The right Planday replacement depends on how your shifts run. Restaurant and hotel teams are better served by a hospitality specialist, small hourly teams by a simple schedule-and-clock tool, frontline businesses wanting HR in the same app by an all-in-one, and large multi-site operations by a forecasting platform. Import one real week of shifts before you choose.
If Planday no longer fits the way your rota works, there are plenty of places to move it, but they aren't all built for the same kind of business. Below are eight scheduling tools, in no particular order, grouped by the shape of team they're made for rather than by size or fame.
Two of these tools have changed name or owner
Before anything else, a housekeeping point that's easy to miss. Humanity, one of the older names in shift scheduling, now has its product page on the TCP Software site. ShiftNote, a logbook and scheduling app for restaurants and hotels, is now called ShiftForce.
Neither change means the software has stopped working. It does mean the people deciding its future, its support hours and its roadmap may not be the people who built it. When a rota tool holds every shift, every swap and every clock-in for your team, that matters. Ask who owns and supports a product today before you move a single shift into it, and check that the help pages and contact details point to the current company.
The second thing to check is fit. Some of these were built for restaurants or hotels first and have grown outward from there, so their screens, reports and wording assume a kitchen and a front of house. That's ideal if it's you, and a daily irritation if you run a warehouse, a gym or a care team.
Four shapes of scheduling software for shift teams
All-in-one frontline apps. Connecteam brings scheduling, time tracking, communication and HR into one app for staff who don't sit at a desk. Zoho Shifts covers drafting schedules, tracking clocked hours, timesheets and staff messaging, and it's worth a look if your business already runs on other Zoho products.
Restaurant and hotel specialists. 7shifts is built for restaurant teams, with scheduling, payroll, team communication and tip management together. The logbook-first option is the renamed restaurant and hotel app mentioned above, which pairs a manager's shift log with scheduling and tasks, so the handover notes from one shift sit next to the rota for the next.
Simple schedule-and-clock tools. ZoomShift is a schedule maker and time clock for hourly staff, with time-off tracking. Agendrix is aimed at shift managers and handles schedules, time off, time and attendance and timesheets ready for payroll, with staff notified automatically when a schedule goes out.
Larger forecasting platforms. Quinyx is the large-operations option here: a cloud, mobile-first workforce management platform for planning and scheduling across a big workforce. The Humanity product also builds and adjusts shifts against forecast labour demand, which helps where trade swings by the hour.
If you're a single site with a dozen hourly staff, the last group is probably more than you need. If you run many sites, the simple tools may run out of road quickly.
Shift tools at a glance
| Tool | Kind of tool | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 7shifts | Restaurant scheduling | Restaurant rotas, payroll, team chat and tips |
| Agendrix | Scheduling and time clock | Schedules, time off and payroll-ready timesheets |
| Connecteam | Frontline employee app | Scheduling, clocking and HR for frontline staff |
| Humanity Schedule | Shift scheduling | Building and filling shifts against demand forecasts |
| Quinyx | Workforce management platform | Large operations planning shifts at scale |
| ShiftForce | Logbook and scheduling | Restaurant and hotel managers who keep a shift log |
| Zoho Shifts | Scheduling and time tracking | Drafting schedules and tracking clocked hours |
| ZoomShift | Schedule maker and time clock | Simple rotas and a time clock for hourly staff |
Each scheduling app in a line
Listed A to Z.
7shifts
Best for: Restaurant teams wanting scheduling, payroll, team communication and tip management in one app; the vendor says scheduling and communication sit on a free plan.
Agendrix
Best for: Shift managers who need schedules, time off, time and attendance and payroll-ready timesheets, with push notifications sent automatically when a schedule is published.
Connecteam
Best for: Frontline teams that want scheduling, time tracking, communication and HR together, which the vendor pitches as one app replacing scattered tools and manual processes.
Humanity Schedule
Best for: Managers who build, fill and adjust shifts and want labour demand forecasting, from a product whose page now sits on the TCP Software site.
Quinyx
Best for: Large operations needing cloud, mobile-first workforce planning and scheduling, with the vendor's pitch centred on keeping every shift staffed and compliant.
ShiftForce
Best for: Restaurants and hotels wanting a manager logbook alongside scheduling and tasks, from the app formerly called ShiftNote, which the vendor says is made in the USA.
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Zoho Shifts
Best for: Teams that draft schedules, track clocked hours, manage timesheets and message staff in one place; the vendor says it creates conflict-free schedules within minutes.
ZoomShift
Best for: Hourly teams who want a simple schedule maker and time clock with time-off tracking, built so a schedule takes minutes, per the vendor.
My advice before you rebuild your rota
Start with the job that takes your managers longest each week. If it's building the rota itself, look hardest at how each tool creates and fills shifts. If it's chasing clock-ins and fixing timesheets before payroll, the time clock matters more than the scheduler. If it's messages lost across group chats, an app with team communication built in will save more hours than any auto-scheduler.
Don't be swayed by the length of a feature list. Planday itself covers scheduling, time tracking, communication and staff management, and its homepage mentions an Auto Schedule feature and access through ChatGPT and Claude, so some replacements will look thinner on paper. What counts is whether your managers will open the app every day without being nagged, and whether your staff can find their next shift in two taps.
Working-time, break and record-keeping rules for shift staff vary by country and sometimes by region, so check what your own regulator expects before you rely on any tool's compliance settings. For wider shortlists, see my guide to employee scheduling software, my restaurant scheduling roundup and my list of Deputy alternatives.
Run a one-week import trial
- Export one real week of shifts, including split shifts, swaps and holiday cover.
- Load it into your two shortlisted tools and invite three members of staff to use the mobile app.
- Have one person request time off and another swap a shift, and count how many taps each takes.
- Clock in and out for a few days, then compare the timesheet with what you'd send to payroll.
- Ask the staff which app they'd rather keep. Their answer counts for more than the demo.
A week of real shifts tells you more than any sales call.
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Frequently asked questions
What should a Planday replacement include?
At the very least: building and publishing a rota, time-off requests, shift swaps and a time clock that feeds timesheets. Beyond that, decide whether you also want team messaging, HR records or demand forecasting, and shortlist on that basis.
Is a restaurant scheduling app fine for other businesses?
It can work, but the screens, reports and wording usually assume a kitchen and front of house. If you run retail, care or warehouse shifts, try a general frontline tool first and see which feels more natural to your managers.
Can I move my existing rota into a new tool?
Most tools let you bring in staff and shifts, but the details vary. Export a real week from your current system, import it into a trial and check that roles, locations and recurring shifts arrive intact.
Do I need demand forecasting?
Only if your staffing needs swing with footfall, bookings or orders in ways that are hard to predict by eye. A single site with steady trade usually manages well with a simple scheduler and a good time clock.
How do I check who supports a scheduling tool now?
Look at the footer and contact page of the product site, read the terms to see which company you'd sign with, and ask the sales team who handles support. If the answers point to a different company from the one you expected, ask about the roadmap.
Will my staff need to install an app?
Most modern scheduling tools work best with a staff mobile app for viewing shifts, swapping and clocking in. Check whether staff can also use a browser, as some people won't want a work app on their personal phone.
