4 Best Free Employee Scheduling Software

Free employee scheduling software offers web-based and mobile options you can use to build and publish work schedules for your staff so you no longer have to maintain and print spreadsheets. Most offer time tracking, leave management, and communication tools with features like schedule confirmations, shift swapping, and the option for team members to access the software from anywhere at any time—all at no cost.

The four best free employee scheduling software for 2020 are:

• When I Work: (Best Overall) Businesses with less than 75 employees that want top-notch scheduling tools free
• Homebase: Restaurants and retail stores that need unlimited free scheduling and timekeeping for one location
• OpenSimSim: Multi-location hospitality businesses that assign shifts based on position titles
• Tick: Project-based businesses that schedule workers against client or business deliverables

How We Evaluated Free Employee Scheduling Software

• We researched free, easy-to-use, top-rated, cloud-based employee scheduling software that meets small business needs.
• We evaluated each software based on the price (each tool below offers a truly free plan).
• Ease of use (we only considered top-rated tools that both employers and employees find intuitive).
• Scheduling tools (including shift scheduling, scheduling based on roles, and project scheduling).
• Communication features (options beyond email and text, mobile app, and more).
• Interface options (such as being able to share data with your payroll system or accounting software).

When I Work: Best Overall Free Employee Scheduling Software

When I Work topped our list because of its rich combination of ease of use, features and tools, and its accessibility to view schedules and make shift changes on the fly. You can even schedule employees for remote work sites using GPS coordinates. That’s great for businesses with workers in the field—like caterers, pop-up retailers, and service workers. It’s free for up to 75 employees regardless of how many work locations you have.

Note that if you need customizations for your specific business or industry, you’ll have to splurge on a paid plan. Otherwise, the Free Forever plan will provide the scheduling features your small business needs.

When I Work Pricing

• Free services: When I Work offers a plan called “Free Forever” that’s best for smaller businesses with fewer than 75 employees.
• Paid services: Paid plans are affordable at $1.50-$2.25 per employee per month.
• Per employee pricing: Time and attendance features available for an additional $2 per employee each month.

When I Work Features

• Ease of scheduling updates: Allows you to create and update a drag-and-drop interface and to use color codes.
• Shift or tiered scheduling: Schedule employees by shift or by position or function, as with a home care worker business.
• Open shift scheduling: If you have an open or unfilled shift, you can push it to available employees to fill.
• Scheduling confirmation: When you publish or update a schedule, employees acknowledge once they’ve viewed it and confirm.

Ease of Implementation and Use

• Creation and account setup: Signing up only takes minutes. Once set up, each employee will receive an invite to download the app.
• Mobile app use: Managers can text-chat about shifts or scheduling needs. You can send out company-wide notifications or ping employees individually.
• Interfaces: When I Work offers an API that you can access if you purchase a paid plan. Otherwise, you can export an XLSX file with all employee data, in order to develop your own reports or share the data with your payroll service.
• Customer service: Provides a customer care team that uses a web-based ticketing system to prioritize customer requests. They also have online chat from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CDT weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends with after-hours support.

What When I Work Is Missing

• Limited scope with free plan: The free plan provides daily and weekly scheduling, but if you need to schedule a month at a time, or look back at schedules beyond two weeks, you’ll have to upgrade.
• Assistance needed with customization: If customers choose to upgrade, oftentimes a customer accounts representative is needed to thoroughly navigate all of its features.

Visit When I Work

Homebase: Best Free Scheduling Software With Free Attendance Tracking

Homebase is a close runner-up to When I Work in terms of free scheduling software that provides great features for small businesses. The difference is that Homebase allows you to use its software for an unlimited number of employees as long as they work in a single location. That makes it best for small to medium size businesses such as retail stores, restaurants, or manufacturing businesses as it provides security, timekeeping, and most of the basic features other scheduling software offers.

If you need big-company features like forecasting and API, Homebase also offers an Enterprise plan. However, you’ll need to contact them for a custom quote.

Homebase Pricing

• Free services: A basic plan that’s free for one location with an unlimited number of users (also great for restaurant or food service due to shift scheduling flexibility).
• Paid services: If you have more than one work location, upgrading costs between $19.95-$49.95 per month per work site, which is good for brick and mortar businesses. The primary justification for costs is that users receive advanced reporting features and customizations.
• Per employee pricing: Unlimited headcount

Homebase Features

• Ease of scheduling updates: Homebase offers a drag-and-drop scheduling tool that makes it easy to resize shifts. It looks and feels much like a Google calendar.
• Shift or tiered scheduling: Homebase also provides tools that let managers and employees communicate through shift changes.
• Scheduling confirmation: When you publish or update a schedule, employees can acknowledgment once they’ve viewed it and confirm.

Ease of Implementation and Use

• Creation and account set-up: Homebase is designed for non-techies. Product videos make it easy for managers and employees to learn the software.
• Mobile app use: The mobile app allows your employees to view their schedules, request time off, and see reminders. Employees can also trade shifts.
• Interfaces: Interfaces to many payroll platforms. Homebase is designed for restaurants and retail and has POS integrations to software like Square and Lightspeed.
• Customer Service: Customer service is available 24/7 via email or Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-7 p.m. by phone. Provides helpful instructions for doing basic functions online.

What Homebase Is Missing

• Limited scope with free plan: Its free software is limited to one business location, but there’s nothing missing in terms of functionality.

Visit Homebase

OpenSimSim: Best for Multi-Location Scheduling of Hourly Workers

Unlike When I Work and Homebase, OpenSimSim is free scheduling software that doesn’t have caps on the number of employees or physical locations you can have. Since its platform is based on positions, you must indicate the position each employee has before you can create a shift or other detailed information. One advantage it has over Homebase is that the free version supports multiple locations with automated scheduling, time tracking, and employee communication included.

OpenSimSim Pricing Table

The Premium plan is the one you’ll need if you want time clock features. Otherwise, for no cost, you can have unrestricted access to scheduling tools, mobile apps, and instant messaging.

OpenSimSim Pricing

• Free services: Pricing allows for a fair number of services, including robust scheduling tools.
• Paid services: The premium plan costs $39.99 per month, per location.
• Per employee pricing: The per-location pricing set up makes it a great option for nonprofits that keep track of volunteer schedules but don’t need to track time worked.

OpenSimSim Features

• Ease of scheduling updates: Provides robust scheduling that can be done via mobile app for both managers to oversee and employees to view.
• Shift or tiered scheduling: Shift scheduling is made easy, again, through its mobile app, so changes can be made on the move.
• Open shift scheduling: Like Homebase and When I Work it also lets you message employees about upcoming business needs.
• Scheduling confirmation: Employees can respond back timely with change requests or confirmation that scheduling changes have been received.

Ease of Implementation and Use

• Creation and account setup: Once you sign up for an account, you input on-screen data. You can drag and drop shifts and make copies of them to help build and publish your first schedule within minutes.
• Mobile app use: The mobile app works for iOS and Android, and includes shift reminders and in-app messaging to ensure your employees are in the loop with schedule changes.
• Interfaces: Reports and data exports via CSV file format are only available with the Premium package. There are no pre-built interfaces or API.
• Customer Service: OpenSimSim provides unlimited 24/7 customer support via online chat regardless of which plan you use; free account holders get the same level of support as paid subscribers.

What OpenSimSim Is Missing

• Limited scope with free plan: OpenSimSim requires you to upgrade to a paid plan if you want to track employees time worked (which comes free with Homebase and When I Work).
• More employee information: Although all employee data can be included in this software, users have reported that quick assess employee data needs to include phone numbers, as an example, for workers who need to cover a shift.

Visit OpenSimSim

Tick: Best for Businesses That Manage Project Schedules

We included Tick in our best scheduling software roundup because it’s great for businesses that schedule their employees against project deliverables, including small manufacturing firms or software companies. Tick’s platform is most appropriate where the employee scheduling challenge is more about work being completed within a given timeframe, rather than the actual start and end time of each shift.

Tick Pricing Table

Tick Pricing

• Free services: Tick provides free time tracking that lets you schedule work, but it’s free for just one project.
• Paid services: Additional projects cost from $19 to $149 a month based on how many projects you need to manage. Starting with the $49 per month plan, you can set up recurring projects.
• Per employee pricing: Emphasis is placed on charging per project than per employee.

Tick Features

• Ease of scheduling updates: Tick allows you to assign team members to projects, track time, and get instant budget feedback by tracking labor costs.
• Shift or tiered scheduling: Again, the shift tracking is focused on the life of a project. Timers run in the background keeping track of what your employee is working on throughout the day.
• Open shift scheduling: The system allows you to track which employees are assigned to which project.
• Scheduling confirmation: Employees can issue quick responses that they have received manager notifications.

Ease of Implementation and Use

• Creation and account setup: Setup is straightforward, however if you want to link to project management tools there are some important connectivity steps required.
• Mobile app use: Tick utilizes a mobile app for iOS and Android, including tools that can help employees schedule their work using an Apple watch.
• Interfaces: Tick can be used to interface with the likes of Basecamp, Trello and Asana for your project management. You can track time worked against project deliverables.
• Customer Service: Tick provides customer support via Twitter. You can also email representatives for support, Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.

What Tick Is Missing

• Limited scope with free plan: Tick does not manage schedules in the format that would work best for a restaurant or retail store where shifts and shift swaps are common.
• A lot of detail: Some users have reported that although there is the ability to break large projects into small, more detailed segments, sub-projects or tasks, it can at times provide a lot of data that is not commonly needed “at a glance.”

Visit Tick

Alternatives to Free Employee Scheduling Software

Bottom Line

Employee scheduling software helps you provide work schedules for your staff and ensures that you’ve got coverage during peak business hours and between multiple projects. Free cloud-based scheduling software often has communication and messaging tools as well to let employees shift trade and stay in touch. Consider the size of your business, number of employees, and other factors that affect your scheduling needs to determine which one tool is right for you.