Rotahr vs Sling
Rotahr and Sling both handle staff scheduling, but they solve different problems: Rotahr is one flat-priced app that also covers bookings, food safety records, stock and payroll for a single venue, while Sling is a dedicated workforce platform priced per user and bolted to other tools for the rest.
Free-tier scheduling tool from Toast, aimed at small teams wanting basic shift planning.
Below is a straight comparison, including the cases where Sling is the better choice. If that's you, we'd rather you knew now than found out after paying us.
Short version
If your budget is genuinely zero, start here. It'll do a basic rota and it costs nothing, and that's a fair thing to say.
What each one costs
Rotahr
€49/mo
Flat monthly, VAT included. Up to 15 staff; €89 up to 30. Hiring doesn't change the bill.
Sling
per user
Sling offers a free tier for basic scheduling, with paid tiers adding time tracking and labour reporting. Check their pricing page for current per-user rates.
Rough cost at 12 staff: Free tier available; paid tiers priced per user.
Sling pricing taken from their own pricing page, checked 2026-08-02. Vendors change prices — verify before you buy. We don't quote third-party aggregators because they're often years out of date.
Where Sling is better
No point pretending otherwise.
- ✓There is a genuinely free tier, which nothing else here offers.
- ✓Simple and quick for basic shift planning and staff messaging.
- ✓Owned by Toast, so it fits naturally if you run Toast POS.
Pick Sling if…
You're brand new, running on nothing, and just need to stop texting shifts to people.
Where Sling leaves gaps for a small venue
- ✕The free tier is scheduling and messaging — reporting, attendance depth and compliance sit behind paid tiers.
- ✕No food safety, bookkeeping or reservations.
- ✕Not built around Irish or UK employment rules.
The real difference
Most tools here do the rota well. The question is what happens to everything else — the temperature checks, the delivery notes, the bookings, the bag of receipts. Rotahr was built by a chef who was doing all of it by hand.
| Included as standard | Rotahr | Sling |
|---|---|---|
| Staff rota & shift swaps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Clock in / out with break tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| HACCP food safety records | ✓ | ✕ |
| Table bookings & floor plan | ✓ | ✕ |
| Receipt scanning & bookkeeping | ✓ | ✕ |
| Stock & recipe costing | ✓ | ✕ |
| Customer list & offers | ✓ | ✕ |
Based on each vendor's publicly marketed feature set as of 2026-08-02. Sling may offer some of these through integrations or partners rather than natively.
Common questions
Is there a free alternative to Rotahr?
Sling has a free tier for basic scheduling. It won't handle food safety records, bookings or your books, but if budget is the constraint it's an honest starting point.