Updated August 2026 · every price read at the source on 3 August 2026
When I Work alternatives in 2026
Most people leaving When I Work are leaving the per-user bill, not the product. If that is you, the real question is whether you switch billing model (Homebase charges per location, employees unlimited) or drop to a free tier that still has staff access (Sling up to 30 users, Connecteam up to 10). If you only ever needed the scheduling half and nobody else logs in, the answer is smaller and cheaper than any of them.
Vendor disclosure: we make SteadyWeek, which appears last in the table below and is the narrowest tool here. We have listed what each competitor does better, because a comparison page written by a vendor is only useful if it does that.
What When I Work costs today
Essentials is $2.50 per user per month, Pro is $5, and Premium is $8, read at wheniwork.com/pricing on 3 August 2026. There is no free plan; there is a 14-day trial that does not ask for a card. All three tiers include scheduling, time and attendance, and team messaging, so the difference between tiers is depth rather than category.
Per-user billing is the thing that changes people's minds. Twelve people on Pro is $60 a month. Thirty-five is $175. Seasonal headcount makes that number move in a direction nobody enjoys.
The alternatives, priced
| Tool | Billing model | Price | Free tier | Where it beats the rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When I Work | Per user | $2.50 / $5 / $8 per user, per month | None (14-day trial) | The baseline. Cheapest entry tier of the paid per-user tools. |
| Homebase | Per location | $30 / $70 / $120 per location, per month (20% off annually) | Basic, up to 10 employees at 1 location | Unlimited employees per location, so large single-site teams stop paying per head. |
| Deputy | Per user | $5 / $6.50 / $9 per user, per month, with a $30 minimum monthly spend | None (free trial) | Depth: the most capable of the per-user tools, with payroll, HR, and analytics add-ons. |
| Sling | Per user | $2.00 / $4.00 per user, per month (15% off annually) | Yes, up to 30 users | By far the most generous free tier: 30 users with scheduling, time-off requests, and messaging. |
| Connecteam | Flat, then per user | $29 / $49 / $99 per month for the first 30 users | Yes, up to 10 users | Flat pricing to 30 users, and it covers communications and HR as well as scheduling. |
| SteadyWeek | None | Free | The whole product | No account, no signup, no install. Nothing to migrate to or cancel. |
7shifts is often listed alongside these and is deliberately absent here. Its pricing page did not render a readable price when we checked on 3 August 2026, and we do not repeat numbers we have not read at the source. We would rather leave a gap than publish something we cannot stand behind.
Pick by billing model, not by feature list
These tools do broadly the same job. The thing that actually decides the bill is how they count.
- One site, lots of staff. Per location wins. At 35 people Homebase Essentials is $30 a month while a $5-per-user tool is $175.
- Few people, or several small sites. Per user wins, with the caveat that Deputy applies a $30 minimum monthly spend per invoice, so a six-person team on Lite pays the minimum rather than $30.
- Under 30 people and unwilling to pay anything. Sling free. It is the only free tier at that headcount that still gives staff their own access.
- Nobody but the manager touches the schedule. None of the above is necessary. That is the case we built for.
Where SteadyWeek fits, honestly
It replaces the spreadsheet, not When I Work. You get the seven-day grid, reusable shift times painted across days, time off in the same view, per-person weekly hours, minimum-coverage warnings, CSV export, and share links your staff open in a browser, free and with no account.
The sharing is one-way. A link shows the week, or one person's own shifts, and that is the whole of it. What you do not get, and what every other tool on this page does give you: staff logins, a mobile app, availability collection, shift swaps, messaging, notifications, a time clock, and payroll. Nobody signs in, so the link itself is the credential: whoever holds it can read the rota, and you replace it if it goes somewhere you did not intend. If a team already depends on When I Work for staff communication, moving to SteadyWeek is a downgrade, and we would rather say so here than have you find out after switching.
Questions people actually ask
What does When I Work cost?
Essentials is $2.50 per user per month, Pro is $5, and Premium is $8, read at wheniwork.com/pricing on 3 August 2026. There is no free plan, but there is a 14-day trial with no card required.
What is the closest free alternative to When I Work?
Sling’s free plan covers up to 30 users and includes shift scheduling, time-off requests, and messaging. Connecteam’s free plan covers up to 10 users. Both do things SteadyWeek does not, so if you want a genuine like-for-like replacement at zero cost, start there.
Which alternative is cheapest for a small team?
It depends on how you are billed. Per-user pricing (When I Work, Deputy, Sling) is cheapest at small headcounts, though Deputy applies a $30 minimum monthly spend per invoice. Per-location pricing (Homebase, from $30 a month) gets better as headcount grows because employees are unlimited.
Where does SteadyWeek fit?
It replaces the drafting half and now shares the result: a link for the team, a private link per person, free with no signup. It still has no staff app, no availability collection, no swaps, no notifications, and no time clock, and nobody signs in, so the links are the only credential. If you need any of that, one of the tools above is the right purchase.
Why is 7shifts not in the table?
Its pricing page did not render a readable price when we checked on 3 August 2026, and we do not repeat prices we have not read at the source. We would rather leave a gap than publish a number we cannot stand behind.