7 Best Restaurant Employee Scheduling Software 2025

You can start with a free 14-day trial of All-in-One. No credit card required.

• Basic ($0 per month): One location, up to 10 employees. Includes basic scheduling, basic time tracking, and POS integration. Payroll is available as an add-on.
• Essentials ($30 per location/month): Unlimited employees; adds advanced scheduling, advanced time tracking, and team communication.
• Plus ($70 per location/month): Unlimited employees, adds AI-powered scheduling, PTO/time-off controls, and departments/permissions.
• All-in-One ($120 per location/month): Unlimited employees; adds onboarding, labor cost management, and HR/compliance.

*Annual billing is available on all plans at a 20% discount.

Add-ons:

• Payroll: $39 base/month + $6 per employee paid/month (first 6 months often free via promo).
• Tip Manager: $25 per location/month.
• Task Manager: $13 per location/month.
• Background checks: $30 each.

Job post boosts: Starting at $79 per post.

• Free version: Homebase has the most complete free plan on my list, with a schedule builder, shift trade capability, and templates. It allows employee messaging, end-of-shift feedback, and pay advances. 

• Forecasting tools: While Deputy has strong labor forecasting tools, Homebase gives it a run for its money. With its Budget Forecasting Toolbar, you can view workforce and sales forecasts alongside weekly shifts. This allows you to create schedules that align with sales and labor targets.

• Scheduling: The paid plans include automated scheduling, plus rules for breaks and overtime already set for your state. You can add notes, set geofencing (a nice tool for caterers), and announce open shifts. Some applications, like 7shifts, let managers clock out for employees who forget, but Homebase (and Sling) can do it automatically.

• Restaurant features: The by-location pricing is great for restaurants with high and low seasons, such as those in tourist areas. Homebase integrates with some of the best restaurant POS systems, Restaurant365 for accounting, and BevSpot for beverage management. You can also assign multiple roles and wage rates, a handy tool if you have a waiter who sometimes bartends.

• Hiring tools: Homebase stands out for its job posting and applicant tracking tools, making it a solid choice for restaurants with a high employee turnover. You can post to job boards, manage referrals and walk-ins, set up screener questions, and schedule interviews. Once hired, it has onboarding tools.

• HR and payroll functions or integrations: You can access advisers, document storage, an employee handbook builder, and more. It also offers strong tools for compliance, such as tracking certifications, breaks, and overtime.
  
  It even notifies you if labor laws in your state change — another way it sets itself above the competition. This can be especially useful for scrappy teams or those that don’t have as many administrative employees on hand.

• Mobile app: Despite a slightly higher learning curve, Homebase gets high marks from users for the desktop and mobile versions.

• Ease of use: Customer service is live via chat or email, and there are help guides and video tutorials.

Like Homebase, 7shifts charges per location, but it limits the number of employees in the Comp and Entrée plans. The prices are higher than those of Homebase, but it offers an excellent set of tools for each and an option for add-ons. 

You can start with a free 14-day trial of The Works. No credit card required.

• Comp (Free) ($0 per month): One location, up to 30 employees. Includes basic scheduling, time clock, availability and time-off requests, and team communication.
• Entrée ($34.99 per location/month): Up to 30 employees. Adds schedule templates, budgeting tools, and richer reports.
• The Works ($76.99 per location/month): Unlimited employees. Adds labor compliance tools, Manager Log Book, Optimal Labor, and shift feedback
• Gourmet ($150 per location/month): Unlimited employees. Adds auto-scheduler, task management, advanced reporting/insights, and dedicated account support.

Annual billing is available on paid plans at up to 14% off.

Add-ons:

Add-ons are priced separately, and availability can vary by tier.

• Tip Management/Tip Pooling & Payouts
• 7shifts Payroll
• Hiring & Onboarding, Performance Management, Document Storage, Task Management

• Made for restaurants: Of all the scheduling software I considered, 7shifts alone was made specifically for restaurants. It integrates with about two dozen POS systems, most of which are focused on the restaurant industry, ExpandShare, a restaurant training solution, and HigherMe, a hiring app for restaurants and retailers. It also has a tip reporting feature, including a tip pooling function.

• Machine-learning auto-scheduling tools: While auto-scheduling is only available with the Gourmet Plan (while others, like Homebase, have it in cheaper plans), it’s machine-learning-based. The time clock stands out for its ability to integrate with your POS and its ability to record clock-in and clock-out times offline. Only Homebase, SocialSchedules, and Deputy also have this capability.

• Text and in-app employee communications: Employees can trade shifts, request time off, and change availability all on the app, with manager approval and schedule updating. Announcements can be sent by text and email as well. Like with Deputy, you can upload videos for training and read receipts to know which employees saw the message.

• Highly rated mobile app: This iOS app earned 4.8 out of 5 stars, and the Android app earned 4.6 out of 5. However, as with other apps, updates result in glitches and complaints.

• Large number of HR, POS, and payroll integrations: 7shifts connects with over a dozen payroll systems like QuickBooks, Gusto, and ADP, flagging missed or late shifts to ensure payroll accuracy. It also integrates with over 25 POS solutions.

• Manager logbooks and surveys: The manager logbook, something only a few applications like SocialSchedules have, makes it easy to identify opportunities or problems and communicate between shifts.
  
  One standout is the end-of-shift feedback survey, which makes sure you identify problems before they boil over. It recently added task reminders as well, something I didn’t see with other solutions.

• Ease of use: Support is mainly by ticket, but the support section lists a phone number. You will find video and illustrated how-to articles, plus templates and guides.

Deputy offers a free 31-day trial and discounts for charities, nonprofits, and community organizations that meet its criteria, making it a good choice for soup kitchens, churches, and charity-run coffee houses. 

• Lite ($5 per user/month): Scheduling and time tracking essentials. Includes basic scheduling, basic timesheets and time clocking, labor law compliance, shift swaps/find replacements, leave and availability management, basic reporting, messaging/news feed, and payroll/HR integrations.
• Core ($6.50 per user/month): Everything in Lite, plus advanced scheduling, auto-scheduling, micro-scheduling, demand forecasting, labor optimization, wage and labor budgets, timesheet auto-approval, biometrics time clocking, and advanced labor law compliance.
• Pro ($9 per user/month): Everything in Core, plus custom access levels, advanced timesheets, location hierarchies, pay centers, SSO, sandbox, 24/7 live chat, and a dedicated customer success manager.

Annual billing is available for plans (billed upfront or in installments). No plan-level discount is advertised; Deputy add-ons list a 10% annual discount.

Add-ons:

• HR ($2 per user/month): Hiring hub, paperless onboarding, document management, and feedback surveys.
• Messaging+ ($1.95 per user/month): Enhanced, role-aware team messaging.
• Analytics+ ($1.50 per user/month): Advanced reporting and automated report sharing.

• Flexi Plan: Designed for seasonal businesses or caterers, the Flexi Plan handles highly fluctuating staff. You put them on inactive status rather than archive or drop employees who are not working that week.
  
  They can still receive communications (and training), submit leave requests, and update their profile. This way, when you need all hands on deck, your trained workers are a click away. No other scheduler on my list has this type of plan.

• Forecasting and rules-based scheduling: Deputy’s Enterprise Plan lets you predict staffing needs based on trends in sales, deliveries, appointments, reservations, and other customizable signals.
  
  Create rules based on its analysis to ensure you have the minimum staffing, plus get alerted if you’re scheduling too many people. You can apply the forecasting tools when automatically creating a schedule; most software just gives you an analysis.
• Complete scheduling tools in all plans: Deputy includes drag-and-drop shifts and compliance rules like break times, work hour restrictions for minors, time off, overtime, shift-swapping, and auto-scheduling in the basic plan.
  
  Time and attendance includes geofencing, creates timesheets for you to approve, and syncs with your payroll software. Managers can also see who’s on shift, on break, and running late.
• Mobile app: Deputy tied with When I Work for the best mobile employee scheduling app, with a 4.7 out of 5 from iOS and Android users. The praise was overall good, and the complaints were few and varied.
• Clopening prevention and other restaurant features: Deputy has robust tools in all its plans. It alerts you if you accidentally schedule a “clopening,” where you schedule a closer to open the next day. It also does shift analysis so you can see if you’re overstaffed. Like 7shifts, it can record video announcements to post on the news feed and set up health screenings for employees.
• Compliance tools and integrations: Like SocialSchedules, Deputy helps businesses in Fair Work Week jurisdictions stay compliant by recording schedule amendments, calculating the required predictability pay, and capturing employee consents to change. With roughly 40 integrations, Deputy is one of the best for connecting to popular POS or payroll systems.

SocialSchedules has a limited free plan. It’s not as good as Homebase’s, but it may work if your needs are basic. However, its by-location prices are cheaper than those of Homebase and 7shifts. It also has a free 14-day trial of the paid plans.

• Free ($0 per month): Scheduling basics. Desktop and mobile apps, scheduling, in-app messaging, availability management, and time-off requests.
• Starter ($19.99 per location/month): Unlimited workers; basic labor budgeting, multi-location support, overtime tracking and reports, and manager logbooks.
• Premium ($49.99 per location/month): Time and attendance, POS and payroll integrations, labor law compliance, certification management, and advanced reporting.
• Enterprise (Contact sales): Dedicated support contact, negotiated pricing, custom API integration, custom reports, and custom features.

Annual billing is available on paid plans at a 20% discount.

• Compliance rules, certifications, and tracking: Like others, SocialSchedules lets you set pay rates, limit hours, and check for compliance breaches, such as overscheduling.
  
  However, it can also track certifications and alert you when an employee’s certificate is about to expire. In addition, you can create disclaimers for employees to read upon clocking out and get acknowledgement of changes in schedules or policies, which can help with Fair Work Week compliance.

• Custom availability settings for scheduling: SocialSchedules has schedules and templates, but stands out with its custom availability feature. Employees can create multiple availability sets with their own start and stop dates. Plus, managers can lock days when workers cannot drop or trade a shift. (Homebase has this feature too.)
• Logbooks and other employee communications: As with most restaurant scheduling software, you can alert employees to the new schedule, send private and group messages, make announcements, and send reminders.
  
  Workers can trade shifts, or managers can invite an employee to take on a shift. Like with Homebase and 7shifts, managers also have the advantage of a logbook for tracking receipts, sharing images (such as when the refrigerator didn’t get cleaned during closing), and loading documents.
• Tips reporting, restaurant software integrations, and other restaurant features: Like 7shifts, SocialSchedules has a tips reporting function as part of the time clock. It integrates with several restaurant POS systems, such as Heartland Restaurant, POSitouch, Restaurant Manager, and Square.
  
  You can tag shifts so waiters know where they’re working and send addresses with maps for people delivering to or catering an event.
• Compliance-centric HR and payroll functions: The bulk of the HR functions lies in its compliance and certification management. Managers are quickly informed of issues like clocking in early after a break.
  
  You can run reports needed to see how your staff is performing, and if you have POS software, you can pull in sales information, create labor vs sales reports, import time cards to payroll, and more.

Shift scheduling with Sling is free for up to 30 users and comes with a 15-day free trial. Sling is the least expensive on my list in terms of per-person fees because it doesn’t have a by-location price.

• Free ($0 per month): Core scheduling and team messaging for small teams; includes shift scheduling, time-off requests, newsfeed, and private/group messages (up to 30 users on Free).
• Premium ($2 per user/month): Adds mobile time tracking, labor cost management, overtime tracking, messaging controls, and calendar sync.
• Business ($4 per user/month): Adds kiosk time clock, advanced reports for hours and wages, no-show and sick call-out tracking, and PTO management; includes everything in Premium.

Annual billing is available on paid plans at a 15% discount.

• Task creation and templates: Openings, closings, deep cleans, and inspection preps all work better when the staff knows exactly what to do. Sling offers a robust tasking function that lets you assign tasks to individuals or teams, create and save task templates for recurring duties, and provide manager feedback. Homebase, by contrast, lets you add notes to the schedule but doesn’t have task lists.

• Unavailability, auto-scheduling, and more: I especially like how Sling tracks unavailability and time off because you can use it for compliance as well — for example, create unavailability rules for minor workers.
  
  The Business plan includes auto-scheduling based on availability and qualifications. The time clock lets you set limits on when early employees can clock in and, like Homebase, automatically clocks them out at the end of the shift.

• Basic employee communications: In addition to task lists, Sling (like the others on my list) offers both messaging and an interactive news feed, so you can keep your employees updated on policies or events. Employees can use the app to request shift swaps and get shift and clock-in reminders.
• Handle multiple positions, compliances, and more: Sometimes, employees may hold more than one position — waiter and bartender, for example. Many apps will let you apply different wages, but Sling also alerts you if you try to schedule someone for a job when they are already working a different one.
  
  In addition, you’ll find tools to help you stay compliant with labor laws for minors, monitor overtime, and set up tasks for common restaurant chores.
• Integrations: It’s easy to tackle payroll by approving timesheets on desktop or mobile and exporting them to your payroll processor or as an XLS or CSV. Sling also offers budgeting and holiday pay rules. Sling connects to POS systems like Toast, Square, and Restaurant Manager, and it recently added Gusto Payroll. 
• Mobile app: Like others on my list, Sling has a mobile app that allows you to schedule and approve on the go. Employees can also view their schedules and be informed of availability. Its iOS app earned 4.6 out of 5 stars, and its Android app earned 4.6 out of  5.
• Ease of use: There are video tutorials and illustrated how-to articles, but support is limited. Sling doesn’t currently support phone calls; however, you can open a chat inquiry and get a reply within a few hours or contact Sling by email.

You can start with a free 14-day trial. No credit card required.

• Essentials ($2.50 per user/month): Unlimited users. Includes auto-scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling, schedule templates, forecast tools, in-app team messaging, OpenShifts and shift swapping, Help Center and live chat, and payroll/POS integrations.
• Pro ($5 per user/month): Everything in Essentials, plus advanced scheduling, scheduling rules, role permissions, labor sharing, custom unit forecasting, call-out reporting, custom reporting, overlapping OpenShifts, and time zone toggle.
• Premium ($8 per user/month): Everything in Pro, plus API key access, webhooks, and SAML/SSO.

Annual billing is available on all plans; a specific discount percentage is not published on the pricing page.

• Forecasting and auto-scheduling in all plans: When I Work stands out in that its forecasting and auto-scheduling tools are on all plans, whereas others have them in higher-priced plans.
  
  Further, it lets you manage multiple location schedules and has a labor-sharing tool that enables you to look at eligible and available employees from other schedules. The budgeting tool is right on the schedule, so you can be sure you don’t overstaff for the week. 

• GPS shift tools: Like SocialSchedules, you can add GPS details to shifts so that employees know where to report. This capability makes it a good choice for catering or businesses where employees may work in several locations. The time clock has tracking to see when employees are at their location.

• Best mobile app: When I Work ties with Deputy for the highest-rated mobile app on my list, with 4.8 out of 5 stars from iOS users and 4.7 out of 5 stars from Android users. 

• Read receipts, SMS, and in-app communications: One standout for When I Work is that managers can see who has looked at the schedule. It also stands out in that all plans include SMS text notifications. Most rely on in-app chat, which employees may or may not access regularly. You can create task lists for shifts to ensure all work gets done.
• On-Demand Pay by Clair: Employees get a Clair Debit Mastercard, which they can use to access their earnings instantly and set up spending and savings accounts. The Clair card includes fee-free cash withdrawals at qualifying ATMs. No other employee scheduling app has this, and it’s a great tool for part-time employees or fill-ins.
• Ease of use: When I Work is a cloud-based software that’s easy to set up and has a user-friendly interface. Although it doesn’t offer live phone support, you can fill out a ticket online or speak with customer service via live chat.

HotSchedules does not publish pricing on its site. Our sales contact quoted a starting price of $85 per month. A trial is available on a case-by-case basis through the sales team rather than being advertised publicly. Contact them for a quote.

• AI forecasting + Auto Scheduler: Generates labor plans and recommends staffing; fills shifts based on roles, availability, and rules.
  
• Compliance tools: Alerts for breaks, overtime, opening/min-rest, and predictive scheduling where required; audit trails for reviews.
  
• Above-store dashboards: Multi-location roll-ups for KPIs, labor variance, and schedule performance; compare locations and spot issues quickly.
  
• POS and payroll connectivity: Uses POS sales to inform staffing; exports/feeds to payroll and HR to cut manual entry.
  
• Messaging and surveys: Broadcast announcements and pulse surveys to track sentiment.
  
• Logbook and task lists: Daily shift notes, checklists, and completion tracking to keep teams aligned.
  
• Mobile apps: Managers approve changes on the go; employees view schedules, swap shifts, and request time off.
  

• Ease of use: Admins set locations, roles, and labor rules once, then schedule with templates and Auto Scheduler. Field leaders can review forecasts and exceptions from above-store views.
  
  Support includes a customer portal and regional phone/chat options, and most teams lean on the Logbook to standardize shift execution. Expect a guided onboarding process, especially if you’re connecting multiple POS systems or operating across several jurisdictions.