Overview

7shifts is a restaurant-focused HR platform covering staff management from recruitment through retention. Its tools span scheduling, hiring, onboarding, training, payroll, and tips. The company was founded by Jordan Boesch in 2014 and is headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The platform serves restaurants from independent single-location businesses to multi-location groups, with features for administrators, managers, and employees. It is available on the web, Android, and iOS, and provides API access for integrations. 7shifts identifies Windows 10 and macOS 12 Monterey as minimum desktop operating systems.

Its breadth makes 7shifts relevant to restaurants looking to coordinate workforce tasks in one platform, rather than treating schedule creation as the only staffing need. The product also connects team administration with training, payroll, and tip management.

Key features

Scheduling and availability

Managers can build schedules with drag-and-drop calendars or use auto-scheduling based on employee availability and labor targets. Supporting tools include availability collection, time-off management, open-shift management, and shift swaps. Together, these functions cover common schedule changes as well as the initial work of arranging shifts around staffing needs.

Hiring and training

Hiring tools include job posting and applicant tracking. For onboarding and employee development, 7shifts supports documents, courses, quizzes, and progress tracking. This gives the platform a role beyond scheduling, extending into how a restaurant brings people onto the team and tracks their training.

Payroll, tips, and integrations

7shifts lists payroll and tip management, including automatic wage and tip calculations and earned wage access. Its named restaurant POS integrations include Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and TouchBistro. The Partner API offers another route for integrations.

Security

7shifts says data is encrypted in transit using SSL/TLS 1.2 and at rest using AES 256. The company also describes PCI-DSS compliance and security audits.

Pricing

7shifts uses a freemium model. Its Comp plan is free at 0.00 USD per free and is limited to 15 employees and one location. A free plan and a 14-day trial are listed.

Essentials allows up to 30 employees and unlimited locations. Premium and Pro list unlimited employees and unlimited locations. Prices for Essentials, Premium, and Pro are not listed, so the available plan information does not establish their cost.

Platforms

7shifts supports web, Android, and iOS, and lists API access for integrations. Its stated minimum desktop operating systems are Windows 10 and macOS 12 Monterey. The platform’s mobile apps give employees and managers access beyond desktop use.

Who it's for

7shifts is aimed at restaurant teams of varying sizes, from single-location independents to multi-location groups. Its stated users include restaurant administrators, managers, and employees. Scheduling, availability, and time-off tools are directly relevant to day-to-day shift coordination, while hiring, training, payroll, and tip capabilities address additional workforce responsibilities.

Readers comparing products by use case can also explore Restaurant Labor Management Software, Restaurant Scheduling Software, Employee Scheduling Software, Restaurant Tip Management Software, Restaurant Management Software, and Calendar apps.

Pros and cons

Pros: The feature set covers scheduling, hiring, onboarding, training, payroll, and tips, rather than scheduling alone.
Pros: Availability collection, time-off handling, open shifts, swaps, and auto-scheduling support multiple parts of schedule management.
Pros: The free Comp plan provides an option for teams of up to 15 employees at one location.
Cons: Prices for Essentials, Premium, and Pro are not listed in the supplied plan information.
Cons: Comp has explicit employee and location limits, which may not fit larger operations.

Alternatives

Restaurants comparing workforce and scheduling products can also consider Sling, Rosnet Scheduling & Forecasting, Homebase, Lineup.ai, SynergySuite Labor & Scheduling, TimeForge, Workforce.com, and Altametrics Workforce Scheduling. The available facts do not provide feature or pricing details for these alternatives, so they are best treated as options to compare rather than ranked against 7shifts here.

Verdict

7shifts is a broad restaurant workforce platform with scheduling at its core and additional support for recruitment, training, payroll, and tips. Its free Comp tier has clear limits, while prices for the higher plans are not listed here. Restaurants deciding whether it fits should weigh the range of staff-management functions against their employee and location needs, and confirm the pricing and plan details relevant to their operation.

	7shifts	Zoho Calendar
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, Web	Android, iOS
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Shared calendars	—	Yes
Time blocking	—	Yes
Scheduling links	—	Yes
Calendar sync	—	two_way
Mobile apps	—	ios and android
Video meeting support	—	Yes

7shifts vs Zoho Calendar

7shifts

Zoho Calendar