Papershift vs. Sling

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

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	Papershift	Sling
Starting price	Not stated	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 of all features	Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
Users	Small and medium-sized businesses with shift-based work; the vendor names hospitality, healthcare, retail and production	Hourly teams in restaurants, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, call centres, caregiving, entertainment, emergency services and non-profits
API	Public API documented at developers.papershift.com; access is activated on request	Yes, a REST API documented at api.getsling.com
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, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
Made in	Germany	Not stated
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	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	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	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 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	Time-off requests on the free plan; Premium adds unavailability so schedules follow staff availability, and Business adds PTO management
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	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	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	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	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	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	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	Payroll reports on the Business plan that aggregate and sync hours for payroll processing, including sync to Toast Payroll
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	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 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, iOS and Android, with mobile time tracking from Premium and a kiosk clock on a shared device on Business
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	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
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat	Email helpdesk
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials
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	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

Free trial Papershift 14-day free trial of all features Sling Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
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 Sling Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
Support Papershift Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat Sling Email helpdesk
AI features Papershift Yes Sling No
Users Papershift Small and medium-sized businesses with shift-based work; the vendor names hospitality, healthcare, retail and production Sling Hourly teams in restaurants, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, call centres, caregiving, entertainment, emergency services and non-profits

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

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

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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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

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.

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.

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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

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.