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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HotSchedules

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AHotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry. According to the vendor, key benefits include: Build & Communicate Schedules The scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and communicate schedules. All scheduling and employee information is stored in one central location, so managers have access to time-off requests,…

    $2

    per month per employee

    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ASpiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management.

    $0

    (free for 1-5 Seats)

    Pricing
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Editions & Modules
    Essentials
    $2
    per month per employee
    Plus
    $4
    per month per employee
    Quote-Based
    Quote-based pricing
    Core Plan
    $0
    Premium
    $6
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Considered Both Products
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    No answer on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    Features
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of HotSchedules and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    HotSchedules
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.1
    56 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.855 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings5.548 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings4.943 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.346 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings10.055 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings10.054 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of HotSchedules and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    HotSchedules
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    9.5
    53 Ratings
    17% above category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of HotSchedules and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    HotSchedules
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.7
    53 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.847 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings4.512 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings10.047 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings10.029 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Small Businesses
    Jolt
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Jolt
    Score9.7 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.0
    (167 ratings)
    10.0
    (84 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (29 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (12 ratings)
    9.8
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    8.7
    (26 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HotSchedulesSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    For small to medium-sized companies HotSchedules works great when business is very static. If you are simply using HotSchedules for a schedule writing tool, it is phenomenal. However, it does miss the mark as a labor control software. Needs more controls to keep managers aware of spending versus historical sales data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    • Communication is so simple on HotSchedules. Whether it is communicating a new schedule release, or a quick note about tonight's shift we as managers are able to easily communicate and know that it will reach our team through text notifications, or email notifications.
    • The Meal Break planning tool is very useful in being able to help our floor leaders clearly understand and plan for what breaks are needed throughout the shift. This allows them to come up with a strategic game plan quickly and spend more time with our guests.
    • Shift Swaps and Releases are so seamless. This is our favorite tool as it makes helping our team cover shifts extremely easy and painless. On the flip side it also makes staff who want more hours be able to find what is available in real time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
    • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
    • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
    • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    • Clocking In and out can be a little slow. It takes longer to clock in then our previous method. Before we just had a card you swiped and it would clock you in. Took 2 seconds. Now with the Hotschdules method we use it take 30 seconds or so. Not a huge issue but it can add up if you have one computer and a line of employees waiting to clock in.
    • Time Cards. It does not allow you to view someones current time until the "punch" has ended. If the manager would like to check what time the employee clocked in/out from lunch they have to wait until the employee has clocked out for the day before the record is generated. As a shift lead you may send and employee to lunch but forget to note what time you sent them. Awhile passes and you feel like they should be back by now, so you want to go in and see what time they left for lunch but it does not show you that punch record because the employee is still "clocked in" they are just on their "Meal Break"
    • The ability to customize the restrictions for Clocking in and out. You can set it up so that employees can only clock in from a specific location, however if you have a manager who is allowed to work from home they would not be able to clock in without being at the same location as set in the software. It would be nice to see it able to be customized per user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
    • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
    • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    Ease of use, efficiently creating and posting staff schedules.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    6 Years of Experience provides me the insight on the upgrades and changes that HotSchedules has done to improve the experience of its users. There are so many features that we still have not started or used to the fullest, but we believe that we are currently getting a strong value out of the money that is paid for this product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    On rare occasions a phone call has been required to find the solution to a problem, the HotSchedules response staff have been helpful, courteous, and genuinely seem to care for their clients and take pride in what they do. The consistent development and fine tuning of the platform, interface, and mobile environment shows that this is not a program full of people who rest on their laurels.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    I have not used any other Scheduling software for employees. As a campground manager in the summer season, we are using campground master for reservations. it is very similar in process to employee scheduling. the ability to the user of that program to set up their own parameters for time and reservations is something that would benefit the employee scheduling software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    HotSchedules and Fourth
    • Saving time on scheduling means our managers can focus more on guest experience, managing the floor and other areas that contribute to the success of our business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
    • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
    • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
    • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    HotSchedules Screenshots

    Screenshot of Time-Off, Availability, Employee Hours, Sales Volume are all available in the scheduler.Screenshot of Employees are able to swap and pick-up shifts from the HotSchedules Mobile App. All shift changes or requests require a manager's approval.Screenshot of Managers and employees can communicate with each other from the mobile and web apps - from anywhere and at anytime.Screenshot of Employees can submit a time-off, request - paid, or unpaid - and can request to work or request off right from the mobile app.Screenshot of Managers can view sales and labor data from their phone.