What Claude (Anthropic) with web search answered for workforce scheduling software (small businesses) on 2026-10-28

Claude (Anthropic) with web search claude-opus-5 asked 2026-10-28

Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.

The question asked, verbatim: best workforce scheduling software for small businesses

Brands named, in the order the engine gave

1. Homebase mentioned
   Homebase - best default for most US small businesses
2. Connecteam recommended
   Connecteam - best for deskless/field teams
3. Sling mentioned
   (Sling alternatives roundup (https://getzelos.com/ca/sling-alternatives-deskless-workforce))
4. 7shifts mentioned
   7shifts - best if you're a restaurant
5. Deputy recommended
   Deputy - best for multiple locations and compliance headaches
6. UK mentioned
   ~$6.50/user/mo, the most expensive here, and worth it specifically if you need cross-site visibility in one dashboard or automated break/overtime/award compliance (strong in AU/UK, useful in CA and other strict-rule states).
7. G2 compared
   One caveat on sourcing: a large share of the "best scheduling software 2026" listicles ranking high in search are published by Homebase itself, so I weighted the comparison sites (Capterra, G2, SelectHub) more heavily and treated vendor roundups as marketing.

Sources the engine cited

Is one of these your site? Its page lists every recorded answer that cited it, with the questions, the pages and the dates, and carries the alert for the next citation.

The answer, as recorded

## My picks, in order **1. Homebase - best default for most US small businesses** Scheduling + time clock + team messaging + hiring and basic HR in one app, and the free Basic tier covers one location with up to ~10 employees. Key quirk: core paid plans are priced *per location*, not per employee, so hiring your 15th person doesn't raise your base cost - great if you're one busy site, less great if you run many small locations. Payroll is an add-on (~$39/mo + $6/employee paid). ([Capterra comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/121248-153076/When-I-Work-vs-Homebase)) **2. When I Work - best if you just want scheduling, cheap and simple** Starts around $2.50/user/mo, which makes it the cheapest credible option at small headcounts. Clean scheduling, shift swaps, availability, light time tracking. Pick this over Homebase if you don't need the HR/hiring extras and your team is small enough that per-user beats per-location. ([Capterra](https://capterra.com/compare/121248-167811/When-I-Work-vs-Deputy)) **3. Connecteam - best for deskless/field teams** Scheduling plus GPS clock-in, task checklists, forms, and internal comms in one mobile app. Free for up to 10 users, ~$29/mo for 30. The right answer for cleaning crews, landscaping, construction, home services - anyone not standing behind a counter. ([Sling alternatives roundup](https://getzelos.com/ca/sling-alternatives-deskless-workforce)) **4. 7shifts - best if you're a restaurant** Purpose-built for hospitality: front/back-of-house scheduling, tip pooling, sales-vs-labor forecasting, POS integrations. Free for 1 location up to 30 employees, then ~$34.99/location/mo. Genuinely better than the generalists for restaurants, and genuinely worse for everyone else. ([SelectHub](https://www.selecthub.com/employee-scheduling-software/7shifts-vs-sling/)) **5. Deputy - best for multiple locations and compliance headaches** ~$6.50/user/mo, the most expensive here, and worth it specifically if you need cross-site visibility in one dashboard or automated break/overtime/award compliance (strong in AU/UK, useful in CA and other strict-rule states). Overkill for a single 8-person shop. ([Capterra](https://capterra.com/compare/153076-167811/Homebase-vs-Deputy)) **6. Sling - worth a look if budget is the whole constraint** Free tier covers up to 30 employees with messaging included, paid from ~$2/user/mo, and it surfaces live labor-cost totals right in the schedule view. Time tracking costs extra, which is the catch. ([Capterra pricing](https://www.capterra.com/p/142542/Sling/pricing/)) ## Practical advice If you're under ~10 people and unsure, start on a free tier - Homebase, Connecteam, Sling, and 7shifts all have one that covers a 10-person team - and run two weeks of real schedules through it before paying anyone. The deciding factor is almost never the scheduling UI (they're all fine); it's whether per-user or per-location pricing fits your shape, and whether you need payroll and time tracking in the same tool or already have them. One caveat on sourcing: a large share of the "best scheduling software 2026" listicles ranking high in search are published by Homebase itself, so I weighted the comparison sites (Capterra, G2, SelectHub) more heavily and treated vendor roundups as marketing. I'd verify current prices directly on each vendor's pricing page before committing - these tiers change often.

Near this answer

The same question, recorded on other dates: 2026-10-26, 2026-10-24, 2026-10-21, 2026-10-19, 2026-10-18, 2026-10-16, 2026-10-14, 2026-10-12, 2026-10-11, 2026-10-09, 2026-10-06.

workforce scheduling software, asked for other audiences: remote teams (asked 2026-10-28).

Other categories with a recorded answer: applicant tracking systems, background check services, benefits administration software, contractor management platforms.

Play this answer: which brand was named first?

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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.