First Responders Cal vs Shift Calendar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
First Responders Cal
Manage your work schedule and time off with a calendar designed for first responders. Create custom shift patterns, track leave balances, and sync with your device's calendar. Get reminders and view your schedule at a glance with customizable widgets.
- Custom shift pattern creation
- Time off and balance tracking
- Overnight shift display
- iOS Calendar sync
- Customizable stat cards
- Home screen widgets
- Unlimited custom event types
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Working today—or is it a day off? See the shifts, court dates, and details you’ve added to First Responders Cal with Next Work widgets. Plan your rotation, manage time off, track shift trades, and keep up with extra-work pay in one place. Built for fire, EMS, law enforcement, corrections, and dispatch. FREE TRIAL & FULL ACCESS Free to download and use with full access for 14 days. After the trial, a one-time $4.99 in-app purchase is required to continue using the app (U.S. price; pricing may vary by country or region). No subscription or recurring charges. One Full Access purchase covers iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Restore using the same purchasing Apple Account. SHIFT SCHEDULING Choose or create a rotation, such as 24/48, 48/96, or a custom working and off-day cycle. Set the date your cycle starts, then apply the pattern to generate your shifts without duplicates. Overnight shifts appear across both days, and vacations or extended leave can be added in one step. YOUR SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE Choose Month, Week, List, or Agenda, or open the yearly overview to plan ahead. See shifts, court dates, details, leave, and all-day events together. Agenda lets you browse consecutive days with month headings, move through dates with a date strip, and return to Today. NEXT WORK & HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Check whether you’re working today and see what’s next from the events recorded in the app. Small and medium Next Work widgets show your event names and colors. You can also use a month calendar, today’s event list, or a date card. SHIFT TRADES Keep a personal record of hours you owe and hours owed to you. Link return shifts and record partial repayments until a trade is settled. Your coworker doesn’t need the app. EXTRA WORK & PAY TRACKING Record overtime and off-duty hours, rates, pay multipliers, and expected pay dates. Track full or partial payments, outstanding balances, and overdue pay. Review entries by month or year and print reports. Use Repeat job to create another entry with a new date while keeping previous payments with the original job. TIME OFF & LEAVE BALANCES Track vacation, sick leave, personal days, and custom leave types. See starting balances, earned time, usage, and remaining leave. Choose yearly, quarterly, or custom tracking periods, with accruals, optional caps, and carryover. Link related leave types to a shared balance—for example, Family Sick can draw from Sick. REMINDERS THAT FIT YOUR SCHEDULE Set notifications globally or by event type. Choose how many days ahead to be reminded and at what time. Turn on Tomorrow’s Work for an optional reminder of the next day’s selected event types. APPLE CALENDAR & REMINDERS Sync with your chosen iOS Calendar using two-way or one-way sync. Display Calendar events and Reminders alongside your app schedule for a fuller view of your day. MAKE IT YOUR OWN Create custom event types with names, icons, and colors. Rename built-in types to match your department’s terminology and personalize dashboard stat cards. Choose light, dark, or automatic appearance. LOCAL STORAGE, ICLOUD & BACKUP App data is stored locally. Enable optional iCloud sync to keep app events, patterns, time-off balances, Extra Work pay records, and shift trades in your private iCloud database across iPhone, iPad, and Mac using the same iCloud account. Calendar and Reminders sync through their connected provider accounts. Appearance, permissions, and notification delivery preferences stay local. Use Export All Data for a manual CSV backup, then import a saved export to restore or transfer data. Export and import are available during the trial and with Full Access. Built for those who serve.
Shift Calendar
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The shift calendar for people on a rotation. Pick your pattern once and ShiftCheck fills in every shift, from last month to a year ahead. Built for hospital nurses on 3×12s first, then fire and EMS crews on 24/48s, 48/96s and Kelly schedules, and plant and warehouse crews on DuPont, Pitman and 2-2-3. No account. No ads. Works offline. YOUR ROTATION, MONTHS AHEAD • 12 presets named the way crews say them: 2-2-3 (Panama), Pitman, DuPont, 4 on 4 off, 48/96, 24/48, Kelly, 14 on 14 off, 3×12, Continental, 5-5-4, and 4 on 3 off (4×10s) • Or build your own repeat • Picked up an extra shift? The pattern never overwrites a day you changed by hand, and a rotation day you erase stays erased • Unlimited shift types, each with its own color EVERY DAY, AS IT REALLY WENT • Mark a shift as a pickup, charge, or cancelled, and add a note • Stayed late or left early? Record your actual hours and the estimate counts the real minutes • Vacation and sick days on the calendar AT A GLANCE • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets: your next shift and your week • Apple Watch app with complications for your next shift • A reminder 12 or 2 hours before each shift, off until you turn it on • On shift, a Live Activity shows your earnings on the Lock Screen • Works on iPhone and iPad ON ALL YOUR DEVICES iCloud sync keeps your iPhone and iPad in step through your own iCloud. There is no ShiftCheck account. Sync is on by default for new installs when you're signed in to iCloud; turn it off any time in Settings. SHIFTCHECK PRO: THE PAYCHECK, AND YOUR PARTNER'S CALENDAR The calendar is free, including a basic pay estimate for the month. Pro is a one-time unlock that adds: • Partner calendar sharing: your shifts go into a "ShiftCheck" calendar in Apple Calendar that you share with your partner, family, or coworkers. It updates when your schedule changes, and they don't need the app • This paycheck, for your pay period: weekly, every 2 weeks, twice a month, or monthly • Overtime the way your employer counts it: weekly, daily, California, the 8/80 hospital rule, or 7(k) work periods for fire and police, with limits you set, and off-day pickups paid as overtime if that's your rule • Night, weekend, and holiday premiums, split correctly across midnight • Paid time off in the forecast, a take-home estimate, and your next payday • More than one job, each with its own overtime rules and paycheck • A different rate on any single shift • Paycheck reports with CSV export One-time unlock. No subscription. No ads. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your schedule stays on your devices and in your own iCloud. No account, no ads, and nothing is sold. ShiftCheck sends anonymous usage counts (which screens and features get used, with a random ID that isn't tied to you) so we can see what to fix and improve. It never sends your schedule, pay, names, or notes, and you can turn it off in Settings › Privacy. Free calculators and schedule guides: stackcurious.com/shiftcalendar
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: First Responders Cal at every 3 days against Shift Calendar's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. First Responders Cal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Shift Calendar sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
First Responders Cal ships an update every 3 days, Shift Calendar every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | First Responders Cal | Shift Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PEDRO NIEVES | Dave Oakley |
In-app purchases
First Responders Cal
- Full Access$4.99
Shift Calendar
- ShiftCheck Pro — Lifetime$24.99
Questions
Is First Responders Cal free?
Is Shift Calendar free?
Do First Responders Cal or Shift Calendar have ads?
Which is updated more often, First Responders Cal or Shift Calendar?
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