Planday
Workforce management platform for shift-based teams, combining AI-assisted scheduling, time tracking and payroll-ready reporting.
By Planday · HQ London, UK · 4.2/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Hospitality, restaurant and hotel operators scheduling large shift teams across multiple sites
- Healthcare and care providers needing consistent rotas and working-time-rule warnings
- Multi-site retail and leisure groups tracking labour cost against revenue
- Businesses that need mobile clock-in, shift swaps and team messaging in one app
Ideal size: 5-500+ shift workers people · Multi-site operator moving off spreadsheets or legacy rota tools
Not for
- Office-based or project-driven teams that do not schedule hourly shift work
- Companies needing project accounting, timesheet-to-invoice billing or PSA functionality
- Enterprises requiring publicly listed FedRAMP or sector-specific certifications
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
1-2 weeks
~14 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$4,200/yr
Starts at $225 · Per user, per month, subscription. Starter published from £2.99/user/month; Plus and Pro priced on request. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Minimum 5 users on Starter; upgrade or cancel anytime; Pro sold as a custom quote.
Add-on costs
- None
Company & support
Who is behind Planday, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- London, UK
How you get support
- PhoneEnterprise only
- EmailPaid plans
- Live chatPaid plans
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsPaid plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Starter plan lists help centre and live chat support; Pro adds dedicated phone support via a call-back service. Existing customers can email [email protected] or chat inside the Planday portal. AI bot Otto handles initial help, with the customer experience team available.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Planday sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Planday
- Workforce.com
- Onfleet
- Lob
- Routific
- Breezeway
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Planday. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Planday ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Homepage markets an AI Scheduling capability for building rotas and forecasting staffing needs every shift; the contact page also names an AI support bot, Otto, for initial help. No source states model-provider key handling or AI audit logging, so keyModel and auditLevel remain unknown.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Planday is a cloud workforce management platform for shift-based businesses. It combines AI-assisted scheduling, time tracking, team communication, absence management and payroll-ready reporting with POS and payroll integrations. Sold per user per month from £2.99 with a five-user minimum, it targets hospitality, hotels, restaurants, healthcare and retail operators running multi-site rotas. Implementation is self-serve with a 30-day free trial.
Frequently asked questions
What does Planday cost?
Starter is published from £2.99 per user per month with a minimum of five users, and covers scheduling, simple time tracking, working-time-rule warnings, basic payroll reporting and team communication. Plus is aimed at fuller workforce management needs, and Pro is customised pricing for larger organisations. A 30-day free trial is available with no credit card required, and you can upgrade or cancel at any time.
How long does it take to get up and running?
Planday is cloud-based with no installation, so most teams can build their first rota within days of starting the free trial. Starter and Plus are self-serve, supported by a help centre and live chat; Pro customers get custom account set-up and a dedicated phone call-back service. Multi-site rollouts typically need more time to configure working time rules and site structures.
Does Planday handle payroll?
Planday prepares payroll rather than running it. Approved hours and shift data flow into payroll and accounting systems through integrations including Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50, ADP, Paychex, TriNet, Heartland and Microsoft Dynamics, plus PAXml export. Several customers report cutting payroll preparation time significantly after connecting Planday to their existing payroll provider.
Which industries and team sizes is it built for?
Planday is designed for hourly, shift-based work: hospitality, restaurants, hotels, healthcare and care homes, and multi-site retail and leisure. It suits everything from a single venue meeting the five-user minimum to enterprise groups with many sites, where Pro adds auto-scheduling, configurable organisational structure and custom permissions.
Is there a mobile app for staff?
Yes. Planday provides a free app on iOS and Android so employees can view their schedule, clock in and out, swap shifts, see real-time earnings and receive messages from managers. Communication, shift schedules and time tracking are kept in one place rather than spread across messaging apps and printed rotas.