Find your fit
Who it is for
A shop, restaurant or other shift-based team can start with its locations, positions and an ordinary workweek, then build a sample schedule around staff availability and approved time off. A manager with several sites can filter shifts by location before publishing, while employees can see their assignments and request changes according to company settings.
Sling is most useful when the question is who will cover each shift and how the roster affects hours and labor cost. If the organization also needs a payroll service, compare Sling's export and time-clock workflow with the separate system that will calculate and pay wages.
The work it supports
Core capabilities
Managers can drag shifts into a schedule and reuse a template for recurring patterns. Sling shows availability while they place people and can notify employees when shifts change. Build one real-looking week before relying on a template: exceptions, leave and last-minute changes are where the scheduling workflow has to hold up.
The Free plan includes time-off requests and available shifts. An employee can seek coverage by making a shift available or offering it to a colleague; direct swaps are a Premium or Business feature. An offer is not a confirmed transfer: the original employee remains responsible until a manager approves the exchange.
Admins can limit which coworkers and schedules employees see across locations, control shift exchanges and ask employees to accept or deny published shifts. A denied shift stays on the schedule, so the manager needs to resolve it rather than assuming the vacancy has been cleared.
Premium and Business add the time clock. Premium lets employees clock in through web or mobile; Business adds a shared-device Kiosk. The clock is disabled after upgrade until an admin turns it on, and the employee must have a matching location or position assignment. Test those settings with a fictional shift before expecting a full team's hours to appear.
Paid labor tools estimate cost while a schedule is being built, compare it with a shift budget or anticipated sales, and flag planned overtime. These are planning signals tied to roster and wage inputs; a manager should check the underlying rates and hours before treating them as an actual pay figure.
Business reports can show labor, payroll and attendance over chosen date ranges. The Labor report can draw on scheduled or worked hours; the Payroll report uses time-clock activity. That difference is important when a missed punch, early finish or exchanged shift leaves the published roster out of step with time actually recorded.
Understand the offer
Pricing and getting started
Sling's current Free offer covers shift scheduling for up to 30 users. The Help Center exempts accounts created through Toast from that Free cap and says older Free accounts already above 30 can continue but cannot add another user without upgrading. Check the account's actual route into Sling before assuming the public cap applies in the same way.
Premium adds time tracking and labor-cost tools; Business adds Kiosk clocking, reports and more absence and PTO controls. Paid accounts count every active admin, manager and employee profile, including people who rarely sign in. Deactivated or deleted profiles stop counting, so estimate a full roster rather than only scheduler seats.
The public pricing page currently displays USD $2.00 per user-month for Premium and $4.00 for Business on monthly billing, with $1.70 and $3.40 per user-month equivalents on annual billing. It also advertises a 15-day trial of Business features. Confirm the selected term, taxes and total before upgrading, then identify any Business tools a Premium account would lose after the trial.
Monthly billing is in advance, with user additions prorated and removals reflected in the next bill. Annual billing advertises 15% off but adds seat charges during the term without routine credits for removed seats; unused annual time generally is not refunded. Sling describes a possible first-month annual cancellation exception, so read the current subscription terms before committing to a changing roster.
Look a little closer
Before you choose
Pilot a typical week with two locations, one unavailable employee, an open shift and a proposed swap. Check who can see the shift, who receives a notification, whether a manager must approve the exchange, and whether the original assignment remains visible until that decision. Use fictional employees and do not assume a requested swap solved coverage.
If time capture matters, enable the paid clock explicitly and check location and position rights. Compare a planned shift with a different clocked duration in Business reports. This reveals the practical difference between the schedule's labor forecast and the actual-hour export that a separate payroll system may consume.
Before choosing Free or a paid tier, count the whole active roster and test the highest-cost month, including seasonal managers and employees. Then compare monthly and annual terms against likely staff changes, paying particular attention to added seats and unused annual time.
9 distinct sources behind this profile. Research observed Oct 26, 2026. Features and offers can change.
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