The Shiftbase alternative with employment law checks as standard
Shiftbase plans shifts very well and sells the employment law check as an add-on. At MetronHR the system checks every entry against the Working Time Act, at no extra charge.
All information about Shiftbase comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
| Feature | MetronHR | Shiftbase |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime (automatic calculation) | ~1 | |
| Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert) | ~2 | |
| Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time) | ~3 | |
| Project time tracking / budgets | 4 | |
| Allowances / hour packages | 5 | |
| Digital Employee File | ~6 | |
| Onboarding and offboarding workflows | ~7 | |
| Compliance (Working Time Act, Federal Labour Court ruling) | ~8 | |
| Application hosted in Germany | 9 | 10 |
| Hosting operator without a US parent company | 11 | ~12 |
| API | 13 | ~14 |
Sources and notes (14)
- 1. Shiftbase, Overtime (automatic calculation): Overtime is visible in the planning view, and extended premiums for Sunday, public holiday and night work are included from the Premium package. An overtime account with a balance, payout and time off in lieu is not named as a separate feature.
- 2. Shiftbase, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): Shiftbase monitors legal requirements automatically, from breaks to the mini-job threshold. A working-time account with several warning levels and its own alert is not mentioned in the feature overview (shiftbase.com/de/funktionen, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 3. Shiftbase, Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time): Mini-job contracts with hour limits are included from Basic, skills-based planning and extended premiums from Premium. Models for flexitime, trust-based working time and alternating weekly patterns are not listed as a separate feature.
- 4. Shiftbase, Project time tracking / budgets: Shiftbase plans and records working time. Projects, clients, activities, budgets and hourly rates are not part of the feature set.
- 5. Shiftbase, Allowances / hour packages: The feature overview lists the duty roster, time tracking, holiday planner, personnel administration, time clock, app, statistics and payroll. It does not mention client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over (shiftbase.com/de/funktionen, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 6. Shiftbase, Digital Employee File: Contracts, electronic signature and onboarding belong to the HR Pro add-on, not to the Free, Basic or Premium packages.
- 7. Shiftbase, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: Also part of the HR Pro add-on. The standard packages contain no joining process with tasks, owners and deadlines.
- 8. Shiftbase, Compliance (Working Time Act, Federal Labour Court ruling): The basic legal check comes only with the Enterprise package. The full check for breaches of employment law is an add-on called Compliance+ at 0.50 euros per employee per month, which was in early access at the time of retrieval.
- 9. MetronHR, Application hosted in Germany: The application and customer data run at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
- 10. Shiftbase, Application hosted in Germany: Shiftbase advertises „European servers“ and ISO 27001, but does not promise a data centre in Germany.
- 11. MetronHR, Hosting operator without a US parent company: The operator is Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent. This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA) in the Frankfurt region, where no employee data is processed.
- 12. Shiftbase, Hosting operator without a US parent company: Not named. The provider is Shiftbase B.V. in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, with an office in Berlin.
- 13. MetronHR, API: The open REST API v1 is part of the Professional plan: readable are employees, departments, clients, services, projects, time entries, absences and published shifts, while clients, services, projects, time entries and absences can be changed, each secured by keys with permissions per resource. Outgoing webhooks and the MCP server for AI assistants also belong to Professional. Sign-in via Microsoft Entra ID comes with every plan. Further integrations are agreed individually in the Enterprise offer.
- 14. Shiftbase, API: The open API belongs to the Enterprise package or the App Center+ add-on at 20 euros a month.
~ = available with limits, the notes are below the table. – = no verified information is available for this provider on this feature. That is not a no: we only record a negative where we can cite a source.
An overview of which features exist at all, regardless of plan. The price-performance comparison is on the pricing page, the individual features in detail under Features.
Feature comparison as at September 2026. Information about competitors comes from publicly available sources, in each case the official provider pages with the date retrieved, and can change. Shiftbase is a trademark of its respective owner.
MetronHR is also available as a native app for iOS and Android:
Where the data sits
Server location and operator are two different questions. A data centre in Germany does not remove the data from US law: providers with a US parent company fall under the CLOUD Act and the surveillance powers of FISA 702, regardless of where the servers stand. Microsoft's chief legal officer in France testified under oath before the French Senate's committee of inquiry on 10 June 2025 that he could not guarantee that data from European data centres would not go to US authorities (record of the Sénat). That is why both are shown side by side here, each with the source it comes from.
What is compared is what the provider documents for its own application, not the infrastructure of its marketing website. More about our own hosting is in the Trust Center.
MetronHR
- Server location of the application
- Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein. All servers stand exclusively in Germany.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent and therefore beyond the reach of the CLOUD Act and FISA 702. No US provider sits in the data path for the application.
- Processors outside Germany
- None for the application. Payment is handled by Stripe Payments Europe (Ireland). This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA, Frankfurt region), and analytics run through PostHog Cloud EU and the reverse proxy cdn.metronhr.de with a Cloudflare edge. No employee data is processed there.
- Source
- MetronHR privacy policyAs at 08/2026
Shiftbase
- Server location of the application
- „European servers“ by its own account, without naming a country, region or data centre. Shiftbase is certified to ISO 27001 and runs a trust centre.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Not named. The provider is Shiftbase B.V., Groeneweg 2A, 2718 AA Zoetermeer, Netherlands, with a branch at Große Hamburger Straße 17 in Berlin.
- Processors outside Germany
- Not shown on the data protection page. For the website and the application, the consent manager includes Amazon, Google, HubSpot, Hotjar, Microsoft, Meta, Reddit, Wistia and Arcade, among others.
- Source
- Shiftbase data protectionabgerufen 02.09.2026
All information comes from the providers' publicly available privacy policies and security pages, and the date retrieved is on every card. Providers can change their infrastructure and their processors at any time. The adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework still applies, but is under legal challenge.
What MetronHR does better
The plan warns before it is published
Shiftbase plans shifts and calculates staff costs. The question that comes first is whether the plan is lawful. MetronHR checks as you plan: the eleven hours of rest between two working days, the daily and the weekly maximum, plus the tighter limits of the Youth Employment Protection Act for underage trainees and of the Maternity Protection Act. Staffing rules tie activities to qualifications, including several at once, and if someone drops out the request goes to the pool rather than to management.
Checking employment law is not an add-on
At Shiftbase the basic legal check appears only in the Enterprise package, and the full check for breaches is called Compliance+, costs 0.50 euros per person per month and was marked as early access on 2 September 2026. At MetronHR the system checks every entry immediately against the Working Time Act: maximum working time, the rest period between two shifts, the duty to take breaks, Sunday and public holiday work. Breaches appear as a warning before the month is closed, included in the Team plan at 5 euros.
The personnel file and onboarding are part of the plan
At Shiftbase contracts, electronic signature and the joining process sit in the HR Pro add-on, whose price is not on the pricing page. At MetronHR the personnel file with documents and expiry reminders as well as onboarding and offboarding workflows are part of the Professional plan, with no second line on the invoice.
Project time with client, budget and hourly rate
Shiftbase plans staffing and measures staff costs against revenue. It does not answer what was worked on or whether a client's budget still holds. Businesses with job work alongside shift operations, say trades with on-call duty or care services with extra services, keep that calculation elsewhere. MetronHR books time against client, project and activity and shows budget usage as a traffic light.
Germany instead of „European servers“
Shiftbase advertises European servers and ISO 27001, but names neither a country nor an operator; the provider is a Dutch company. Anyone who has to justify internally where personnel data sits needs a name. MetronHR gives one: Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein, a German company with no US parent.
Price comparison
Shiftbase sells packages with an included user count and charges for every additional person. Example: a business with 20 people.
| Service | MetronHR | Shiftbase |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 15 people, duty roster and time tracking | no free plan, a 14-day trial | Free plan, 0 euros, permanently |
| 20 people, duty roster, time tracking, time clock | Team 5 euros per person, 100 euros in total | Basic 30 euros including 6 people, plus 14 times 4 euros, 86 euros in total |
| 20 people with premiums, holiday rules and budget planning | Professional 10 euros per person, 200 euros in total | Premium 72 euros including 12 people, plus 8 times 5 euros, 112 euros in total |
| Check against employment law | Working Time Act check on every entry, included in the Team plan | Basic legal check only in the Enterprise package, Compliance+ as an add-on at 0.50 euros per person, in early access |
| Contracts, electronic signature, onboarding | Personnel file and onboarding workflows included in Professional | HR Pro add-on, price not on the page |
| Open API and integrations | REST API v1 and webhooks from Professional, Entra ID on every plan | Enterprise package or the App Center+ add-on at 20 euros a month |
| Guided setup | Self-service, no fee | Online course free, guided a one-off 150, 325 or 575 euros |
| Project time with client and budget, client allowances | included in Professional | not available |
Up to 15 people, duty roster and time tracking
- MetronHR
- no free plan, a 14-day trial
- Shiftbase
- Free plan, 0 euros, permanently
20 people, duty roster, time tracking, time clock
- MetronHR
- Team 5 euros per person, 100 euros in total
- Shiftbase
- Basic 30 euros including 6 people, plus 14 times 4 euros, 86 euros in total
20 people with premiums, holiday rules and budget planning
- MetronHR
- Professional 10 euros per person, 200 euros in total
- Shiftbase
- Premium 72 euros including 12 people, plus 8 times 5 euros, 112 euros in total
Check against employment law
- MetronHR
- Working Time Act check on every entry, included in the Team plan
- Shiftbase
- Basic legal check only in the Enterprise package, Compliance+ as an add-on at 0.50 euros per person, in early access
Contracts, electronic signature, onboarding
- MetronHR
- Personnel file and onboarding workflows included in Professional
- Shiftbase
- HR Pro add-on, price not on the page
Open API and integrations
- MetronHR
- REST API v1 and webhooks from Professional, Entra ID on every plan
- Shiftbase
- Enterprise package or the App Center+ add-on at 20 euros a month
Guided setup
- MetronHR
- Self-service, no fee
- Shiftbase
- Online course free, guided a one-off 150, 325 or 575 euros
Project time with client and budget, client allowances
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- Shiftbase
- not available
Prices per shiftbase.com/de/preise, retrieved on 2 September 2026, with monthly billing; with annual billing Shiftbase grants a 10 per cent discount. Both providers offer a 14-day trial without payment details. For pure duty planning in teams up to 15 people Shiftbase's free plan is unbeatable, and we say so openly.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromShiftbase moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.Shiftbase hands them over as a file, MetronHR reads people, personal data, hours and absences out of it, and before anything is taken over you see row by row what will happen. For a team under thirty people that is a matter of one to two hours, most of it spent putting the file together.
- 1
AtShiftbase export
- Reports via the Reports tab as Excel or CSV, with a period, filters and selectable columns
- 2
Load the template and map the columns
The template comes as Excel and as CSV, with a second sheet that states for every column whether it is required, its format, an example and the permitted values. If your file's header row matches, the mapping falls away entirely. Otherwise the assistant proposes the mapping and marks everything that did not match word for word.
- 3
Check, then take it over
The dry run is mandatory and writes nothing. It shows for every row whether it will be created, changed, skipped or rejected, naming the column and the value behind the finding. Only the second click takes it over, in one transaction. The default is "create new ones only", and an empty cell never changes a value that has been maintained.
Export routes fromShiftbase according to Shiftbase help centre, how to export your data, retrieved on06.09.2026.
Comes with you
- People, with staff number, work address and employment contract
- Remaining holiday and the overtime balance as an opening value per person
- Departments, clients, services and projects
- Time entries and absences for the current year
- Public holidays, including regions that differ
Does not come with you
- Files from the old personnel file, they are uploaded again
- The history of an hours account, MetronHR starts from the opening value
How the move works in detail, what the dry run shows and why no invitation email goes out with it is set out on the page switching time tracking.
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know about switching from Shiftbase to MetronHR.
Because the free plan ends at the planning. It permanently covers duty planning, time tracking and the app for up to 15 people. Anyone who only writes duty rosters and counts hours gets by with it. As soon as a personnel file, onboarding, an overtime account, employment law checks or project time are added, those points sit at Shiftbase in higher packages and add-ons, plus one-off setup packages from 150 to 575 euros. At MetronHR they are in the two plans, with no setup fee.
Shiftbase Basic costs 30 euros a month including six people and 4 euros per additional person, so 86 euros for 20 people. Premium costs 72 euros including twelve people and 5 euros per additional person, so 112 euros for 20 people. On top come add-ons such as Compliance+ (0.50 euros per person) or App Center+ (20 euros) and one-off setup packages from 150 to 575 euros. MetronHR costs 100 euros on Team and 200 euros on Professional. Shiftbase is cheaper for pure planning; MetronHR in return delivers the personnel file, onboarding, project time and employment law checks at no extra charge. As at 2 September 2026.
When staffing is the main concern and the plan is managed daily against revenue: hospitality, retail, hotels, leisure. Revenue forecasts, staff costs in real time, a flexible pool of cover staff across several sites, shift swaps and open duties are mature at Shiftbase. MetronHR plans by demand and qualification rather than by revenue and brings the personnel file, onboarding, project time and the Working Time Act check at no extra charge, which at Shiftbase sit in add-ons and higher packages.
Shiftbase names „European servers“ and an ISO 27001 certification, but names neither a country nor a data centre nor an operator. The provider is Shiftbase B.V. in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, with an office in Berlin. MetronHR runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, a German company with no US parent.
Project time tracking with clients, projects and activities, project budgets with a target-actual traffic light, client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over as well as working-time models for flexitime and trust-based working time. The personnel file, onboarding and the employment law check are included in the MetronHR plan; at Shiftbase they are add-ons or part of higher packages.
Yes. Shiftbase names data portability expressly in its privacy policy and offers exports as well as an API in the Enterprise package and in App Center+. From those you carry over master data, planned and recorded times and absences. Worth checking is the term of any setup package booked, which is billed independently of the subscription.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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