift notes and private manager notes; the free plan schedules up to two weeks ahead at one location, Starter removes those limits |
| 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 | Shift cover requests and swaps from the Starter plan, with every qualified team member notified and an optional manager approval step; open shifts can be offered to the team |
| 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 set availability preferences and request time off from the Starter plan, with a PTO tracker that tallies accrued and used balances |
| 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 on phone or computer and a kiosk mode with PIN, feeding timesheets with breaks tracked; Premium adds a geofenced time clock, blocking of early and late clock-ins, and a schedule versus timesheets report |
| 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 | Real-time labour costs including overtime and gross pay, a comparison of scheduled and actual hours and costs, and labour cost forecasting from schedules planned ahead |
| 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 | Paid or unpaid breaks calculated into timesheet totals, and on Premium overtime warnings, custom overtime per employee, blocking of overtime, and prevention of overlaps between shifts, availability and time off |
| 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 | A customisable payroll report on the Starter plan, with timesheets exported as a CSV for use in other payroll software |
| 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 | Shift reminders and schedule changes by email, text and push notification, shift confirmation, and a team chat with group and direct messages, file sharing and read status |
| 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, free iPhone and Android apps for managers and staff, a kiosk time clock, and calendar app sync on the Starter plan |
| 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 | Not stated |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| MCP-ready | stated Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding, Live online demos and webinars |
| Company size | more entries Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price 7shifts Free for 1 location and up to 15 employees ZoomShift Free plan; Starter from 2 US dollars / 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 ZoomShift 14-day free trial of all features, no credit card required; free Essentials plan for up to 20 users
- Company size 7shifts Small and mid-sized, Enterprise ZoomShift Small and mid-sized
- Hosting 7shifts Cloud, on the web with a free mobile app and the 7punches time clock app ZoomShift Cloud, in the browser, with free iPhone and Android apps
- MCP-ready 7shifts Yes ZoomShift 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
ZoomShift
Strengths
- Free plan for up to 20 users
- 14-day trial of all features with no credit card
- Subscriptions can be paused for months when the schedule is not needed
- No cancellation fee or minimum contract, by the vendor's FAQ
Limitations
- Timesheets, the time clock, shift swaps and time off need a paid plan
- Geofencing and overtime warnings are limited to the Premium plan
- No named payroll provider integration; hours leave as a CSV export
- The scheduling FAQ says there is no auto-scheduling, while the pricing page lists it on Premium
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.
ZoomShift
- Essentials 0 US dollars / user / month Free up to 20 users. Employee schedule, team communication, automatic reminders, shift notes and confirmation, unlimited positions, scheduling up to 2 weeks ahead, 1 location.
- Starter 2 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, billed annually, or 2.50 US dollars billed monthly. Unlimited users and locations, templates, availability and time off, shift swaps, timesheets and time clock, payroll report, calendar sync, PTO and break tracking.
- Premium 4 US dollars / user / month Per active team member, billed annually, or 5 US dollars billed monthly. Adds auto-scheduling, overtime warnings, geofenced time clock, schedule versus timesheets, change history, custom role permissions, priority support and personalised onboarding.
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.
ZoomShift
- 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
ZoomShift https://www.zoomshift.com/ · 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.