Best Employee Scheduling Software of 2026

Here's what we'll cover:

• What you need to know about employee scheduling software

• What is employee scheduling software?

• Essential features of employee scheduling software

• Benefits and competitive advantages of using employee scheduling software

• How to choose the best employee scheduling software for your business

• Software related to employee scheduling

• More resources for your employee scheduling journey

What you need to know about employee scheduling software

Employee scheduling software helps businesses create, manage, and distribute work shift schedules. Of the more than 8,000 HR software buyers our advisors talked to in the past year, 13% requested software with employee scheduling capabilities. [1] Requests most often came from buyers in industries like healthcare (25%), food and beverage (9%), and retail (9%) that rely heavily on shift-based workers to operate.

The employee scheduling software market is large, with over 450 different employee scheduling software products on our site and nearly 18,000 verified user reviews published in the past year alone. You know you need employee scheduling software, but how do you figure out which platform is the right one for you?

Cost will obviously be a major factor. Although high-end systems can cost upwards of $500 per month or more, entry-level systems average around only $70 per month. [2] Many employee scheduling software vendors also offer free versions of their products.

First-time employee scheduling software buyers should keep their budget, number of employees, feature needs, and necessary integrations in mind when comparing their options. You should meet with other stakeholders to figure out answers to critical questions about your purchase, like:

• Do we want employees to have the ability to swap shifts?

• Do notifications reach the communication channels our employees use?

• What kind of scheduling reports do we need to create?

• Can we integrate it with our payroll system?

• What types of user training resources are provided?

Researching different products to find the right one can feel like a long and daunting task. That’s why, with help from our experienced employee scheduling software advisors James Rose and Ryan Eschenburg, this guide offers everything you need to know about buying employee scheduling software so you can make a quick decision with confidence.

What is employee scheduling software?

Employee scheduling software helps managers create optimal shift schedules based on factors like customer demand, shift preferences, overtime cost, and required certifications. Common features of employee scheduling software include automated schedule creation, vacation/leave tracking, and reporting. 

Making schedules by hand can be time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to missed shifts and decreased productivity. Scheduling software is designed to avoid these problems and make employee schedules easy to create, adjust, and distribute.

Essential features of employee scheduling software

All employee scheduling systems have core features like automated scheduling, online time clock, vacation/leave tracking, and a centralized employee database. Beyond this, systems can have features ranging from mobile access and real-time notifications, to shift swapping and a labor cost calculator.

To help, here are the employee scheduling features that reviewers rate as the most important. [3]

Core employee scheduling software features

Common employee scheduling software features

Our advisors also say, depending on what type of industry you’re in, you may want to seek out systems that allow for scheduling at multiple locations. “Can you track the schedules at different job sites? Because they’re always changing, that’s important,” Rose says.

Benefits and competitive advantages of using employee scheduling software

Of the buyers who contacted us in the past year looking for HR software, including employee scheduling software, half were either using manual methods like pen and paper, spreadsheets, or no methods at all for their HR needs.

Not only does this lead to scheduling errors, but it also causes managers to have to spend a lot of time creating shift schedules and communicating them to staff. Dedicated employee scheduling software can not only reduce scheduling and time tracking errors, but streamline important tasks like approving time-off requests. 

In addition, our reviews data shows that employee scheduling software offers other benefits, including:

• Enhanced communication and collaboration: Reviewers say features like mobile access and automated notifications ensure everyone’s on the same page when last-minute shift changes occur. 

• Improved business outcomes: Automated shift optimization and schedule analytics allow managers to create optimal schedules that better utilize labor and maximize workforce productivity.

• Lower labor costs: Customizable scheduling rules and time clock limits can help ensure that you don’t pay out unnecessary overtime. 

Ultimately, with the right employee scheduling software, you can create and distribute shifts with ease so you can focus on other business priorities.

How to choose the best employee scheduling software

Step 1. Define your requirements

According to our 2025 Tech Trends Survey, the top change regretful software buyers would make to avoid regret on future purchases is to better clarify goals and desired outcomes at the beginning. [4] All stakeholders in your employee scheduling software purchase should be aligned on the features you need and the specific metrics you’re trying to improve with your new system.

Not only does this save time and limit the scope of the options for you to research, but it also gives you a guidepost to measure the success (or failure) of your purchase once it’s implemented.

Here are some other things to keep in mind at this early stage.

Know how much employee scheduling software really costs

The biggest component of employee scheduling software is the license cost, which most often scales based on the number of employees you have. For context, just over half (53%) of the employee scheduling software buyers our advisors have spoken to in the past year have budgeted between $5-10 per employee per month for this.

But this isn’t the only cost you’ll run into with your purchase. You may have to pay extra for premium features, implementation support, or personalized user training. 

Knowing the costs you might run into and asking vendors about them can help you avoid sticker shock.

Get ahead of potential employee scheduling software challenges

According to employee scheduling software reviewers, some of the most common challenges with this type of software include occasional bugs, untimely updates, and errors when generating customized reports or creating custom leave management rules. 

Knowing these are common issues, you can keep them in mind when researching products or talking to vendors.

Keep necessary integrations top of mind

Do you already have a human resources information system (HRIS)? What about a payroll system? Integrating these platforms with your new employee scheduling software is critical to getting the most out of your purchase so you can automatically pull important scheduling and time tracking information for other HR needs.

“Do you want the system to do payroll, or do you want to export scheduling data into an existing payroll system? That’s an important distinction,” Eschenburg says.

Make a list of the products you need to integrate with your employee scheduling software and bring them up with vendors so you can ensure the connection is seamless.

Step 2. Make your employee scheduling software shortlist

Once you’ve nailed down your requirements, it’s time to start researching different systems and come up with a list of 2-3 products to evaluate further (a.k.a., your shortlist). Luckily, Software Advice has some useful resources to help you pare down your options quickly.

Get qualified help from an advisor

At Software Advice, our advisors like James and Ryan have experience helping organizations identify employee scheduling systems that match their needs and budgets.

If you need help, you can either schedule a phone call with an advisor or chat online with one right now. In just a few minutes, your advisor will help you identify a shortlist of employee scheduling software options that best align with your requirements.

Explore our list of employee scheduling FrontRunners

If you’d rather do the research yourself, a good place to start is our employee scheduling FrontRunners report. Using reviews data, we map the top products in the category based on customer satisfaction and usability. 

Step 3. Pick the best option

The next step after putting together your shortlist is to investigate your options further by talking with vendors, taking part in demos, and getting hands-on time through free trial periods. Here’s our advice at this stage.

Ask the right questions during demos

Software vendors are incentivized to show their product in the best light during a demo. To cut through the marketing and know if a specific system will fulfill your needs, consider asking questions like:

• What security features do you have in place to protect our employee data?

• Can you show me how to generate a specific type of report?

• How often do you update your software, and what kinds of features are on your roadmap for future updates?

• What kind of support do you offer during implementation?

You can use our ultimate software vendor comparison chart to keep track of your scores and answers.

Get everyone involved during free trials

The free trial period is the most important factor in the final software purchase decision, according to our research. This is your only chance to try out the software for yourself before committing money, so take advantage of it.

Ensure all types of users (IT administrators, managers, employees) try out systems on your shortlist and give their feedback.

Step 4. Make the most of your employee scheduling software

Once you’ve made a purchase decision, your work is still not over. Whether you’re switching from one employee scheduling to another, or transitioning to your first electronic system, here are some important considerations to keep in mind during the implementation process:

• Data migration: Ensure all your employee data is up-to-date and without any obvious errors or missing fields. Communicating with your new vendor is critical with data migration to ensure nothing is lost during the transition.

• Integration: Whether it’s a payroll system or accounting software, it’s important to integrate your new employee scheduling software with other relevant platforms to achieve efficiency through automation. Map out all of the important integrations you need and work closely with your IT personnel and vendor to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

• Training: The faster you can train employees to use your new employee scheduling software, the better. Figure out employee training preferences (text vs. video, Instructor-led vs. on their own), then secure the right resources from your vendor that align with your needs.

Our 5 Critical Steps to a Successful Software Implementation article is a great resource for this step, so be sure to check it out.

Software related to employee scheduling

Maybe you’re looking for something similar to employee scheduling software, but slightly different. Or maybe you need other software to help with other employee-related needs. 

To help, here are some other types of software related to employee scheduling software to consider:

• Time and attendance software: Useful for workforces that include more salaried staff, this software helps businesses track employee attendance, PTO, and overtime.

• Workforce management software: Workforce management (WFM) software includes employee scheduling functionality alongside other applications to help with labor allocation and utilization (like workforce planning).

• Human resources software: This is a large category of software that covers everything to help businesses recruit, hire, manage, engage, and develop their workforce.

More resources for your employee scheduling journey

• 7 Top-Rated Affordable Employee Scheduling Software

• How To Identify and Avoid Unnecessary Costs When Switching Software

• After Your Advisor Call: 4 Tips To Keep Your Software Purchase on Track

About our contributors

Author

Brian Westfall is an associate principal analyst at Software Advice, covering human resources, with a focus on recruiting, talent management, and employee engagement. Over the past decade, Brian’s research on the intersection of talent and technology has been featured in Bloomberg, Fortune, SHRM, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal.

Brian’s research and analysis is informed by more than 250,000 authentic user reviews on Software Advice and over 20,000 interactions between Software Advice software advisors and HR software buyers. Brian also regularly analyzes market sentiment by conducting surveys of HR leaders and practitioners so he can provide the most up-to-date and helpful information to small and midsize businesses purchasing software or services.

Editor

Caroline Rousseau is a senior content editor at Software Advice.

A former content analyst, Caroline has, for the past five years, built, written, and edited research reports about technological trends, opportunities, and challenges with an SMB audience in mind. Her content has been featured in French Tier 1 media including Le Monde, L’Express, and Le Figaro, among other publications.

Her previous experience as a graphic designer, translator, and LQA specialist in various industries converged into a skill set that allows her to create compelling content about today’s business matters. Caroline’s personal interests include literature and art and she has a passion for Albert Camus, graphic novels, and drawing.

Advisors

Ryan Eschenburg is a senior advisor. He joined Software Advice in 2014, and he is based in Austin, TX.

Ryan works directly with small-business leaders to connect them with best fit software providers. He assesses the technology needs of small businesses seeking HR and learning management software through one-to-one conversations and provides a short list of potential matches. 

His favorite part of being a software advisor is helping buyers ease their stress and save time during their software search.

James Rose is a senior advisor. He joined Software Advice in 2021 as a software advisor. He is based in Fort Myers, FL. 

As part of the software advisor team, James helps HR and project management professionals who are seeking recruiting, learning management, and scheduling software. He provides a short list of personalized technology recommendations based on budget, business goals, and other specific needs. 

James’s favorite part of being a software advisor is knowing he helps save buyers time and energy on their software search with no additional cost.

Sources

• Software Advice advisor call notes: Findings are based on data from telephonic conversations that Software Advice’s advisor team had with small-to-midsize businesses seeking HR software. For this report, we analyzed phone interactions from the past year as of the production date. Read the complete methodology.

• Software Advice software pricing data: Only products with publicly available pricing information and qualified software products within the category, as of the production date, are included in the pricing analysis. Read the complete methodology.

• Software Advice reviews data: Software Advice reviews are collected from verified users for individual software products. For this report, we analyzed reviews from the past year as of the production date. Read the complete methodology.

• Software Advice’s 2025 Tech Trends Survey was conducted online in August 2024 among 3,500 respondents in the U.S. (n=700), U.K. (n=350), Canada (n=350), Australia (n=350), France (n=350), India (n=350), Germany (n=350), Brazil (n=350), and Japan (n=350), at businesses across multiple industries and company sizes (five or more employees). The survey was designed to understand the timeline, organizational challenges, adoption & budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations and satisfaction levels for software buyers. Respondents were screened to ensure their involvement in business software purchasing decisions.