Which Scheduling Software program is Finest

Selecting between Connecteam and After I Work could be difficult, and for good purpose. Each platforms are designed for non-desk workforces, so their options are related. They supply worker scheduling, time-tracking, staff communication, and paid-time-off (PTO) administration options. 

Whereas they give the impression of being related on the floor, they’ve purposeful variations that may make one a greater match for your small business than the opposite. Furthermore, Connecteam provides further instruments you don’t get with After I Work, corresponding to location monitoring, worker onboarding and coaching, and worker recognition, making it an all-in-one workforce administration platform. 

On this Connecteam vs. After I Work comparability, I’ll reveal the similarities and variations between the 2 software program options. Learn on to study which software provides higher scheduling, time monitoring, PTO administration, and extra, so you may make an knowledgeable determination. 

At a Look: Fast Abstract

Connecteam is a strong workforce administration resolution designed primarily for frontline workforces, corresponding to these within the development, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing industries. It’s notably helpful for corporations that need to schedule shifts, monitor time, and automate different workforce administration processes whereas complying with strict labor legal guidelines. 

After I Work is designed for a similar goal customers as Connecteam, however has a extra restricted characteristic set. It’s targeted on streamlining scheduling and time monitoring, however lacks important operational instruments, corresponding to location monitoring and built-in onboarding and coaching. Be taught extra in our in-depth After I Work evaluate. 

Pricing and Plans

Connecteam provides extra versatile and scalable pricing than After I Work, making it an excellent alternative for small companies on tight budgets. Its free plan lets small companies entry premium options and handle as much as 10 staff with out paying a dime. Against this, After I Work doesn’t have a free plan, which generally is a hindrance for small companies with no software program funds. 

Fortunately, each Connecteam and After I Work present a 14-day free trial, giving corporations time to check the superior options. What stood out to me is that no bank card is required to begin the free trial. This allows you to discover each platforms with confidence, understanding your card gained’t be charged routinely. 

Relating to paid plans, Connecteam is cheaper than After I Work. The Fundamental plan prices $29 monthly for 30 staff, which works out to lower than $1 per worker. For comparability, After I Work’s most cost-effective plan prices $2.38 per worker. Higher but, Connecteam provides a broader vary of options, so it supplies higher worth for cash. 

Execs and Cons

The professionals and cons under offer you a sneak peek into the strengths and weaknesses of each Connecteam and After I Work: 

Connecteam Execs ✅

• Function-rich: Consists of scheduling, location monitoring, coaching, and onboarding instruments. 
• Free-forever plan for small groups. 

Connecteam Cons ❌

• Integrates solely with payroll and accounting software program.
• Broader characteristic set could steepen the educational curve for first-time customers. 

After I Work Execs ✅

• Intuitive design and restricted characteristic set make it straightforward to make use of.
• Per-user pricing makes it straightforward to calculate preliminary and recurring prices.

After I Work Cons ❌

• No free plan.
• No built-in onboarding and coaching. 

Use Circumstances

Whereas Connecteam and After I Work have many similarities, their use instances differ considerably: 

Connecteam is greatest for:

• Finish-to-end workforce administration: Connecteam streamlines extra than simply scheduling and time monitoring. It automates worker onboarding, coaching, doc administration, location monitoring, and different important workforce administration processes. 
• Unwavering compliance with labor legal guidelines: Connecteam helps you handle your workforce in step with labor legal guidelines and industry-specific laws. 

After I Work is greatest for:

• Fundamental time monitoring: After I Work permits staff to trace time on its cellular or internet app, with GPS verification and geofencing to reinforce timesheet accuracy. 
• Environment friendly shift scheduling: After I Work supplies all the essential scheduling instruments, from drag-and-drop scheduling and shift templates to recurring shifts and shift swaps. It’s splendid for corporations that want easy scheduling with out the complexity of superior instruments. 

Aspect-by-Aspect Function Overview

Along with utilizing Connecteam for years, I’ve put After I Work via rigorous testing to find its strengths and weaknesses. Beneath, I’ll evaluate each platforms based mostly on firsthand expertise to disclose how their options work and make it easier to make an knowledgeable determination. Learn on for the within scoop: 

Time Monitoring — Winner: Connecteam

Connecteam and After I Work are sturdy time-tracking apps for frontline workforces. Each apps stand out for his or her intuitive person expertise and talent to trace time on any machine.  

After I final examined each apps, I might effortlessly log my work hours on the net, cellular, and terminal kiosk apps. Even the non-tech-savvy staff in your workforce will be capable of monitor time with ease, without having hours of coaching. 

Similarities apart, I discovered some minor variations that tip the scales in Connecteam’s favor. First, Connecteam’s kiosk app works on any Android or iOS smartphone, so you may simply set it up on a web site supervisor’s or supervisor’s machine. Examine this to After I Work’s kiosk app, which requires you to put money into iOS tablets. 

Each apps use numerous clock-in restrictions, corresponding to geofencing and the flexibility to dam early clock-ins, in order that the logged hours really replicate the time staff spend on-site. As well as, Connecteam prevents unscheduled clock-ins to get rid of time theft and hold labor prices beneath management. 

Furthermore, Connecteam’s geofencing routinely clocks out staff after they go away a job web site. This prevents eventualities the place staff neglect to clock out after their shifts or deliberately keep clocked in to pad their timesheets. What’s extra, Connecteam notifies you when a area employee leaves a job web site, making it simpler to substantiate job completion.  

Verdict: Whereas each platforms supply highly effective time-tracking capabilities, Connecteam takes the lead with its superior geofencing, which improves timesheet accuracy and attendance monitoring.  

Break and Extra time Monitoring — Winner: Connecteam

On the subject of break and additional time monitoring, each Connecteam and After I Work have the important options. For instance, each platforms allow you to assign relaxation and meal breaks to make sure staff are nicely rested. Nevertheless, Connecteam has further instruments that assist corporations implement break guidelines to adjust to labor legal guidelines. 

Connecteam enables you to set recurring breaks to adjust to strict laws, such because the California break regulation. This regulation mandates a number of breaks relying on the size of worker shifts. For instance, if a shift is 10 hours lengthy, staff are entitled to 2 30-minute meal breaks. Connecteam’s recurring break software enabled me to routinely implement this rule throughout testing.

Connecteam additionally reminds staff to take their breaks on time and blocks them from ending their breaks early. Doing so prevents staff from by chance skipping breaks or deliberately taking shorter ones. This ensures unwavering compliance in states the place missed, late, or quick breaks can result in expensive penalties.

Relating to additional time monitoring, each platforms have versatile insurance policies that allow you to outline additional time thresholds and pay charges to adjust to labor legal guidelines, whether or not you’re in California or Australia. I set each platforms to trace day by day additional time, weekly additional time, and day by day doubletime in California, they usually labored simply positive. Nevertheless, Connecteam confirmed additional time earnings on the payroll report, whereas After I Work didn’t.

Past commonplace additional time, Connecteam additionally enables you to routinely monitor vacation and seventh-consecutive-day additional time. This characteristic is useful in states like California, the place staff earn premium pay for engaged on public holidays or for seven days in a row. 

Verdict: Connecteam is the winner, due to its superior break and additional time options, which make it appropriate for companies in tightly regulated jurisdictions.  

Worker Scheduling — Winner: Connecteam 

Creating optimum schedules with both Connecteam or After I Work is a breeze. Each platforms have sturdy options that make scheduling easy, together with drag-and-drop instruments, shift templates, shift copying, and recurring shifts. Additionally they allow you to set scheduling guidelines to adjust to labor legal guidelines, corresponding to a relaxation interval between shifts and a maximum-hours-per-employee restrict. 

I additionally preferred the platforms’ self-service instruments, corresponding to shift swap, which helps staff discover shift replacements with out leaving a niche within the schedule. This prevents last-minute scrambles and confusion that always disrupt operations. Furthermore, Connecteam and After I Work embody an AI auto-scheduler that lets managers create truthful, correct schedules in minutes, not hours. 

One distinction is that with Connecteam, staff can settle for or decline shifts. It could appear minor, however this characteristic helps you keep compliant with predictive scheduling legal guidelines in some states (like Oregon and Washington) and main U.S. cities. 

These legal guidelines shield staff from being compelled into last-minute schedule adjustments with out discover. By giving staff the choice to simply accept or decline shifts, Connecteam creates an indeniable report exhibiting that the employee voluntarily agreed to a shift. This might help you keep away from hefty penalties within the occasion of a lawsuit.   

Verdict: Connecteam and After I Work scheduling instruments be certain that staff are the place they have to be on the proper time. Whereas they each assist companies adjust to labor legal guidelines, Connecteam has the sting as a result of it complies with predictive scheduling legal guidelines. 

Paid-Time-Off Administration — Winner: Connecteam

Connecteam’s PTO administration module provides the flexibleness to decide on the accrual methodology that most closely fits your inner insurance policies, regulatory necessities, or {industry} norms. Whether or not you favor fixed-accrual PTO for its simplicity or want hourly-accrual PTO to remain compliant with labor legal guidelines, Connecteam has you lined. In distinction, After I Work helps solely hourly accruals. 

Nevertheless, each platforms allow you to block time-off requests while you want full worker availability, corresponding to throughout main occasions or peak seasons. Doing so helps preserve optimum staffing ranges to satisfy the elevated demand to your companies with out overworking anybody.

I additionally discovered the minimal request discover on every platform to be helpful, particularly for fast-paced environments. This characteristic enables you to set up what number of days prematurely an worker should submit a time-off request. With this restriction, the supervisor has sufficient time to approve (or reject) requests and alter schedules accordingly to stop surprising protection gaps. 

Requesting day without work is easy on the cellular and internet apps with each Connecteam and After I Work. When an worker submits a request, the platform notifies the supervisor through electronic mail and push notification, guaranteeing no request is ignored even in giant workforces. Equally, each platforms inform the worker when the supervisor approves or rejects their request. 

Verdict: Whereas each platforms present sturdy PTO administration options, Connecteam wins by a hair as a result of it helps each lump-sum and hourly-accrual PTO. 

Location Monitoring — Winner: Connecteam 

Connecteam’s location tracker offers you real-time visibility into the place area staff are throughout their shifts. You’ll be able to open the reside map and zoom in on any worker to see their location, the duties they’re at present engaged on, and when and the place they clocked in. 

These particulars make it easier to monitor attendance, monitor worker motion, and coordinate duties from the consolation of your workplace. Additionally they improve worker security, enabling you to shortly dispatch assist to distant groups in case of emergencies.  

Connecteam additionally creates a turn-by-turn route, exhibiting the precise path an worker took throughout their shift. The route reveals all of the addresses {that a} door-to-door salesperson, area service technician, or supply driver visited in the course of the shift. It additionally contains breadcrumbs with timestamps that will help you estimate how a lot time the employees spent at every location. 

One other profit is that Connecteam tracks location and routes solely when the worker is clocked in. When an worker clocks out, Connecteam stops monitoring their location and motion to guard their privateness. This additionally ensures you monitor location just for a respectable enterprise purpose, because the regulation mandates in some areas. 

Verdict: Connecteam is the undisputed winner right here, due to its highly effective location and route monitoring — two options you gained’t discover with After I Work. 

Worker Onboarding and Coaching — Winner: Connecteam

Connecteam additionally streamlines onboarding and coaching for area and cellular staff. New hires can add their licenses, certificates, and different paperwork from their cellular gadgets. The mobile-friendly workflow eliminates the necessity for bodily paperwork, rushing up credential verification and streamlining the onboarding course of. 

When you approve worker paperwork, Connecteam tracks their expiration dates and alerts staff when something must be renewed. This ensures everybody’s certificates, licenses, and compliance paperwork are at all times updated, stopping regulatory violations and unplanned unavailability.  

Connecteam additionally automates employee coaching. I actually preferred its AI course creator, which creates multi-section programs in seconds. Higher but, Connecteam enables you to monitor the complete workforce’s coaching progress from a centralized dashboard — there’s no must guess who has accomplished a compliance course or who’s falling behind. 

Verdict: Connecteam is the winner right here as a result of it supplies built-in onboarding and coaching options, perks you gained’t discover with After I Work. 

Activity Administration  — Winner: Connecteam

Connecteam and After I Work aren’t as highly effective as standalone job administration apps corresponding to Trello or Asana. Nonetheless, I discovered them useful for managing easy tasks or facet jobs that staff want to finish alongside their major duties. For instance, a development supervisor can use both platform to assign web site cleanup, gear prep, security duties, materials dealing with, and different facet duties. 

Creating and assigning a job with After I Work is straightforward. That mentioned, whereas I preferred being able to create duties and break them down into sub-tasks, I want the platform allowed managers to assign particular person sub-tasks for more practical collaboration. 

That apart, each platforms let managers create recurring duties in order that they don’t should assign the identical job day-after-day. This reduces the supervisor’s administrative workload and eliminates the danger of forgetting crucial duties. 

Connecteam has a transparent benefit, although, as a result of it lets managers oversee duties from a single dashboard with a structured listing view. The duty view reveals you who’s engaged on what, the place every job stands, and which duties are approaching the deadline. After I Work doesn’t supply an in depth view, making it troublesome for managers to trace progress.

Each platforms additionally allow you to create shift duties, a characteristic that’s distinct from the principle job supervisor. Because the title suggests, shift duties are related to a particular shift and description the duties an worker wants to finish throughout that shift.  

Verdict: Whereas each options present sturdy job administration options, I’ve to present this one to Connecteam for its centralized job dashboard.  

Workforce Messaging — Winner: Connecteam 

Whereas each Connecteam and After I Work supply staff communication instruments, Connecteam’s UI, controls, and messaging options are higher. After I Work’s chat interface feels clunky and appears like an previous electronic mail app. Against this, Connecteam has a contemporary design and aesthetic that provides in the present day’s customers an intuitive social-media-like expertise.

Throughout testing, I might simply begin 1:1 and group chats with both Connecteam or After I Work. Nevertheless, messaging felt simpler and extra participating on Connecteam than on After I Work. Connecteam enables you to use emojis, replies, voice messages, and @mentions — important instruments you don’t get with After I Work. 

Each apps additionally let managers create company-wide channels for bulletins and updates. Nevertheless, Connecteam has a transparent benefit with its learn receipt characteristic, which allows you to see who has learn an replace and who hasn’t. 

Higher but, Connecteam permits you to phase group channels by division, position, or location so staff see discussions related to their day-to-day operations. It additionally enables you to assign admin duties to staff aware of every channel’s matters for correct oversight.

Verdict: Intuitive chat UI, highly effective messaging, and browse receipts on the published channel give Connecteam the crown on this class.  

Person Scores

Whereas customers appear glad with what every platform provides, Connecteam has barely higher scores than After I Work on fashionable evaluate websites.

Connecteam

• ⭐ 4.6/5 on Capterra (Based mostly on 4,819 person critiques)
• ⭐ 4.6/5 on G2 Crowd (Based mostly on 3,494 critiques)

After I Work

• ⭐ 4.5/5 on Capterra (Based mostly on 1,251 person critiques)
• ⭐ 4.4/5 on G2 Crowd (Based mostly on 361 critiques)

Safety & Compliance

I dug deep into internet sources and located no safety incidents or knowledge breaches linked to both Connecteam or After I Work, suggesting that their safety measures maintain up nicely. The desk under summarizes their safety and compliance choices:  

Whereas each platforms cowl the fundamentals nicely, Connecteam has the higher hand, due to its superior encryption requirements. The seller protects knowledge utilizing AES-256 encryption, broadly thought to be the gold commonplace. Against this, After I Work makes use of TLS to guard knowledge in transit, and it doesn’t explicitly point out the way it protects knowledge at relaxation. 

Connecteam additionally stands out as a result of it’s SOC 2 Kind 2 compliant and adheres to the ISO/IEC 27001 requirements. These certifications present that its safety controls and processes have been independently audited, along with its options. 

Connecteam additionally handles knowledge in compliance with the GDPR and HIPAA, making it appropriate for corporations throughout totally different verticals and areas. After I Work is GDPR-compliant however not HIPAA-compliant, which is vital to remember in case you’re within the healthcare {industry}. 

Setup and Onboarding

Connecteam’s trendy and intuitive interface streamlines the setup course of. Whereas its ease of use makes finishing particular person setup duties easy, the time it takes to get your staff up and working will rely upon the options it’s essential configure. 

Connecteam supplies video walkthroughs to flatten the educational curve for first-time customers. Higher but, its internet and cellular apps have intuitive interfaces that allow customers to navigate with ease. 

With After I Work, alternatively, creating an account and organising important options is straightforward, due to its intuitive interface. First-time customers sometimes require lower than 10 minutes to get their accounts prepared. As well as, important settings are organized on a single web page. Throughout testing, this helped save time I’d have wasted bouncing between tabs. 

That mentioned, After I Work doesn’t allow you to apply sure settings, corresponding to break insurance policies, to everybody directly. You’ll be able to assign breaks solely when creating shifts, which could be time-consuming, particularly when scheduling a big workforce. Furthermore, some options, like WorkChat, have outdated interfaces that take away from its person expertise. 

Assist and Buyer Service

On the subject of buyer assist, Connecteam provides a greater mixture of assisted and easy-to-use self-help choices. Connecteam’s reside chat is out there 24/7, guaranteeing that customers can chat with a human agent anytime, any day, no matter their time zone. I used to be impressed with how responsive the brokers have been. I sometimes acquired a response inside a minute in Connecteam’s reside chat. Against this, After I Work’s reside chat is out there solely throughout enterprise hours.

You may also request a cellphone name from Connecteam’s assist via both the reside chat or electronic mail, and the staff will make it easier to additional. Alternatively, publish questions on group boards to study from fellow customers. After I Work doesn’t supply group or cellphone assist.

Past commonplace assist, Connecteam provides a paid possibility, Connecteam Professional, that connects you to a devoted setup and onboarding knowledgeable. The knowledgeable expedites the setup course of, serving to you profit from each characteristic from day one. 

🏆 Who Wins: Connecteam or After I Work?

On the subject of efficiency in areas that matter most to area and cellular groups, Connecteam comes out on prime. Nevertheless, each platforms cowl the fundamentals nicely. They provide important scheduling, time-tracking, and PTO administration options, so you may’t go fallacious with both one. 

Connecteam has the sting, although, as a result of it does extra than simply meet the fundamentals. It additionally supplies further instruments in a number of key areas that allow corporations to handle non-desk workforces successfully. 

Options corresponding to superior geofencing automation, versatile PTO accrual choices, real-time location monitoring, and worker onboarding make Connecteam a greater match for corporations that want extra sturdy operational instruments.  

👉 The decision: After I Work is well-suited for corporations that want fundamental shift-scheduling and time-tracking instruments. Nevertheless, in case you want extra than simply scheduling and time-tracking options to handle workforces in areas with strict compliance necessities, Connecteam is the higher match. 

Get began with Connecteam totally free in the present day.  

FAQs

What’s Connecteam greatest for?

Connecteam is greatest for corporations needing an all-in-one app to handle scheduling, time monitoring, inner communication, job administration, and coaching.

What’s After I Work greatest for?

After I Work is greatest for hourly groups needing easy scheduling, time clock, and shift coordination with minimal setup.

Does Connecteam have a free plan?

Sure, Connecteam provides a free plan for as much as 10 customers with core options like scheduling and time monitoring.

Does After I Work have a free model?

After I Work provides a restricted free model for smaller groups (beneath 5 customers), principally targeted on scheduling.

Which app has extra options?

Connecteam has extra built-in options together with job administration, kind creation, and coaching modules.

Which platform is best for bigger groups?

Connecteam scales higher for bigger organizations attributable to its modular system and admin controls.

Which app is simpler to make use of?

After I Work is simpler for fundamental scheduling, whereas Connecteam requires extra onboarding attributable to its broader characteristic set.