Quick service / counter / Scheduling and payroll
Scheduling and payroll for counter service
Scored and compared prices dated
The short answer
Counter service runs on a tighter labour-to-sales ratio than almost any other category here, so the tool that ties scheduling to sales forecasting earns its keep fastest. 7shifts does that natively and integrates with Toast, Square and Clover; Toast's own scheduling module only makes sense as an add-on for sites already committed to the rest of the Toast stack.
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 quick service / counters
Quick-service labour cost lives or dies on matching headcount to the lunch and dinner spikes precisely, since overstaffing a slow Tuesday afternoon and understaffing a Friday lunch both cost real money in different directions. High staff turnover, which this category is known for, makes fast onboarding and simple shift swaps matter almost as much as the schedule itself.
7shifts is priced per location, $39.99 to $134.99 a month depending on headcount, and includes labour compliance and sales-forecasted scheduling that pulls from the POS you are already running rather than working off guesswork. Its onboarding tools are worth a specific look here given how often counter roles turn over compared with a dining room.
Toast's scheduling and payroll module works the same way it does everywhere else on this site: worth having if you are already on Toast for the till, awkward to justify as a standalone purchase against a different POS.
Questions people actually ask
- Does 7shifts help avoid overstaffing at off-peak times?
- Yes, its sales-forecasted scheduling uses your actual sales history from the connected POS to suggest headcount by hour, which is more accurate than a manager eyeballing last week's rota.
- What does the payroll add-on cost?
- On 7shifts, payroll only comes with the top Premium plan at $134.99 a month, plus $6 per employee paid on top. For a high-turnover counter crew that per-employee number moves around more than in most categories, so check it against your actual headcount rather than a rough guess.