Overview

Built for restaurant administrators, managers, and employees, 7shifts spans staffing tasks from job posting and onboarding to payroll and tips. That breadth can reduce the need to handle each workforce function in a separate tool, but it may be more than a restaurant seeking only a basic rota needs. The company was founded by Jordan Boesch in 2014 and is headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Key features

Scheduling and availability

Drag-and-drop calendars give managers a direct way to assemble schedules, while auto-scheduling uses employee availability and labor targets. Availability collection, time-off management, open-shift management, and shift swaps cover the recurring changes that make schedules difficult to maintain. The labor-target input is useful for planning, though it does not by itself establish how well a schedule fits a restaurant’s particular operating needs.

Hiring and training

Job posting and applicant tracking extend the platform into recruitment. Onboarding documents, courses, quizzes, and progress tracking then support staff setup and training. Restaurants looking to connect those stages with scheduling may find this broader scope useful; businesses that need only hiring or training tools may not need the combined platform.

Payroll, tips, and integrations

Payroll and tip management include automatic wage and tip calculations, as well as earned wage access. These capabilities bring compensation-related work alongside scheduling, although the plan details do not say which tiers include each feature. Named POS integrations include Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and TouchBistro, and a Partner API provides an integration route for partners. 7shifts says data is encrypted in transit with SSL/TLS 1.2 and at rest with AES 256, and describes PCI-DSS compliance and security audits.

Pricing

7shifts uses a freemium model and offers a 14-day trial. Comp is free at 0.00 USD per free, but it is limited to 15 employees at one location. That cap makes it a plausible starting point for a small single-site operation, not a fit for a larger workforce or a multi-location group.

Essentials has custom pricing and supports up to 30 employees across unlimited locations. It may suit a smaller team operating across sites, but the employee ceiling is a meaningful constraint. Premium and Pro also have custom pricing, with unlimited employees and locations; those are the named options for organizations that outgrow Essentials’ staff limit. The plan details do not distinguish Premium from Pro by feature, so a buyer cannot use those names alone to judge which tier fits. No renewal terms are given.

Platforms

7shifts has Android, iOS, and web access, plus API access. Its desktop requirements specify Windows 10 or macOS 12 Monterey as minimum operating systems. The mobile apps give staff and managers phone access, while the web version supports desktop use; the published minimums matter for organizations retaining older computers.

Who it's for

7shifts is a strong candidate for restaurants that want scheduling, hiring, employee development, payroll, and tip management under one roof, from independent single-location businesses to multi-location groups. Its free tier offers a bounded entry point for smaller single-site teams. Restaurants that need unlimited headcount or several locations will have to consider a custom-priced tier, and those wanting only straightforward scheduling may prefer a narrower option.

Pros and cons

Pros: Scheduling combines drag-and-drop planning with auto-scheduling based on availability and labor targets, reducing the need to treat schedule creation and staffing inputs as separate tasks.
Pros: Hiring, onboarding, courses, quizzes, payroll, and tip management extend coverage beyond shift planning for restaurants consolidating workforce operations.
Pros: Comp provides a free starting point for up to 15 employees at one location.
Cons: Comp’s employee and location caps rule it out for larger teams and multi-site operators.
Cons: Essentials stops at 30 employees, while the unlimited-employee Premium and Pro tiers have custom pricing.
Cons: Premium and Pro are not differentiated by the stated plan limits, making their relative fit unclear from those limits alone.

Alternatives

Sling is worth considering for a team that needs scheduling and time-off requests for up to 30 users on a free plan, along with available shifts, news sharing, long-term scheduling, and private messaging. Deputy is a paid option with no free plan and a free trial; its Lite plan starts at 5.00 USD per month, billed per user per month, with upfront or monthly installments and applicable taxes excluded. Planday has no free plan, offers a free trial, and starts with Starter at 2.99 GBP per month, billed per user/month, with a five-user minimum and the option to upgrade or cancel anytime.

PAR Ordering uses paid pricing and directs buyers to contact PAR for a demo and pricing details. Push Scheduling is a paid alternative whose Signature plan includes team scheduling, POS integrations, labor forecasting, shift swapping, and real-time compliance alerts. Quinyx Workforce Management offers a tailored custom solution and asks businesses to contact Quinyx to discuss options; it has no free trial. Tanda combines HR, payroll, and workforce management in its All in One plan. When I Work is a paid option with a free trial; its Essentials plan costs 2.50 USD per month, billed per user/month, and includes unlimited users, auto scheduling, multi-week scheduling, and multi-location scheduling.

For category comparisons, browse Restaurant Scheduling Software, Restaurant Labor Management Software, Restaurant Tip Management Software, Employee Scheduling Software, Restaurant Management Software, or Calendar apps.

Verdict

Choose 7shifts if you run a restaurant and want scheduling tied to hiring, training, payroll, and tips, with room to scale across locations. Its free Comp plan is a practical entry point only for teams within its 15-employee, single-location cap; growing operations should weigh that breadth against custom pricing for the larger tiers. Look elsewhere if your priority is a simpler scheduling tool or a clearly priced plan for a larger workforce.

	7shifts	Workrota
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, Web	Web, iOS, Android
Free plan	Yes	No
Shift swaps	Yes	Yes
Mobile apps	Yes	Yes
Auto-scheduling	Yes	Yes
Availability management	—	Yes

7shifts vs Workrota

7shifts

Workrota