Best for
Best for UK businesses with shift-based staff that want rota planning, holiday and absence in one tool and payroll handed to their existing software.
- Small and mid-sized
Shift Scheduling Comparison
RotaCloud vs. Sling
At a glance
At a glance
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 | RotaCloud | Sling |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From £10 / month Standard plan for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £120 a year billed yearly. The price rises with the number of employees, counting all users, admins and managers; above 500 employees the vendor quotes a custom price. Time & Attendance and SMS notifications are add-ons. | 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 | 30-day free trial, no payment information required | Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans |
| Users | Growing businesses with shift-based staff; the vendor names restaurants, cafes and bars, hotels, care homes, retail, healthcare, dental practices, vets, leisure, security services and professional services | Hourly teams in restaurants, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, call centres, caregiving, entertainment, emergency services and non-profits |
| API | Yes, a REST API with bearer-token authentication and webhooks | Yes, a REST API documented at api.getsling.com |
| Hosting | Cloud, in the browser, with free mobile apps | Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps |
| Made in | United Kingdom | Not stated |
| Shift planning and templates | Drag-and-drop rota planner with unlimited rotas and locations, templates applied across any date range, copying of single weeks, months or blocks of shifts, rolling patterns such as 2-on-2-off, customisable roles with hourly or per-shift rates, and shift and day notes; Pro adds bulk actions across many shifts | 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 | Staff arrange shift swaps or request to drop shifts in the app, and open shifts are sent to all eligible staff, who claim them either first come first served or with a manager approval step | 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 | Availability patterns set by staff or by a manager and shown on the rota while planning, holiday management with leave shown on the rota, time off in lieu, and sickness and absence tracking; Pro adds custom rules for leave requests | Time-off requests on the free plan; Premium adds unavailability so schedules follow staff availability, and Business adds PTO management |
| Time clock and attendance | Time & Attendance add-on: clocking in and out of shifts and breaks on the staff's phones or on a tablet terminal with PIN entry and optional photos, with geofencing, GPS logging, Wi-Fi restrictions and rules for early clock-ins, feeding automatic timesheets that compare scheduled and worked hours and flag lateness | 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 | Daily, weekly and monthly labour costs while the rota is built on every plan; Pro adds labour forecasting as a percentage of expected sales and budget caps per rota, department or location, with revenue data entered by hand or synced from Tevalis | 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 | Contracted hours tallied against each employee as shifts are added, breaks recorded on the timesheet, and pay rules for early clock-ins, late clock-outs and rounding of hours; overtime appears in the payroll report | 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 | A payroll report per pay period with hours, overtime, paid and unpaid leave and total pay, open to manual adjustments before export as a Sage-formatted file or CSV, or sent directly to Staffology or PayCaptain | Payroll reports on the Business plan that aggregate and sync hours for payroll processing, including sync to Toast Payroll |
| Team messaging and notifications | Email and push notifications for shift updates on every plan, shift acknowledgements, open-shift notifications, and shift and day notes on the rota; SMS notifications are an add-on that also lets staff text in for their next shift | 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 an up-to-date browser on Mac or Windows, free mobile apps for staff and managers, and a free clocking-in terminal 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 | REST API covering shifts, swap requests, availability, leave, terminals, clock-ins and payroll periods, with webhooks; integrations with Sage, Staffology, PayCaptain, Tevalis, Zapier, People HR, Breathe HR, IdencyTime, Optix, Care Consort and calendar feeds for Outlook, Google and Apple | 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 |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Chat, Phone | Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | Not stated | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized | Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | more entries Sage, Staffology, PayCaptain, Tevalis, Zapier, People HR, Breathe HR, IdencyTime, Optix, Care Consort, Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar | Toast, Square, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager, POSiTouch |
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 RotaCloud From £10 / month Sling Free up to 30 users; from $1.70 / user / month
- Free trial RotaCloud 30-day free trial, no payment information required Sling Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
- Hosting RotaCloud Cloud, in the browser, with free mobile apps Sling Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
- Support RotaCloud Chat, Phone Sling Email helpdesk
- Users RotaCloud Growing businesses with shift-based staff; the vendor names restaurants, cafes and bars, hotels, care homes, retail, healthcare, dental practices, vets, leisure, security services and professional services 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
RotaCloud
Strengths
- 30-day free trial with no payment information required
- Monthly or yearly billing with no setup fees and no long-term contract
- Open shifts can go to the first claimant or through a manager approval step
- Payroll data exported for Sage or sent directly to Staffology and PayCaptain
- Tablet clocking-in terminal runs on an iPad or Android tablet the business already owns
Limitations
- Clocking in and timesheets need the paid Time & Attendance add-on
- Labour forecasting against sales and budget caps are limited to the Pro plan
- Sales data syncs automatically only from Tevalis; otherwise it is entered by hand
- Payroll itself is not run in RotaCloud; data goes to separate payroll software
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
RotaCloud
- Standard £10 / month Price shown for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £120 a year billed yearly; it rises with the number of employees. Rota planning, templates, labour costs, holiday and absence management, shift swapping, availability, reports, mobile apps, and live chat and phone support.
- Pro £15 / month Price shown for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £180 a year billed yearly; it rises with the number of employees. Adds bulk actions, labour forecasting, budget caps, document storage, leave request rules, secure share links, a logbook and enforced two-factor authentication.
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.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
RotaCloud
- 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
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
RotaCloud https://rotacloud.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.