The workforce management software market is worth $9.76 billion in 2026, growing at 4.29% per year (Mordor Intelligence). That number tells you something important: the market is big enough for tools to specialize. And Sling has found its niche — it’s one of the most cost-effective scheduling tools available, with a free plan that genuinely works for small, straightforward teams.
But 24/7 support team scheduling is not straightforward. Agents rotate across overnight shifts. Handoffs need to be airtight. Overtime events need to surface in real time, not after payroll. Teams span multiple time zones with different regional holiday calendars. And the 2 AM coverage gap that nobody noticed on the schedule? That’s the one that breaks SLAs.
If you’ve been using Sling and found yourself wishing it had more depth for your support operations, this guide is for you. We’ve evaluated the 7 best Sling alternatives across the metrics that actually matter for 24/7 support scheduling.
| If You Want To… | Use This | Best For | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24/7 support scheduling with OT events & 24h view | Manage Roster | Distributed support teams | Free (up to 10 agents) |
| Clean per-user scheduling with messaging | When I Work | Single-site support teams | $2.50/user/month |
| Enterprise-grade scheduling + payroll integrations | Deputy | Large distributed teams | $5/user/month |
| Free scheduling for physical location teams | Homebase | Brick-and-mortar teams | Free (1 location) |
| All-in-one deskless workforce app | Connecteam | SMB support teams | Free (up to 10 users) |
| Lightweight scheduling + deep time reporting | Clockify | Time-tracking-heavy teams | Free |
| Complex rule-based scheduling for enterprises | Humanity (TCP) | Enterprise 24/7 teams | $2.75/user/month |
Sling earns its place in the market with a strong free tier and a clean interface. For small teams, restaurants, and retail operations, it’s a natural fit. But as support teams grow and their scheduling complexity increases, Sling’s limitations become clear.
1. No native 24-hour day view. Sling’s schedule view is built around standard daytime hours. Overnight shifts — particularly those that cross midnight — are awkward to display, difficult to read at a glance, and easy to misread. For a support team where a shift boundary at 11:30 PM vs. 12:30 AM is operationally significant, this matters.
2. No overtime event tracking. Sling’s Business plan includes overtime calculation in timesheets, but it doesn’t have a concept of an “OT event” — a flagged, visible, actionable moment when an agent is working beyond their scheduled hours. In support operations, that real-time visibility is the difference between catching coverage chaos and discovering it after the fact.
3. Limited multi-location and multi-region support. The free plan covers only one location. Multi-location teams need to upgrade, and even then, the regional complexity of international support teams (agents in the Philippines, Bangladesh, India) isn’t fully addressed by Sling’s tools.
4. No AI assistant for coverage queries. Planning a complex 24/7 schedule manually is time-consuming. An AI layer that can answer “Who’s covering next Saturday’s 3 AM shift?” or “What’s our coverage gap over the upcoming PH holiday?” saves real planning time. Sling doesn’t have this.
5. Scheduling is the only depth. Sling does scheduling and basic time tracking. It doesn’t have a dedicated system for overtime events, multi-region holiday groups, or overnight shift continuity detection. For the specific use case of running a 24/7 distributed support team, you’ll hit the ceiling relatively quickly.
6. Support team scheduling complexity is underserved. Sling was built for shift workers in food service, hospitality, and retail — all single-shift-per-day industries. Support operations require fundamentally different scheduling logic, and hacking Sling’s structure to accommodate it adds planning overhead that compounds over time.
We evaluated each tool across six criteria designed specifically for 24/7 support team needs:
We did not evaluate POS integrations, tip tracking, or food service compliance — those features are core to Sling’s market but irrelevant to support team scheduling.
| 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 |
| Connecteam | Up to 10 users | $29/mo (30 users) | ❌ No | ⚠️ Basic | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Clockify | Unlimited users | $3.99/user/mo | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Basic | ❌ No |
| Humanity (TCP) | No free tier | $2.75/user/mo | ⚠️ Limited | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Limited |
Manage Roster is the only tool on this list built specifically for distributed support operations. Where Sling was built for restaurant shift workers and then adapted for other industries, Manage Roster was designed from day one around the specific problem of running a 24/7 support team across multiple time zones.
The result is a fundamentally different product: one where the 24-hour day view is the default (not a workaround), OT events are first-class objects (not timesheet entries), and multi-region holiday groups are built in (not bolted on as calendar hacks).
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Any 24/7 support team with distributed agents — particularly those with Philippines, Bangladesh, or multi-time-zone coverage requirements.
When I Work is the simplest and most polished general-purpose scheduling tool on this list. At $2.50/user/month for single-location teams, it delivers scheduling, time tracking, shift swaps, and team messaging in a clean, mobile-first package that’s easy to onboard.
When I Work doesn’t have the overnight shift depth or multi-region holiday complexity that dedicated support schedulers provide. But if your team is co-located or operates from a small number of sites and just needs a clean upgrade from spreadsheets, it’s one of the best options in its price range.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support teams at a single physical location or a small cluster of offices that need clean, affordable scheduling with integrated team communications.
Deputy offers the deepest feature set in this comparison — AI-assisted auto-scheduling, multi-location management, fatigue monitoring, labor compliance tools, and an extensive payroll integration ecosystem. It’s the enterprise-grade option that scales to hundreds of agents across many locations.
The per-user pricing ($5/user/month at the Lite tier) is a significant step up from Sling’s free plan, and the $30/month minimum adds cost for smaller teams. But for operations with complex labor law requirements or deep HR system integration needs, Deputy justifies the premium.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Large support operations (50+ agents) that need enterprise-grade scheduling with deep payroll integrations and labor compliance tooling.
Homebase is the most popular free scheduling tool for physical business locations. Its free plan (unlimited staff at one location) covers scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging — making it the natural comparison point for teams coming off Sling’s free tier and wanting to try something different.
For remote-first support teams, Homebase’s location-based pricing and lack of overnight scheduling depth are real limitations. But for support teams with a physical contact center at a single address, the free tier is genuinely competitive.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support teams with a single physical office that want an alternative to Sling’s free tier with slightly more HR depth.
Connecteam is a broad employee management platform — scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, task management, digital forms, training, and HR tools in a single mobile-first app. For support teams that want to consolidate multiple point tools, Connecteam offers compelling value at fixed-account pricing (not per-user up to 30 users).
The scheduling module is competent but not specialist. Overnight shifts and multi-region holiday complexity aren’t Connecteam’s focus. But if you need a platform that handles the full breadth of employee management — not just scheduling — it’s one of the better options in the mid-market.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: SMB support teams that want a single platform covering scheduling, team communications, task management, and light HR — without paying per seat up to 30 users.
Clockify took the opposite approach to Sling — it built deep time tracking first, and added scheduling on top. The result is a tool where project-level time reporting, client billing, and work analysis are genuinely powerful, while the scheduling features are functional but not specialized.
For support teams where understanding how time is spent (by project, by ticket queue, by client) matters as much as who is scheduled, Clockify’s free plan is extraordinary value. The unlimited free tier — unlimited users, unlimited projects, full time reporting — is hard to beat at any price.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Support operations where time-per-project accuracy, client billing, and detailed work analysis matter more than complex shift scheduling.
Humanity Schedule by TCP is an enterprise-focused scheduling platform built around rule-based auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, and high-complexity workforce management. Starting at approximately $2.75/user/month, it’s positioned for large organizations that need to automate scheduling decisions rather than make them manually.
Humanity’s demand forecasting — particularly its ability to predict staffing needs based on historical volume data — makes it appealing for support teams with highly variable ticket volumes or multi-channel operations. The setup complexity is real, but the automation payoff is significant at scale.
What makes it stand out:
Pricing:
Best for: Large enterprise support teams (100+ agents) with high volume variability who want to automate scheduling decisions using demand forecasting rather than manual planning.
What is the best free Sling alternative for support teams?
For 24/7 support-specific scheduling, Manage Roster is the best free option: 1 workspace, up to 10 agents, with full access to the 24h day view, OT events system, and multi-region holiday groups. For general free scheduling without support-specific depth, Sling itself (unlimited staff, 1 location), Clockify (unlimited users, detailed time reports), and Connecteam (up to 10 users, all core features) are all competitive free options.
Is Sling good for 24/7 scheduling?
Sling handles basic shift scheduling well, but it wasn’t built for truly continuous 24/7 operations. The schedule view doesn’t prioritize overnight shift visualization, there’s no dedicated OT event system, and multi-region holiday support is limited. Teams running true 24/7 operations — particularly with agents across multiple international regions — typically outgrow Sling’s capabilities fairly quickly.
What’s the cheapest paid Sling alternative?
Humanity (TCP) starts at approximately $2.75/user/month, making it the cheapest paid option on this list. When I Work is close behind at $2.50/user/month. However, for support-specific features (24h view, OT events, multi-region holidays), Manage Roster’s free plan handles teams up to 10 agents — making it free for smaller support operations.
How does Sling’s pricing compare to alternatives for a 20-person team?
At 20 agents: Sling Premium would be $40/month ($2/user). When I Work would be $50/month ($2.50/user). Deputy Lite would be $100/month ($5/user). Connecteam Basic would be $29/month flat (covers up to 30 users). Manage Roster is free for up to 10 agents, then Pro pricing applies. For teams of exactly 20, Connecteam’s flat pricing often wins on cost — but Manage Roster wins on support-specific features.
Can I migrate from Sling to another tool easily?
Yes. Sling allows schedule and employee data export. Most tools accept CSV imports for employee data. Rebuilding a schedule template in a new tool typically takes 1–2 hours for a well-organized 20-person team. The transition is smoothest when the new tool’s scheduling model closely matches your actual workflow — which is why tools like Manage Roster (purpose-built for support) often feel like a natural upgrade rather than a migration.
Does any Sling alternative handle Philippines and Bangladesh holidays out of the box?
Manage Roster is the only tool in this comparison with dedicated multi-region holiday groups, including pre-built configurations for the Philippines (PH) and Bangladesh (BD). This is a standout feature designed specifically for distributed support teams with agents in these regions. Other tools offer basic holiday or time-off management but don’t provide true regional holiday separation.
What features does Sling have that alternatives typically don’t?
Sling’s free plan is genuinely competitive — unlimited staff at a single location with scheduling and team messaging. In the paid tier, Sling’s labor cost forecasting and budget tracking tools are strong for the price. Most alternatives match these features on paid plans, but Sling’s combination of a fully functional free tier and $2/user paid tier is hard to beat purely on cost-per-feature ratio. The gap shows when support teams need 24h scheduling depth, OT events, or multi-region holiday logic.
Sling is a genuinely good scheduling tool — especially for teams where budget is the primary constraint and scheduling complexity is relatively low. Its free plan is one of the most functional in the market, and the Premium tier at $2/user/month delivers solid value for straightforward shift management.
But if you’re running a 24/7 support team, you’ve probably already hit the ceiling. Overnight shifts, OT events, multi-region holiday calendars, and coverage gap detection aren’t features Sling was built to handle — and no amount of creative configuration will change that.
Manage Roster was built specifically for your use case. The 24h day view is native. The OT events system is purpose-designed for real-time visibility. The multi-region holiday groups cover PH and BD out of the box. The AI assistant answers your schedule questions in plain English. And the free plan handles up to 10 agents with no credit card required.
If you’re ready to stop working around your scheduling tool and start working with one that actually fits: