Sling
Free employee scheduling and shift planning, with time tracking, labor-cost control and team communication
By Sling (Toast) · 4.7/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Restaurants, cafes and bars scheduling hourly front- and back-of-house teams
- Small businesses that want free shift scheduling for up to 30 users
- Managers who need labor cost tracking, overtime alerts and payroll-ready timesheets
- Multi-location operators replacing spreadsheets and paper timesheets for scheduling and staff messaging
Ideal size: 5–200 people · Hourly-workforce SMB or multi-location operator moving off spreadsheets
Not for
- Enterprises needing complex multi-country workforce rules and deep HRIS integration
- Salaried knowledge-worker teams with little shift-based scheduling
- Companies wanting built-in demand forecasting or AI-driven scheduling
- Buyers looking for a payroll engine: Sling exports timesheets but does not process payroll
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Same day to 1 week
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$1,224/yr
Starts at $0 · Per active user, per month: Free for up to 30 users, Premium $2.00/mo ($1.70 billed annually), Business $4.00/mo ($3.40 billed annually)
Implementation Friction
1/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Free covers up to 30 users; paid plans billed per active user and prorated when staff leave
Add-on costs
- None
Company & support
Who is behind Sling, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Market position
Where Sling 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.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Sling
- Planday
- Homebase
- OnPay
- ZoomShift
- Shipday
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Sling. 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 Sling ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Sling is a workforce management app for hourly teams, best known for free shift scheduling for up to 30 users. Paid tiers add mobile and kiosk time tracking, labor-cost and overtime controls, PTO management and payroll reports, plus team messaging and shift task checklists. Self-serve signup and POS integrations (Toast, Square, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager, POSiTouch) make it a fast, low-cost fit for restaurants, cafes, hotels and retail stores. It does not run payroll, and no AI features or security certifications are documented on its site.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Sling cost for a 30-person team?
Core shift scheduling is free for up to 30 users. Premium is $2.00 per user per month, or $1.70 billed annually, adding mobile time tracking, labor cost management, overtime tracking and calendar sync. Business is $4.00 per user per month, or $3.40 annually, adding kiosk time tracking, reports, no-show and sick call-out tracking and PTO management. A 30-user Business account billed annually is roughly $1,224 per year, and Sling prorates billing when staff are deactivated.
How long does it take to get Sling running?
Sling is self-serve. You create an account, add locations, positions and employees manually or by file import, invite staff by email or SMS, and start scheduling immediately; a 15-day free trial covers paid features. No implementation fee is published, and there is no mandatory onboarding project, so most small teams are scheduling within days.
What does Sling integrate with?
Sling integrates with Toast, Shopify, Square, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager and POSiTouch, syncing employees, positions, locations, timecards and sales data so you can compare scheduled versus actual labor cost; Toast also supports timesheet export to Toast Payroll. Schedules can sync to calendar apps, and Sling runs on web, iOS and Android. No Salesforce, Slack or MCP integration is documented.
Does Sling process payroll?
No. Sling tracks hours with mobile or kiosk clock-in, approvals, break attestation and geofencing, then produces timesheets, attendance and payroll reports that you export or sync to your payroll provider, including Toast Payroll. Payroll calculation, tax filing and payments remain outside the product.
Which industries is Sling aimed at?
Sling is positioned for hourly-workforce businesses: restaurants, cafes and bars, regional hotels and hospitality operators, and retail stores, from a single location to 200+ employees across multiple sites. Its features target shift-based scheduling, labor-cost control and staff communication rather than office knowledge work.
Does Sling use AI?
The vendor's homepage, pricing page and integrations page do not describe any AI features, model providers, AI governance controls or AI-specific pricing. Automation such as auto-assigning shifts exists, but no source describes it as AI, so buyers should treat Sling as a non-AI workforce management tool on the evidence available.