Comparison

Spark vs FireSync Shift Calendar

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

Head to head
About

Spark

This app simplifies shift work for professionals like first responders and healthcare workers. It offers full customization, secure cloud syncing, and streamlined shift trading. Plan your life and stay organized with instant visual cues and reliable support.

Highlights
  • Full shift customization
  • Secure cloud sync
  • Streamlined shift trades
  • Instant visual cues
  • Comprehensive shift coverage
  • User-friendly interface
Features
Read full description

Spark: Your Ultimate Shift Calendar App For over 15 years, Spark has been the go-to app for simplifying shift work. Loaded with powerful, user-friendly features, Spark helps you balance work and personal life in one place—trusted daily by fire, police, EMS, healthcare professionals, and shift workers worldwide. With Spark’s unique "Cloud Connect" system, you can sync and share your schedule across all devices, keeping you and your loved ones in the loop anytime, anywhere. Why Spark? Here’s why your colleagues love it: Full Customization Spark is designed for you. Track and log anything you need—vacation, sick time, comp time, overtime, trades, and more. Can’t find something? Add it with ease! Spark’s sleek, intuitive design lets you personalize everything to suit your work style. Secure & Reliable Your data is safe with us. Spark’s "Cloud Connect" syncs your encrypted calendar across devices, linked to your email. Lose or upgrade your phone? Just log back in, and it’s like you never left. Comprehensive Shift Coverage From pre-loaded schedules to custom department setups, Spark supports thousands of shift calendars. Don’t see yours? Easily create it, and it’s saved for you and your team. Streamlined Shift Trades & Swaps Manage and track all your trades and swaps down to the individual. Spark’s “Trade Board” lets you request and confirm trades within the app, automatically updating your calendar and stats—no extra steps. Instant Visual Cues Color-code shifts, events, and stats for at-a-glance planning. With Spark, you’ll know exactly what’s on the agenda without extra clicks. Unmatched Customer Support Our app thrives on user feedback. We’re committed to fast, helpful support, with most emails resolved in under two hours. Spark evolves with your input, making it the app you can rely on for years to come. Try Spark free for 30 days, and experience the app that’s helping shift workers around the world stay organized. Visit www.LeakyNozzle.com to learn more!

About

FireSync Shift Calendar

This app is a comprehensive calendar designed for firefighters, offering robust shift tracking, event management, and cloud integration. It allows users to manage trades, overtime, and personal events, with features like CertTracker and Expenditure tracking. It also syncs with other calendars and devices for seamless organization.

Highlights
  • Firefighter shift schedule tracking
  • Event management (trades, overtime, personal)
  • Cloud integration with FireSync Enterprise™
  • CertTracker and Expenditure tracking
  • Customizable shift editor
  • Year and month calendar views
  • Report generation and emailing
Features
Read full description

FireSync is not merely a Firefighter Shift Calendar, it's also a full-featured calendar app with powerful cloud-enabled features just for firefighters. Whether or not you want to keep track of your trades, overtimes, or just your kid's soccer practices, FireSync can do it all. It also includes many powerful features such as CertTracker, Expenditures, and is fully integrated with FireSync Enterprise™ and TheHouse™ cloud services. Before you buy another shift calendar app ask yourself: 1. Do you have to pay an annual subscription for the calendar? Not with us! We support firefighters by letting you keep more of your hard-earned money. Is there a better way? 2. Is it also a full-featured calendar app? FireSync isn’t just a firefighter shift calendar, it’s also a full-featured calendar app that fully integrates with your phone's calendars. FireSync events are saved to your calendar and can be seen on other phone's using the same calendar account (e.g. phones used by family members). FireSync is more than a good firefighter calendar. It’s a good calendar app period! 3. Will you find yourself staring at the app for 15 minutes just figuring out how to use it? FireSync has a sleek modern design that is intuitive to use. 4. Does it include powerful cloud-enabled features? If your fire department uses FireSync Enterprise™ or TheHouse™ you can view all of the additional data and applets shared by your department or station from within FireSync. !!! SHIFT SUPPORT !!! FireSync supports any 24-hour shift schedule that repeats on a predictable cycle. FIRESYNC COMES PRELOADED WITH THE SHIFT CYCLES FOR OVER 1,400 FIRE DEPARTMENTS! If you do not see your fire department no problem. Our intuitive shift editor allows you to easily create your shift schedule. You can also share it with us so that others in your firehouse or department can quickly be up and running. Although FireSync does not fully support 12-hour shifts, we have countless users using FireSync to display their 12-hour shifts. If you want to display YOUR SHIFT (not all shifts) you can create 12-hour shifts. Kelly and Debit Days. Does your fire department use Kelly and Debit days? No problem. FireSync allows you to show both Kelly and Debit days. You can define them by rule or by specifying specific dates. FLSA: FireSync allows users to add FLSA periods to their calendar. Other Features: 1. Ability to add and track ordinary events, trades, overtime, comp time, benefit days, incidents and training. Since FireSync is also a full-featured cal you can also see these events on other calendars and other devices sharing the same calendar account (e.g. spouse). FireSync is your all-in-one calendar app. 2. Sleek reports that give you the info you need at a mere glance. View your shift trades, overtimes, comp time, benefits accrued or used, training and fire incidents with ease. You can also email your reports. 3. The ability to view your calendar in a year view, month view, month-list view, or day view. With FireSync you aren't just looking at your shift cycle. You can see all of your fire and non-fire events. 4. CertTracker to keep track of your training certificates. 5. Expenditure tracking. FireSync Shift Calendar is the shift calendar firefighters deserve. Get the word out to your brothers and sisters in your firehouse and IAFF local. *FireSync is the exclusive property of ForceReadiness.com. It solely developed FireSync and is responsible for its functionality. Firefighters First Credit Union has agreed to sponsor the app in order to provide it to all firefighters at no cost.

Screenshots

Spark4 screens
FireSync Shift Calendar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FireSync Shift Calendar at none against Spark's 2. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

Both are free to download. Spark sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. FireSync Shift Calendar asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Spark against 4.8 for FireSync Shift Calendar. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7.5K and 9.1K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Spark's written reviews are positive against 69% of FireSync Shift Calendar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spark ships an update every 5 weeks, FireSync Shift Calendar every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Spark versus FireSync Shift Calendar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSparkFireSync Shift Calendar
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (7.5K ratings)4.8 (9.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews74.5% of reviews — better69.2% of reviews
Number of ratings7.5K9.1K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB176 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperE.L.K. Equities LLCForceReadiness.com

Customer experience

Spark

All ratings7,300 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.9%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews157 reviews
Positive74.5%
Neutral8.9%
Negative16.6%

FireSync Shift Calendar

All ratings9,095 ratings
Positive95.7%
Neutral2.7%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews91 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral8.8%
Negative22.0%

User reviews

Spark

From 7.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent calendar app
  • 👍 Easy to use and set up
  • 🔒 Secure and reliable
  • 💡 Customizable and feature-rich
  • 👍 Great for shift work and emergency services

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Subscription model and pricing issues
  • 🔧 Needs more frequent updates
  • 🔧 Compatibility issues with newer devices
  • 🔧 Lack of certain features (e.g., widgets, dark mode)

FireSync Shift Calendar

From 9.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Share capable
  • 👍 Perfect setup
  • 👍 User friendly and simple
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Convenient

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Randomly deletes events
  • 🔒 Trouble with calendar access
  • 🐛 Holiday icon disappeared
  • 🐛 Erased all info
  • 🐛 Verification not working

Bugs and requests

Spark

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login and authentication problems
  • Data loss and sync issues after updates
  • Unreliable performance on some devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to sync with more calendar services
  • More customization options
  • Improved user interface and design
  • Ability to view past schedules and events

FireSync Shift Calendar

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • Randomly deletes events
  • Trouble with calendar access
  • Holiday icon disappeared
  • Erased all info
  • Verification not working
Show 6 more
  • No longer syncs
  • Schedule won't publish
  • Crashes on iOS 13.2 update
  • App keeps crashing
  • Bug with editing events
  • Major bug with category/location fields

Requested features

11 requests
  • Color customization for days
  • Shift designation by number
  • Custom FLSA start/end dates
  • Customizable pay days
  • Shift trade feature
Show 6 more
  • Debit day scheduling
  • Ability to share calendar with others
  • Dark mode
  • Shift color customization
  • Shift swap/back-to-back trade option
  • Ability to see which shift you're on

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Spark

One-time2
  • Annual Subscription Renewal$0.99
  • Initial Annual Subscription$5.99
None

FireSync Shift Calendar

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spark free?
Spark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FireSync Shift Calendar free?
FireSync Shift Calendar is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spark or FireSync Shift Calendar?
FireSync Shift Calendar is rated higher. Spark averages 4.8 out of 5 from 7.5K ratings, while FireSync Shift Calendar averages 4.8 from 9.1K ratings.
Do Spark or FireSync Shift Calendar have ads?
Neither Spark nor FireSync Shift Calendar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spark or FireSync Shift Calendar?
Spark ships an update every 5 weeks, and FireSync Shift Calendar every 2 months. Most recently, Spark was updated on September 22, 2026 and FireSync Shift Calendar on September 24, 2026.

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