WhenToWork vs 7shifts

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Our analysts compared WhenToWork vs 7shifts based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Employee Scheduling Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

WhenToWork Software Tool

Product Basics

WhenToWork is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses create and manage schedules for hourly workers. It offers a free mobile app that supports time tracking, allowing employees to punch in and out of work remotely.

The platform’s standout feature is its one-click scheduling that uses a proprietary algorithm to generate optimal shift schedules, minimizing conflicts and reducing human error. With just a few clicks, you can create efficient work plans that ensure your team is adequately staffed at all times.

Employees can easily input their preferred, disliked and unavailable work times, allowing managers to make informed decisions when creating schedules. This feature enhances employee satisfaction and minimizes scheduling conflicts by ensuring that employees are working shifts that align with their availability and preferences.

This platform lets you prioritize clear communication and accountability within your team. It automatically sends notifications to employees when their shifts are created or updated, ensuring everyone stays informed. This enhances employee engagement and reduces the risk of missed shifts.

WhenToWork offers a 30-day trial period, allowing you to test the platform’s suitability for your scheduling needs. Its paid plans start from $38 per month, with pricing based on the number of employees and the subscription duration. Unlike other platforms, it doesn’t offer tiered plans based on features — every plan includes the full toolkit.

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7shifts is a web-based platform that helps restaurants create, edit and publish staff schedules. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows managers to assign shifts quickly while factoring in employee availability, time-off requests and overtime limitations. To avoid scheduling conflicts, it automatically highlights potential issues such as missed breaks and unbudgeted labor hours during the creation process.

It integrates with existing point-of-sale (POS) systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry. It pulls sales data to help managers create labor schedules that align with sales forecasts. Additionally, clock-in/out data can be incorporated, providing a complete picture of labor costs.

The platform offers a mobile app for both managers and employees. The manager app allows for on-the-go schedule changes, communication with staff, and real-time sales and labor cost monitoring. The employee app allows staff to view their schedules, request time off, and swap shifts with colleagues directly from their smartphones.

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$40 Monthly
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$3/User, Monthly
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Product Assistance

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Videos
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24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Effortless Schedule Management: WhenToWork’s scheduling toolkit is its highest-rated module, with an 89 rating from our analysts. From ad-hoc adjustments to automated scheduling, the platform provides a flexible, efficient solution. It also offers features like break scheduling, color-coded schedules and configurable options that improve the overall scheduling process.
  • Efficient Reporting: Rated 81 by our analysts, the platform’s reporting toolkit is its second highest-rated module. It offers customizable dashboards and pre-built reports to meet your unique reporting requirements. With the ability to create custom reports, apply filters and generate visualizations, you can easily drill down into data, identify trends and make data-driven decisions. Additionally, WhenToWork's report scheduling and sharing capabilities streamline communication and collaboration.
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  • Try It Before You Buy It: Get started with 7shifts for free! You can schedule up to 30 employees at one location without needing a credit card. Plus, all paid plans come with a 14-day trial to help you explore all the features before committing.
  • Top-Rated Solution: Our analysts ranked 7shifts among the best employee scheduling software, with an impressive score of 86. This puts it right up there with industry leaders like When I Work (85) and Deputy (86).
  • Simple Setup, Powerful Features: Looking for an all-in-one scheduling solution? 7shifts might be perfect for you. Our research shows it supports 84% of essential employee scheduling needs right out of the box, requiring minimal setup.
  • Enhanced Teamwork: 7shifts excels in team communication and collaboration, offering features like news feeds, group chats, announcements and direct messaging. Plus, read receipts ensure recipients read messages, and employee sentiment tracking helps managers identify potential issues.
  • Effortless Employee Management: 7shifts offers everything you need to manage your team effectively. Create and maintain employee profiles with ease while ensuring compliance with labor regulations. Features include self-service profiles, certification reminders, task management and even employee mood tracking.
  • Robust Mobile App: The 7shifts mobile app is a user favorite, with a 4.8 rating on the Apple Store and a 4.5 rating on Google Play. It includes features like geofencing, time tracking, shift swapping, team messaging and customizable notifications to keep everyone informed.
  • Effortless Schedule Creation: Scheduling is a breeze with 7shifts thanks to tools like AI-powered auto-scheduling, drag-and-drop functionality, conflict identification, skill-based scheduling, and the ability to create and use customizable templates for recurring needs.
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  • Flexible Scheduling: You get multiple scheduling views, task templates and drag-and-drop tools to create different types of recurring schedules for multiple locations.
  • Import/Export: It lets you import shifts via Excel and .CSV files or export schedules in Excel format.
  • Automated Assignments: You can define rules to automatically assign shifts based on employee preferences and availability.
  • Employee Self-Service: Design unique portals for each team member based on their seniority, job roles and access requirements. Employees can log in via desktops or the mobile app to view and swap schedules, receive messages, and submit time off requests.
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  • Scheduling: Managers can quickly build staff schedules using drag-and-drop functionality. The system integrates with existing point-of-sale systems to automatically forecast sales and suggest labor needs. Managers can then publish the schedule through the mobile app, allowing staff to view their shifts, request time off and swap shifts.
  • Time Clocking: Use a mobile time-clocking app, 7punches, to simplify employee attendance tracking and ensure labor law compliance. The app integrates with the scheduling system, allowing only employees with scheduled shifts to clock in. This prevents time theft and ensures accurate timesheets. Managers can also enable optional features like photo verification or location tracking (geofencing) upon clock-in to further confirm employee presence.
  • Tip Pooling: You can automate tip calculations and payouts. The system integrates with existing scheduling data to ensure accurate tip allocation. Managers can specify how to split tips among staff, and the system handles calculations automatically, eliminating manual errors and saving time. 7shifts also offers secure and cashless tip payouts, replacing the need for cash advances, bank runs and manual tip distribution.
  • Payroll Management: This integrated solution, specifically designed for US restaurants, centralizes employee onboarding, time clocking, labor law compliance checks and payroll processing. The system automates wage and tip calculations, ensuring accurate and timely employee payments.
  • Employee Engagement: An engagement dashboard helps monitor key metrics and identify areas for improvement. Managers can automate shift feedback surveys to gather employee insights for coaching and addressing issues. The platform facilitates performance conversations with data and insights, ensuring continuous improvement. The manager logbook bridges communication gaps between shifts by allowing managers to document and share daily updates.
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Product Ranking

#5

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

#12

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

61
86
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100
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94
79
87
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Schedule Management
Collaboration
Schedule Management
Employee Management
Mobile Capabilities
Shift Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

WhenToWork
7shifts
+ Add Product + Add Product
Collaboration Employee Management Leave And Absence Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting And Analytics Schedule Management Security And Compliance Shift Management Time And Attendance Management 52 62 79 55 67 81 89 37 82 27 100 94 87 90 61 81 95 67 89 83 0 25 50 75 100
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92%
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63%
25%
12%
88%
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47%
87%
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13%
67%
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33%
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33%
83%
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83%
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85%
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15%
95%
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5%
33%
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67%
67%
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33%
79%
5%
16%
89%
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11%
26%
0%
74%
84%
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16%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

30%
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70%
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 226 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 1305 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

WhenToWork has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 226 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

94%
of users recommend this product

7shifts has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 94% when considering 1305 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.7 (15)
4.2 (12)
4.3 (93)
4.6 (105)
4.5 (114)
4.7 (1176)
4.5 (4)
4.8 (12)

Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated 7shifts and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Collaboration. 7shifts stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Collaboration Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Ease of Use: Users praised the platform’s user-friendly interface and ease of use across all user types. Its intuitive navigation simplifies shift management, schedule swaps and coworker communication. The platform also provides useful "how-to" videos, making it easier for users to understand the system without needing live support.
Better Customization and Flexibility: Users appreciated the ability to customize schedules, permissions and worker roles. It’s easy to switch shifts and see assigned shifts in one place.
Easy Reporting: The one-click report generation feature helps users manage budgets and track employee hours. This is especially helpful for administrators manually comparing scheduling costs with budgetary constraints.
Improved Remote Workability: Reviews highlight the benefit of accessing the software from any mobile device, making it convenient for teams to check schedules, receive notifications and streamline internal communications.
Simple Implementation Process: Users from small and medium businesses appreciated the software’s lightweight nature. It requires minimal IT involvement and can be deployed quickly across multiple departments.
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Ease of Use: The platform has an Intuitive interface and is simple to navigate, even for non-tech-savvy employees.
Comprehensive Features: 7shifts supports every key employee scheduling requirement in a centralized platform, managing scheduling, time tracking, payroll and employee engagement.
Responsive Customer Support: Users report positive experiences with support in resolving issues and implementing feedback.
Improved Employee Engagement: The platform reduces managerial stress by allowing employees to manage their schedules and trades from phones. This promotes transparency and confidence among employees by allowing real-time schedule and timesheet tracking.
Efficient Team Communication: Users report that 7shifts has significantly improved team collaboration by facilitating easy messaging among staff and management, making shift swaps and updates straightforward.
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Lack of Live Support: Live representatives are unavailable, especially during troubleshooting. Instead, the platform relies on video tutorials, which may not be sufficient in urgent situations.
Complicated Staff Availability Settings: Some reviewers found the "date specific" availability options frustrating, as it often caused confusion when scheduling in advance. Also, the inability to fully turn off certain options, like the "dislike" function, can complicate determining worker availability.
Limited Enterprise Features: Users from larger businesses noted that the platform lacks advanced enterprise-level security settings and integration support, making it less ideal for organizations with complex needs.
Cluttered Interface: The schedule display can sometimes be confusing or cluttered, particularly when many shifts are on the board. This makes it harder to quickly view and understand schedules at times.
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Comparatively Expensive: Users find the platform costly for accessing necessary functions, especially on higher-tier plans. It could be more affordable for smaller companies.
Technical Issues: There are reports of occasional slowness and glitches, particularly on mobile devices. After a system update, some functions may change without prior notification.
Limited Customizations: Some features lack flexibility, such as the inability to stack and sort employee shifts on a given day and limited options for dashboard and view customizations.
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WhenToWork is a user-friendly online scheduling solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Its intuitive interface and straightforward features make it a viable option for businesses looking to ditch paper trails and digitize their scheduling operations.My experience with WhenToWork began with a simple sign-up process that required minimal information. The platform guided me through a brief onboarding process, where I provided details about my business and team members. While the onboarding process was straightforward, I noticed the business category list didn’t offer many options for construction-related industries.Upon accessing the web platform, I was greeted by a somewhat outdated design that felt reminiscent of an earlier era. While the layout was clean and easy to navigate, a modern update could benefit its overall aesthetic. The main menu has sections for schedules, employees, trades, time off, messaging, reports and current on-duty employees.The mobile app, however, offers a more streamlined experience with a user-friendly interface. It provides quick access to schedules, shift trades, time off, messaging, staff information and a link to the full web version. The app's dashboard offers a clear overview of assignments, time off, shift trades and messages.The messaging features are designed for efficient team communication. You can send and receive messages, create urgent alerts, and post on a bulletin board. The “Reports” section offers customizable reporting options, allowing you to generate reports based on various criteria and export them for further analysis.Overall, WhenToWork is a suitable option for businesses with basic scheduling needs. Its user-friendly interface, straightforward features and robust reporting capabilities make it a viable choice for organizations that prioritize simplicity and ease of use. However, businesses seeking a more modern and feature-rich platform may need to explore other options.

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My overall experience with 7shifts has been positive. The onboarding process was a breeze, taking just five minutes to set up my shop and begin scheduling. I particularly liked the option to have 7shifts automatically set up my business by uploading an existing Excel schedule. The platform then created departments and employee profiles for me, saving a significant amount of time.Another feature I found valuable was the customizable manager logbook. It allowed me to take detailed notes, set up alerts and create reminders for upcoming maintenance activities. Additionally, the mobile app stood out with its unique selfie-based employee punch-in feature, ensuring that the right person was clocking in for their shift.While 7shifts offers a comprehensive suite of features, there are some drawbacks to consider. One major concern is the cost. Compared to competitors like Homebase, WhenIWork and Sling, 7shifts is more expensive for smaller companies. Another point to note is that payroll management is not included in the paid plans, requiring an additional charge to unlock this feature.Despite these limitations, 7shifts offers a user-friendly platform with various features designed to streamline employee scheduling, time tracking, communication and employee engagement. Responsive customer support and a focus on employee experience are additional strengths.Ultimately, whether 7shifts is the right fit depends on your specific needs and budget. For small business owners on a tight budget, the cost may be prohibitive. However, for those seeking a comprehensive, user-centric solution, 7shifts could be a valuable asset.

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