Sling, now part of Toast, is one of the cheapest ways to publish a schedule: a free plan, a simple calendar, messaging and a time clock on paid tiers. It does not do payroll at all. ShiftMaster costs $5 CAD a month and its whole point is that the schedule turns into Canadian payroll numbers without a second tool.
Bottom line up front: If all you need is a free calendar your staff can see, Sling is hard to beat on price. The moment you also need CPP, EI and income tax figures for each person, ShiftMaster is cheaper than Sling plus any Canadian payroll service.
Side-by-side feature comparison
| Feature | 🍁 ShiftMaster | Sling |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | ✅ 30-day free trial, no card | ✅ Free plan with basic scheduling |
| Paid pricing | ✅ $5 CAD/month flat, every feature, any team size | ⚡ Paid tiers per user per month in USD, from roughly $2 to $4 per user |
| Built in Canada 🍁 | ✅ Canadian company, Canadian pricing | ❌ US-based (Toast); serves Canada |
| Canadian payroll deductions | ✅ Built in: CPP/QPP, EI, QPIP, federal + provincial tax | ❌ No payroll in any country |
| 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 | ❌ No AI scheduling; templates and copy-week |
| Employee availability | ✅ Yes, with conflict warnings when you book | ✅ Yes |
| Shift swaps | ✅ Yes, coworker accepts, manager approves | ✅ Yes, with approval |
| Publish and notify | ✅ One click, each person emailed their own shifts | ✅ Yes, with push notifications |
| Labour cost tracking | ✅ Live projected labour vs weekly budget | ⚡ Labour cost on paid tiers |
| Mobile for staff | ⚡ Browser portal on any phone, nothing to install | ✅ Native iOS and Android apps |
| Time clock / punch-in | ❌ Not yet | ⚡ Paid tiers |
| Team messaging | ❌ Not yet (email notifications only) | ✅ Yes, chat and newsfeed |
| POS integrations | ❌ None | ⚡ Toast |
| Setup time | ✅ Under 10 minutes | ✅ Under 15 minutes |
| Team size sweet spot | ✅ Built for 5–30 staff | ✅ Small teams |
Sling 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. Sling needs a separate payroll tool to get the same numbers.
Where Sling still has an edge
To be fair, Sling has things ShiftMaster does not have yet:
- Free plan — basic scheduling for free with no time limit
- Messaging — chat, group messages and a newsfeed for the team
- Native apps — staff get push notifications on iOS and Android
- Toast — if you run Toast POS, Sling sits inside the same ecosystem
Choose Sling if you only need a free schedule with chat, or you run Toast POS and want everything under one login.
The Canadian payroll difference
Sling has no payroll product anywhere, so every Canadian business on Sling pays for a separate payroll service or does the CRA math by hand.
With Sling in Canada the monthly routine still looks like this:
- Export hours from Sling
- 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 Sling if: you only need a free schedule with chat, or you run Toast POS and want everything under one login.