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Sling

Employee scheduling made easy and free!

Last updated: December 2024

Sling - 2024 Pricing, Features, Reviews, & Alternatives

Table of Contents

What is Sling?

Sling is a staff scheduling and communication software for businesses where employees work in shifts. The software allows managers to assign shifts and tasks to employees across multiple work sites, using a single shared calendar.

Sling is built around four central features: tasks, shifts, messages and newsfeed, and allows managers to coordinate all of their scheduling tasks on one platform. Managers can create shift schedules, manage shift trade and time-off requests; chat with employees and share photos, links and videos; post information and updates to a company newsfeed; and create and assign tasks to employees.

Shift templates can be saved an reused any number of times, saving time for scheduling managers. Within the template, data can be filtered by date, position or department to find out the total number of employees assigned to a particular task or department. Employees can submit time-off and shift trade requests via the employee portal, where they're sent to the location manager for approval and re-assignment to other staff members where necessary.

Users can create to-do lists and tasks, then assign these to a single employee or a group of employees. Users can set task timelines which generate automatic SMS or email reminders a few days before the deadline. Employees can send messages, work files, photos, videos and links to each other via Sling, as well as search for past conversations using keywords. Retail and restaurant outlets that have used Sling include Subway, Aveda, The UPS Store, Applebee’s and Securitas.

Benefits of using Sling

Streamline your business:

- Schedule faster and smarter: Build accurate schedules in minutes and avoid overlapping shifts and double-bookings.

- Control labor costs: Stay under budget while controlling overtime and absenteeism.

- Communicate efficiently from a single platform: Send messages in group or private conversations, keep everyone informed, and build a stronger company culture.

- Simplify time tracking: Allow employees to clock in and out right from their phones.

- Make payroll processing easier: Export timesheets for seamless payroll processing.

- Drive operational compliance: Ensure standards are being met to keep your business compliant.

- Enhance employee engagement: Engage employees in achieving business objectives in an easy-to-digest way while making work effortless and expected outcomes clear.

- Schedule with ease: Build your employees' schedules in minutes and manage time off, availability and shift trade requests.

- Eliminate scheduling conflicts: See up-to-date employee availability, time-off requests, and avoid overlapping shifts and double-bookings.

- Democratize scheduling: Let employees sign up for shifts on a first-come, first-served basis, or approve the requests and finalize the schedule.

- Reduce employee absences and late arrivals: Use shift alarms to remind employees of their upcoming shifts and send them notifications when they forget to clock in.

- Optimize labor spending as you schedule: Set wages per employee or position and see how much each shift will cost. Forecast and optimize expenses while scheduling to ensure you stay on budget.

- Manage multiple work locations with ease: Schedule employees across multiple locations on one account and view all schedules in one place.

- Set specific clock-in locations: Use GPS or IP settings to designate where you want employees to clock in.

- Integrate Sling with platforms you already use: Save time and money by integrating your scheduling with your existing platforms.

Starting from

/user

Per month

Alternatives with better value for money

Sling's key features

GetApp's analysis of 40 verified user reviews collected between July 2021 and September 2024 identified Sling's most critical features and how it performs according to users.

Features

4.5

172

Ease of use

4.6

172

Employee Scheduling

4.9

Reviewers appreciate Sling's employee scheduling capabilities. They highlight the ease of drag-and-drop shift templates, color coding positions, and the repeat option. Users report that the platform is user-friendly for both employers and employees, making schedules easy to access and interpret. They find it valuable for communicating unavailability, time off requests, and direct roster changes. They say it simplifies shift swaps and recurring schedules, and many prefer it over more complex corporate systems. Of the 22 Sling users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Employee Scheduling, 95% rated this feature as important or highly important.

Mobile Access

4.5

Users report that Sling's mobile access is helpful for managing schedules on the go. They appreciate being able to check schedules, clock in and out, and receive notifications directly on their phones. However, reviewers indicate that the mobile app is limited compared to the desktop version, with some experiencing lag and errors. They find the app setup user-friendly but suggest improvements for a more seamless experience. They value the ability to manage shifts and communicate in real-time from mobile devices. Of the 26 Sling users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Mobile Access, 92% rated this feature as important or highly important.

All Sling features

Mobile Alerts

5.0

(2)

Online Time Tracking

4.0

(2)

Compliance Management

4.5

(2)

Availability Management

4.8

(6)

Activity Dashboard

4.5

(4)

Calendar Management

4.7

(35)

Schedule Distribution

5.0

(29)

Timesheet Management

4.7

(39)

Reminders

4.7

(13)

Payroll Reporting

4.7

(6)

Messaging

5.0

(4)

Alerts/Notifications

4.4

(28)

Time Off Requests

4.0

(4)

Employee Management

4.7

(20)

Employee Database

4.3

(18)

Time Tracking

5.0

(4)

Customizable Fields

4.8

(5)

Document Management

4.5

(2)

Workflow Management

4.2

(5)

Employee Profiles

4.5

(6)

Real-Time Reporting

5.0

(2)

Shift Swapping

4.3

(7)

Third-Party Integrations

2.5

(2)

Online Time Clock

4.9

(14)

Leave Tracking

4.5

(6)

Task Scheduling

4.0

(5)

Payroll Management

4.4

(14)

Vacation/Leave Tracking

4.5

(4)

Onboarding

3.0

(1)

Clock In/Out

3.7

(3)

Sick Leave Tracking

5.0

(1)

Real-Time Chat

4.2

(9)

Real-Time Notifications

4.0

(3)

Reporting & Statistics

3.8

(5)

Reporting/Analytics

4.0

(4)

File Sharing

3.7

(7)

Billable & Non-Billable Hours

(0)

Appointment Scheduling

(0)

Training Management

(0)

Tax Compliance

(0)

API

3.0

(1)

Communication Management

4.0

(4)

Customizable Reports

4.7

(3)

Real-Time Data

(0)

Punch card

5.0

(2)

Physician Management

(0)

Performance Management

1.0

(1)

Data Import/Export

5.0

(1)

Direct Deposit

(0)

Employee Directory

(0)

Employee Portal

(0)

Labor Forecasting

(0)

Forecasting

(0)

For Nonprofits

4.0

(2)

Sling awards

Workforce Management

82/100

Sling alternatives

Sling

4.7

(172)

Starting from

/user

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.6

Features

4.5

Value for Money

4.7

Customer Support

4.5

When I Work

4.5

(1.1K)

visit website

Starting from

1.50

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.5

Features

4.3

Value for Money

4.4

Customer Support

4.4

Calamari

4.7

(573)

visit website

Starting from

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.6

Features

4.5

Value for Money

4.7

Customer Support

4.9

Rippling

4.9

(3.3K)

visit website

Starting from

No pricing info

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.9

Features

4.8

Value for Money

4.8

Customer Support

4.8

Sling pricing

Pricing options

Free plan

Subscription

Free trial

Pricing range

view pricing plans

Value for money

4.7

172

Starting from

/user

Per month

Sling support options

Typical customers

Freelancers

Small businesses

Mid size businesses

Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web

Android

iPhone/iPad

Support options

Knowledge Base

Chat

FAQs/Forum

Email/Help Desk

Training options

Documentation

Live Online

Videos

In Person

Webinars

Sling reviews

Overall rating

4.7

172

Positive reviews

Rating breakdown

Value for money
Ease of use
Features
Customer support
Likelihood to recommend8.9/10

Rating distribution

117

Pros

After doing our research on many types of scheduling software, we have found that Sling best fit our needs through value, functionality, and amazing support.

Viet B.

Project Administration & Process Manager

I must say, I do wonder how long it will remain free. It's a great product and certainly deserving of a monthly cost affordable to small business as well as large corporations.

Jackie M.

Dietary Manager

Being able to use the integrated time clock is also a great feature. There are just so many feature and customizations that it would be an asset for any type of business at any size.

Rebecca R.

Owner/Operator

Cons

Sling seemed to have constant problems loading, or randomly needing to reload, and then having troubles doing so.

Rob Z.

Coach

My personal feelings after having to pay such high prices for cable channels on the market we just had to drop them. Someone told us about sling and to try it.

Verified reviewer

Anonymity request

Sometimes to the shows wont work or keep loading. They wont play or keep glitching it says a error has occurred to try later.

Ashley T.

Cna

Read all reviews