The best workforce management software of 2026

Deputy covers the three jobs most managers mean by workforce management: building the schedule, recording hours worked, and keeping both within labor law. Every plan includes scheduling, timesheets, time clocking, shift swaps, leave management and basic labor law compliance, and it runs on the web, iOS and Android.

Core is the plan where Deputy pulls ahead of cheaper schedulers. It adds auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, wage and labor budgets, biometric time clocking and advanced labor law compliance. Deputy also lists fair workweek and break planning compliance among its features, which matters if you operate where predictive scheduling laws apply. Pro adds location hierarchies, SSO, a sandbox and 24/7 live chat.

Prices are per user a month. Lite is $5 billed yearly or $5.50 monthly, Core $6.50 or $7.25, and Pro $9 or $10. Monthly plans have a $30 minimum spend per invoice. Add-ons include HR tools at $2 per user and, in the US on yearly Core and Pro plans, payroll run by Paycor at $8 per user plus a $49 monthly base fee.

Choose it if you schedule hourly staff across shifts or sites and need the software to flag rosters that clash with break or predictive scheduling rules before you publish them.

Skip it if you have a handful of staff and one location; Homebase or Zoho Shifts will do the basics for free.

Connecteam is built around the phone in each worker's pocket. Its Operations Hub combines a GPS time clock, job scheduling, forms and checklists, and task management, which suits cleaning crews, home care, construction and other teams that rarely see an office. Separate Communications and HR hubs add chat, updates, training, documents and time off if you want them.

Pricing works differently from most tools here: you pay a flat price for the first 30 users, then a small fee per extra user. Operations Basic costs $29 a month billed yearly or $35 monthly, plus $0.80 or $1 per extra user. Advanced, at $49 yearly or $59 monthly, adds auto clock-out, up to 10 geofenced sites and repeating shifts. Expert, at $99 or $119, adds unlimited geofence sites and automatic shift assignment. Businesses with up to 10 users can use every hub free, and the 14-day trial needs no card.

Choose it if your people work at client sites or on the road and you want proof of where they clocked in.

Skip it if you run a contact center or need demand forecasting from sales or ticket data; Connecteam's pricing page doesn't list forecasting.

Homebase prices by location rather than by user, which makes it cheap for a busy restaurant, cafe or shop with a large hourly team at one address. The free Basic plan covers one location with up to 10 employees and includes basic scheduling, time tracking and a point-of-sale integration.

Paid plans allow unlimited employees. Essentials costs $24 per location a month billed yearly or $30 monthly and adds advanced scheduling, advanced time tracking and team messaging. Plus, at $56 yearly or $70 monthly, adds an AI scheduling assistant, time-off controls and departments. All-in-One, at $96 or $120, adds onboarding, labor cost management and HR and compliance tools. Payroll is an add-on at $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid, and when we checked Homebase was offering the first six months of payroll and the Plus plan free. Tip management costs $25 per location a month.

The 14-day trial gives you All-in-One without a card, then drops you to Basic if you don't pick a plan.

Choose it if you run one or two locations and want scheduling, clock-ins and payroll from one company.

Skip it if you have many locations; per-location pricing that looks cheap at one site adds up across twenty.

When I Work keeps scheduling cheap and simple. Essentials costs $2.50 per user a month and already includes auto-scheduling, multi-week and multi-location schedules, templates, forecast tools, team messaging, open shifts, shift swaps and payroll and POS integrations, with unlimited users. Pro, at $5, adds scheduling rules, role permissions, labor sharing between locations and custom reports. Premium, at $8, adds API access, webhooks and SAML single sign-on.

Time tracking and attendance is a separate toggle on each plan, and the pricing page we checked didn't show what it adds to the price, so ask before you compare it with Deputy, which includes time clocking in every plan. The pricing page is also inconsistent: its FAQ ties $2.50 to single-location teams and $5 to multi-location businesses, while the plan list puts multi-location scheduling in Essentials.

The 14-day trial includes everything and needs no card.

Choose it if you mainly need a schedule your staff can see and swap shifts on, at the lowest per-user price here after Zoho Shifts.

Skip it if labor law compliance is the main reason you're buying; Deputy builds those rules into scheduling.

Zoho Shifts is the cheapest way here to move a small team off spreadsheets. The free plan covers up to 25 users and includes basic scheduling across several locations, break scheduling, time-off requests, team messaging, shift templates and iOS and Android apps.

Basic costs $1 per user a month, or $10 per user a year, with a 10-user minimum. It removes the user cap and adds open shifts, recurring shifts, shift swaps, availability preferences, skills management and API access. Standard, at $2 per user a month or $20 a year, adds the time clock: mobile and kiosk clock-in, timesheets, break tracking, overtime rules, GPS tagging, geofencing and payroll export. The 30-day trial needs no card.

Choose it if you want shift scheduling and a GPS time clock for a team of 10 to 50 people and price matters more than polish.

Skip it if you need demand forecasting or labor law rules; Zoho Shifts lists neither.

Assembled is workforce management for support teams that answer tickets, chats and calls. It pulls volume from the tools you already use, including Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Kustomer, Gorgias, Five9 and Talkdesk, forecasts demand by channel and builds schedules to match. That is a different problem from rostering a shop floor, and Assembled is one of the few tools in this category that publishes its prices.

Core costs $25 per agent a month and covers scheduling, time tracking, real-time adherence and staffing analytics. Pro, at $45, adds AI schedule generation, machine-learning forecasts, automated time off and shift swaps. Enterprise, at $75, adds custom integrations, white-glove onboarding and an account manager. Every plan also carries a platform fee that the pricing page doesn't state. There is no free trial; you book a demo. A vendor management add-on lets you plan capacity with outsourcing partners.

Choose it if you run a support team across email, chat and phone and want forecasts built from your help desk data.

Skip it if your team works shifts in a physical location; Deputy or Connecteam fit that better.

Calabrio, one of the long-standing names in contact center workforce management, has merged with Verint, and its site now redirects to Verint's. Verint still sells Calabrio Workforce Management as a separate product, aimed at inbound contact centers that want quicker setup and an easier tool than the heavier Verint Workforce Management, which Verint pitches at large enterprises with regional labor laws and complex operations.

Both products forecast and schedule contact center staff. Verint also sells add-ons for intraday changes and performance scorecards that work with either product.

Pricing is by quote only; Verint offers demos rather than a published trial.

Choose it if you run a phone-heavy contact center, especially one already on Calabrio, and want a dedicated contact center tool.

Skip it if you run a support team mainly on email and chat; Assembled publishes its prices and connects directly to help desks.

ADP WorkForce Suite is the enterprise product formerly sold as WorkForce Software, which now carries ADP branding. It covers time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, labor forecasting and reporting, and it is built for organizations whose pay rules come from union agreements, several countries' labor laws and company policy all at once. Its main markets are manufacturing, public sector, utilities, higher education, healthcare and retail.

You don't need ADP payroll to use it. ADP says it works with any HCM or payroll provider and has certified integrations with SAP, Workday and Oracle.

There are no published prices; you request a demo and a quote.

Choose it if you employ thousands of people under rules that simpler tools can't model and you need exact pay calculations.

Skip it if you are a small or mid-sized business; Deputy covers scheduling, time and compliance without a sales cycle.