7shifts Review: Restaurant Scheduling Priced Per Location, Under Plan Names Most Guides Have Not Updated
This 7shifts review concludes that 7shifts is the most restaurant-specific scheduling and team management tool for independent restaurants, with a free plan and POS integrations that tie labor to sales, but its prices are per location with employee caps that push a location up a tier with one extra hire, and most pricing guides still describe plans 7shifts renamed in July 2025.
7shifts fits single and multi-location restaurants with more than about 20 staff per location, especially those in cities with fair workweek laws. It fits poorly for small teams across several locations, and for businesses outside restaurants.
7shifts review: current plans
7shifts’ pricing page loads its figures dynamically. The most recent third-party reads, from Turnozo (July 2026, a competitor), OnTheClock, HiveDesk (September 2026), and Rework, agree on the following.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Employee cap per location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comp | Free | Free | 15, one location only |
| Essentials | $44.99 per location | $39.99 per location | 30 |
| Pro | $89.99 per location | $79.99 per location | 60 |
| Premium | $149.99 per location | $134.99 per location | Unlimited |
Essentials adds time clocking, labor budgeting, sales forecasting, team chat, and permissions. Pro adds PTO accruals, labor compliance tools, a manager log book, and payroll integration. Premium adds task management, tip management, auto-scheduling, and payroll.
Add-ons reported in August and September 2026:
- Payroll: $39.99 per location per month plus $6 per employee paid. Included on Premium, where the $6 per employee still applies if you run payroll through 7shifts.
- Tip management: $49.99 per location per month on lower plans; included on Premium.
Turnozo quotes 7shifts’ footnote: new customer pricing, subject to change. It also reports that 7shifts’ terms describe annual prepayment as non-refundable and renewing at the then-current rate. We could not read the terms page directly.
The employee cap is the real price trigger
Caps apply per location. A location on Essentials that hires its 31st employee must move to Pro, which adds $40 a month on annual billing. A three-location group on Pro pays $239.97 a month on annual billing regardless of whether each location has 20 or 60 staff.
Old names, old prices
7shifts moved from Comp, Entrée, The Works, and Gourmet to Comp, Essentials, Pro, and Premium in July 2025, according to Connecteam. Many pages have not caught up. ITQlick lists Entrée at $29.99 and The Works at $49.99. SaaSworthy, updated August 2026, lists $29.99, $69.99, and $135. Software Finder and POSUSA list $34.99, $76.99, and $150. None of those plan names is on sale.
What 7shifts does well
It is built for restaurants: POS-integrated labor versus sales visibility, tip pooling, role-based wages, and fair workweek enforcement for cities such as New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia, as AI Made For notes. 7shifts holds a 4.7 rating on G2 across more than 1,000 reviews, according to Performance Reviews Software.
7shifts charges nothing for POS connections. Checkthat reports that some POS providers charge their own API fees for the integration, citing Toast at $50 per location; confirm with your POS provider.
How we sort 7shifts’ AI claims
Using our three-tier framework, auto-scheduling on Premium is promising: building a schedule from forecast demand, availability, and labor rules is a well-defined task, and a manager can check the result against the budget. We found no independent measurement of how much it saves.
Who should skip 7shifts
Do not buy 7shifts if any of these describe your business:
- You run several small locations. Per-location pricing punishes a group of small teams. Per-employee tools can cost less below about 20 staff per location.
- You are not a restaurant. The POS integrations, tip tools, and forecasts assume restaurant operations.
- You want to budget from published prices on the vendor’s page. The figures load dynamically; get a written quote.
- You plan to prepay annually and might leave. Third parties report that annual prepayment is non-refundable.
- You need auto-scheduling on a budget. It is Premium-only.
7shifts against the alternatives
We compare 7shifts with its main rival in 7shifts vs Homebase, and cover the POS systems it connects to in our guide to restaurant POS systems.
Frequently asked questions
How much does 7shifts cost? Third-party reads of 7shifts’ pricing page, dated July to September 2026, show Comp free, Essentials at $44.99, Pro at $89.99, and Premium at $149.99 per location per month on monthly billing, or $39.99, $79.99, and $134.99 on annual billing.
What happened to 7shifts’ Entrée and The Works plans? 7shifts renamed its plans in July 2025 to Comp, Essentials, Pro, and Premium. Guides that still list Entrée, The Works, or Gourmet describe plans no longer sold.
What are 7shifts’ employee limits? Comp allows 15 employees at one location, Essentials 30 per location, Pro 60 per location, and Premium unlimited.
Does 7shifts include payroll? Payroll is included on Premium and costs $39.99 per location per month on other plans, with $6 per employee paid in either case.
The verdict
7shifts is the best restaurant-specific scheduling tool for locations with sizeable teams, and its free plan is a genuine way to start.
Budget around the employee caps first: the hire that crosses a cap can cost more than any feature upgrade. Get the current prices and the renewal terms in writing, since the vendor’s pricing page did not expose its figures in our read or in the third-party reads we found.