tagout
Get a demo

The respectful teardown

HotSchedules built the category. We rebuilt it around a text.

Respect where it's due: HotSchedules taught the industry that scheduling belongs in software. But it still answers everything with “open the app,” and your staff has voted on that.

How staff respond

HotSchedules: Push notifications into an app

Tagout: SMS: reply and done

Open shift coverage

HotSchedules: Post it, blast it, chase it

Tagout: Tagout finds, asks, and confirms

Who gets asked

HotSchedules: Everyone, or whoever checks

Tagout: Ranked: free, under OT, likely yes

Who gets picked

HotSchedules: Whoever the manager reaches first

Tagout: Same rules for everyone, every ask on the record

Overtime control

HotSchedules: Reports and alerts

Tagout: Blocked before the offer goes out

Staff onboarding

HotSchedules: Download, register, learn

Tagout: Reply YES to one text

Manager experience

HotSchedules: Deep, dense, trained-into

Tagout: Clean web app, learned in an afternoon

Pricing shape

HotSchedules: Modules and add-ons

Tagout: One house price, sections as you grow

Built

HotSchedules: 1999, grown by acquisition

Tagout: 2026, built around AI + SMS from day one

Comparison reflects our understanding of typical HotSchedules deployments as of 2026. Your setup may vary, so bring it to the demo and we'll go line by line.

Three reasons GMs switch.

1

The channel is the product

An app your staff won't open can't cover a shift. SMS is the only channel with near-universal, near-instant reach, so we built the whole product on it.

2

Coverage does itself

HotSchedules shows you the gap. Tagout closes it: ranks candidates, texts them personally, confirms the winner, updates the board, and tells you after.

3

The bill is one line

No modules, no communications add-on, no AI tier. One per-seat price with everything on, positioned to be the easy yes against your current invoice.

Switching costs are our problem, not yours.

  • ✓We import your schedules, staff, roles, and availability from HotSchedules
  • ✓Your staff onboards by replying to one text, no meeting required
  • ✓Run both side by side during the free pilot until you're sure
  • ✓Month to month after that. We keep you by being better, not by contract
Start the switch →
Server taking a payment at a table of business diners

The rest of the field

Good products. Different job.

Respect to all of them: they schedule. Tagout schedules and then goes and gets the shift covered. That difference is the whole company.

7shifts

The restaurant favorite for schedules and team chat

Genuinely strong scheduling, and staff like the chat.

A dropped shift gets posted for staff to claim. Tagout goes and gets the yes: ranked asks by text, confirmed, board updated.

When I Work

Broad small-business scheduling with easy swaps

Clean scheduling and simple swaps across many industries.

Swaps still start with someone opening an app. With Tagout the whole exchange happens in the thread your team already answers.

Homebase

Scheduling, time clocks, and payroll for small teams

A generous toolbox for small shops, clocks and payroll included.

When someone calls out, the manager is still the engine. Tagout is the engine: it works the list and hands you a confirmed name.

Sling by Toast

Scheduling that lives inside the Toast ecosystem

Convenient if you run Toast: schedules sit next to the POS.

Open shifts go to a feed and wait. Tagout doesn't wait: it texts the right people, in order, until Friday is whole.

Category-level comparisons based on public information as of August 2026; features vary by plan and tier. All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Bring your HotSchedules invoice.

Twenty minutes, side by side, line by line. If the math doesn't clearly win, keep what you have.

Get a demo→See pricing