Sling vs Branch

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Our analysts compared Sling vs Branch based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Employee Scheduling Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Sling is a cloud-native tool for streamlining employee scheduling for businesses of all sizes. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, allowing managers to build and modify schedules with ease. Pre-built templates for recurring shifts further save time, eliminating the need for repetitive manual assignments.

The platform offers employees self-service options to view schedules, request time off, and swap shifts with colleagues. This collaborative approach reduces management overhead and fosters a sense of autonomy among staff. Automated overtime tracking and labor cost analysis allow you to make data-driven decisions and identify areas for staffing optimization.

Additionally, it integrates with time clock functionality, enabling employees to clock in and out via their mobile devices. It also connects with existing calendar apps, ensuring everyone maintains a synced view of upcoming work commitments.

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The Branch app is a mobile-first solution that connects employees working on an hourly basis with enterprises. Employees can pick up available shifts within minutes rather than wasting valuable time in search of available shifts. Employees can earn more by working available shifts, collect advance paychecks and plan their finances.

It offers modules that bridge the communication gap between hourly workers and companies. Employees can find convenient shifts and can swap shifts in case of an emergency. Its seamless interface reduces absenteeism, saves time and cuts costs.
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$1.70/User, Monthly, Freemium
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$5 Monthly, Freemium
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Adopt a Data-Driven Approach: In our analysis, Sling scored an impressive 95 for its reporting and dashboard tools. You can generate reports and visualizations on time and attendance, scheduling history, employee performance and more. The platform supports automated weekly or monthly reporting based on your rules and offers filtering options to find and audit reports.
  • Simplify Task Management: According to our research, Sling is one of the top-ranked products for managing shifts and tasks. It supports 87% of key task management requirements out of the box, including custom task creation, rotating and recurring shifts, open shift bidding, auto-assigning vacancies, shift feedback, task notes and shift swapping.
  • Manage Schedules From Anywhere: Sling offers one of the highest-rated mobile apps, with 4.7 and 4.6 ratings on the Play Store and Apple Store, respectively. It supports employee punch-ins, push notifications, time tracking, geofencing/GPS tracking, calendar integrations and team messaging options.
  • Manage Employees Efficiently: Based on our data, Sling’s employee management tools are its second highest-rated module, with a rating of 87. This is on par with scheduling stalwarts like Deputy. It offers budgeting, employee self-service options, labor forecasting, shift bidding, multiple pay rates and more. The only limitation is that it cannot send update reminders and alerts for expiring employee documents.
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  • Automatic Notifications: Sends notifications automatically to employees about new messages, upcoming shifts, shift approvals or rejections. Its chat feature facilitates messaging between employees without having to share personal information. 
  • Improves Workers’ Finances: Provides various budgeting tools that help employees enhance their financial health. Employees can instantly access earned wages to pay their bills, unexpected expenses or emergencies ahead of the payroll period of two weeks. 
  • Boosts Earnings: Helps employees enhance their shift coverage and boost their earnings by picking up more shifts. 
  • Reduces Absenteeism Up to 43%: Offers a flexible platform for hourly employees to swap their shifts when their availability changes. This feature simplifies the scheduling process for shift managers and reduces employee absenteeism by as much as 43%. 
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  • Shift Scheduling: Build schedules within minutes while managing time-offs, shift swaps and employee availability. Schedule across geographical locations and time zones while saving templates for future use. Get notifications for double-booking or overlapping shifts, reduce absenteeism and late arrivals, and avoid scheduling overtime. Let employees pick shifts they like while granting approvals.
  • Task Management: Keep employees accountable by adding tasks to shifts. Clarify everyone’s job during shifts while ensuring employees stick to set timelines while finishing assigned tasks. Improve productivity and efficiency by allowing employees to access task lists via mobiles.
  • Time Clock: Track employee clock-ins and outs from a designated terminal, on-site time clock or both. Set early clock-in limits while automatically clocking out employees in case of forgotten log-outs. Review, edit, approve and export timesheets to process payroll seamlessly.
  • Location Management: Create location-specific news feed pages to share important information and messages. Monitor progress while creating to-do lists per location. Authorize multiple display directions and workspaces for every location.
  • Mobile App: Manage schedules on the go while letting employees clock in and out using any Android or iOS device. Use geofencing tools to ensure employees log in and out from designated locations while tracking attendance from anywhere. Send automated alerts or message latecomers in the app.
  • Labor Cost Management: Receive budget insights and suggestions while scheduling to ensure cost-effectiveness. The platform calculates labor costs based on employee wages, allowing real-time margin monitoring per shift. Sling also sends alerts if projected labor costs exceed your budget for a particular shift, prompting you to adjust staffing assignments before finalizing the schedule.
  • Compliance Management: Store licenses, contracts, certifications, and other files within employee profiles with unlimited storage. To ensure timely renewals, Sling alerts you when critical documents are nearing expiry. Set granular permission levels for document access to safeguard staff details. Managers can define and assign custom break durations per labor regulations, automate break scheduling, and send break reminders to employees.
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  • Self-Service Design: Offers a self-service platform to employees so that they can swap shifts as per their availability. This functionality eliminates administrative hassles and drastically reduces the time spent on scheduling. 
  • AI Chatbots: Designed with artificial intelligence chatbots to facilitate the onboarding of the staff, training, engagement and learning. 
  • Mobile Application: A native mobile application helps employees manage their shift coverage, earnings, leaves, overtime and attendance. 
  • Communication Tools: Offers numerous features that strengthen communications within businesses and boosts coordination. Shift managers can broadcast important updates and announcements to ensure everyone is informed, and important tasks are finished within deadlines. 
  • Reporting and Dashboards: Offers automated reporting tools and dashboards to report survey results in real time. Businesses can generate various customizable reports that can aid their improvement and help with employee performance reviews. 
  • Performance Benchmarking: Compare survey results with industry benchmarks and discover the areas that need improvement. It can be used to improve the performance of an employee or shake up things high up the ladder. 
  • Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with various third-party applications like Zapier, Box, Salesforce and SAP. Connect with the company’s external systems to complete team workflows. 
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Product Ranking

#30

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

#85

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Collaboration Employee Management Leave And Absence Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting And Analytics Schedule Management Security And Compliance Shift Management Time And Attendance Management 91 87 78 98 75 95 86 56 86 83 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 234 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 1616 reviews
91%
of users recommend this product

Sling has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 234 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

91%
of users recommend this product

Branch has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 1616 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.5 (14)
4.4 (82)
4.4 (219)
4.6 (152)
4.58 (679)
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4.6 (675)
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3.9 (29)

Awards

Sling stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Branch stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User-Friendly and Intuitive: Many users appreciate Sling's easy-to-use interface, which makes scheduling and other tasks straightforward and accessible without extensive training.
Comprehensive Features in the Free Version: Users find the free version of Sling highly functional and often better than some paid alternatives.
Optimized Shift Management: The ability to create repeating shifts and use shift templates saves time and effort in planning.
Improved Efficiency and Organization: Sling helps organize schedules and increase efficiency by reducing scheduling errors.
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Ease of Use: All users who referred to ease of use said that the system is straightforward, making it easy to learn, use and navigate.
Communication: Provides an easy way to communicate with teams and includes supervision for more efficient workflows, as noted by all reviewers who referred to communication.
Management: All users who specified management said it streamlines managing and tracking of schedules, shifts, finances and more.
Advance Paycheck: All users who mentioned advance paychecks liked the ability to take paycheck advances or loans when needed.
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Notification Overload: There can be too many notifications, especially for chats that users are not actively involved in. Sling doesn’t offer the privacy tools required to customize notifications for managers and employees.
Occasional Glitches and Loading Issues: Some users experience occasional bugs, app crashes or slow loading times after a system update.
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Performance: All users who referred to performance said that the system can be slow, glitchy and also crash at times.
Integration: It doesn’t link with all banks or applications, as observed by 86% of users who mentioned linking.
Customer Support: All users who talked about customer support wished that support would be available online via 24/7 chat and phone.
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My research into employee scheduling solutions revealed that Sling is a frontrunner, particularly for its user-friendliness. The intuitive interface simplifies schedule creation and management, even for those with limited technical expertise. The platform offers highly customizable templates and automation features, making it easy to generate regular reports.What truly impressed me was the feature set offered in the free plan. Beyond basic scheduling, it provides time tracking, communication tools like news sharing, private messaging and long-term scheduling. This exceeds what many of its competitors offer in their free plans. Also, the ability to schedule up to 50 employees at no cost is a huge advantage for growing small businesses.However, for larger enterprises with complex staffing needs, Sling might not be the perfect fit. While it excels in core scheduling functions, it lacks advanced features like a built-in AI, hiring and onboarding tools, and employee engagement trackers. It doesn't let you automate scheduling or analyze sales forecasts to optimize workforce allocation.Additionally, scheduling conflict alerts are limited to employee availability and don't consider skill sets or preferences. For businesses seeking a more comprehensive workforce management solution with AI-powered assistance, Sling may require further exploration alongside other options in the market.

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Branch is a cloud-based solution for time and productivity tracking for companies managing multiple shifts. It provides the capability to monitor work hours, view schedules, assign tasks, plan shifts and communicate with employees. Provides visibility on employee availability both in real time and in the future to help managers plan resources and workflows. A self-service mobile app enables employees to track everyday schedules and budgets, message colleagues, take advance paychecks and earn more money by taking shifts that are available. Some reviewers mentioned that it doesn’t link with all the banks and applications, preventing them from using the cash advance feature. The system can be glitchy, slow and crash at times. Users wished that customer support would be made available online via 24/7 options, which would be more pragmatic and reliable.

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Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Employee Scheduling Software


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Findmyshift

Homebase

Humanity

OpenSimSim

Planday

Quinyx

ScheduleFlex

Shiftbase

Shiftboard

TimeForge

When I Work

WhenToWork

ZoomShift

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