How much does employee scheduling software cost per month?

Most employee scheduling software costs between $2 and $8 per user per month for small business plans. Mid-market plans run $8 to $20 per user per month. Enterprise pricing is typically custom and negotiated. Free plans are available but limit users and restrict features like payroll integrations and advanced reporting.

Is there free employee scheduling software?

Yes. Several platforms offer free plans, typically capped at 10 to 75 users and one location. Free plans usually exclude payroll integrations, advanced reporting and API access. They work well for small teams with simple scheduling needs and no requirement for automated payroll data transfer.

How is employee scheduling software typically priced?

The three most common pricing models are per-user per month (most common for SMB and mid-market buyers), per-location per month (common in retail and hospitality), and flat-rate tiered pricing (common for free and starter plans). Annual billing typically reduces the effective rate compared to month-to-month contracts.

What hidden fees should I watch for in scheduling software?

Common hidden costs include payroll integration fees, SMS notification charges, API access (often restricted to enterprise tiers), multi-location management surcharges, advanced analytics add-ons and onboarding fees. Always request a full add-on pricing sheet and confirm which features are included in your specific tier before signing a contract.

What is the total cost of ownership for scheduling software?

TCO includes your base license cost, add-on fees (payroll sync, SMS, API, multi-location), implementation and onboarding costs, internal training and admin time, and any integration or middleware expenses. The all-in annual cost typically exceeds the advertised per-user rate by a meaningful margin once these factors are included.

Employee Scheduling Software Pricing in 2025: What You'll Actually Pay

How Is Employee Scheduling Software Priced?

Most scheduling software is priced per user per month, meaning your cost scales directly with headcount. Two other models exist (per-location and flat-rate tiers), but per-user pricing dominates the SMB and mid-market segments.

Per-User Pricing charges a monthly fee for every employee on the platform. It is the most common model for teams under 500 employees and the easiest to compare across vendors.

Per-Location Pricing charges a flat fee per business location regardless of headcount. This model appears more frequently in retail, hospitality and franchise operations where location count matters more than individual employee count.

Flat-Rate or Tiered Pricing sets a fixed monthly fee for up to a stated number of users or locations. It is common in free and starter plans and can be cost-effective for teams that sit below the user cap.

One detail most buyers miss: some vendors distinguish between "per-seat" (every account created) and "per-active-user" (only employees who clock in during a billing period). For industries with seasonal headcount swings, like construction or warehousing, this distinction can shift annual cost meaningfully. If you run variable crews, ask vendors explicitly how inactive users are billed. Billing cadence also matters. Annual prepayment typically reduces the effective rate compared to month-to-month billing. When evaluating scheduling tools alongside time tracking and payroll, make sure the pricing model aligns with how your headcount fluctuates across seasons.

What Are the Pricing Tier Benchmarks for Scheduling Software?

The market breaks into five broad tiers, from free plans aimed at very small teams to custom enterprise contracts. The table below summarizes typical ranges based on publicly listed pricing from vendors in the scheduling category.

Tier	Typical Price Range	User or Location Limits	Core Features Included	Commonly Paywalled
Free	$0	10–75 users	Basic scheduling, shift templates, mobile app	Payroll sync, advanced reporting, integrations
Starter / Essentials	$2–$5/user/mo	Varies; often unlimited	Scheduling, time tracking, basic notifications	Multi-location, API, overtime alerts
Professional / Growth	$5–$10/user/mo	Typically unlimited	All Starter features plus integrations, reporting, manager roles	Advanced analytics, custom workflows
Business / Premium	$10–$20/user/mo	Typically unlimited	All Professional features plus payroll sync, compliance tools	Dedicated support, SSO, custom integrations
Enterprise	$20+/user/mo or custom	Unlimited	Full suite plus SLA, custom onboarding, API access	Negotiated per contract

The $5–$10 per user per month range is the most competitive segment; many vendors cluster here and differentiate on integration depth and compliance features. Free plans genuinely work for teams under roughly 20 employees at a single location with no payroll integration requirement. A pricing page that says "contact us" at mid-market tiers often signals above-average cost. EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software lists a starting price of $3 per user per month on Capterra, positioning it in the Starter band while including biometric time clocks and scheduling in one package.

What Hidden Fees Should You Watch For?

The biggest pricing gap in the scheduling software market is transparency around add-on costs. No currently cited source on this topic provides a complete hidden-fee breakdown, yet these charges are often where the real budget surprise lives.

Common add-on costs to ask about before signing:

Payroll integration (connections to ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks and others) is frequently included only in higher tiers or charged as a separate monthly fee.
SMS and text notifications are sometimes billed per message or bundled at a set monthly volume; overages add up fast for large shift-based teams.
API access is often restricted to enterprise plans, meaning mid-market buyers who need custom integrations pay a premium or upgrade tiers.
Advanced reporting and analytics are regularly paywalled above Starter; buyers discover this after the trial period ends.
Multi-location management can carry per-location surcharges that are not visible on the main pricing page.
Onboarding and implementation ranges from self-serve (no charge) to significant fees for enterprise-grade rollouts with dedicated project management.
Compliance and labor law alerts (break tracking, overtime rules, predictive scheduling) are sometimes a separate add-on rather than a standard feature.

Before committing, request a full add-on pricing sheet and compare it against your actual operational needs. If you need payroll integrations, confirm whether the connection is included in your plan or billed separately. Trial periods can also obscure costs: features enabled during a free trial sometimes auto-charge at conversion if you do not manually downgrade.

How Does Pricing Vary by Business Size and Industry?

Your realistic annual budget depends more on headcount, location count and industry-specific requirements than on the vendor's headline per-user rate. Below are segment-level benchmarks based on publicly available pricing tiers across the category.

Business Segment	Typical Headcount	Best-Fit Tier	Key Cost Driver
Small Business	Under 50 employees	Free or Starter ($2–$5/user/mo)	Whether payroll integration is required
Mid-Market	50–500 employees	Professional or Business ($5–$20/user/mo)	Multi-location needs and manager seat counts
Enterprise	500+ employees	Enterprise ($20+/user/mo or custom)	Integration complexity, compliance modules, dedicated SLAs

Industry-Specific Patterns

Construction and field services: GPS, geofencing and mobile-first features typically push plans to Professional tier at minimum. Crews working across multiple job sites with variable headcount need a system that handles seasonal scaling without penalizing inactive seats. EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software addresses this with construction time tracking that bundles scheduling, biometric verification and mobile clock-in for field crews.

Manufacturing and warehousing: Shift differential rules, break compliance and overtime calculations add complexity that free or starter plans rarely support. Expect to land in the Professional or Business tier to get automated pay-rule enforcement.

Staffing: Dual-rate billing, client-level job costing and high employee turnover mean per-active-user pricing models tend to be more favorable than per-seat pricing. Ask vendors how they handle seasonal or temporary workers who are active for only part of the year.

What Does Total Cost of Ownership Actually Look Like?

Total cost of ownership (TCO) typically runs meaningfully higher than the per-user sticker price once add-ons, onboarding, internal labor and integration work are included. Buyers who budget only on the headline rate often face a surprise at renewal.

A practical TCO framework for scheduling software:

Step 1, Base License Cost: Number of users multiplied by the monthly per-user rate, multiplied by 12 for annual cost.
Step 2, Add-On Costs: Sum annual fees for each required add-on (payroll sync, SMS, API access, multi-location, compliance modules).
Step 3, Implementation and Onboarding: One-time cost that ranges from zero for self-serve setups to a meaningful investment for multi-site enterprise rollouts.
Step 4, Training and Admin Time: Estimate internal hours spent on setup, configuration and ongoing administration, then multiply by your internal labor cost per hour.
Step 5, Integration Costs: Any middleware, custom API development or file-mapping work required to connect scheduling data to your existing HR or payroll stack.

Total TCO = Step 1 + Step 2 + Step 3 + Step 4 + Step 5.

When presenting TCO to finance or procurement, separate the recurring costs (Steps 1 and 2) from the one-time costs (Steps 3 and 5) and the ongoing internal labor cost (Step 4). This gives decision-makers a clear picture of year-one spend versus steady-state spend. The gap assessment tool can help you identify which add-ons you actually need before requesting vendor quotes.

When Should You Upgrade Your Scheduling Software Plan?

Upgrade decisions should be driven by operational pain, not vendor upsell prompts. Here are practical triggers for each transition point.

Upgrade from Free to Starter when:

Your team exceeds 20–30 active employees and the user cap is creating workarounds.
You need time-off request workflows or manager approval chains that the free tier does not support.
You are manually exporting and re-entering schedule data into payroll.

Upgrade from Starter to Professional when:

You manage two or more locations and need centralized visibility.
Compliance reporting for breaks, overtime or predictive scheduling is a legal requirement in your state or jurisdiction.
You need direct integrations with your HR or payroll system rather than manual file exports.

Upgrade from Professional to Enterprise when:

Headcount exceeds several hundred employees and you need custom roles, SSO or dedicated support SLAs.
Procurement requires a BAA, DPA or custom contract terms.
Integration complexity demands API access and dedicated implementation support.

Each upgrade should be justified by a specific operational bottleneck or compliance requirement, not by feature lists that look appealing in a demo. If you are evaluating a tier jump, use the TCO framework above to compare the all-in cost of upgrading versus the cost of the operational pain you are trying to solve.

What Does This Mean for Your Operation?

The scheduling software market is crowded and pricing is deliberately opaque. Vendors benefit when buyers compare headline rates without accounting for add-on fees, integration costs and internal admin time. Your advantage is in asking better questions before you sign.

Start by defining your actual requirements: How many employees? How many locations? Which integrations are non-negotiable? What compliance rules apply in your state or industry? Then use the tier benchmarks and TCO framework in this article to build a realistic annual budget before requesting demos.

For operations in construction, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation or staffing, the scheduling decision is rarely isolated. It connects directly to time tracking, payroll accuracy and compliance defensibility. A scheduling tool that does not integrate cleanly with your time capture and payroll systems creates manual reconciliation work that erodes whatever you saved on the per-user rate. EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software bundles scheduling, biometric time capture and payroll integration into a single platform specifically for these industries, with most sites going live within days rather than months.

Whatever vendor you evaluate, request a full add-on pricing sheet, ask how inactive or seasonal users are billed, and run the TCO calculation before committing. The cheapest per-user rate is rarely the cheapest total cost.

How EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software Compares

EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software lists a starting price of $3 per user per month (Capterra listing) and bundles scheduling, time tracking, biometric hardware and payroll integration into one platform rather than charging separately for each module. The system supports 20+ payroll and HR integrations, and most sites go live within days. For construction, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and staffing operations that need scheduling tied directly to verified time capture and payroll accuracy, the bundled approach can reduce both the add-on fees and the integration complexity that inflate TCO with other vendors.

Employee Scheduling Software Pricing in 2025: What You'll Actually Pay

Headline Numbers

Sources

Related on EasyClocking

Ready to see what fair time tracking looks like for your team?

Frequently Asked Questions

Clocked

Fair Pay Starts at the Clock