The best free employee scheduling apps in 2026, compared
Most scheduling apps offer a free plan — the trick is figuring out where the free tier actually ends. Some cap you by employee count, some by location, and some just don't have a permanently free plan at all (a 14-day trial isn't a free tier, no matter how the pricing page phrases it).
Here's how the free plans compare as of mid-2026, based on each vendor's own pricing page.
The short version
| App | Free forever? | Employee cap | Location cap | What's missing from free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScheduleLord | Yes | 15 | 1 | Nothing — full scheduling features and role-based access are included |
| Homebase | Yes (Basic plan) | 10 | 1 | — |
| 7shifts | Yes (Comp plan) | Small teams only (exact cap varies) | 1 | Team messaging, POS integration |
| Sling | Yes | 30 | Multiple | — |
| Connecteam | Yes (Small Business plan) | 10 | — | — |
| Deputy | No | — | — | No free plan; paid plans start at $5/user/month with a $30/month minimum |
| When I Work | No | — | — | 14-day free trial only; paid plans start at $2.50/user/month |
The details
ScheduleLord — free forever for up to 15 employees at 1 location, with the full scheduling feature set and role-based access included. No feature gate on the free tier: what you get on day one is what a paid team gets, just capped by size.
Homebase — the Basic plan is free for up to 10 employees at one location, and includes basic scheduling and POS integration.
7shifts — the Comp plan is free for single-location restaurants and covers basic scheduling and availability/time-off requests. Team messaging and POS integration require an Essentials plan or higher ($39.99/month per location). We saw different employee caps quoted for Comp across sources, so check 7shifts' current pricing page for the exact number before you rely on it.
Sling — free for up to 30 users across multiple locations, covering shift scheduling, time-off requests, and messaging.
Connecteam — the Small Business plan is free for life for up to 10 employees, and unusually gives access to every feature hub rather than gating by feature — but each hub has usage caps (limited custom jobs and reports).
Deputy — no permanently free plan as of this writing. The cheapest tier is Lite at $5/user/month, with a $30/month account minimum.
When I Work — no permanently free plan. There's a 14-day free trial with full feature access, after which paid plans start at $2.50/user/month.
Why this matters
If you're a small team, the number that actually matters is your headcount versus each app's free-tier cap — not the marketing page's list of "free" features. A few employees over the limit and you're paying, regardless of how generous the feature list looked.
ScheduleLord's free tier is capped at 15 employees and 1 location, with nothing held back feature-wise. If you outgrow that, Pro is $30/location/month for unlimited employees and multiple locations — see current pricing.
Pricing and free-tier limits change. We pulled these numbers from each vendor's public pricing page in July 2026 — double-check the current terms on their site before making a decision based on this post.