7shifts is the best-known restaurant scheduling app in North America and it has a real presence in Canada. ShiftMaster is a smaller, Canadian-built alternative that folds payroll into the schedule. If you run a Canadian restaurant, café or shop and are choosing between them, this page lays out where each one is stronger.
Bottom line up front: 7shifts is a mature product with a big feature list. For a Canadian business with 5 to 30 staff that wants scheduling and payroll numbers in one place, ShiftMaster costs a fraction of the price and needs no second payroll tool.
Side-by-side feature comparison
| Feature | 🍁 ShiftMaster | 7shifts |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | ✅ 30-day free trial, no card | ⚡ Free tier for 1 location, limited staff |
| Paid pricing | ✅ $5 CAD/month flat, every feature, any team size | ❌ Paid plans priced per location in USD, roughly $30–$135 USD/month depending on tier |
| Built in Canada 🍁 | ✅ Canadian company, Canadian pricing | ❌ US-based; serves Canada |
| Canadian payroll deductions | ✅ Built in: CPP/QPP, EI, QPIP, federal + provincial tax | ❌ No Canadian payroll; exports hours to a payroll provider |
| Every province and territory | ✅ All 10 provinces and 3 territories, 2026 CRA and Revenu Québec tables | ❌ Not applicable |
| AI auto-scheduling | ✅ Included: trained on your own past schedules | ⚡ Auto-scheduler on higher tiers |
| Employee availability | ✅ Yes, with conflict warnings when you book | ✅ Yes |
| Shift swaps | ✅ Yes, coworker accepts, manager approves | ✅ Yes |
| Publish and notify | ✅ One click, each person emailed their own shifts | ✅ Yes, with push notifications |
| Labour cost tracking | ✅ Live projected labour vs weekly budget | ✅ Yes, with POS sales data |
| Mobile for staff | ⚡ Browser portal on any phone, nothing to install | ✅ Native iOS and Android apps |
| Time clock / punch-in | ❌ Not yet | ✅ Yes |
| Team messaging | ❌ Not yet (email notifications only) | ✅ Yes, chat and announcements |
| POS integrations | ❌ None | ✅ Square, Toast, Lightspeed and more |
| Setup time | ✅ Under 10 minutes | ⚡ 30–60 minutes |
| Team size sweet spot | ✅ Built for 5–30 staff | ⚡ Best for 15+ staff and multi-location groups |
7shifts details are from its public website and pricing page as of September 2026, converted loosely to give a sense of scale; plans and prices change, so confirm on their site. ShiftMaster's column describes the current product.
Best for Canadian small businesses: ShiftMaster
Every shift becomes a payroll line with CPP or QPP, EI, QPIP where it applies, and federal and provincial income tax for all 13 jurisdictions, at $5 CAD a month. 7shifts needs a separate payroll tool to get the same numbers.
Where 7shifts still has an edge
To be fair, 7shifts has things ShiftMaster does not have yet:
- Native mobile apps — polished iOS and Android apps with push notifications; ShiftMaster is a browser portal
- POS integrations — sales data from Square, Toast or Lightspeed feeds labour-percentage targets
- Time clock and messaging — punch-in, tip pooling and in-app chat are part of the product
- Multi-location groups — built for restaurant groups with many locations and managers
Choose 7shifts if you run several locations, need POS-driven labour targets, a time clock, or a native app with push notifications.
The Canadian payroll difference
7shifts can push hours to a payroll provider, but the provider is a separate subscription and the CPP, EI and provincial tax math happens there, not in 7shifts.
With 7shifts in Canada the monthly routine still looks like this:
- Export hours from 7shifts
- Import them into a Canadian payroll service (typically $40–$150 CAD a month) or a spreadsheet
- Reconcile the two sets of numbers
- Work out CPP or QPP, EI, QPIP and income tax for each person
- Remit to the CRA (and Revenu Québec) separately
ShiftMaster does steps 1 to 4 inside the schedule. Open a pay period, expand an employee, and the gross, deductions, net pay and employer cost are there. You can check the math against our free Canadian payroll deductions calculator, which runs on the same engine.
Try ShiftMaster free for 30 days
No credit card. Drag-and-drop scheduling, an AI that drafts next week from your own history, staff shift swaps, and Canadian payroll for every province.
Start Free Today →Verdict
Choose ShiftMaster if: you are a Canadian café, restaurant or retail shop with 5 to 30 staff, you want the schedule and the payroll numbers in one place, and you want to be set up in an afternoon.
Choose 7shifts if: you run several locations, need POS-driven labour targets, a time clock, or a native app with push notifications.