Shiftbase vs. Sling

At a glance

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

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	Shiftbase	Sling
Starting price	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 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 the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees	Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
Users	Shift-based businesses; the vendor names restaurants and bars, hotels, retail, care, recreation and transport	Hourly teams in restaurants, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, call centres, caregiving, entertainment, emergency services and non-profits
API	API tokens through the App Center+ add-on, included on Enterprise	Yes, a REST API documented at api.getsling.com
Hosting	Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android	Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
Made in	Netherlands	Not stated
Shift planning and templates	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 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	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	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	On Basic, staff availability and absence management with requests, approvals and balances	Time-off requests on the free plan; Premium adds unavailability so schedules follow staff availability, and Business adds PTO management
Time clock and attendance	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	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	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.	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	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.	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	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	Payroll reports on the Business plan that aggregate and sync hours for payroll processing, including sync to Toast Payroll
Team messaging and notifications	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	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, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and a kiosk mode on a tablet, laptop or phone for clocking in	Web, iOS and Android, with mobile time tracking from Premium and a kiosk clock on a shared device on Business
Integrations and API	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.	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 Chat, Email helpdesk	Email helpdesk
Onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Guided onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials
Company size	Small and mid-sized	Small and mid-sized
Integrations	more entries Nmbrs, Loket, AFAS Software, Exact Online, DATEV, Personio, Lightspeed, Datafox, Mplus, Connexie	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

Starting price Shiftbase Free up to 15 employees; Basic from €30 / month Sling Free up to 30 users; from $1.70 / user / month
Free trial Shiftbase 14-day free trial of the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees Sling Free plan with core shift scheduling for up to 30 users; 15-day free trial of the paid plans
Hosting Shiftbase Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android Sling Cloud, on the web and in iOS and Android apps
Support Shiftbase Chat, Email helpdesk Sling Email helpdesk
AI features Shiftbase Yes Sling No

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

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

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

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

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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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

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.

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.

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

Shiftbase https://www.shiftbase.com/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-06

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.