Multi-site operator / Scheduling and payroll
Scheduling and labour cost across multiple sites
Scored and compared prices dated
The short answer
7shifts is priced per location specifically because that is how multi-site scheduling actually gets bought, and its permission structure lets head office set labour budget guardrails a site manager cannot override. Toast's module covers the same ground for operators already committed to Toast across every site.
Reviewed by the editorial team · updated 11 August 2026
Step 3
What matters most to you?
Pick one or two. Everything below re-scores instantly, and we show you the maths.
Winner overall
7shifts
The scheduling app most restaurant staff have already used somewhere else.
The trade-off
No offline mode for managers. Staff can usually still see a schedule that already loaded, but building or editing one needs a connection.
Why it won
- price
- ease of setup
- support
- volume
- integrations
Our scores, 1 to 5, defined on the methodology page.
Everything else, ranked the same way
| # | Product | From | Contract | Card rate | Score | Price checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 7shifts The scheduling app most restaurant staff have already used somewhere else. | Free, then $39.99 | month to month, annual billing saves 10-12% | not applicable | 3.6 | Pricing checked 11 Aug 2026 |
| 02 | Toast The one built for restaurants only, with the lock-in that implies. | Free, then $69 | multi-year is typical | 2.99% + 15¢ on the free Starter Kit, 2.49% + 15¢ on the $69 plan | 3.6 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
What's different about buying this for multi-site operators
The multi-site version of scheduling is less about building any individual week's rota and more about whether a site manager can quietly schedule over budget without anyone at head office noticing until the labour cost report lands weeks later.
7shifts' per-location pricing model, $39.99 to $134.99 a month per site depending on headcount, fits this directly: it is designed to be rolled out site by site with consolidated visibility across all of them, and its permission tiers let a regional manager set guardrails a single site manager cannot exceed without approval. It also integrates with the POS most multi-site operators on this list are already running, so labour-to-sales reporting is consistent across sites rather than calculated differently at each one.
Toast's own scheduling and payroll module works well for operators who are Toast end to end, since the labour data ties directly into the same sales figures every other Toast module uses; it is a harder case to make if even one site is running a different POS.
Questions people actually ask
- Can head office see labour cost across all sites in one view?
- Yes, on both options, provided every site is on the same platform. That consistency, not any single feature, is the main reason multi-site operators standardise on one scheduling tool rather than letting each site pick its own.
- How granular are the permission controls?
- 7shifts lets you set role-based limits by site, which is specifically useful for stopping a site manager from scheduling over a set labour budget without regional sign-off.