Software Advice offers objective, independent research and verified user reviews. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.
Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.
Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.
Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.
Showing 1 - 25 of 471 products
Sort by
Rippling is an integrated platform designed to empower HR departments to have a significant impact on day-to-day operations and drive strategic outcomes across the business. The platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline HR processes, enh...Read more about Rippling
recommendations
isolved is the most-trusted HCM technology leader, providing the best combination of software and services to meet the needs of today’s People Heroes – HR, payroll, and benefits professionals. From talent acquisition to workforce management to talent manag...Read more about isolved
recommendations
Paycom is an HR and payroll solution that assists businesses of all sizes with onboarding and benefits enrollment to talent management and more, from within a unified platform. The software caters to a wide range of industries such as education, healthcare...Read more about Paycom
recommendations
Paycor empowers leaders to build winning teams. Paycor’s human capital management (HCM) platform modernizes every aspect of people management, from recruiting, onboarding and payroll to career development and retention, but what really sets Paycor apart is...Read more about Paycor
recommendations
Simplify your work, amplify your impact. Your workforce is evolving quickly, and it's important to understand their changing needs. Paylocity's modern HR and payroll solution is designed with your employees in mind, so your teams can easily access and navi...Read more about Paylocity
recommendations
HCM solution that helps manage and automate onboarding, benefits management, employee database, timekeeping and more....Read more about Centrally HR
recommendations
WorkforceHub is a cloud-based time, attendance, and leave management system for small to mid-size businesses. This software can capture time data from web-based clocks or physical clocks for employees onsite, mobile, and working at home. TimeWorks supports...Read more about WorkforceHub
recommendations
Dayforce makes work life better. Everything we do as a global leader in HCM technology is focused on improving work for thousands of customers and millions of employees around the world. Our single, global people platform for HR, payroll, talent, workforce...Read more about Dayforce HCM
recommendations
ClockShark is a cloud-based time tracking system that helps businesses in the construction and field service industries to manage their mobile workforces. Features include time and attendance tracking, employee scheduling, emailed alerts, kiosk time clock ...Read more about ClockShark
recommendations
Jolt is an operations management software designed to help businesses in the food, retail, and hospitality industries. The software caters to the needs of deskless teams, transforming smartphones and tablets into tools to efficiently manage daily operation...Read more about Jolt
recommendations
Darwinbox is a new-age and disruptive mobile-first, cloud-based HRMS platform built for large enterprises to attract, engage and nurture talent. It is an end-to-end integrated HR system consisting of modules like performance, leave, attendance, recruitment...Read more about Darwinbox
recommendations
We are BrightHR; the only software powered by HR, health & safety, and legal experts. Everything you need to simply manage your staff, all in one place, PLUS free tools to set your business apart. We are on a mission to transform people management for bus...Read more about BrightHR
recommendations
With modules for time and attendance, staff scheduling and more, Synerion workforce management suites are suitable for organizations of all sizes looking to cut labor costs and automate worker attendance. Able to be deployed on-premises or through the clou...Read more about Synerion
recommendations
When I Work is an employee scheduling and time tracking solution that helps businesses streamline shift management and enhance workforce productivity. Through its intuitive interface and robust features, this software streamlines scheduling processes, trac...Read more about When I Work
recommendations
What is Netchex? Netchex is a cloud-based human resource (HR) and payroll management solution designed for businesses of all sizes. Key features include recruiting and onboarding management, performance management, payroll management, tax compliance, time ...Read more about Netchex
recommendations
ITCS-WebClock is a cloud-based human resources solution that caters to HR, payroll and finance teams in businesses of all sizes across various industries. Key features include time and attendance tracking, absence management, expense management, job costin...Read more about ITCS-WebClock
recommendations
TimeClock Plus is a cloud-based workforce management solution designed to make the day-to-day of your organization efficient. TimeClock Plus also offers dynamic scheduling and job costing features that can be configured to an organization’s needs and ensur...Read more about TimeClock Plus
recommendations
Natively built for the cloud, Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management is a complete solution that connects every human resource process—and every person—across your enterprise. We help you create a community where people feel valued, heard, and like t...Read more about Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
recommendations
Evolia makes it easier to hire, schedule and track time worked by frontline in medium and large-sized businesses. Gone are the days of working in silos and having to play the telephone game finding last-minute replacements. With Evolia, employees get the...Read more about Evolia
recommendations
Koroid is a SaaS-based platform that enables healthcare providers to source, manage, and deploy workforce and resources in a digital and automated manner according to demand wherever care happens – be it in the physical or virtual space. Through a combinat...Read more about Koroid
No reviews yet
recommendations
HCM Without Compromise. Criterion provides human capital management (HCM) software for midmarket organizations, helping organizations in construction, financial services, nonprofits and higher education streamline their critical HR, payroll, talent engage...Read more about Criterion HCM
recommendations
Snap Schedule by Business Management Systems offers workforce scheduling through both on-premise and cloud-based deployments. The platforms available are suitable for businesses of varying sizes in industries such as education, transportation, medical, ret...Read more about Snap Schedule
recommendations
Unifocus is an innovator in workforce management and optimization. Connecting powerful, real-time business insights across labor management, time & attendance, guest satisfaction, and employee engagement solutions ensures operators maximize the operating a...Read more about Unifocus
recommendations
Humanity offers a dynamic employee scheduling solution with AI-powered forecasting and a highly rated mobile app, designed to streamline and automate the scheduling process for organizations of all sizes and industries. The platform simplifies the process ...Read more about Humanity
recommendations
ClayHR is a comprehensive cloud-based human resource management solution that helps mid to large enterprises manage the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to comprehensive employee records to performance management to team retention, in one integra...Read more about ClayHR
recommendations
Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Employee Scheduling products in North America.
Learn how products are chosen“Usability” includes user ratings for Functionality and Ease of Use.
“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.
Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.
This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right employee scheduling software for you and your business.
Last Updated on January 27, 2025Employee scheduling software is a tool that helps managers create and manage the work schedules of their direct reports based on their skills and availability. The software also helps in tracking employee utilization and productivity.
Employee scheduling systems let managers create, track and manage employee schedules. In addition to freeing managers and employees from the bonds of paper scheduling, standard features and capabilities of scheduling software include:
Schedule creation and modification.
Employee tracking.
Integrated time clock functionality.
Online schedule distribution.
Report generation.
Mobile access.
Scheduling snafus are the bane of every HR manager’s existence, often leading to missed shifts and decreased productivity. Scheduling software is designed to prevent common problems by making employee schedules easy to create, modify and distribute. Although these programs might seem similar at first glance, finding the perfect software solution for your needs requires an understanding of the variety of features that employee shift scheduling software provides.
This buyer’s guide will make it easy for you to learn just that. Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Is Employee Scheduling Software?
Benefits of Scheduling Software
How Is Employee Scheduling Software Priced?
Best Tactics to Select New Software
While this guide focuses exclusively on employee scheduling, we also provide a list of top appointment scheduling systems. These offer a broader set of features, such as online booking, calendar management, automatic reminders, customer scheduling, online payment acceptance and more.
Implementing the right employee scheduling system can have numerous benefits for managers and employees alike. A few of these include:
Improving communication. Developing and maintaining a strong line of communication with your staff is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business. By providing staff with an online resource for checking schedules and using text or email reminders, many common staff scheduling miscommunications can be prevented.
Increasing efficiency and accuracy. One of the primary benefits of staff scheduling software is being able to quickly create, view and modify schedules, handle vacation requests and keep in contact with employees about scheduling needs. Some programs include automatically populating fields, which help you spend less time manually entering names and numbers.
Maintaining compliance with labor and union laws. Scheduling applications can be used to automatically track employee hours to prevent labor and/or union law violations. This feature is especially useful for companies that have employees who can legally only work a certain number of hours, such as minors or people receiving disability benefits.
Monitoring labor costs. Scheduling software makes it easy to record hours and payroll data, providing valuable insight into current and future expenses. This gives managers better control over budgeting and overtime costs. Some payroll support solutions can even be integrated with your scheduling system.
Employee scheduling software usually adheres to one of two models:
Pricing Model | Description | Example Products |
Subscription-based, or “Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)” | A monthly or annual fee for using the software, typically based on the number of employees who need to access it. | ZoomShift, WhenToWork, WorkSchedule |
Perpetual License | A one-time fee paid up front that allows you to use the software in perpetuity. | TimeForge, VSS Pro |
The majority of employee scheduling systems are priced on the SaaS model. Typically Web-based systems, these products allow you to access schedules from the cloud.
Many vendors offer free trials lasting between 14 and 30 days to let prospective buyers test the software before buying. Offering both monthly and annual subscription options is another popular billing approach that gives buyers more freedom to decide when to pay.
Evaluating new employee scheduling software can be intimidating, especially with the large number of products and myriad of different features available. Recently, we contacted software buyers across several industries to determine how they could most effectively choose new software. We discovered that the top methods included checking vendor references, having agreements reviewed by an attorney, assessing financial viability of vendors and preparing a request for proposal (RFP).
Quadrant indicating where selection tactics fall on the “impact” and “satisfaction” spectrum
By adopting selection tactics that fall in the "most effective" quadrant and avoiding tactics in the "least effective" quadrant, you can avoid wasting time on methods that are less likely to return useful information for selecting the best employee scheduling software.
Some vendors have industry-specific solutions that come with their own set of customized features. We profiled some of the more popular ones:
Restaurant/food service. Solutions tailored for restaurants and food-service organizations often include options for recording certifications, such as TABC and ServSafe, and notifying managers before their expiration; many can also coordinate schedules between multiple locations and integrate with POS systems.
Retail. As with the food service industry, some retail-specific solutions can coordinate between store locations and be integrated with POS systems. Retailers that depend on just one or two employees per shift can also benefit from reminders to prevent missed shifts and the inevitable scramble to find last-minute coverage.
Health care. Adequate shift coverage is crucial for healthcare providers, which has led software companies to include such features as notifications for last-minute appointment changes, fast communication tools for shift-swapping and the ability to assign employees to work at multiple locations.