9 Best When I Work Alternatives

When I Work is a popular employee scheduling software that offers time and attendance features as an add-on. Intuitive and offering a mobile app and by-user pricing, it’s a good choice for growing businesses with multiple locations. However, it may not be the best for all businesses—single locations with many employees, seasonal businesses, and companies with greater compliance needs may want to consider other options.

We looked at several providers to find the best When I Work alternatives for your small business. These are the top nine:

• Best overall: Homebase
• Best for retailers needing forecasting tools: Deputy
• Best for businesses with multiple departments: Buddy Punch
• Best for restaurants and businesses that hire minors: 7shifts
• Best for seasonal and tourist businesses that may close part of the year: ZoomShift
• Best for very small businesses on a small budget: Sling
• Best for highly regulated industries and locations: SocialSchedules
• Best for professional industries like medical: Humanity
• Best for construction and field service industries: ClockShark

When I Work Alternatives Compared

*Not counting discounts for annual contracts

When I Work at a Glance

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Homebase: Best Overall When I Work Alternative

Homebase Pricing

Homebase differs from When I Work in that it charges by location with unlimited users. Its excellent free plan includes time clocks and hiring, as well as basic scheduling. You can try out the advanced tools with a 14-day free trial.

• Basic (Free): One location (with up to 20 employees), scheduling, time clocks, messaging, time tracking
• Essentials ($24.95/month/location): Free plan plus team communication and advanced scheduling and time tracking
• Plus ($59.95/month/location): Essentials plan plus time off limits, PTO tracking, permissions
• All in One ($99.95/month/location): Plus plan plus onboarding, labor costing, HR, compliance

Payroll add-on ($39/month + $6 per user/month): Includes tax filings, employee onboarding, and unlimited payroll runs. This price is on par with other dedicated payroll software.

Homebase Features

• Unlimited scheduling: Unlike When I Work (as well as several on this list), Homebase doesn’t charge per employee. You can create as many work shifts as you want and need. Plus, its paid plans allow you to have as many employees in one location as you like for a reasonable fee.
• Feature-rich software: Homebase comes with a comprehensive set of online HR tools. Aside from employee time tracking and scheduling, it includes hiring, job posting, onboarding, and team messaging solutions.
• Robust labor and schedule reporting: In addition to its drag-and-drop online schedule builder, shift swaps requests, auto-scheduler tool, automated alerts, and mobile apps, Homebase has a wide range of customizable reports that can help you gain insight into work shifts, labor expenses and percentages, attendance-related performance, and sales (if synced with a POS). Although When I Work lets you create custom reports, the options are more limited.
• Compliance tools: With Homebase, you automatically get the standard breaks and overtime settings for the state where your business operates. The software also captures and stores schedule edit histories, including previously run time sheets and reports, for either 90 days or four years (SocialSchedules, by contrast, saves for seven years, and most don’t list how long). This makes it easy for you to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and recordkeeping requirements.

Deputy: Best for Retailers Needing Forecasting Tools

Deputy Pricing

Deputy is more expensive than When I Work and has a minimum monthly spend of $25. It has discounts for charities, nonprofits, and community organizations that meet their criteria, and has a 31-day free trial.

• Free (only for US-based businesses): Limited to 100 timesheets and 100 shifts monthly
• Scheduling only ($3.50/user/month): Unlimited shifts, auto-scheduling, PTO management, newsfeed, tasking, POS integration, 24/7 email support
• Time and Attendance only ($3.50/user/month): Unlimited time sheets, payroll integration, POS integration, PTO management, newsfeed tasking, 24/7 email support
• Premium ($4.90/user/month): Scheduling and Time & Attendance plans, plus reporting
• Flexi ($2.50/active employee/week, 50 cents/inactive employee/week): Same features as Premium; best if <50% of employees are active at a time
• Enterprise ( For businesses with more than 250 employees; custom): Premium plan, plus advanced demand planning and analytics, training, location procedures, custom implementation, dedicated enterprise support, training, and certification management

Deputy Features

• Forecasting: Deputy provides tools that let you predict staffing needs based on trends in sales, deliveries, appointments/reservations, and other signals you can set. You set the rules, and it will ensure you have the minimum required number of people. It can also use the forecasting tools when automatically creating a schedule; most software just give you an analysis.
• Employee communications: Read notifications tell you who saw your posted announcements. Everyone can send updates, make comments, and collaborate on the mobile app. Workers can trade shifts with qualified teammates. Like 7shifts, Deputy can record and post videos. The mobile app earned 4.7 out of 5 on Android and 4.8 out of 5 on iOS—tied with When I Work and second only to Humanity.
• Labor compliance tools: Deputy has smart wage and hour compliance tools like meal and rest breaks settings, schedule notifications, and compliance alerts. Like SocialSchedules, Deputy helps businesses in Fair Work Week jurisdictions stay compliant by recording schedule amendments, calculating the required predictability pay, and capturing an employee’s consent to change. It’s superior to When I Work for compliance.
• Flexible time tracking: In addition to scheduling solutions, you get time clock apps that allow you to track employee attendance and manage your workforce from any mobile device, including the Apple Watch, an option that’s not available in other providers in this guide. Its apps for tablets even support touchless clock-ins, enabling your employees to start and end their shifts through facial recognition and voice commands.

Buddy Punch: Best for Businesses With Multiple Departments

Buddy Punch Pricing

Buddy Punch differs from When I Work in that it starts with a base fee and then adds a by-user fee. Further, to get scheduling, you need to purchase the Pro plan (When I Work lets you purchase either time clock software as an add-on). It has a 14-day free trial, after which it starts charging.

• Standard ($19 base fee + $3.49 per user monthly): Unlimited administrators, basic GPS tools, time off tracking, reports, schedule alerts and reminders, job tracking, break planning, and payroll integrations
• Pro Plan ($19 base fee + $4.49 per user monthly): Standard plan, plus employee scheduling, shift trades, schedule templates and notifications, availability management, and time off reporting
• Enterprise (custom): Pro plan, plus single-sign-on and API access

Buddy Punch Features

• Employee scheduling: Buddy Punch has a drag-and-drop scheduler like When I Work that lets you create, edit, assign, and share work shifts with employees. The scheduler even works on mobile devices, allowing you to easily manage employees even while on the go. In addition to specifying the exact time range, you can add specific locations, positions, and job codes to employee shifts.
• Multiple clock-in/out options: In addition to PIN code and facial recognition scans, Buddy Punch supports QR code and username with password clock-ins/outs. Buddy Punch is the only software on this list that can handle these two-time entry types. It also has an automatic punch-out feature that automatically clock-outs employees when their schedules end, something When I Work lacks.
• Time tracking controls: Buddy Punch lets you specify the exact time per day—instead of only the number of minutes—that your staff can clock in/out before and after their shift. Most on our list only have early clock-in prevention. This is useful if your employees have different work shifts, but you didn’t get Buddy Punch’s plan with scheduling tools. Buddy Punch also has geofencing and geolocation tracking, including device and IP address locks.
• Time entry duration tool: Buddy Punch may not have an online timer for tracking hours on projects, but it has a “duration entry” feature that allows your salaried employees to log in the total hours they spend on clients (such as meetings or client support). When I Work and the others on our list lack this project management/costing tool.

7shifts: Best for Restaurants & Businesses That Hire Minors

7shifts Pricing

Like Homebase, 7shifts charges per location, but it limits the number of employees in the Comp and Entree plans. When I Work is cheaper until you get to 14 employees (nine if you want time tracking as well). 7shifts offer discounts for franchise or multiple locations. It had a 14-day free trial.

• Comp (Free): Single location, up to 30 employees, scheduling, time off, time clock, team chat, hiring tools, employee engagement tracking, employee health checks, live support for 60 days
• Entrée ($34.99/location/month): Comp plan, still 30 employees, plus unlimited scheduling templates, shift notes, labor budgeting. Break and tips tracking, wage-based roles, timecard sync with POS, PTO requests, SMA notifications, read receipts, API access, unlimited live support
• The Works ($76.99/location/month): Entrée plan, plus unlimited employees, weather, stations and advanced budgeting, optimal labor tool, department-based budgeting, geofencing, advanced timeclock and compliance tools, overtime/break/punch alerts, state-based compliance tools, payroll integration, manager log book, shift feedback, labor expectation reporting
• Gourmet ($150/location/month): The Works plan, plus operations overview, machine learning auto-scheduler, non-cloud POS integration, task management, operations overview reports, dedicated account management, and implementation services

It also has add-ons, but these are not available for the Comp plan. Prices are per location per month:

• Operations overview ($6.99): Track labor performance and engagement across all locations
• Task management ($12.99): Daily checklist management
• Tip Pooling ($24.99): Create, calculate, and track tip pools
• Manager Log Book ($14.99): Customizable digital log book
• Tip Payouts ($46.99 + 75 cents per transaction): Instantly pays dips to employee debit accounts

7shifts Features

• Smart employee scheduling: Included in 7shifts’ Gourmet tier, its machine-learning employee scheduling tool automatically creates work shifts based on your business’ workforce demands, labor cost and sales forecasts, and overtime compliance requirements, including your employees’ skills, schedule availability, and approved PTO.
• Restaurant-friendly tools: In addition to tip reporting, 7shifts has real-time labor reports and restaurant performance dashboards that provide a birds-eye view of your entire business operations including how all your restaurants are performing and which locations may need extra attention. Other software in this list lack this type or level of detail in reporting.
• Robust integrations: 7shifts integrates with over 50 third-party software, including 20+ POS solutions like Aloha, Micros, Dinerware, Square POS, Revel, POSitouch, Squirrel Systems, and Heartland Restaurant POS. This puts it ahead of all on our list.
• Compliance tools: Along with audit logs, automated alerts, break and overtime settings, and early clock-in prevention, 7shifts can also help you to avoid assigning “clopen” shifts. This ensures that employees get ample rest between schedules instead of working a closing shift and then an opening shift immediately the following day.

ZoomShift: Best for Seasonal Industries

ZoomShift Pricing

ZoomShift’s starting price is similar to When I Work’s but it also includes the time clock tools. It allows you to pause your account if you don’t need it while retaining the information. It also has a 14-day free trial, but no free plan.

• Starter ($2.50 monthly per active user): Scheduling templates, time off and availability, shift swap, time clock, timesheets, payroll report, PTO and break tracking, reminders, calendar app sync
• Premium ($5 monthly per active user): Starter, plus overtime warnings, shift rules, geofencing, history and change reports, custom role permissions
• Enterprise (Custom): For businesses over 100 employees, and includes Premium features, plus priority support and migrating assistance, personalized onboarding, manager calls, custom employee training videos.

ZoomShift Features

• Seasonal features: The seasonal planning and ease of use make it a good choice for staff that only works at certain times of the year, like the college student that serves tables over the summer. If you close down for parts of the year, ZoomShift lets you pause your account while retaining your information.
• Scheduling: Of all those on our list, Zoomshift is the most basic. You can copy schedules or save schedules as a template, as many as you like. You can sync the schedule with Google Calendar, iCal, and Outlook. The time tracker is integrated, making time sheets easy, as well as enabling you to set clock-in/out rules and set up geofencing. You can track missed shifts, late arrivals, and more.
• Employee communications: Like other providers in this list (except Buddy Punch), ZoomShift lets you offer open shifts and allows employees to trade shifts. It alerts managers about overtime and breaks of shift rules (like clocking in early) and has event announcements, group chats, and direct messages.
• HR and payroll functions and integrations: You can set rules to restrict hours and get alerts when an employee is approaching overtime. In addition, you can approve time sheets and create payroll reports, which you can download as CSV or XLS for putting into a payroll program. Like with When I Work, you can build other reports, but customizations are few. It also lacks integrations into other software.

Sling: Best for Very Small Businesses on a Budget

Sling Pricing

Sling is the least expensive on our list when you consider per-person costs—and unlike When I Work, it includes time clocks. It also has a free plan, which lacks the time clock. If you want auto-scheduling, then you need the more expensive Business Plan, which is still on par with When I Work for price.

• Free: Shift templates, schedules, and alarms, shift availability, time off requests, news sharing, mobile (but not mobile clock-in), unlimited everything
• Premium ($2/user/month): Free plan plus mobile time clock, timesheets, early clock-in prevention, shift swaps, unavailability tagging, group messaging, budgeting, labor cost management, clopening prevention, overtime tracking, Google calendar sync
• Business ($4/user/month): Premium plan plus auto-assigning, kiosk time clock, reports, salary support, no-shows, late arrivals, task management, PTO management, labor/sales/payroll reports, employee document storage

Sling Features

• Task features: Openings, closings, deep cleans, and inspection preps all work better when the staff knows exactly what to do. Just like When I Work, Sling offers a robust tasking function that lets you assign tasks to individuals or teams, create and save task templates for recurring duties, and provide manager feedback.
• Scheduling: You’ll find most of the tools on Sling in other providers in this guide, but we especially liked how it tracked unavailability and time off because you can use it for compliance as well, like making school hours unavailable for your employees who are minors. The time clock lets you set limits on when early employees can clock in and will automatically clock them out at the end of the shift.
• Employee communications: Like Deputy and 7shifts, Sling offers both messaging and an interactive news feed, so you can keep your employees up to date on the latest news, whether it’s a new policy or a reminder. Employees can use the app to request shift swaps and get reminders about shifts and clocking in. The app is not as highly rated as When I Work’s, however.
• HR & payroll functions and integrations: It’s easy to tackle payroll by approving timesheets on desktop or mobile and exporting them to your payroll processor or as an XLS or CSV. Like When I Work, it integrates with popular restaurant POS systems like Toast, Square, and Restaurant Manager, as well as Gusto for payroll.

SocialSchedules: Best for Highly Regulated Industries

SocialSchedules Pricing

SocialSchedules has a limited free plan, but it’s more limited than Homebase’s. Like Homebase and 7shifts, it charges by location and is less expensive. It has a free 14-day trial of its paid plans.

• Basic (Free): Mobile app, scheduling, messaging, availability and PTO management, 10 workers, one location, 28 days’ cloud storage for reports, minimal compliance tools (Max days/hours, public holidays)
• Starter ($15.99/month/location): Basic plan, plus unlimited workers, two departments per location, one year cloud storage, multiple locations management, blackout days, department budget, overtime tracking, manager logbooks
• Premium ($39.99/month/location): Starter plan for unlimited workers, five departments, and five years’ cloud storage, plus time and attendance, POS/payroll integration, labor law compliance, certification management, advanced reports, sales forecasting, break notifications, time clock with clock out questions and notifications, timecard approvals
• Enterprise (Custom): Premium plan with unlimited workers and departments per location, seven years’ cloud storage, designated support contact, custom API, custom reports, custom features, AI-generated sales forecasting

SocialSchedules Features

• Smart shift management: SocialSchedules lets your employees drop shifts (along with requesting shift swaps) if they need to. However, your managers can lock important workdays to prevent schedules from being swapped and dropped.
• Strong labor laws compliance: SocialSchedules automatically allocates paid/unpaid breaks based on actual worked hours, applies penalties for missed meal breaks, and stops the send-outs of schedules with compliance breaches. It also provides cloud storage for edit histories and reports for up to seven years. Only SocialSchedules allows you to add certification-related scheduling and time-tracking rules, enabling you to enforce work shifts that require employees with specific certifications.
• Multiple employee availability sets: SocialSchedules allows your employees to create multiple availability sets that show when they are available and unavailable to work. Each set contains start and end dates and can be repeated on a weekly or biweekly basis.
• Certification management: Like 7shifts, SocialSchedules offers certification management. While available only in its higher tiers, this helps you track the training sessions that employees need to attend and the expiration dates of certification programs (if applicable). When I Work lacks this.

Humanity: Best for Medical & Other Professional Industries

Humanity Pricing

Humanity is the only When I Work alternative on our list that does not list its pricing online. The last estimate we received was for $3.50 per person with a minimum of $100. It may vary depending on the number of users you have and the tools you need. Contact Humanity for a custom quote.

Humanity Features

• Certification and qualification tools: Humanity tracks certifications, and lets you set rules for auto-scheduling that take these into account. It also considers these during shift swaps, so that two employees cannot trade shifts unless they meet the certification requirements. When I Work lacks these tools, while SocialSchedules is the closest competitor to Humanity here.
• Auto-scheduling: Like When I Work and about half the competitors on our list, Humanity has auto-scheduling, but it offers more variations than the others. You can autofill by template or previous week, and fill by using the existing staff, randomizing staff assignments, or replacing all staff with new assignments. Humanity will check that employees meet the rules for the shift and position.
• Reports: Humanity stands out with its reporting tools, not only offering schedule and time clock reports, but also reports on the employee level, such as upcoming work anniversaries, unavailabilities, and skills tracking. Like When I Work, if there’s a report you need and don’t see, you can build it yourself.
• Compliances: While others on our list let you create rules for keeping compliant with labor and other laws, Humanity has staff that tracks federal, state, and local labor laws—and when these change, the staff updates the software so you are always compliant even if you didn’t know the law changed.

ClockShark: Best for Construction & Field Service Industries

ClockShark Pricing

Clockshark, like Buddy Punch, has a base fee plus a user fee. The base fee is cheaper, but the user fee is much more expensive. While primarily a time clock tool, all plans include scheduling. ClockShark only charges for users that are active on the days they are active. You can get a free trial of the Pro plan for 14 days.

• Standard ($16 base + $7 per user monthly): Time and attendance tracking, GPS tracking, job and task tracking, Spanish language support, scheduling, manager roles and approvals, third-party integrations
• Pro ($30 base + $9 per user monthly): Standard plan, plus PTO tracking, multi-department controls, advanced job costing controls, clock-out questions

As of this writing, new customers get 50% off the monthly price for the first six months of service.

ClockShark Features

• Bilingual capable: Of all the schedulers on our list, only ClockShark can work in English and Spanish. Deputy is internationally available but does not mention working in multiple languages as needed.
• Scheduling: ClockShark’s scheduling tool is simpler than When I Work’s or others on our list. However, it does let you create tasks, upload task-related files and images, and add descriptions of work that needs to be done, and directions to the job site. With GPS, you can see where employees are when they clock in and out.
• Stopwatch time clock: In addition to a standard clock-in/clock-out tool, employees can set a stopwatch to track how much time is spent on a project. This is an excellent tool for workers who handle multiple projects in a day, and is unique to this list, although Buddy Punch does let your employees record times they track elsewhere.
• Job costing and quotes: While others on our list have labor costing tools, only ClockShark has job costing that can also take into account job quotes. ClockShark’s Pro tier includes the ability to create custom job quotes, attach documents and photos and send them to clients. You can even invoice and get paid using ClockShark.

How We Evaluated

Since When I Work is mainly an employee scheduling software with optional time and attendance features, we considered software that offers similar functionalities. We also looked at software that competes on pricing and ease of use. Then, we selected those that met the same basic needs as When I Work but offered something more or different to address specific needs.

When I Work Alternatives Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do I need scheduling software?

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Are there free scheduling apps?

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How is employee scheduling software different from time tracking software?

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What should I look for in scheduling software?

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Bottom Line

When I Work is a great tool for managers and business owners to make employee scheduling fast and easy. However, it may not meet all your needs, whether for budget or tools. The When I Work competitors on our list fill different use cases so that you can pick the best option for your business.

Overall, however, we found Homebase to be the best alternative as it has robust time tracking and employee scheduling features like When I Work, but also offers an excellent free plan. Its per-location pricing may also benefit growing or large businesses. So if you are looking for a different choice from When I Work that covers the basics and more, give Homebase a try.

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