When I Work vs Shiftbase

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Our analysts compared When I Work vs Shiftbase 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

When I Work is a cloud-based platform that helps design, communicate and track work schedules for hourly workers. It replaces the hassle of spreadsheets and paper schedules with a user-friendly interface for creating and publishing schedules in minutes. You get features like drag-and-drop tools, schedule and timesheet templates, customizable automation, and reporting.

It offers built-in time tracking, communication tools and payroll integrations. Employees can clock in and out directly through the native app. They can also swap shifts and submit time-off requests from their profiles. It lets you access timesheets, identify labor cost trends and control overtime expenses.

Team messaging helps you coordinate staff members and avoid over or understaffing during peak seasons. While pricing varies based on company size and required features, the platform offers a free trial and multiple subscription tiers. This allows you to choose a plan that fits your budget and specific needs.

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Shiftbase is workforce management software that helps businesses with frontline workers manage employee schedules, track time, monitor attendance, handle time-off requests and maintain employee profiles. It offers a comprehensive set of features to streamline HR processes and optimize shift and task management.

Its scheduling feature helps you easily create, modify and share employee schedules. The platform supports shift templates, recurring shifts, drag-and-drop scheduling and flex teams for efficient workforce allocation. It also considers employee availability and absences to ensure optimal scheduling. Additionally, you can manage personnel costs, track wage costs and create schedules based on work hours or budgeted labor costs.

For time tracking and PTO management, Shiftbase can track worked hours, manage time-off requests and ensure compliance with labor regulations. Employees can view their schedules, request time off and track their hours through the mobile app. Also, managers can approve or deny time-off requests and monitor employee attendance.

The human resource management module includes tools for creating and managing employee profiles, storing important documents and managing employee communications. The software also offers compliance management tools to help businesses adhere to labor laws and regulations. This includes features for tracking overtime hours, managing minimum wage and Working Hours Act (ATW) compliance, and generating audit reports.

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$2.50/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$3.50/Employee, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
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Linux
Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
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On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Live Online
Videos
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Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Top-Ranked Scheduling Solution: When I Work stands out as a leader in employee scheduling, with an analyst rating of 85 in our research. This puts it alongside industry heavyweights like Deputy (87) and 7Shifts (86). It offers a comprehensive set of features, including scheduling, time tracking and team communications, all of which are ready to use immediately, reducing setup time.
  • Effortless Shift Management: Our research shows that When I Work offers 96% of tools for creating and managing employee shifts out-of-the-box. These include everything from creating recurring shift templates and customizing layouts to features like open shift bidding and automatic vacant shift assignment. You can also add feedback, task notes, swap shifts and receive automated reminders.
  • Powerful Mobile App: The mobile app keeps everything you need for streamlined scheduling at your fingertips. It offers mobile scheduling, time tracking, geofencing, customizable push notifications and built-in chat for easy team communication.
  • Seamless Integrations: When I Work scored 92 for integrations in our analysis, effortlessly connecting with a wide range of business tools. These include accounting solutions like QuickBooks Online, Google and Apple Calendars, HR and payroll software like Rippling and Gusto, Square POS systems, and integration platforms as a service (iPaaS) such as Zapier and Tray.io.
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  • Start Scheduling For Free: The starter plan lets you manage up to 75 employees in one location across five teams for free. You can manage employee profiles, create schedules, assign tasks and set role-based permissions. Employees can also track time manually via the mobile app.
  • Streamline PTO Management: Shiftbase's time and attendance management tools, highly rated with a 91 score by our analysts, offer a streamlined PTO management process. Employees can easily request and track time off, while managers can efficiently approve or deny requests and monitor attendance. This not only reduces administrative burden but also ensures accurate payroll calculations and compliance with labor regulations.
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  • Employee Scheduling: Create work schedules in one click based on employee availability and eligibility. View team availability, manage time off and track shift trades from one place. Allow employees to pick up and trade shifts while boosting workplace efficiency and productivity. Schedule multiple teams across job sites while preventing unnecessary overtime.
  • Time and Attendance: Track attendance, time off and breaks while turning any internet-connected device into an online time clock. Integrate schedules to control costs while applying pay rules. Implement an online time clock with a GPS facility for uniform clock-ins and outs across devices. Let remote employees log in and out using any device while receiving attendance data in real time.
  • Timesheets: Record weekly attendance changes into timesheets while setting differential pay rates for multiple positions. Monitor labor costs while auditing time records with labor distribution reports. Audit and approve timesheets from mobile or desktop while preventing overtime before it happens. Configure paid and unpaid breaks on schedule and time clock.
  • Shift Planning: Plan, swap and approve shifts using a mobile or desktop while empowering teams to collaborate on schedules. Ensure cost-effective shift coverage while creating schedules that work for the entire team.
  • Scalability: Start with a single team or location and scale to multiple teams across geographical locations as per business growth. Schedule multiple teams across various job sites.
  • Push Notifications: Send important messages to the entire staff in one go. Employees get email and text alerts for missed logins or outs. Notify all employees when you update or create new schedules.
  • Geo Check-In: Use GPS tracking and live map views to ensure that employees log in from their designated job sites. Monitor field staff’s real-time location, eliminating the need for employees to update their locations constantly in the office.
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  • Employee Scheduling: Create and publish work schedules with an overview of expected costs. Repeat standard shifts by dragging and dropping into upcoming schedules while building custom templates. Get employee availability reminders when creating schedules while sending automated shift reminders. Invite employees to pick open shifts.
  • Time Tracking: Prevent errors while recording employee work hours using an online time tracking module. Employees can clock in via mobile apps or desktops based on GPS locations. Copy work hours from timesheets to time registration automatically while saving manual effort and errors.
  • Absence Registration: Automate absence management processes while tracking vacation hours and employee leave requests. Employees can create leave requests while forwarding them automatically for supervisor approval. Get a real-time overview of accumulated vacation hours while entering balance hours for new employees.
  • Resource Management: Manage vacation balances, employment contracts, employee work hours and information from one place. Process employment contract modifications while calculating overtime hours accurately. Set employee birthday and anniversary notifications.
  • HRM: Build personnel files with employee notes, automatic leave accrual, contract reminders, notifications for anniversaries and birthdays, and automatic calculation of plus/minus hours. You can track employee competencies and certificates, monitor employee well-being through overtime and absence tracking, and receive alerts when documents expire.
  • Reporting: Get an accurate picture of worked, scheduled and approved employee working hours. Gain in-depth insights into labor costs compared to revenue, worked hours per department or a team and more. Generate customized exportable reports containing crucial operational data.
  • Mobile App: Manage workforce schedules, absences and availability on the go using Android and iOS apps. Monitor employee work hours while posting important announcements and messages from anywhere. Receive push notifications about timesheets and availability changes.
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Product Ranking

#3

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

#103

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

86
75
74
52
78
62
91
91
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Mobile Capabilities
Leave and Absence Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Security and Compliance
Shift Management
Leave and Absence Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

When I Work
Shiftbase
+ Add Product + Add Product
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 74 78 91 98 84 83 88 89 89 77 52 62 91 83 63 81 84 67 79 74 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

90%
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 1454 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 421 reviews
90%
of users recommend this product

When I Work has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 1454 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

90%
of users recommend this product

Shiftbase has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 421 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (11)
n/a
4.4 (286)
4.6 (225)
4.5 (1093)
4.4 (196)
4.4 (64)
n/a

Awards

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

User Favorite Award

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

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Intuitive and Efficient: Users appreciate the user-friendly interface and comprehensive features that centralize managing all scheduling needs from a single app.
Prompt Customer Support: Users report getting timely and helpful assistance from the vendor’s support team through live chat and email.
Enhanced Employee Experience: The app boosts staff productivity by offering them flexible tools to control their work schedules.
Improved Integration and Accessibility: Most users have had a positive experience connecting the platform with other necessary third-party tools.
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Increased Flexibility: Users appreciate the ability to assign different roles and create flexible rosters, making the platform suitable for self-rostering and cross-team visibility. It offers color coding to differentiate users and tasks, improving visual clarity.
Ease of Use: The software is user-friendly and requires minimal training. It simplifies scheduling and time tracking, especially when compared to manual or Excel-based methods.
Time-Saving: Shiftbase significantly reduces the time spent on administrative tasks like calculating hours and scheduling, with users reporting substantial time savings.
Responsive Support and Help Resources: Users consistently highlight the excellent customer service for its quick responses and effective issue resolutions.
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Pricing and Transparency Issues: Users have complained about the vendor’s pricing practices, which include hidden costs and a lack of clear information before signing up.
App Glitches: Users reported issues with iPhone and Android apps, particularly with tasks like staff punch-ins and location tracking using the phone’s GPS.
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Lengthy Setup Process: Transitioning to Shiftbase from other systems requires a time investment. Users mention that setup can take two to three days, but the platform is highly efficient once it’s operational.
Challenging User Interface: While Shiftbase is functional, users mention that its presentation, particularly in areas like team rosters and part-time employee scheduling, could be more refined with color-coded visual representations.
Limited Advanced Features: The platform has limited functionalities, such as no custom fields, rigid reporting templates and a lack of customizable graphical representations for tracking specific tasks or plotting work hours.
Clocking Issues: The system doesn’t automatically log out employees based on their physical location. Users have complained about spending time manually adjusting or verifying clock-in and clock-out times when employees forget to log their hours properly.
Lack of Detailed Change Logs: There are no clear records of who removed or altered shifts, which limits accountability and tracking.
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According to the reviews, users praise When I Work’s user-friendly design and all-in-one features for scheduling and time tracking. The customer support team is another win — responsive and helpful via chat and email. However, the pricing structure is a point of contention for some users, with complaints about hidden fees and a lack of transparency before signing up.What truly set it apart was its affordability for small and medium businesses. The starter plan, costing just $1.50 per location per month, offers unlimited employee scheduling and auto-scheduling — features usually reserved for top-tier plans in competitors like 7Shift and Homebase.However, communication features are restricted. During testing, I could send individual and group messages, but there's no bulletin board or newsfeed functionality, and message read receipts are absent.Security is another concern. The platform lacks biometric clock-in options, opening the door to potential time theft through buddy punching. Additionally, it doesn’t support geofencing or GPS tracking. I couldn’t remotely track staff shifts to ensure they were following established procedures.Overall, When I Work offers a compelling solution for small and medium businesses with a user-friendly interface, robust features and a budget-friendly starter plan. However, be mindful of the pricing concerns and other limitations, which can be a problem for growing teams and businesses.

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Shiftbase is a workforce management and scheduling platform that offers one of the best starter plans for free. You can start managing employee databases and schedule shifts of up to 75 employees in one location across five teams.In my experience, Shiftbase was easy to onboard if you’re not migrating from other scheduling platforms. However, the process is more cumbersome when you’re looking to migrate employee and scheduling data from an external platform. Unlike its competitors, Shiftbase cannot automatically set up your account using a CSV and Excel file containing your business data.One of the things I like most about Shiftbase is how easy it is to create flexible schedules, factoring in staff costs, revenue and budgets. Managers can track working hours through the website, mobile app or clock terminal. This gives insights into attendance and wage costs, allowing for better decision-making and optimized staffing. Additionally, it’s easy to manage employee leave and absences with Shiftbase, making it ideal for businesses with flexible or part-time staff.The platform can connect directly with payroll systems, reducing manual data entry and ensuring accurate, on-time payments. Shiftbase also offers basic reporting tools that help businesses understand budget allocation and staff work hours.Based on my experience and the feedback from other users, Shiftbase is a great option for businesses that need a simple and efficient way to manage their workforce. However, it lacks many advanced features that may be essential for larger enterprises with bigger teams. For example, it doesn't offer built-in AI for conflict alerts, seasonal demand analysis or workforce optimization based on seasonal trends.Overall, Shiftbase is a suitable choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable workforce management solution. Its ease of use and focus on core scheduling and time-tracking features make it a good option for businesses with straightforward scheduling needs. However, larger enterprises with complex requirements, such as advanced analytics, AI-powered optimization or integration with multiple systems, might find Shiftbase's feature set limited.

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Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Employee Scheduling Software


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WhenToWork

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