Quick answer: 7shifts has a free Comp plan for one location and up to 15 employees. Current paid plans are Essentials, Pro and Premium, priced per location rather than per employee. Essentials starts at $44.99 monthly, Pro at $89.99 and Premium at $149.99; annual billing lowers the effective monthly price.

📅 Pricing verified September 1, 2026 against 7shifts’ current plan comparison and official plan documentation. Prices are shown in US dollars per location, before tax, and can change. Restaurants on older contracts may still see the legacy Entrée, The Works or Gourmet names.

Here is the current plan structure and the decision points that matter most for restaurant operators.

The Pricing Structure at a Glance

Plan	Price	Employees	Key Features
Comp	Free	1 location, up to 15 employees	Basic scheduling and team communication
Essentials	$44.99 monthly or $39.99/month billed annually	Up to 30 per location	Scheduling and core team-management tools
Pro	$89.99 monthly or $79.99/month billed annually	Unlimited	More advanced restaurant operations and integrations
Premium	$149.99 monthly or $134.99/month billed annually	Unlimited	The broadest feature set for complex operations

Paid plans are priced per location. Employee allowances still matter: Essentials supports up to 30 employees per location, while Pro and Premium list unlimited employees. Verify feature availability in the current comparison because some capabilities may be add-ons or available only on selected plans.

Comp (Free Plan)

The Comp plan is genuinely free. No credit card required, no time limit, no “free trial” bait-and-switch. You get:

• Scheduling for up to 15 employees at 1 location
• Team messaging and announcements
• Employee availability and time-off requests
• Shift offers and open shift management
• Mobile app access for your whole team

That’s a real, functional scheduling platform for a small restaurant. You can build weekly schedules, publish them to your team, handle swap requests, and communicate through the app: all without paying anything.

What you don’t get: Time clocking, labor cost tracking, POS integration, tip management, auto-scheduling, or manager logbooks. The Comp plan is scheduling and communication only.

The 15-employee cap is the main limitation. A small café, food truck or new single-location operation may fit; a full-service restaurant with front- and back-of-house staff can outgrow it quickly.

Who it works for: Small single-location restaurants, food trucks, cafés, and new restaurants watching every dollar while they get established.

Essentials ($44.99 monthly per location)

Essentials increases the employee allowance to 30 per location and is the first current paid tier. It is the logical comparison point for restaurants that have outgrown Comp but do not need Pro’s broader operations layer.

• Up to 30 employees at each location
• Time clocking with punch-in/out, break tracking, and timesheet approvals
• Labor budget tools that show scheduled vs. actual labor costs in real-time
• Manager logbook for shift notes, daily summaries, and shift-to-shift communication
• Scheduling templates and auto-scheduling based on demand
• Overtime alerts before costs spiral

Labor-budget visibility can help managers compare scheduled labor with a target before publishing. Whether that offsets the subscription cost depends on each restaurant’s staffing process and actual use.

Time clocking means your staff punches in and out through the app or a shared tablet, which feeds directly into timesheets for payroll. No more paper time cards or manual reconciliation.

What’s still missing: POS integration for sales-based forecasting, tip pooling and distribution, task management, and compliance automation. You’re scheduling and tracking time, but not connecting it to your actual revenue data.

The jump from free: Going from $0 to $44.99 monthly per location is meaningful for a small restaurant. Compare the exact scheduling, time and labor tools shown in your checkout rather than assuming a feature will pay for itself.

Who it works for: Single-location restaurants with 16–30 employees that need more than Comp offers but do not require unlimited staff capacity.

Pro ($89.99 monthly per location)

Pro removes the employee cap and is the main current tier to evaluate for established restaurants that need deeper operational capabilities.

• Everything in Essentials, plus additional Pro capabilities that should be confirmed in the live plan comparison:
• POS integration (Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel, and others)
• Tip pooling and distribution with customizable rules
• Task management with checklists and accountability
• Sales-based labor forecasting using actual POS data
• Auto-scheduling powered by demand predictions
• Advanced reporting on labor efficiency

The POS integration is the headline feature. Once connected, 7shifts pulls your sales data and uses it to forecast demand: so your schedules are built around how busy you’ll actually be, not how busy you think you’ll be. Over time, this gets increasingly accurate.

Tip pooling handles complex distribution rules (front vs. back of house splits, role-based percentages, house tips) and calculates everything automatically. If you’re currently doing tip math on a spreadsheet or: worse: by hand, this feature alone might justify the upgrade.

Task management adds opening and closing checklists, station prep lists, and daily duties assigned to specific roles or individuals. Staff check items off in the app, and managers can verify completion remotely.

The cost jump: Pro costs $89.99 month-to-month or $79.99 per month when billed annually. Its value depends on whether the specific integrations and operations features your restaurant needs are included; do not assume savings without modeling your own labor and admin workflow.

Who it works for: Full-service restaurants on a major POS system that need tip management and want data-driven scheduling.

Premium ($149.99 monthly per location)

Premium is the highest current self-serve plan and is aimed at restaurants that need the broadest operations and management feature set.

• Everything in Pro, plus the Premium capabilities listed in the current vendor comparison:
• Labor compliance automation (predictive scheduling laws, break rules, minor labor restrictions)
• Payroll integration (direct push to payroll providers)
• Operations insights and benchmarking across locations
• Advanced permissions and role-based access
• Priority support and dedicated account management
• Custom API access for enterprise integrations

The compliance features are the main draw. If you operate in jurisdictions with fair workweek laws (New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oregon), 7shifts can automatically enforce scheduling notice requirements, premium pay triggers, and right-to-rest rules. Getting this wrong means fines: often hundreds of dollars per violation, per employee.

Payroll integration means timesheets push directly to your payroll provider without manual export/import. For a multi-unit group processing hundreds of timesheets biweekly, this eliminates hours of admin work and reduces payroll errors.

The cost reality: At $149.99 monthly per location, costs scale directly with location count. Multi-location buyers should request a complete quote and confirm which payroll, compliance, support and integration capabilities are included rather than projecting guaranteed savings.

Who it works for: Multi-unit restaurant groups, operations in compliance-heavy jurisdictions, and restaurants with 100+ employees that need payroll automation.

Per-Location vs Per-Employee: Why It Matters

7shifts charges per location, not per employee. This pricing model heavily favors restaurants with large teams at fewer locations. Consider:

• A 50-employee restaurant can use Pro or Premium without a listed employee cap, but pays once per location.
• A 15-employee single-location restaurant can fit Comp; a second location changes the plan calculation.

Compare this to per-user tools like When I Work ($2.50-5/user) or Deputy ($4.50/user). For the 50-person restaurant, When I Work would cost $125-250/month. For the 15-person restaurant, it would cost $37.50-75/month.

Rule of thumb: Compare the total for your number of locations and required plan with per-user alternatives. There is no universal break-even point because feature requirements and vendor quotes differ.

When the Free Plan Stops Being Enough

You’ll know it’s time to upgrade when:

1. You exceed 15 employees: Comp no longer fits the published allowance
2. Payroll accuracy is suffering: you need proper time clocking, not honor-system hours
3. You’re overstaffing consistently: labor budget tools would prevent this
4. Tip calculations take too long: manual tip math is error-prone and time-consuming
5. You need POS data in scheduling decisions: gut feeling isn’t cutting it

Do not choose a paid tier from an assumed restaurant growth timeline. Upgrade when your employee count or required features exceed the plan you actually use.

Annual Billing

Current published annual equivalents are $39.99 for Essentials, $79.99 for Pro and $134.99 for Premium per location per month. Compare the annual commitment with the monthly prices of $44.99, $89.99 and $149.99, and confirm cancellation terms before committing.

Is 7shifts Worth the Price?

7shifts can be worth considering because it is designed around restaurant scheduling and operations. Whether it is worth the price depends on staff count, locations, POS and payroll requirements, and which plan contains the features you will actually use.

The question isn’t really “is 7shifts good”: it’s “do I need restaurant-specific scheduling, or is a generic tool sufficient?” If you pool tips, track labor as a percentage of sales, and schedule around covers, 7shifts is built for you. If you just need a basic shift calendar and clock-in, simpler and cheaper options exist.

For more scheduling options, check out our full comparison of the best restaurant scheduling software for 2026. And if you’re evaluating POS systems to integrate with, here’s our guide to the best restaurant POS systems.

Related reading: Toast Pricing (2026): Every Plan and Hidden Costs Explained · Best Food Cost Calculator Tools for Restaurants (2026) · Best Inventory Management Software for Restaurants (2026) · Best Online Ordering Systems for Restaurants (2026)

FAQ

Can I really use 7shifts for free forever?

The current Comp plan is free for one location and up to 15 employees. The vendor currently advertises no credit card for its trial flow, but plan terms can change; verify the current Comp conditions when signing up.

Does 7shifts charge per employee or per location?

Paid plans are priced per location. Essentials lists a 30-employee allowance per location, while Pro and Premium list unlimited employees. Comp is limited to one location and up to 15 employees.

What POS systems does 7shifts integrate with?

7shifts documents integrations with restaurant POS and payroll systems, but availability can depend on the provider and plan. Check the current integrations directory and your plan comparison before buying.

Is Pro worth more than Essentials?

Pro is worth evaluating if you need unlimited employees or Pro-only operations and integration features. Compare the current plan matrix with your workflow; do not rely on universal labor-savings or time-savings claims.

Can I start on the free plan and upgrade later without losing data?

Yes. Upgrading is seamless: your existing schedules, employee profiles, availability settings, and messaging history all carry over. You just gain access to additional features. Downgrading is also possible, though you’ll lose access to features on higher tiers (tip pool history remains viewable but you can’t create new distributions, for example).