The workforce management software market is worth $9.76 billion in 2026 — and it’s growing at a 4.29% compound annual rate (Mordor Intelligence). Within that massive market, tools are increasingly specializing. Connecteam built its name as the all-in-one app for deskless workers: construction crews, cleaning services, field technicians, retail teams. It does a lot of things reasonably well.
But remote support teams aren’t deskless workers. They’re distributed agents in different time zones, working rotating shifts that span midnight, following different regional holiday calendars, needing real-time overtime visibility — and looking for a tool that understands that 2 AM is a valid work hour, not an anomaly.
This guide breaks down the 7 best Connecteam alternatives evaluated specifically for remote support operations: 24/7 shift management, overnight coverage, OT events, and multi-region scheduling complexity.
| If You Want To… | Use This | Best For | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| True 24/7 support scheduling with OT events | Manage Roster | Distributed 24/7 support teams | Free (up to 10 agents) |
| Simple, affordable per-user scheduling | When I Work | Single-site support centers | $2.50/user/month |
| Enterprise scheduling with compliance features | Deputy | Large distributed teams | $5/user/month |
| Location-based scheduling for hourly teams | Homebase | Physical support locations | Free (1 location) |
| Zero-cost scheduling for budget-first teams | Sling | Startups and small teams | Free |
| Detailed time reports + lightweight scheduling | Clockify | Time-tracking-heavy support ops | Free |
| Complex enterprise workforce management | Shiftboard | Large enterprise support ops | $3/user/month |
Connecteam is a genuinely impressive platform for what it’s designed to do. Its fixed pricing (per account, not per seat up to 30 users) makes it economically attractive, and the breadth of features — scheduling, time tracking, forms, training, chat — is hard to match at that price point.
But remote support teams keep running into the same walls:
1. Not built around continuous 24-hour operations. Connecteam’s scheduling UI is built around standard business-hour thinking. Managing overnight shifts, cross-midnight coverage windows, and “always-on” rosters requires workarounds that add friction to every scheduling session.
2. No dedicated overtime events system. When a support agent covers an unplanned extra shift at 11 PM, that event needs to be flagged immediately — not discovered a week later in a time report. Connecteam tracks time, but doesn’t surface OT events with the urgency they require.
3. Holiday management lacks regional specificity. A team with agents in the Philippines and Bangladesh can’t just have one holiday calendar. PH agents follow Philippine public holidays; BD agents follow Bangladeshi ones. Connecteam’s time-off tools don’t accommodate this kind of regional divergence cleanly.
4. Feature width can mean depth trade-offs. Connecteam does forms, training, task checklists, HR, and scheduling. For teams that only need scheduling depth, all that extra surface area can feel like overhead — and the scheduling module itself doesn’t have the specialist features that dedicated scheduling tools carry.
5. Pricing jumps at the 30-user threshold. The Basic plan covers up to 30 users at $29/month — great value. But once you cross that threshold, per-user add-on pricing can make costs unpredictable for growing support teams.
6. No AI assistant for coverage planning. When your team is planning next week’s rotations across three time zones, a natural language assistant that can answer “Who’s covering Sunday’s 4 AM shift?” saves real time. Connecteam doesn’t have that layer yet.
The result: support teams often pay for a wide platform and still maintain a separate spreadsheet for their 24h coverage visualization.
We evaluated each tool across six criteria specifically relevant to remote support scheduling:
We excluded features not relevant to support scheduling: construction checklists, GPS job tracking, client billing — these matter to Connecteam’s primary audience, not to support team managers.
| Tool | Free Tier | Paid Starts At | 24h Day View | OT Events | Holiday Groups | Multi-Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manage Roster | Up to 10 agents | Pro plan (paid) | ✅ Native | ✅ Dedicated system | ✅ PH + BD groups | ✅ Yes |
| When I Work | 14-day trial | $2.50/user/mo | ❌ No | ⚠️ Basic alerts | ❌ No | ⚠️ Limited |
| Deputy | 31-day trial | $5/user/mo | ❌ No | ⚠️ Reports only | ❌ No | ⚠️ Limited |
| Homebase | 1 location, unlimited | $24.95/location/mo | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Sling | Unlimited staff, 1 loc | $2/user/mo | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Clockify | Unlimited users | $3.99/user/mo | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Basic | ❌ No |
| Shiftboard | No free tier | $3/user/mo | ⚠️ Limited | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Limited |
Manage Roster is the only tool in this comparison built from scratch for distributed, always-on support operations. Rather than adapting restaurant or construction scheduling logic for support teams, Manage Roster was designed by people who understand what it actually means to run a 24/7 agent roster across multiple regions.
Every feature maps directly to a real support scheduling problem: the 24h day view for overnight shifts, the OT events system for real-time overtime visibility, the multi-region holiday groups for Philippines and Bangladesh (and beyond), and the AI assistant for natural language coverage queries.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Any distributed support team running 24/7 operations, especially those with agents in multiple regions who need true multi-region holiday support.
When I Work is the go-to recommendation for support managers who want clean, intuitive scheduling without the complexity of enterprise tools. At $2.50/user/month for single-location teams (and $5/user/month for multi-location), it delivers scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and shift swaps in a well-designed mobile-first package.
It doesn’t have the support-specific depth of Manage Roster, but for teams that primarily need a replacement for spreadsheets and are operating from a single site or a small cluster of locations, When I Work is fast to implement and easy to onboard.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support centers operating from a single location or a small group of offices that want clean, affordable scheduling with built-in team communications.
Deputy brings enterprise-grade capability to workforce management: AI-assisted auto-scheduling, deep payroll integrations (ADP, Xero, QuickBooks, Gusto), multi-location permissions, and strong compliance tooling for labor law requirements. It’s the tool of choice when you need scheduling that integrates deeply with an existing HR ecosystem.
Deputy’s per-user pricing starts at $5/user/month (Lite) with a $30/month minimum — a significant jump from Connecteam’s fixed-account pricing. But for teams of 50+ agents with complex integration requirements, the added cost often pays for itself in reduced manual data entry.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Large support teams (50+ agents) with complex payroll integration requirements and labor compliance obligations.
Homebase is best known as the go-to scheduling tool for restaurants and retail, but its free plan (unlimited staff at 1 location) makes it worth considering for support teams operating from a single physical location. Time tracking, basic scheduling, and team messaging are all included at zero cost.
The limitations are real for distributed teams: no 24h day view, no multi-region holiday support, and a location-based pricing model that doesn’t fit remote-first operations. But for a traditional contact center at a single address, the free tier delivers solid value.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support teams with a single physical office that need a feature-rich free scheduling tool and don’t require 24h day view or multi-region holiday support.
Sling keeps things simple. The free plan gives unlimited staff at a single location access to scheduling, team messaging, and basic task management — no credit card, no trial limits, no expiration. For teams that need to get a schedule running today without procurement overhead, Sling is the fastest path to something functional.
The trade-off is feature depth. Sling doesn’t have OT event tracking, multi-region holiday groups, or overnight shift continuity — but it does have a clean mobile app, PTO request workflows, and labor cost tools on paid tiers.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Small support teams or early-stage operations that need functional scheduling immediately and plan to upgrade as the team grows.
Clockify started as a time tracking tool and has expanded into lightweight scheduling. Its free plan is remarkably generous — unlimited users, unlimited projects, and detailed time reports with no expiration date. For support teams where billing accuracy, project-level time breakdowns, or client-facing reporting matter, Clockify delivers functionality that scheduling-only tools can’t match.
Scheduling features (shift planning, team availability) are available on the Standard plan and above. But the core time tracking remains best-in-class at every price point, including free.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support operations where detailed time reporting, project-level tracking, and billing accuracy matter as much as (or more than) complex shift scheduling.
Shiftboard (ScheduleFlex) is an enterprise-focused workforce management platform designed for high-complexity scheduling environments: large headcounts, multiple sites, compliance-heavy industries, and round-the-clock operations. Starting at approximately $3/user/month, it’s positioned for organizations where scheduling complexity justifies a dedicated enterprise solution.
It’s not a tool for small or mid-size teams — the complexity of setup and the lack of a free tier put it in the enterprise category. But for large support operations (100+ agents) with intricate scheduling rules, Shiftboard brings the depth to match.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Enterprise support operations with 100+ agents, complex scheduling rules, and compliance requirements that smaller tools can’t accommodate.
What is the best free Connecteam alternative for support teams?
For support-specific scheduling, Manage Roster is the best free option — up to 10 agents with the full feature set including 24h day view and OT events. For general scheduling without support-specific depth, Sling (unlimited staff, 1 location) and Clockify (unlimited users, detailed time reporting) are excellent free choices.
Is Connecteam good for remote work scheduling?
Connecteam works reasonably well for remote teams that need a broad employee management platform. However, it’s designed around the deskless worker model (field teams, construction, cleaning services) rather than distributed digital support teams. It lacks native 24h shift views, multi-region holiday groups, and real-time OT event tracking that support teams specifically need.
What’s the best Connecteam alternative free plan?
Manage Roster offers the strongest free plan for support teams: 1 workspace, up to 10 agents, no credit card required, with full access to 24h day view, OT events, and multi-region holiday groups. Connecteam’s own free plan (up to 10 users) is its strongest competitor here, but lacks the support-specific features.
Can I migrate from Connecteam to another tool easily?
Yes. Most alternatives (including Manage Roster, Deputy, and When I Work) support CSV import for employee data. Your schedule history from Connecteam can be exported for your records, and most teams find that rebuilding their schedule template in a new tool takes less time than expected — especially when the new tool’s structure maps better to their actual workflow.
How does Connecteam pricing compare to alternatives at 50 users?
At 50 users: Connecteam Advanced is $49/month base + $1.50/user for 20 extra users = ~$79/month. When I Work would be $125/month ($2.50 × 50). Deputy Lite would be $250/month ($5 × 50). Manage Roster’s Pro plan is the most cost-effective for pure support scheduling. Pricing scales differently at each tier — always model your specific team size.
Does any Connecteam alternative handle Philippines and Bangladesh holiday schedules?
Manage Roster is the only tool in this comparison with purpose-built multi-region holiday groups, including pre-configured PH (Philippines) and BD (Bangladesh) calendars. This is a unique differentiator specifically designed for distributed support teams serving these regions. No other tool on this list offers this level of regional holiday granularity out of the box.
What do support managers miss most when leaving Connecteam?
The most common thing support teams miss is Connecteam’s breadth: forms, training modules, task checklists, and team chat all in one place. Tools like Manage Roster focus specifically on scheduling depth rather than platform breadth. If your team relies heavily on Connecteam’s non-scheduling features (onboarding, checklists, training), you may want to pair a specialist scheduler with a team collaboration tool rather than switching entirely.
Connecteam is a well-designed platform for managing deskless employees across a wide range of industries. But remote support teams running 24/7 operations have specific needs that a general-purpose deskless worker app doesn’t fully address: continuous overnight coverage, real-time OT visibility, and multi-region holiday calendars for agents in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and beyond.
Manage Roster is the answer to those specific needs. It’s the only tool in this comparison built from the ground up for distributed support scheduling — with a native 24h day view, a dedicated OT events system, pre-built regional holiday groups, and an AI assistant that understands support operations. The free plan supports up to 10 agents with no credit card required.
If Connecteam has been making you work around its structure rather than with it, try a tool that was designed for your exact use case from day one.