ShiftCal vs When I Work

ShiftCal provides shift scheduling, clock-ins by GPS or kiosk, time-off management, and payroll exports for shift-based businesses, including gyms. Its assistant and solver draft rosters around coverage, availability, rest, and fairness rules. Gym scheduling supports class-shaped shifts, instructors working across multiple gyms, and shift swaps to arrange cover. The assistant can extract roles, shifts, sites, rules, and coverage needs from Excel, PDF, CSV files, and schedule photos. A confirmation card appears before changes are applied or published. Employees can use Android and iOS apps for calendars, push notifications, clock-ins, leave requests, and shift swaps; the service also runs on the web. Timesheets and payroll can be exported in CSV, Excel, or PDF formats, but no specific payroll integrations are named. The free plan is listed at free for five people and one site, with no card required and cancellation anytime. The pricing note lists paid plans from €2.99/mo and a 14-day trial; the plan details also list Pro at €299 a month and Crew at €999 a month. Precise location is collected only at workplace clock-in, not tracked in the background.

When I Work brings employee scheduling, shift swaps, team messaging, and time tracking together for shift-based workplaces. Auto scheduling assigns shifts using staff availability and qualifications, and managers can oversee multiple stores, departments, or job sites from one dashboard. The time clock tracks attendance, breaks, and time off, while staff can message without sharing phone numbers. It runs on the web, Android, and iOS. Essentials costs $2.50 a month billed per user per month; Pro is $5 a month billed per user per month; Premium is $8 a month billed per user per month. A 14-day trial offers complete access and requires no credit card, but there is no free plan. API key access, webhooks, and SAML/SSO are included in Premium. When I Work says it uses AWS, TLS, daily backups, multiple-disk writes, and mobile two-step verification. It does not offer an SLA, although its hosting partners guarantee 99.9% uptime.