Comparison · Updated July 2026
The best Shopify employee scheduling apps in 2026 (and how to choose)
Every scheduling app builds a rota. What separates them is what happens either side of it: how the rota knows who is available, whether staff can fix their own coverage gaps without texting you at 7am, whether the schedule is aware of how busy your store actually gets, and what the hours turn into once the week ends. If you run a Shopify store, one more thing matters — whether the app knows anything about Shopify at all, or just happens to be installable next to it.
This page compares the scheduling apps a Shopify retailer realistically shortlists, on those terms.
Disclosure: we build Staff Hub, one of the apps below. We have tried to describe the alternatives as we would want ours described, and several of them beat us on things we name plainly. Weigh our analysis accordingly, and check any vendor fact that matters to you before you buy.
At-a-glance comparison
Competitor facts are dated. Where we could not verify a current fact from the vendor, we describe the shape of the plan rather than guess a number. "Trial only" means we verified a time-limited free trial but not a permanent free plan.
| App | Scheduling strength | Shopify-native? | Free tier | Pricing model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff Hub | Drag-and-drop rota, shift templates, availability, conflict detection, peer shift swaps, and — on Pro and above — sales-aware auto-scheduling that builds coverage from your Shopify sales history | Yes — built for Shopify, with a Shopify POS time clock | Free forever up to 5 staff, but scheduling is not on the free plan — it starts on Basic (30-day free trial) | Flat per-tier, no per-seat fee — Free $0 / Basic $12.99 / Pro $24.99 / Enterprise $49.99 per month | Shopify retailers who want the rota, the POS clock-in and the training/comms side in one app at a flat price |
| Homebase | Scheduling and time clock for hourly teams, and it genuinely runs US payroll as an add-on — files taxes and pays staff by direct deposit (as of July 2026) | No — a general hourly-workforce platform, not Shopify-first | Free plan — 1 location, up to 20 employees (as of June 2026) | Per-location, unlimited employees — paid from $20/location/mo billed annually (as of June 2026) | Single-location hourly teams that want free scheduling — and anyone who wants scheduling and real payroll from one vendor |
| EasyTeam | Schedules attached to the longest-running, most mature Shopify POS time clock, plus payroll prep and commissions (as of June 2026) | Yes — Shopify POS-native, and the most established of the Shopify-native options | Free tier up to 1 staff (as of June 2026) | Flat base + per-user — Pro $30/mo up to 6 staff, then $5 per added staff (as of June 2026) | Shopify POS retailers who want the most proven Shopify-native clock-in, with scheduling alongside it |
| Deputy | The deepest scheduling engine here — demand forecasting, wage budgeting, and labour-law / award-interpretation compliance (as of June 2026) | No — platform-agnostic workforce management | Trial only — 31-day free trial (as of June 2026) | Per user — Lite $5, Core $6.50, Pro $9 per user/mo (as of June 2026) | Teams where getting break rules, overtime law or awards wrong is expensive |
| When I Work | Straightforward scheduling, time and attendance, and team messaging, built to scale across locations (as of June 2026) | No | Trial only — 14-day free trial (as of June 2026) | Per user — from $2.50/user/mo (Essentials) to $8 (Premium) (as of June 2026) | Larger hourly teams that want clean per-seat scheduling and nothing else |
| Connecteam | Scheduling inside a much broader ops suite — task management, digital forms and checklists, and team chat (as of June 2026) | No | Free for life — up to 10 users (as of June 2026) | Tiered bundle — paid from $29/mo for the first 30 users (as of June 2026) | Deskless teams that need forms, tasks and chat as much as a rota |
Competitor facts are drawn from each vendor's public pricing and product pages on the dates shown and may change. Staff Hub's own prices and plan limits are current as of July 2026. Always confirm current pricing and plan limits with the vendor before you buy.
A closer look at each app
Homebase
Homebase is the default answer for a lot of single-location hourly teams, and for good reason: the free plan is a real free plan, not a trial, and it covers scheduling and clock-in for one location. It is also the only app on this page that will actually run your payroll — filing taxes and paying staff by direct deposit as a paid add-on, rather than exporting hours for someone else to process. If you want your rota, your hours and your payroll to come from one vendor, that is a genuine advantage and nobody else here matches it. Choose Homebase if you run one location and want free scheduling, or you want scheduling and real payroll under one roof.
EasyTeam
EasyTeam has been the Shopify POS workforce app the longest, and its time clock is the most mature Shopify-native one on the market — which matters, because a rota is only as good as the clock-in data that comes back against it. Scheduling sits alongside that clock, with payroll prep and commissions. Like us, EasyTeam prepares payroll rather than processing it. Choose EasyTeam if the POS clock-in is the part that has to be bulletproof and you want the most proven Shopify-native option.
Deputy
Deputy is the most serious scheduling product here. Demand forecasting, wage budgeting, and — the part we do not attempt — labour-law compliance and award interpretation, so the schedule itself understands break entitlements, overtime rules and pay rules. If you operate somewhere those rules are strict and expensive to get wrong, this is a category difference, not a feature difference. Choose Deputy if compliance and labour-cost forecasting are the reason you are buying a scheduling app.
When I Work
When I Work does scheduling, time and attendance, and team messaging, with clean per-seat pricing that scales predictably as headcount grows. It is not trying to be a Shopify app or an HR suite, and that focus is the point. Choose When I Work if you want uncomplicated per-user scheduling across one or many locations and nothing bundled on top.
Connecteam
Connecteam schedules shifts, but the reason people pick it is everything around the shift: task management, digital forms and checklists, and team chat, on an unusually complete free-for-life tier for small teams. If your problem is really "my team has no single app for anything", the rota may be the least of what you get out of it. Choose Connecteam if you need forms, tasks and chat at least as much as you need a schedule.
Staff Hub
Staff Hub is our app, so read this section with that in mind. It does drag-and-drop rotas with reusable shift templates, staff availability, automatic conflict detection, and peer-to-peer shift swap requests that managers can see and approve. Its distinctive piece is sales-aware auto-scheduling (Pro plan and above): it forecasts your sales by hour of the week from your Shopify history, turns that into a coverage requirement, and fills the rota from staff who are actually available. Hours flow into a Shopify POS time clock (PIN clock-in, with photo verification, and GPS geofencing available if you switch it on), then into timesheets with manager approval, overtime and break policies, payroll periods, and a payroll-ready export to Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Rippling or CSV.
Two things you should know before you shortlist us. Scheduling is not on our free plan. The free tier (5 staff) covers announcements with read receipts and training; the rota, the time clock and timesheets start on Basic at $12.99/mo, with a 30-day free trial. And we are not a payroll processor — we aggregate hours, calculate overtime, and export or sync to your payroll provider. We do not file taxes and we do not move money. Choose Staff Hub if you run Shopify, you want the schedule to be informed by how busy the store actually gets, and you want the training and announcements side of staff management in the same app at a flat price that does not climb per seat.
Where Staff Hub is the wrong answer
- You don't run Shopify. Our POS time clock rides on Shopify POS and our auto-scheduling reads Shopify sales data. Off Shopify, most of what makes us different disappears — look at Homebase, Deputy or When I Work.
- You need labour-law compliance. We apply overtime thresholds and break policies you configure. We do not interpret awards or statutory rules for you. Deputy does.
- You want payroll actually processed. We export and sync payroll-ready hours. Homebase files taxes and pays people.
- You want tasks, forms and chat. That is Connecteam's territory, not ours.
- You want a free rota. Ours starts at $12.99/mo. Homebase and Connecteam both have real free tiers that include scheduling.
How to choose in about five minutes
Answer these in order and stop at the first one that is clearly true of you.
- Is a scheduling mistake a legal problem? If break rules, overtime law or awards apply to you and getting them wrong costs money — Deputy. Nothing else here is built for that.
- Do you need payroll run, not just prepared? If you want one vendor to schedule, track hours, file taxes and pay staff — Homebase.
- Is your budget zero? If you must not pay anything — Homebase (one location) or Connecteam (up to 10 users) both give you a real, permanent free rota. We don't.
- Is the POS clock-in the critical piece? If everything depends on staff clocking in reliably on Shopify POS and you want the longest track record — EasyTeam.
- Is the rota really a proxy for "my team is disorganised"? If you also need tasks, forms and chat — Connecteam.
- None of the above? If you run Shopify, you want the schedule to reflect your actual sales pattern rather than your guess, you want clock-in and timesheets feeding a payroll-ready export, and you'd rather not pay per seat — that's the case for Staff Hub.
Want a rota that knows when your store is busy?
Scheduling, POS time clock and timesheets start on Basic ($12.99/mo) with a 30-day free trial — no credit card to start. The free plan (5 staff) covers announcements and training if you want to try us there first.