Papershift vs. Shiftbase

At a glance

Best for

Best for small and medium-sized businesses with shift-based staff who want rotas, clock-ins, absences and a DATEV or LODAS payroll export in one cloud system.

Small and mid-sized

Shiftbase

Best for

Best for shift-based businesses in the Netherlands and Germany that want scheduling, clocking in and a payroll-ready export in one tool.

Small and mid-sized

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

Full Comparison

Criterion	Papershift	Shiftbase
Starting price	Not stated	Free up to 15 employees; Basic from €30 / month Basic, billed monthly, includes 6 employees and charges €4 a month for each additional one; Premium is €75 a month for 12 employees plus €5.25 each. Yearly billing saves 10% and lowers the extra-employee rate to €3.60 (Basic) and €4.73 (Premium). Enterprise includes 48 employees and is priced on request. Prices are also shown in GBP; App Center+ is a €20 monthly add-on.
Free trial	14-day free trial of all features	14-day free trial of the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees
Users	Small and medium-sized businesses with shift-based work; the vendor names hospitality, healthcare, retail and production	Shift-based businesses; the vendor names restaurants and bars, hotels, retail, care, recreation and transport
API	Public API documented at developers.papershift.com; access is activated on request	API tokens through the App Center+ add-on, included on Enterprise
Hosting	Cloud, in the browser, with the Plan app for Android and iOS and a time clock app for iPad and Android tablets; the pricing page lists GDPR-compliant data storage with EU hosting	Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android
Made in	Germany	Netherlands
Shift planning and templates	Online roster across locations, departments and teams, with shifts created in the calendar, recurring shifts, copied weeks, work schedules and a required number of employees per shift. The pricing page lists rule-based automatic shift allocation from Premium and fully automated roster allocation in Professional; the help article on automatic assignment names the Professional package and uses availabilities, target hours and working areas	Drag-and-drop scheduling on every plan, with one department and five teams on Free, five departments and unlimited teams on Basic, and unlimited departments on Premium. Premium adds auto-scheduling that fills the required shifts for several departments and locations up to a month ahead as a draft to review, required-shift targets per team and day, and skill-based scheduling.
Shift swaps and open shifts	Employees apply for open shifts in the Plan app, and assign themselves where the planner allows it. Assigned shifts can be released for trading to colleagues in the same working area who are free at that time, who are notified by email; if the colleague already has a shift then, an admin makes the trade	On Basic, shift swaps and open shifts that staff can claim; Premium adds a flexpool of people who can be pulled into any location when gaps appear
Availability and time off	Employees enter one-off or recurring availabilities in the calendar, which planners see while scheduling. Absence requests for holidays, sick days and other absence types go through approval processes, with vacation entitlements, a team absence calendar, alerts on overlapping absences and blocked holiday periods; the pricing page lists blackout periods in Professional	On Basic, staff availability and absence management with requests, approvals and balances
Time clock and attendance	Clock-ins through a time clock app on iPad and Android tablets with PIN, signature or IP authentication, a browser time clock and the mobile app, synchronised in real time. Timesheets are created from the roster or from clock-in times, can carry job or client names, and are edited and approved under custom user rights	Manual time tracking with manager approval on Free; Basic adds clocking in and out on mobile, desktop or one shared kiosk device with a personal PIN, and Premium adds clock locations with geofencing and unlimited kiosks
Labour cost and forecasting	A reports module for custom reports such as sick leave hours per month, hours worked per shift type or staff costs per project, and an Insights add-on that shows Papershift data in graphical reports	On Basic, performance insights on turnover, productivity, average wage and labour cost per department and team. Premium adds a labour cost target checked while the schedule is built, budget management with a labour cost or hours target per team and day, a KPI dashboard with trends and period comparison, and an AI forecast of next week's busyness from the business's own turnover data, which can come back from the POS.
Breaks, overtime and labour rules	Custom rules for overtime and required rest periods, employee-specific break rules and an automatic break feature, scheduled against contracted hours, maximum weekly or monthly hours, and warning notifications for back-to-back scheduling. Advanced break logic is listed from Premium	On Basic, surcharges for a whole day such as Sundays or public holidays and tracking of German minijob hour thresholds; Premium adds surcharges for part of a day such as night or evening rates. Compliance+, which checks every shift against the working-hours rules of the employee's contract type, is announced as coming soon as an add-on at €0.50 per employee a month, with custom rulesets on Enterprise.
Payroll export and integration	Professional calculates pay types and allowances such as night, Sunday and public holiday supplements and exports to DATEV and LODAS with a flexible payroll period. A payroll add-on calculates wages including bonuses from tracked time, and the vendor names a monthly report to import into payroll software	On Basic, a payroll export of contract versus worked hours, surcharges and leave payouts as Excel or CSV; payroll integrations such as Nmbrs, Loket, AFAS, Exact Online and DATEV through the App Center+ add-on
Team messaging and notifications	Published rotas are sent to employees with an optional message, individual working times go out by email, and saving a shift can notify everyone assigned to it. Shift trades send email notifications, and a Slack integration shares information about shifts and absences	News messages for announcements to the whole team on every plan; a Chat add-on with one-to-one chats and group chats per location, per department or custom is listed with its price still to be determined
Platforms and mobile app	Web app in current Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge on Windows, Mac and Linux, the Plan app for Android and iOS, and a time clock app for iPad and Android tablets	Web app, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and a kiosk mode on a tablet, laptop or phone for clocking in
Integrations and API	Public API with endpoints for absences, absence types, accounts, availabilities, evaluations, locations, payrolls, shifts, shift assignments, tags, target hours, time tracking, uploads, users, vacation entitlements and working areas, with rate limiting; it is activated on request. Integrations listed in the marketplace include Personio, CharlieHR, bookingkit, FareHarbor, EasySecure, sevdesk and Slack, plus Google Calendar, Outlook and iCal links	Basic includes three integrations (Datafox, Mplus and Connexie); the App Center+ add-on at €20 a month opens every App Center integration across payroll, HR such as Personio and POS such as Lightspeed, plus API tokens. Enterprise includes App Center+, API access and custom integrations against the Shiftbase API.
AI features	Yes	Yes
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat	Chat, Email helpdesk
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Guided onboarding
Company size	Small and mid-sized	Small and mid-sized
Integrations	more entries Personio, CharlieHR, bookingkit, FareHarbor, EasySecure, curaMED, Opushero, Oneteam, sevdesk, Slack, DATEV, LODAS, Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal	Nmbrs, Loket, AFAS Software, Exact Online, DATEV, Personio, Lightspeed, Datafox, Mplus, Connexie

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

Free trial Papershift 14-day free trial of all features Shiftbase 14-day free trial of the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees
Hosting Papershift Cloud, in the browser, with the Plan app for Android and iOS and a time clock app for iPad and Android tablets; the pricing page lists GDPR-compliant data storage with EU hosting Shiftbase Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android
Support Papershift Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat Shiftbase Chat, Email helpdesk
Made in Papershift Germany Shiftbase Netherlands
Users Papershift Small and medium-sized businesses with shift-based work; the vendor names hospitality, healthcare, retail and production Shiftbase Shift-based businesses; the vendor names restaurants and bars, hotels, retail, care, recreation and transport

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

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Papershift

Strengths

Shift planning, time tracking, absences and payroll preparation in one cloud system
Time clock app for iPad and Android tablets with PIN, signature or IP authentication
DATEV and LODAS payroll export in the Professional plan
Documented public API covering shifts, time tracking, absences and payrolls

Limitations

A monthly base fee of 39 euros applies on top of every plan
The English pricing page shows the per-employee amounts with a dollar sign while the base fee is stated in euros
Automated roster allocation and the DATEV export are limited to the upper plans
API access is activated through a request to the vendor rather than self-serve

Shiftbase

Strengths

Free plan for up to 15 employees with drag-and-drop scheduling and the mobile app
Payroll export separates contract and worked hours, surcharges and leave payouts
Hours go to Dutch and German payroll such as Nmbrs, AFAS and DATEV through App Center+
Monthly billing, or 10% off for yearly billing

Limitations

Most integrations and API access need the App Center+ add-on at €20 a month
Clocking in needs the Basic plan; on Free, hours are logged manually
Automatic checks against working-hours rules are announced as coming soon
Shiftbase Academy courses are available in Dutch and German only

Plans

Pricing

Papershift

Core Not stated Per employee per month plus the monthly base fee. Digital time tracking via smartphone, tablet or browser, absence management, target hours, employee profiles and self-service, document management, employee-specific break rules and EU hosting.
Premium Not stated Per employee per month plus the monthly base fee. All Core features, plus digital rota planning, rule-based automatic shift allocation, custom working time models, multi-site planning and advanced break logic.
Professional Not stated Per employee per month plus the monthly base fee. All Premium features, plus fully automated roster allocation, holiday blackout periods, roster confirmation workflows, timesheet processing, pay types and allowances, DATEV and LODAS export, custom reports, an audit trail and location templates.
Enterprise Not stated Individual offer for larger companies, with tailored modules, integration through the open API and personal onboarding.

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Shiftbase

Free €0 / month Up to 15 employees, one department and five teams. Drag-and-drop scheduling, manual time tracking, employee profiles, news messages and the mobile app.
Basic €30 / month Billed monthly, includes 6 employees, €4 a month for each additional one (€3.60 billed yearly). Adds availability, shift swaps and open shifts, clocking in, absence management, basic performance insights, payroll export, day surcharges, minijob contracts, three integrations and one kiosk.
Premium €75 / month Billed monthly, includes 12 employees, €5.25 a month for each additional one (€4.73 billed yearly). Adds auto-scheduling, labour cost insights, KPI dashboard, part-day surcharges, budget management, AI forecast, skill-based scheduling, required shifts, flexpool, geofencing, custom fields and unlimited kiosks.
Enterprise Not stated On request, includes 48 employees. Adds App Center+, API access, custom integrations, a dedicated success manager and personalised onboarding; Compliance+ and custom compliance rulesets are announced as coming soon.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Papershift

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.

Shiftbase

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

Papershift https://www.papershift.com/en · checked against the official source on 2026-11-08

Shiftbase https://www.shiftbase.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.