# Planday

> Rota planning, punch clock and payroll reports for shift-based teams

Planday is workforce management software for shift-based businesses in hospitality, retail, care and hotels. Managers build rotas from templates and staff availability, employees clock in with a geolocated punch clock and swap shifts in the app, and approved hours feed payroll reports and integrations. It is priced per user, with a minimum team size on each plan.

- **Category:** Shift Scheduling
- **Made by:** Planday (since 2004)
- **Website:** https://www.planday.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Planday is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $2.99 per user / month (Starter, minimum 5 users).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 30-day free trial of the Plus plan, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Starter | $2.99 per user / month | Minimum 5 users. Scheduling, simple time tracking, working-time rule warnings, basic payroll reports, team messaging and live chat support. |
| Plus | $30 per month, plus $4.49 per user | Minimum 10 users. Adds advanced scheduling, leave and absence, payroll and revenue integrations, API access, employee records and documents. |
| Pro | Custom | For larger organizations: auto-scheduling, custom planning metrics, configurable structure, custom roles, phone support and custom setup. |

Read from https://www.planday.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Planday before buying.

## Key features

- **Rota templates and availability:** Rotas are built from templates around the availability staff share, with warnings when a shift breaks your working-time rules. Pro adds auto-scheduling.
- **Geolocated punch clock:** Staff clock in and out on their phones only from approved places, or at a kiosk station using the Planday Kiosk app, and managers see who is late across locations.
- **Employee app:** Employees view their schedule, swap or hand over shifts, apply for open shifts, request time off and see their earnings in the iOS and Android app.
- **Payroll reports and integrations:** Approved hours, overtime and absence become payroll reports, and Plus connects them to payroll systems such as Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50 and Paychex.
- **Staff cost and revenue reports:** Reports set wage costs against revenue and forecasts, so managers can see where a rota is over- or under-staffed.
- **Messenger and newsfeed:** Managers message staff in the app or by SMS and post updates to a newsfeed; in-app messaging is included, while each SMS is charged.

## Good for

- Restaurants, bars and hotels running rotas across several sites
- Care providers and retailers that must follow working-time rules
- Teams that want payroll-ready hours flowing into Xero or Sage

## Worth knowing

- Users are billed in bundles of five, so 23 users are charged as 25. Starter needs at least 5 users and Plus at least 10.
- Plus adds a monthly subscription fee on top of the per-user price; the page data sets it at 30 in the visitor's currency, and Pro is priced by quote.
- Leave and absence management, payroll integrations and the API need Plus; auto-scheduling needs Pro.
- Each SMS sent through Planday and any onboarding help cost extra, and no prices are published for either.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Planday builds rotas around staff availability, warns you when a shift breaks your working-time rules, and turns approved hours into payroll reports. Starter is cheap per head at $2.99. Just know that leave management, payroll links and the API all sit on Plus, which adds a $30 monthly fee.

- **Value for money: C.** Starter is $2.99 a user a month, billed in bundles of five, so 15 staff are three bundles: $44.85 a month, with no yearly rate listed. That's the dear end of normal here. Plus, which has leave and payroll links, is $30 plus $4.49 a user, so $97.35 for 15.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No free plan. There's a 30-day trial of Plus with no credit card needed, which is plenty of time to build a few real rotas.
- **Features: B.** Rota templates built around availability, working-time warnings, a geolocated punch clock, shift swaps in the staff app, and wage costs set against revenue. Across its plans that's the whole job, with auto-scheduling only on the custom-priced Pro.
- **Ease of use: B.** 4.55 from 4,271 App Store ratings. Good, though a step behind the best-rated apps in this category.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50, Paychex and Personio among its connections, and an API on Plus. No desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Planday's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among shift scheduling apps

- Planday's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 5 of the 12 other shift scheduling apps we grade, and level with 2.
- It stands best on ease of use (B, above 6 of 12) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $2.99 a month for each person, against a middle price of $5.65 for the category: 3 of the 12 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.0 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/shift-scheduling

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Planday you would be making chat that a whole team counts on staying up. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $35.88 a year.

- You could make: Time off and employee records: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Chat that a whole team counts on staying up.
- You could not: A rota the whole staff sees on their phones, with swaps and alerts.
- You could not: Clocking in from a phone, checked against where and when.
- You could not: A scheduler that rearranges your day as things move.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage 50 among them, and has an API.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.5 out of 5 from 4,271 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id518598166

## Works with

Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50, Paychex, TriNet, Personio, Tenzo, Tipjar

**Tags:** Shift scheduling, Time clock, Time off, Employee records, Team chat, Auto-scheduling, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Deputy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/deputy): Shift scheduling, time clock and labor-law tools for hourly teams. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/deputy-vs-planday)
- [RotaCloud](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rotacloud): UK rota planning with leave tracking and an add-on clocking-in app. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/planday-vs-rotacloud)
- [Shiftbase](https://toolgpa.com/tools/shiftbase): Dutch shift scheduling, time clock and absence app, free to 15 staff. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/planday-vs-shiftbase)
- [When I Work](https://toolgpa.com/tools/when-i-work): Staff scheduling with auto-fill, shift trades and an add-on time clock. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/planday-vs-when-i-work)
- [7shifts](https://toolgpa.com/tools/7shifts): Restaurant scheduling, time clock, tips and payroll, per location. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/7shifts-vs-planday)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.planday.com/pricing
- https://www.planday.com/
- https://www.planday.com/about
- https://www.planday.com/how-it-works/integrations
- https://www.planday.com/how-it-works/app/for-employees
- https://www.planday.com/how-it-works/time-tracking/punch-clock
- https://help.planday.com/en/articles/30299-download-the-planday-app

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/planday
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).