Honest 7shifts Review 2024: Pros, Cons, Features & Pricing

7shifts Pricing

7shifts has four plans named after restaurant industry terms. Higher-priced plans offer more features and allow restaurant operators to manage multiple locations and employees.

Here are the 7shifts pricing plans: 

• Comp: A free plan ideal for single-location restaurants with up to 30 employees. The plan offers an excellent suite of features to help restaurant operators create employee schedules, track time, manage time off and availability, hire new staff, and communicate with teams. 
• Entree: The most affordable paid plan best for small and medium-sized restaurants with up to 50 locations and 30 employees per location. Besides the Comp plan features, Entree offers performance monitoring and labor cost optimization tools.  
• The Works: A paid plan ideal for restaurants with up to 50 locations and more than 30 staff per location. In addition to Entree features, The Works offers communication tools to help restaurant owners and managers effectively manage and engage staff. 
• Gourmet: A paid plan best for enterprise and mid-market restaurants with more than 50 locations and more than 30 employees per location. In addition to the features on The Works plan, Gourmet offers advanced customization options and a machine learning auto-scheduler. 

7shifts paid plans offer a 14-day free trial, giving you ample time to test the advanced features and customization options. For this review, I started a 14-day free trial on the Gourmet plan to test all features firsthand. 

Pricing/plan	Comp	Entree	The Works	Gourmet
Monthly	Free	$39.99 per month per location	$88.99 per month per location	$150 per month per location
Annual	Free	$34.99 per month per location	$79.99 per month per location	$135 per month per location
Features	1 location, 30 employees per location • Scheduling • Availability and time-off management • Time tracking and compliance • Staff hiring • Team chat and announcements	50 locations, 30 employees per location Everything in Comp, plus: • Labor budgeting • Break tracking • SMS notification • Tip pooling	50 locations, Unlimited employees Everything in Entree, plus: • Document storage and certifications • Scheduled breaks • Geofence and buddy punch prevention • Manager log book • Overtime alerts • Payroll integration	50+ locations, Unlimited employees Everything in The Works, plus: • Permission templates • Machine learning • Auto-scheduler • Task management • Tip credit calculation

7shifts Payroll Add-On

7shifts offers a payroll module as an add-on. The module costs a base fee of $39.99 per location and $6 per employee paid through the payroll solution. Consider this add-on if you need to sync employees’ tips, timesheets, and paid time off (PTO) straight to your payroll.  

Plan	7shifts (The Works)	TimeCamp (Ultimate)	Hubstaff (Team)	Connecteam (Advanced)
10 users	$79.99/month/per location	$79.90/month	$100/month	Free for life—all features and dashboards
20 users	$79.99/month/per location	$159.80/month	$200/month	$49/month
30 users	$79.99/month/per location	$239.70/month	$300/month	$49/month
50 users	$79.99/month/per location	$399.50/month	$500/month	$79/month

7shifts is priced roughly the same as competitors, providing a standard set of features and services that match the general market offerings. The free plan and tiered pricing make it accessible for various business sizes, with additional features justifying higher-tier plans

7shifts Usability and Interface

Overall, the user interfaces of 7shifts web and mobile apps are intuitive and well-organized. I liked the app’s modern design and color palette that oozes a hotel or restaurant vibe. However, the apps have different design choices, so let’s dive in: 

Setting Up 7shifts

Every step, from signing up for the 7shifts plan to setting up your restaurant or location, is child’s play. Before you even get to the web app dashboard, 7shifts takes you through a setup wizard, where you can add departments and define user roles. 

You can add the restaurant departments manually or use the SmartBuild feature. I chose the former, but restaurant owners with a large workforce distributed across numerous departments will enjoy using SmartBuild. You only need to upload your recent Excel schedule, and the tool will import your existing departments and roles automatically.

Once you create departments and define roles, you access the web app. The first thing you see is the quick start guide, which acquaints you with the key features, such as a time clock, team chat, scheduler, and mobile app, to flatten the learning curve.

7shifts Web App

When you log into the web app as an admin or manager, you land on the well-organized sales versus labor dashboard. The dashboard gives you a snapshot of your team’s weekly sales and labor budget metrics. You can navigate to other sections of the dashboard to see clocked-in staff, location overview, and engagement overview. 

By default, the left menu is minimized, but when you hover the cursor on it, it expands automatically to display the features’ names—dashboard, schedule, team, hiring, tasks, log book, time clock, payroll, and tip management. See the GIF below. 

Non-techy people will find it easy to create schedules, add team members, create tasks, add tip pooling, and more. Configuring your company’s settings is pretty straightforward since each setting is accompanied by a description of what it does. If you hit a snag, use the help search bar on the top panel to find relevant guides without exiting the web app. 

7shifts Mobile App

The easy-to-use mobile app works flawlessly on Android and iOS devices. Downloading the app from Google Play or Apple App Store is a breeze. When you log in as a manager or admin, you see your team’s dashboard with three views: overview, who’s working, and my shifts.

I found the manager version to be incredibly powerful and easy to use. The app is intuitive and well-organized, so managers won’t struggle to perform administrative duties. They can create shifts, approve time-off and availability requests, view and approve timesheets, chat with employees, and add team members while on the go. 

The employee version is designed to help your staff perform the basic functions with ease. Employees can view current and upcoming shift schedules, bid on open shifts, view assigned tasks, set availability, request time off, and track weekly earnings. They can also sync 7shifts schedules with Google Calendars to get timely alerts and keep up with their schedules to minimize no-shows and lateness. 

Sadly, 7shifts doesn’t work without the internet. The app returned a connection error when I turned off my internet connection. The lack of a functional offline mode will cause tracking issues when your restaurant’s internet connection is lost. 

Menu Item	Admin		Employee
	Website	Mobile App	Website	Mobile App
Feature (i.e. Time Tracking)
Timesheet	✅	✅	✅	✅
Time Tracker	❌	❌	❌	❌
Calendar	✅	✅	✅	✅
Schedule	✅	✅	✅	✅
Expenses	❌	❌	❌	❌
Time off	✅	✅	✅	✅
Analysis
Dashboard	✅	✅	✅	✅
Reports	✅	✅	✅	✅
Activity	❌	❌	❌	❌
Management
Kiosks	❌	✅	❌	✅
Approvals	✅	✅	✅	✅
Projects	❌	❌	❌	❌
Team	✅	✅	✅	✅
Clients	❌	❌	❌	❌
Locations	✅	✅	✅	✅
Tags	❌	❌	❌	❌
Invoices	❌	❌	❌	❌
Settings	✅	✅	✅	✅

7shifts Core Functionalities

In the sections below, I will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each feature based on my test results to help you make an informed decision. 

7shifts Scheduling 

7shifts scheduling tools simplify the scheduling process for the manager and the staff. The drag-and-drop scheduler lets managers effectively assign shifts to ensure proper staffing of each department and location.  

Creating a shift is as easy as clicking the plus (+) sign on the employee’s available slots and adding the shift parameters. You can add shift time, break (if needed), and leave a note to ensure the entire crew is pulling in the same direction. 

I appreciate the “repeat” feature, which lets you auto-populate the shift to several days, saving you hours of tedious manual work. You can also set labor targets depending on the projected sales to ensure each schedule is within budget. 

7shifts notifies employees when you publish or update a schedule to keep them in the loop so they know when they work. Employees also receive shift reminders so they are never absent or late for work, ensuring each location is adequately staffed to deliver five-star services.

If an employee’s scheduled hours exceed their weekly limit, 7shifts flags the overtime hours, prompting the manager to adjust the shift to ensure that labor costs stay within the budget. In addition, preventing unnecessary overtime ensures no staff member is overworked, averting potential physical and mental health issues.  

Machine Learning Auto-Scheduler

I found the machine-learning auto-scheduler to be helpful for restaurants that want to create labor-optimal schedules. The scheduler analyzes 8-10 previous schedules to unearth staffing patterns. It then takes into account labor costs, sales forecasts, overtime, time off, availability, and labor compliance to create schedules that meet staffing needs while staying within the labor budget.

Shift Swapping

Moreover, Managers don’t have to spend hours updating the schedule when employees call out sick or have emergencies. 7shifts allows employees to offer up shifts, trade shifts, or bid on open shifts. Once the manager approves the shift swaps, the app updates the schedule automatically and notifies the affected employees.

Availability and Time-Off Management

Factoring employee preferences into the intricate restaurant scheduling can be complicated and time-consuming, but not with 7shifts. Employees who can’t work due to other commitments can submit an availability or time-off request on the mobile or web app.   

During my testing, the app notified me (the manager) immediately when an employee submitted a request, prompting me to review it. Once I approved the availability or time-off request, the app blocked off the unavailable days, preventing me from assigning the employee a shift during that time slot. 

My favorite feature is the time-off notice, which requires employees to submit the time-off request X days before the requested date. The notice period gives the manager enough time to adjust the affected schedule or hire temporary staff to cover the shift. This way, they can prevent potential under-staffing, ensuring the service levels and quality don’t deteriorate. 

Time Tracking

7shifts tracks employees’ regular hours, overtime, and break time. However, the time tracker isn’t built into the 7shifts core. Employees can punch in/out via the POS system or download the 7Punches mobile app to track time on their iOS or Android smartphones. 

I don’t like the idea of employees managing schedules on one app and tracking time on another. It complicates usability for employees and may lead to tracking issues, especially if the apps don’t sync properly. Luckily, the latter isn’t a problem your employees will have to grapple with.

During my testing, employees’ hours were reflected on 7shifts in near real-time, which was fantastic. 7Punches is stripped down to the absolute basics—it lets employees punch in/out, track breaks, and nothing more. I found this mobile app easy to use because of its limited capabilities, but there’s a trade-off.

The app’s simplicity means that it omits certain essential features. For example, 7Punches doesn’t offer a timer widget, so employees can’t tell when they are clocked in. Another thing to note is that 7Punches doesn’t provide a “start break” button. Employees have to repeat the punch process to start a break, which isn’t as easy as with the best time tracking apps. 

Geofencing and Facial Recognition

All settings meant to improve time tracking accuracy take place on the 7shifts web app. You can create a geofence around your restaurant and set 7Punches to restrict employees from clocking in or out outside their designated worksite. The geofence was quite effective, and it only let me punch in when I was inside the designated location. 

In addition, 7Punches uses facial recognition to prevent buddy punching, ensuring you pay employees for only the work they did. The app doesn’t use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to verify employees during clocking. Instead, it takes a photo and attaches it to the employee’s timesheet, allowing the manager to pinpoint potential buddy punch cases during timesheet approval. 

7shifts Overtime Tracking

7shifts has pre-configured overtime settings for different states in the United States. When you select the state where your restaurant is located, the app automatically applies the relevant overtime thresholds. I selected California, and the app automatically set my daily and weekly overtime. 

Labor laws in some states like California require employers to compensate employees for overtime and double-time even if they didn’t authorize it. 7shifts alerts you when an employee is about to go into overtime so you can prevent unnecessary overtime costs. 

7shifts Break Tracking

You can customize 7shifts break tracking policy to meet your business needs, such as adding manual or automatic breaks. I added a rest and meal break, which was easy. When you set an auto-break, 7shifts automatically deducts the time from the employee timesheet. 

Setting the manual break is also a walk in the park. My only issue with 7shifts is that it doesn’t notify employees when the manual break is approaching or prevent them from ending it early, which can cause compliance issues. 

Thankfully, 7shifts offers a break attestation tool, which is indispensable for shielding your restaurant from future litigation. During punch out, the app asks employees if they took their rest and meal breaks per the company’s policy.

The employee’s response will inform your action. If you authenticate that an employee was prevented by work from taking any of the breaks, then you have to give them a premium pay. If they choose not to take the break, you can use the attestation to exonerate your company from blame in case of a future lawsuit. 

Team Communication

7shifts enables you to message employees individually or in a group chat. It fosters clear communication to eliminate errors and misunderstandings between staff members, allowing your team to deliver quality service.

In addition, 7shifts allows you to send one-way announcements. My favorite part about the 7shifts announcement tool is that it gives managers and restaurant owners many filters to ensure they reach the target audience. You can send announcements to a specific location, department, or role and see how many people read it.

Tip Management

7Shift ensures everyone in the restaurant, from prep cooks to food runners and hosts, gets their fair share of tips. The tip pooling impressed me because it simplifies the calculation and sharing of tips. You can choose equal distribution, percentage, or points weighting to ensure fair distribution of tips to boost every staff’s morale. 

With the tip-sharing formula in place, 7shifts automatically computes each staff payout. It streamlines the tip workflow, allowing tips to be paid out fairly and on time. Even better, 7shifts adds transparency to the entire tip management process. Employees can see how much they contributed, collected, received, and expected payout from each pool.

7shifts Security Features

7shifts leaves nothing to chance when it comes to protecting user privacy and data. The vendor uses multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls (RBAC) to prevent unauthorized access to data. It supports user roles with varying access and permission levels,  such as employees, assistant managers, managers, and admin.

Regarding data protection, 7shifts protects data in transit using SSL/TLS 1.2 protocols. In addition, the provider uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption to protect data at rest. AES 256-bit encryption is as secure as it gets — it’s virtually unbreakable even with brute-force technologies. 

7shifts also adheres to industry standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 27001, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It has also achieved Service Organizations Controls (SOC) to enhance trust and security. 

7shifts Reporting and Analytics

One thing I liked about 7shifts is its real-time analytics and dashboards. For example, the app gives you a real-time snapshot of sales versus labor, allowing you to adjust staffing levels to keep labor costs within budget. 

You can generate reports, such as worked hours versus wage or scheduled hours versus wage, to pinpoint labor gaps. The variance report shows the difference between scheduled versus worked hours, which can be vital in uncovering your overtime trends. 

Another interesting report is employee certification. I found this to be helpful, especially for restaurants that want to avoid compliance issues. 7shifts allows you to upload and access staff certifications, such as food or liquor handling certificates, on their profile. The app reminds you when an employee certification is up for renewal.

You can generate the certification report to get at-a-glance details about your team’s compliance. See who has what certification, who is missing critical certification, and monitor the expiration dates of valid certifications. You can follow up with employees to ensure they renew or acquire the required certificate for unwavering compliance.  

Overall, most 7shifts reports provide helpful insights that power data-backed decision-making. The reports are easy to generate, but the sharing options are limited to CSV exports only, which is annoying.  

7shifts Customer Support

If you encounter a problem while using 7shifts, you can contact the support team via live chat, email ticket, or phone. Alternatively, you can turn to the knowledge base for quick self-serve answers. The knowledge base articles are grouped and neatly organized into various categories: getting started, product guides, troubleshooting, billing, etc. 

You can open a category of interest to find guides relevant to your problem. If you dread the manual search, you can use the search function, which is effective. When you type a keyword, the search algorithm serves up relevant articles, allowing you to find a solution quickly. 

Live chat support is available seven days a week but on specific support hours. When I started a chat during offline hours, the 7shifts chatbot asked me to submit a ticket. However, to create a ticket you don’t fill out any form. 

Instead, you answer a series of questions and upload files related to your request directly using the chat feature. The chatbot submits the support ticket on your behalf. I got a reply in about 26 hours, which isn’t the fastest ticket response rate, but I was glad to get my issue resolved. 

During online hours, live agents respond in under two minutes, which is excellent. 

What are 7shifts Review Ratings from Review Sites?

(As of July 2024)

• Capterra: 4.7/5
• G2: 4.5/5
• Software Advice: 4.5/5
• TrustRadius: 9.3/10
• GetApp: 4.7/5
• Google Play Store: 4.5/5 
• Apple App Store: 4.7/5

Final Thoughts on 7shifts

7shifts hardly puts a foot wrong when scheduling and managing restaurant staff. It enables you to create schedules that optimize the available human resources while staying within the labor budgets. The machine learning auto-scheduler lets you create labor-optimal schedules, regardless of seasonality. 

There are minor issues, but they don’t significantly impact usability. For example, employees can’t track time on 7shifts, which is annoying. However, the available time tracking app — 7Punches — syncs seamlessly with 7shifts and is free. Additionally, 7shifts offline mode isn’t functional, but I bet that will become an issue when employees are outside the restaurant. 

If you’re looking for employee scheduling software as powerful as 7shifts but without the flaws, get Connecteam. The software allows employees to manage schedules, request time-offs, track time, and communicate from the easy-to-use mobile app. It also offers advanced options to help you customize features and workflows to your specific needs and preferences. 

Connecteam — The Better 7shifts Alternative

Connecteam performs most, if not all, of the functions 7shifts excels at, from scheduling and availability management to team communication and reporting and is among the top 7Shifts alternatives. However, Connecteam offers a more streamlined scheduling workflow and workforce management. Some of its advantages over 7shifts include:

All-In-One Mobile App

Besides being powerful, the Connecteam mobile app offers every tool your employees need to manage schedules, track time, and stay in touch with the rest of the team. Your employees don’t need to download a separate app to perform any function. 

Even better, the available mobile features pack more punch than 7shifts. For example, the mobile time clock provides a conspicuous tracker widget so employees know when they are clocked in. In addition, the app has switch shift and start break buttons, and it allows staff members to add attachments or notes to their timesheets. 

Advanced Customizability Options

Connecteam offers advanced customizability options to help you configure the available features to match your restaurant’s needs and preferences. To begin with, you can use different colors to distinguish shifts and schedules by role, department, or location. You can use one color for the back-of-the-house schedules and another for the front-of-the-house schedules.

Connecteam’s powerful Chat offers multiple chat filters to ensure you address the right audience—department, location, or individual employee. In addition to the filters, you can set permissions to keep all chats secure and under control. For example, you can restrict employees from forwarding messages or downloading and saving attachments. 

Company-wide announcements (Updates) are also customizable. Connecteam provides an array of templates to get you started, such as Happy Birthday, Happy Hour, new hire, and open positions templates. You can also track who viewed and engaged with each update. 

Unique Team Management Features

Connecteam has additional tools you don’t get with 7shifts, such as Forms. Forms come in handy when you want to create checklists to streamline restaurant operations. For example, a closing checklist ensures employees perform the closing duties to perfection, making it easy for staff to start a shift the following day. 

Beyond Forms, Connecteam allows you to publicly recognize and reward the best performer, which contributes significantly to job satisfaction. Rewards also offer an incentive for the rest of the team to keep putting their best foot forward, which lead to an improvement in productivity and quality of service. 

Connecteam also offers real-time GPS location tracking features. When you open the time clock, you see a map showing where all clocked-in employees are. If a restaurant staff is out to pick up supplies, no more guessing the route they took: just click the “view route” icon to see their exact route. 

Affordable pricing for teams of all sizes

Connecteam is incredibly affordable, with a free plan for businesses with up to 10 employees and scalable paid options for larger businesses. Paid plans start at just $29 per month for up to 30 employees plus $0.50 per additional user per month. 

That means for a team of 100 employees, you’ll pay just $768 per year compared with $4,800 per year for Workplace. That’s a lot of savings.

Try out Connecteam today with a 14-day free trial and see how it can enhance your business’s ability to communicate with your workforce.