Comparison

Scheduler vs Sked

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Scheduler

Easily visualize and manage your rotating work shifts for up to six years in advance. Ideal for public service employees, it handles common and custom schedules, vacation time, and even overlays a partner's schedule for better family planning.

Highlights
  • Visualize schedule for six years
  • Supports custom and common shift patterns
  • Tracks vacation and sick time
  • Records and formats shift trades
  • Overlays partner's schedule
  • Logs events with date, time, and location
  • Countdown to retirement
Features
Read full description

Visualize Your Shift Schedule From Jeff: Please don't put questions or suggestions in a review -- there's no way for me to reply directly to you. Instead. use the in-app email buttons (on the Help tab), or send to sched@buddy.com. If your schedule varies from week to week, keeping track of your working days can be a chore, and it’s often difficult to quickly figure out when you’ll be on-duty weeks or months in the future. Scheduler to the rescue! Designed for public-service employees such as police officers, firefighters and health-care workers — anyone who works an unusual but predictable schedule — Scheduler always shows your schedule for the next six years from “today.” Common shift schedules are built-in, such as the “Berkeley” (a.k.a. “California”), “48-96” and “Dupont,” but you can easily change them or create other repeating schedules covering any number of days. See the screenshots (here and on the web site) for some examples. And there’s even a “Doofus” mode for showing irregular schedules (e.g., health-care workers). If your spouse/partner works a shift schedule, too, you can have that entirely different rotation appear on the calendar with yours. This will help you organize family activities such as vacations and day-care. Features: • Displays your schedule for the next six years, including vacations and holidays. • Perfect for public-service workers such as police officers and firefighters. • Records trades (swaps). Tracks hours earned or owed on a person-by-person basis. • Formats emails for sending out trade offers and approval requests. • Maintains a record of your OT hours. • Tracks your vacation time: automatically computes hours earned and shows weekly balances. Also records and totals sick time. • Logs “events” with date, time and location — you can edit the title, text, and location details when you have time. • Overlays an entirely separate schedule for your spouse/partner to help you coordinate your lives. • Adjustable colors for shifts, vacations, Kelly days, holidays, etc. • Mark special days such as Kellys, paydays, “early” shifts, or training days. • Countdown to retirement. • Extensive Help pages for every feature and screen; indexed. • Includes UK Rota features for London train and bus drivers. Notes: 1. You *can* enter a custom schedule. 2. You *can* set the text that appears on each day. 3. You *can* enter very long rotations. 4. You *can* superimpose text to mark special days on the calendar. 5. You *can* set bi-weekly repeating events (e.g., for paydays) 6. Scheduler is complicated. Please don't give up and leave a bad review -- I can't help you that way. If you have questions or comments, the best way to contact me is by using the in-app email button on the Help screen (2nd best: sched@buddy.com). I reply to all emails immediately (or within a few hours if I'm sleeping or traveling, which isn't often). If you didn't hear from me promptly, it means there was failure in the "Tubes." Please try again to contact me. Attention FDNY (firemen): you'll find my other app, FDNY, more useful for FD New York.

About

Sked

Manage your work shifts, track hours and pay, and view your monthly schedule at a glance. This app handles multiple jobs, overtime, and holiday pay, and allows for easy shift creation and sharing. It also syncs with native calendars and offers Apple Watch alerts.

Highlights
  • Work shift management
  • Hours and pay tracking
  • Monthly schedule overview
  • Multiple job support
  • Overtime and holiday pay calculation
  • Shift sharing and syncing
  • Calendar integration and alerts
Features
Read full description

Meet Sked - Your new work schedule manager. Sked gives you total control over your work schedule. It adds your work shifts in seconds. It tracks your hours worked and pay earned. It shows you your monthly schedule at a single glance. It can handle many jobs. It can manage overtime and holiday pay. You can create invoices for hours worked in Sked. And it can add your most common shifts with just a single tap. In fact, there isn’t much that Sked can’t do. Sked has powerful sharing features. You can sync your schedule to your iPhone or iPad’s native calendar, which will give you Apple Watch alerts. You can share just your work day, or entire months of your schedule with friends. And best of all - you can directly sync schedules with close friends and family in the app, so you can always see when everyone is working. Does your schedule involve rotating shifts? No problem. Sked’s robust scheduling features can handle shift addition for certain days of the week. Sked can also add shifts every certain number of days. Sked can add little notes to your calendar as well, to remind you of the most important things. Oh - and of course Sked will alert you when you need to get ready for work. With Sked, your work life just got easier. Subscription pricing and terms: Sked offers three auto-renewing subscription options: $2.99 per week $6.99 per month $29.99 per year These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. Your Sked subscription will automatically renew at the end of each term and your credit card will be charged through your iTunes account. You can turn off auto-renew at any time from your iTunes account settings but refunds will not be provided for any unused portion of the term. Read more about our terms and conditions here: Terms of Use: http://picshiftapps.com/terms-of-use/ Privacy Policy: http://picshiftapps.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Scheduler4 screens
Sked4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sked at Free against Scheduler's $7.99. Sked also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). Scheduler's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7) and review sentiment (79% vs 50%). On rating, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Sked is free to download; Scheduler costs $7.99 up front. Sked sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Scheduler asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.8 for Scheduler against 3.7 for Sked. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 74 and 164 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Scheduler's written reviews are positive against 50% of Sked's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scheduler ships an update every 9 days, Sked every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Scheduler versus Sked: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSchedulerSked
Price$7.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (74 ratings) — better3.7 (164 ratings)
Positive reviews78.9% of reviews — better50.3% of reviews
Number of ratings74164 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB57 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThe Buddy System, LLCOwen Schick

Customer experience

Scheduler

All ratings74 ratings
Positive67.6%
Neutral6.8%
Negative25.7%
Written reviews171 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral6.4%
Negative14.6%

Sked

All ratings164 ratings
Positive63.4%
Neutral17.1%
Negative19.5%
Written reviews151 reviews
Positive50.3%
Neutral20.5%
Negative29.1%

User reviews

Scheduler

From 74 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Outstanding app for shift workers
  • 👍 Highly customizable and flexible
  • 📆 Excellent for planning schedules years in advance
  • 💰 Worth every penny
  • 🤝 Great customer support

Room to improve

  • 🕰️ Steep learning curve
  • 🔀 Issues with repeating events and schedules
  • 🔄 Problems with updates causing data loss
  • 💤 Outdated UI and appearance

Sked

From 164 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Organized calendar
  • 💡 Helpful for managing multiple jobs

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Login issues
  • 🐛 Crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Subscription model too restrictive

Bugs and requests

Scheduler

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Events and schedules disappearing after updates
  • Vacation and overtime tracking not working correctly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Drag and drop support for shift swapping
  • List view option for events
  • Ability to use emojis in event titles
  • Removal of unnecessary time zone settings

Sked

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App freezes and becomes unresponsive
  • Subscription not recognized even after purchase
  • Shifts and notes randomly deleted

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to delete shifts
  • Improve syncing with other calendars
  • Add currency options beyond just USD
  • Introduce dark mode and customization options

In-app purchases

None

Scheduler

No in-app purchases

7 purchases

Sked

Subscriptions4
  • 1 Week of Sked Plus3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • 1 Month of Sked Plus3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • 6 Months of Sked Plus$6.996 Months
Show 1 more
  • 1 Year of Sked Plus3 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time3
  • 1 Month of Sked Plus$1.99
  • 6 Months of Sked Plus$4.99
  • 1 Year of Sked Plus$7.99

Questions

Is Scheduler free?
Scheduler costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sked free?
Sked is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Scheduler or Sked?
Scheduler is rated higher. Scheduler averages 3.8 out of 5 from 74 ratings, while Sked averages 3.7 from 164 ratings.
Do Scheduler or Sked have ads?
Neither Scheduler nor Sked shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scheduler or Sked?
Scheduler ships an update every 9 days, and Sked every 2 months. Most recently, Scheduler was updated on September 30, 2026 and Sked on September 29, 2026.

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