How Much Does Sling Cost in 2026?

Sling's positioning is unambiguous: cheapest real scheduling software in the category. The Free tier at 30 users with shift scheduling, time-off requests, available shifts, private messaging, and long-term scheduling is more generous than competitors' freemium offerings (Homebase caps free at 10 employees). For a 25-person coffee shop or a small clinic, Sling Free covers the entire scheduling use case indefinitely. Premium at $1.70/user annual unlocks mobile time tracking (important for field teams), labor cost management, overtime tracking, and group messaging — a very small jump in cost for meaningful capability expansion. Business at $3.40/user annual adds kiosk time tracking (clock in/out from a shared device), reports, no-shows tracking, sick call-out management, and PTO management — the tier most small businesses graduate into. The 15% annual discount is smaller than competitors but applied to already-low prices. What Sling lacks vs the mid-market leaders: advanced compliance engine (Deputy leads), AI-powered scheduling (Homebase Plus leads), POS integrations for restaurants (7shifts leads), enterprise features like SSO/API (When I Work Premium leads). Sling targets 'the smallest real operations' and doesn't try to climb upmarket. Where it wins: most generous free tier in category, cheapest paid tiers, clean minimalist product, fast onboarding. Where it loses: no AI scheduling, no vertical specialization, no enterprise features (SSO, API), limited integrations ecosystem, geofencing gated to Premium (not free).