# What Claude (Anthropic) with web search answered for workforce scheduling software (small businesses) on 2026-10-11

## In short

On 2026-10-11, Claude (Anthropic) with web search was asked "best workforce scheduling software for small businesses". It named 5 brands, in this order: Homebase, Connecteam, Deputy, 7shifts and Sling.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Question | best workforce scheduling software for small businesses |
| Asked on | 2026-10-11 |
| Engine | Claude (Anthropic) with web search |
| Model | claude-opus-5 |
| Brands named | 5 |
| Sources cited | 8 |
| Audience | small businesses |
| Coverage | Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included. |
| Last verified | 2026-10-11 |

Page: https://bikoosh.com/answers/s/workforce-scheduling-software-small-businesses-2026-10-11
Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.

## The answer, as recorded

Asked on 2026-10-11 through Claude (Anthropic) with web search (model claude-opus-5).

> One caveat on the sources: a lot of the top "best scheduling software" listicles are published by the vendors themselves (Homebase, Connecteam, and When I Work all rank themselves #1 on their own blogs), so I've leaned on the pricing details and review-aggregator ratings rather than their rankings.
> 
> ## My picks, in order
> 
> **1. Homebase - the default for a small hourly team**
> Free tier covers one location and up to 20 employees (some pages say 10 - it's changed, so check at signup) with scheduling and a time clock included. Scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and hiring/onboarding sit in one mobile-first app, and payroll bolts on at roughly $39/month + $6 per employee paid. If you have one café, shop, or clinic and under ~20 staff, you can genuinely run on $0 for a while. Weakness: it gets expensive per location as you add sites.
> 
> **2. When I Work - the best value once you outgrow free**
> Roughly $2.50/user/month (Lite) to $5-6/user/month (Core), which makes it the cheapest serious paid option - commonly cited as ~40% under Deputy. Clean shift-swap and availability handling, light HR tools. Good middle ground for retail and healthcare teams that want simple scheduling plus a t

## Brands named, in the order the engine gave

| Position | Brand | How it was named |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Homebase | mentioned |
| 2 | Connecteam | mentioned |
| 3 | Deputy | mentioned |
| 4 | 7shifts | mentioned |
| 5 | Sling | mentioned |

## Sources the engine cited

- https://joinhomebase.com/blog/employee-shift-scheduling-software (other)
- https://joinhomebase.com/blog/best-employee-scheduling-software (other)
- https://costbench.com/compare/deputy-vs-when-i-work/ (other)
- https://www.costbench.com/compare/deputy-vs-homebase/ (other)
- https://capterra.com/compare/121248-167811/When-I-Work-vs-Deputy (review)
- https://connecteam.com/sling-vs-7shifts/ (vendor)
- https://www.selecthub.com/employee-scheduling-software/7shifts-vs-sling/ (other)
- https://solutions.trustradius.com/buyer-blog/employee-scheduling-software-small-businesses (review)

The question page: https://bikoosh.com/answers/q/workforce-scheduling-software/small-businesses

Alerts and membership: Answer Watch Pro, 79 USD per month: https://bikoosh.com/answers. Bikoosh is monitoring assistance, not complete protection.

Answer Watch records what one AI answer engine said on one date, nothing more. Each page names the engine and the model, carries the date the question was asked, and lists the brands that appeared in the answer in the order the engine gave them, with the sources it cited. It is a measurement, not a ranking, not a recommendation and not a claim about the world. Brands that did not appear in an answer are not named on any public page. Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.