HotSchedules vs Schedulefly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HotSchedules
This app simplifies employee scheduling and team communication. It allows for easy shift management, time-off requests, and calendar syncing. Managers benefit from faster schedule creation and performance monitoring, while teams stay connected through messaging.
- Shift swapping and pickup
- Time off requests
- Automatic calendar sync
- Manager schedule building
- Sales and labor monitoring
- Team messaging
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HotSchedules is the industry's leading employee scheduling app because it’s the fastest and easiest way to manage your schedule and communicate with your team. Team members love it because they can swap, pick-up or release shifts with one click. Work-life balance is easily managed with automatic shift pick ups when you want more hours, and time off requests for when you don’t. Calendar sync and notifications keep your Schedules and the roster automatically updated to your phone with any manager-approved changes. Managers appreciate the 75% time savings when building schedules and one-click approvals for shift changes. The ability to monitor business performance with sales and labor snapshots from anywhere, keeps them out of the back office. And most importantly, staying connected with broadcast and one-to-one messaging makes for a happy and productive team culture. NOTE: The HotSchedules application REQUIRES a valid HotSchedules user account through your employer. Need help? Contact Customer Care 24x7x365
Schedulefly
This app simplifies staff scheduling for restaurants. Employees can view schedules, communicate with colleagues, trade shifts, and request time off. Managers can broadcast messages, approve shift changes, and monitor labor costs.
- View schedules
- Communicate with co-workers
- Trade shifts
- Request time off
- Broadcast messages
- Approve shift changes
- View labor cost reports
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Schedulefly is simple, fast, easy-to-use scheduling software built for restaurants. Our mobile app makes it easy for restaurant staff to: - Check the schedule - Communicate with co-workers - Trade shifts (with manager approval) - Request time off - View company messages and documents Managers can additionally: - Broadcast messages to staff via email and SMS - Approve/decline shift changes - View labor cost report - View site activity report - Communicate with managers via Fly Notes The Schedulefly mobile app requires an account at Schedulefly. Learn more about features and pricing at www.schedulefly.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Schedulefly at Free against HotSchedules's $2.99. Schedulefly also leads on review sentiment (36% vs 21%) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.1). HotSchedules's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 3.1) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 26 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Schedulefly is free to download; HotSchedules costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
HotSchedules holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HotSchedules has 67K ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 21% of HotSchedules's written reviews are positive against 36% of Schedulefly's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
HotSchedules ships an update every 2 weeks, Schedulefly every 26 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HotSchedules | Schedulefly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (67K ratings) — better | 3.1 (30 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 20.7% of reviews | 35.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 67K — better | 30 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 26 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #1 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.1 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | HotSchedules | Schedulefly |
Customer experience
HotSchedules
Schedulefly
Bugs and requests
HotSchedules
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login issues after updates
- Calendar sync problems
- Disappearing messages and data loss
- Incompatibility with dark mode
Requested features
5 requests- Show shift end times
- Categorize and filter inbox messages
- Ability to view full team schedules
- Automatic shift rotation algorithm
- Integrated payroll and earnings tracking
Schedulefly
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
HotSchedules
No in-app purchases
Schedulefly
No in-app purchases
