Scheduler vs SHIFTAR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
SHIFTAR
Easily manage your work shifts and personal appointments in one intuitive calendar. Quickly input shift details, track your earnings, and sync with your existing iCloud calendar. Premium features include widgets, data backup, and advanced color customization.
- Quick shift entry with pre-set buttons
- Automatic salary calculation
- iCloud Calendar synchronization
- Daily/weekly schedule widgets
- Automatic data backup
- Expanded color coding options
- Ad-free experience
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There's no more need to walk around with a shift schedule table. This single app lets you manage both your shift work and private schedules. SHIFTAR is committed to offering an easy-to-understand app that anybody can use with ease. There are absolutely no complicated actions. Using the app is intuitive for anyone, as easily as entering a schedule on a paper calendar with a pen. ■ Shift entry features Filling in shift information, item by item, into a calendar is a big job. Using SHIFTAR's shift entry features, you just touch the buttons labeled with early shift, late shift, day shift, night shift, and other shift schedule information. Just like that, you can fill in your calendar with shift schedule information as quickly as a whole month's shifts in just 30 seconds. ■ Salary calculation How much will you get on your next payday? How much salary have you earned through today? SHIFTAR will let you know. Knowing the amount of your next paycheck may let you increase your shifts, decrease your shifts to have fun, or determine your budget for presents. Your running total of salary through the current date is updated every day. Seeing the amount rise day by day may boost your motivation! ■ Sync iCloud Calendar Do you have schedules entered into other calendar apps? SHIFTAR supports iPhone's standard calendar (iCloud Calendar). No settings at all are required to migrate data. You can get started right away. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ◇◆ SHIFTAR Premium ◆◇ ■ Widgets Our new widget allows you to quickly check your daily / weekly schedule without having to launch the app. ■ Back up important data The app's data will be automatically backed up. You will always be able to revert to the last saved data when you encounter an issue. No need to worry even if: • your smartphone suddenly dies! • your data suddenly disappears! • you delete the app by mistake! • you get a new smartphone. ■ Add bonus colors You will be able to choose from a much wider variety of colors that you can set for your events. Enjoy a more colorful and convenient calendar screen with more colors for color coding. Great for you if: • you have many shift patterns and are running out of colors... • you are worried that you may run out of colors in the future... • you want to use your favorite colors ■ Remove ads Once you remove ads, you will have more space on the screen to display more events per day, and it will be easier to tap the menu button. No more distraction on the screen means that you will be able to focus on what you are doing, and the UI of SHIFTAR will perform at its best. <Period> SHIFTAR Premium is an auto-renewing subscription. It is available for yearly periods. It is automatically updated on a yearly basis, counting from the application date. <Free trial> You will get one free trial per iTunes account when you first use it. Your remaining trial period will expire if you cancel SHIFTAR Premium during your free trial period. <Automatic updates> SHIFTAR Premium will be automatically billed to your iTunes account within 24 hours prior to expiration. If you wish to cancel, please cancel the automatic updates in your iTunes account settings. <Privacy Policy> https://ozumah256.wixsite.com/leaderbike-policy <Terms of Use> https://ozumah256.wixsite.com/leaderbike-use - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SHIFTAR believes in valuing the voice of every user. SHIFTAR will work to offer ongoing updates to make the app more convenient and easier to use for all. We look forward to your feedback. (Menu in the app > Other > Comments and requests) # When we're tired, we get power from everyone's positive reviews - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SHIFTAR at Free against Scheduler's $7.99. SHIFTAR also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (572 vs 74). Scheduler's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 11) and ads (none vs shown). On review sentiment, device support and iOS requirement 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
SHIFTAR is free to download; Scheduler costs $7.99 up front. SHIFTAR sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Scheduler asks for nothing beyond the download.
SHIFTAR holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SHIFTAR has 572 ratings behind it against 74, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Scheduler's written reviews are positive against 76% of SHIFTAR's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Scheduler ships an update every 9 days, SHIFTAR monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Scheduler | SHIFTAR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (74 ratings) | 4.8 (572 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 76.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 74 | 572 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #177 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 132 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Buddy System, LLC | Kosuke Hamada |
Customer experience
Scheduler
SHIFTAR
User reviews
Scheduler
From 74 App Store ratingsWhat 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
SHIFTAR
From 572 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy and intuitive to use
- 🎨 Color-coding for shift organization
- ⚡ Quick one-click shift entry
- 📱 Useful for shift workers and nurses
- 💰 Wage calculator feature
Room to improve
- 💸 Paywall for colors and premium features
- 📺 Unexpected ads despite paid version
- 🐛 Data loss issues after updates
- ❌ No MacBook/desktop version
- 🔗 Limited calendar syncing options
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
SHIFTAR
Reported bugs
7 issues- Complete data loss after app updates
- Random deletion of calendar entries
- App crashes on launch
- Unable to access app after update
- Sync failures across devices
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Do not track button not clickable
- Calendar blocking causing data loss
Requested features
12 requests- Date search function for quick navigation
- App icon with current date display
- Partner/family sharing system
- Multiple user schedule management
- Weekly pay period option
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Saturday/Sunday separate rate settings
- Special holiday rate customization
- Weekly hours calculation
- MacBook/desktop application
- Brighter and bolder color options
- Calendar sync with iOS Calendar
- Alarm/reminder for special dates
In-app purchases
Scheduler
No in-app purchases
SHIFTAR
- SHIFTAR Premium monthly$1.991 Month
- Premium monthly with trial7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- SHIFTAR Premium7 Days trial$1.991 Month
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- SHIFTAR Premium14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- SHIFTAR Premium1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- SHIFTAR Premium3 Months trial$1.991 Month
- SHIFTAR Premium14 Days trial$8.991 Year
- SHIFTAR Premium annual$8.991 Year
- Premium annual with trial7 Days trial$8.991 Year
- Premium annual with trial7 Days trial$16.491 Year
- SHIFTAR Premium annual$16.491 Year
Questions
Is Scheduler free?
Is SHIFTAR free?
Which has better reviews, Scheduler or SHIFTAR?
Do Scheduler or SHIFTAR have ads?
Which is updated more often, Scheduler or SHIFTAR?
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