If you’re used to spending hours on end planning your workers’ hourly schedules, we have news for you. You don’t have to rely on pen and paper, nor on Excel sheets to get this task done. And it certainly doesn’t have to consume hours of your valuable time every week. There’s a much more efficient way to organize your workforce, and it won’t cost you a dime. We’re talking about free employee scheduling software. You can take care of work scheduling online, communicate with your employees via free apps, and make changes to your schedule on the go.
Homebase offers an amazing array of features that are simple to navigate. As long as you operate from one location, you won’t find a better free product on the market. This is more than just a free schedule maker; Homebase also helps you stay compliant with local labor regulations. Since it integrates with major POS and payroll systems, other parts of your business will run more smoothly once you start using this software. If you want to upgrade to a paid version, you won’t pay per user, but per additional location. This makes Homebase’s paid plan extremely affordable for business owners with a robust workforce. Read Review
- ⦿Open shifts, shift trades, and covers
- ⦿Labor cost forecasts and reports
- ⦿Scheduling compliance alerts
Sling delivers a feature-rich scheduling system free of charge. You can use this free online employee scheduling program to plan workloads for as many workers as you need. Apart from reducing the time managers spend planning, it also makes swapping shifts a painless process. Your whole business will feel the benefits of this app, which facilitates team communication and reduces absenteeism. Even though Sling offers advanced scheduling features for free, attendance tracking and timesheets require a plan upgrade. Read Review
- ⦿Long-term scheduling
- ⦿Private and group messaging
- ⦿Shift notifications
7shifts is a robust free shift scheduler specifically designed for restaurants. The platform makes it easy to create weekly schedules, with employees instantly notified whenever a schedule is published or updated. It also comes with a free health checker to survey employees for COVID-19 symptoms, shift trading, time-off requests, and much more. While the free version is capable of meeting your basic scheduling needs, it limits you to ten employees and a single location. Read Review
- ⦿Tailored for restaurants
- ⦿Free version has all core functionalities
- ⦿Employee Health Checks
When I Work is one of the most comprehensive choices for an employee scheduling app, and covers all aspects of employee schedule management, regardless of team size. You can supervise your employee’s shifts, availability, tasks, and time-off requests with a couple of clicks on your mobile device. You can also integrate it with the time clock, and manage everything - labor costs, budgeting, payroll, overtime, and breaks - from one place. Read Review
- ⦿Unlimited number of employees
- ⦿Extensive tracking
- ⦿Built-in GPS
Connecteam is an excellent solution if you need to organize your employees without investing a lot of money upfront. Its free version provides you with a real-time clock in and out and excellent communication with your employees. It allows you more than enough options to manage and schedule employees and provide them with all the information they need to stay on top of their shifts and tasks. The paid tiers unlock even more options, though: salary and hourly pay, time tracking, and much more. Read Review
- ⦿Excellent free plan
- ⦿Pre-made templates for scheduling
- ⦿Intuitive mobile interface

6. Shiftboard Basic Version

Shiftboard isn’t a free work schedule software provider, but its affordability and advanced features make it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. This is one of the most advanced scheduling software that allows you to assign and filter locations and employees based on numerous parameters. Capable of sorting employees into teams, the software optimizes complex workforce operations while helping you reduce labor costs. Read Review
- ⦿Inexpensive
- ⦿Plethora of scheduling and database filtering options
- ⦿Employee Teams

7. OpenSimSim Free Version

OpenSimSim is an excellent free employee schedule app for managers who need to produce timetables for workers in both the main job location and off-site. It has no limitations regarding the number of users or locations, nor how far in advance you can plan. Communication among employees is streamlined by the free app and managers can use the software to keep each other informed about what’s happening with each shift. This simple employee scheduling software can help you manage labor costs, too. Read Review
- ⦿Shift instructions
- ⦿Manager logbook
- ⦿Labor cost budgeting

8. Findmyshift Free Version

Findmyshift is an employee scheduler that’s free for teams of no more than five people. This web application allows you to plan workers’ shifts in as many locations as your business takes you, which makes it a great fit for a small teams of caregivers, or other workers who travel on a daily basis. You can also track employees’ attendance and export timesheets into your payroll system. Findmyshift is an industry leader when it comes to third-party integrations and sets the standard for customer care. Read Review
- ⦿More than 10 integrations with small business tools
- ⦿Extensive customer support
- ⦿Tracks time off
Related Product Categories
Why You Need Employee Scheduling Software
When you sit down to make a schedule for the coming week, you need to take so many things into consideration. Kelly’s kid’s recital on Tuesday, John’s dentist appointment on Thursday, the fact that tips are better in the afternoon and Marcus asked for more of those shifts... And of course, there are state labor regulations you need to abide by. So you can’t give too many hours to Jane, even though she needs the money and is your best worker.
The worst thing about this grueling task is that, no matter how hard you try, something will always come up. People get sick or need time off for unpredictable personal reasons. When that happens, you need to get back to your Excel sheet and start all over again. But before you go and spend another hour tweaking the timetable, you should consider trying employee scheduling software for free.
It won’t cost you anything and will save you hours every week. Not to mention it will transform the way you communicate with your team. Instead of chasing employees down to inform them of a new schedule, you can send all the important information to the whole team in an email or text. Shift swapping, time-off management, and labor-regulation compliance will be so simple that you no longer have to worry about it at all. You’ll just get notifications in the scheduling app and take it from there.
The 5 Best Free Employee Scheduling Apps
- Homebase
- Sling
- 7shifts
- When I Work
- Connecteam

Our Criteria for Evaluating Free Employee Scheduling Tools
Scheduling Method
Different industries have different scheduling demands. For example, while skill and experience are always important considerations, workers’ qualifications play a less important role in retail than they do in, say, caregiving. If you manage a team of nurses and caretakers, you need to know their exact work experience and training so you can assign the right professional to each patient. While qualifications matter in retail, too, lives are not at stake. That’s why one of the factors we consider when evaluating scheduling apps is the abundance of parameters you can set when managing your team.
Number of Locations
Some free shift scheduling software solutions allow you to organize workers by location as well as by shift. If you have a chain of restaurants or you manage volunteers who work in several different places, multiple-location scheduling is a must. That’s why we look for work scheduling programs that cater to the needs of business owners who work from more than one location.
Ease Of Use
If you’re going to abandon your tried and tested scheduling method for an employee scheduling software that’s free, it had better be simple to navigate. Staff scheduling is an everyday task, so you can’t afford to invest a lot of time in learning how to use the software. It has to be intuitive and easy to use right off the bat.
Team Communication
One of the challenges of employee rostering is delivering the most up-to-date schedule to your workers. Even when you make a great schedule that works for everyone, it’s no good if some people don’t get access to it. The best scheduling software programs let you share the schedule with your employees via text and email as soon as you create it. This eliminates any miscommunication.
Attendance Monitoring
Managing a workforce is more complex than simply determining working hours. You also need to keep track of whether your employees actually work the hours you assign them. That’s why a shift planner that also tracks attendance is a huge plus. It basically means that one free app takes care of two important tasks.
Third-Party Integrations
Since apps for work scheduling collect a lot of valuable data about your employees’ workload, it’s possible to use that information for payroll or accounting purposes as well. We evaluate each app based on whether it includes any useful third-party integrations that can also help you run your business efficiently.
Price
All the scheduling programs on our list are free solutions. However, if your small business isn’t all that small, you might need to pay for an upgrade. Some workforce scheduling software providers charge extra once you surpass a certain number of users. Others require you to switch to a paid plan if you want to coordinate shifts in multiple locations. In our search for the best solutions on the market, we always take pricing models into account.
Customer Support
When you use Software as a Service (SaaS), there’s every chance you’ll come across a bug. No matter how good the technological solution, errors happen. When you hit a roadblock, you’ll appreciate an explanation and helpful tips from customer service representatives. We take this into account when writing our reviews.
Reviews of Free Employee Schedulers
Homebase Review
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
GOOD
- ⦿ Unlimited number of users in a single location
- ⦿ Timesheets for payroll
- ⦿ Option to save timesheets and reports for 90 days
- ⦿ POS and payroll software integrations
Sling Review
EXCELLENT
FAIR
GOOD
- ⦿ Shift alarms
- ⦿ Long-term scheduling
- ⦿ Multiple location
- ⦿ Private and group messaging
7shifts Review
GOOD
EXCELLENT
GOOD
- ⦿ Employee Scans for COVID-19
- ⦿ Time off requests
- ⦿ Staff availability
When I Work Review
EXCELLENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Streamlined onboarding
- ⦿ TeamTxt option for sending group texts
- ⦿ Amazing integration options
- ⦿ Optional Time & Attendance feature
Connecteam Review
GOOD
GOOD
POOR
- ⦿ Excellent mobile app
- ⦿ Generous free tier
- ⦿ Stellar customer support

Shiftboard Review
Shiftboard Review
FAIR
FAIR
GOOD
- ⦿ Text/email alerts
- ⦿ Announcements
- ⦿ Employee Teams

OpenSimSim Review
OpenSimSim Review
GOOD
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Upcoming shift reminders
- ⦿ POS integrations
- ⦿ Shift-swapping
- ⦿ Labor cost budgeting

Findmyshift Review
Findmyshift Review
EXCELLENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Integrates with a number of POS and HR Solutions
- ⦿ Discount for charities
- ⦿ Customer support also available via email
- ⦿ Free shift swapping feature
Now that there’s an app for everything, managers who have been planning shifts using pen and paper are starting to wonder - is there an easier way? And the answer is YES! Yes, there is. There are actually a number of rosterapps, and many of them enable you to create free employee work schedules. This means your budget will remain unaffected while your own and your team’s productivity will improve.
The answer to this question varies according to your business needs. Do you operate from a single location or various? How many employees do you have? Would you like to track employee attendance with the same tool, or do you already have a system for that? If all your employees work from the same job site, we’d say Homebase is the best free employee scheduling app for you. It will speed up your planning time with its hourly planner templates, which you can copy from week to week. With Homebase you’ll also be able to track attendance and export that data into your payroll system. All these features are available free of charge, as long as you work from a centralized location. On the other hand, if you have a few restaurants spread out across town or you coordinate a team of wedding photographers working from a different venue every week, then OpenSimSim or Sling might be the best free employee scheduling app for you. Neither of these put limitations regarding the number of employees and locations. However, both charge for the time clock feature.
When you take the price out of the equation, your pool of scheduling solutions widens. If you manage a small or medium-size company, it’s likely that the free online employee scheduling software from our list will meet your needs. But those without a tight budget looking for one solution to all their staff-management issues could explore some paid software solutions, like Deputy, Humanity, or Shiftboard.
Sling’s offer is so robust that some worry it might not be free. Luckily, Sling has both a free plan and a couple of paid ones, so it can accommodate businesses of different sizes and requirements. Sling’s free employee scheduling software provides everything you need to effectively schedule your employees, while allowing them a level of autonomy through shift swapping, time-off requests, and availability settings. You can also schedule an unlimited number of employees and locations for free, too.