Fourth review (2026): is it worth it?
Restaurant and hospitality workforce suite, with HotSchedules
Black Friday: is there a Fourth sale?
Fourth report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 13, 2026
Best for restaurant groups that want rotas tied to POS sales
Fourth's HotSchedules builds restaurant schedules from a demand forecast and syncs with POS systems. But no price is published anywhere, the offer of a free first year comes with no terms, and it is built for restaurants and hospitality only.
Who Fourth is for
- Fits if you run restaurants and want labor cost compared with POS sales
- Works for groups that also buy payroll, tips and inventory from the same vendor
Who Fourth is not for
- Skip it if you want to see a price before talking to sales, as none is published
- Not for you if you're outside restaurants and hospitality, which is all it targets
- Watch out: the free first year on the scheduling page has no terms shown
- Watch out: products are split between the Fourth and HotSchedules names, with separate US, UK and APAC regions
Why Fourth gets a 2.0
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for moneyNo price on the page: every product page routes to a demo. With nothing on record, that sits in the middle by default.
- FFree plan and trialNothing free is confirmed. The scheduling page advertises 1 year of HotSchedules free, but shows no terms, so we can't count it.
- BFeaturesDemand forecast, auto-scheduling under labor rules, in-app swaps, overtime alerts and POS sync. Nothing in the listing is missing from the scheduling job.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record. It's a managed suite with several products and regions, so expect some setup rather than a quick start.
- BPlatforms and integrationsMobile app for staff plus POS links to Toast, Oracle Micros, NCR Aloha and PAR POS and Google Calendar sync. The listing shows no desktop app.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Fourth's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/fourth#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/fourth.svg" alt="Fourth: 2.0 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Fourth stands among shift scheduling apps
Fourth's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 17 of the 49 other shift scheduling apps we grade, and level with 8.
It stands best on features (B, above 23 of 49) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0).
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 50 shift scheduling apps we grade, cut by the letter each got. Fourth’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 4 of 49, level with 33
- FFree plan and trialAbove 0 of 49, level with 22
- BFeaturesAbove 23 of 49, level with 26
- CEase of useAbove 0 of 49, level with 42
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 16 of 49, level with 33
Keep Fourth, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Fourth you would be making payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
What you could make
- Time off and reports: an app builder makes these well.
What you could not
- Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- A rota the whole staff sees on their phones, with swaps and alerts.
- Clocking in from a phone, checked against where and when.
- It plugs into other products, PAR POS, Toast and Oracle Micros among them.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Fourth’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Fourth?
Fourth sells workforce management, HR and payroll, and inventory software to restaurants and hospitality groups. Its scheduling product is HotSchedules, which forecasts demand, auto-assigns shifts under labor rules, handles shift swaps in a mobile app and connects to point-of-sale systems. Fourth also lists time and attendance, tip management and earned wage access.
Worth knowing
- No prices are published; every product page routes to a demo.
- The scheduling page advertises 1 year of HotSchedules free, but its terms are not shown there.
- Built for restaurants and hospitality; other industries are not the target.
- Product names are split between Fourth and HotSchedules, with separate US, UK and APAC regions.
Key features
- Demand-based scheduling
- Labor rules and an AI demand forecast generate house shifts, and auto-schedule assigns staff by availability, skill and labor law.
- Shift swaps in the app
- Employees request swaps, drops or pickups in the mobile app; managers approve with compliance warnings shown.
- Labor compliance
- Built-in checks for predictive-scheduling and labor-law rules, with overtime alerts while a schedule is built.
- POS integration
- Syncs sales and labor data with systems including PAR POS, Toast, Oracle Micros and NCR Aloha.
- Team messaging
- Text, message or email staff by department or company-wide, and sync schedules to Google Calendar.
- Wider hospitality suite
- Payroll, tip management, earned wage access, recruiting and inventory are sold alongside scheduling.
Fourth pricing
We could not confirm Fourth’s current pricing from its own site, so we are not listing plans here. See fourth.com for current prices.
Works with
- PAR POS
- Toast
- Oracle Micros
- NCR Aloha
- Google Calendar
Fourth alternatives
- Fourth vs 7shifts
Free plan · from $39.99/mo
- Fourth vs Legion
Paid
- Fourth vs Deputy
Free trial · from $5/mo
- Fourth vs When I Work
Free trial · from $2.50/mo
Common questions
Does Fourth have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Fourth is listed for Web.
Does Fourth have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Fourth is listed for Web.
Is Fourth open source?
Fourth is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 13, 2026.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026.