heybegin.com

What It Is

Heybegin is a scheduling and time-tracking SaaS for service-industry businesses such as restaurants, cafés, bars, hotels, bakeries, and catering companies. Its core goal is to help store managers create, adjust, and share employee schedules more quickly, while allowing staff to view shifts, submit leave requests/availability, and participate in shift swaps via the mobile app—reducing manual communication and scheduling errors.

Core Features and Collaboration

Based on the extracted text, Heybegin’s main features include scheduling, schedule notes, drag-and-drop scheduling, real-time updates, staff management, shift swapping, reporting, time tracking, and paid/unpaid breaks. The mobile app is a key selling point: managers can update schedules at any time, and employees can receive update notifications. For team collaboration, the system supports inviting team members, sharing schedules in real time, and making changes and feedback visible to relevant people. Professional and higher plans also include permission management, making them suitable for multi-location or chain-store operations with tiered management.

Pricing and Plans

Heybegin’s pricing is relatively transparent, with both monthly and annual billing available; annual billing shows an approximately 20% discount. The Free plan is €0/month and is suitable for small single-location teams, limited to 1 location and 3 positions. Starter costs €39/month annually or €49/month monthly, adding time tracking, break management, and chat/email support, but remains limited to 1 location and 6 positions. Professional costs €103/month annually or €129/month monthly, targeting multi-location companies and offering unlimited locations/positions, permission management, and report exports. Organization costs €399/month annually or €499/month monthly and adds dedicated support. Availability approval and overtime calculation are still marked as Coming soon.

Pros and Cons

The strengths are its clear positioning and focused coverage of scheduling pain points in the service industry. The free plan lowers the barrier to trial, while mobile access, real-time sync, shift swapping, and time tracking cover everyday operations. The drawbacks are that the text does not disclose third-party integrations, API support, payment methods, data security certifications, or compliance information. Some advanced capabilities have not yet launched, and the location/position limits on the Free and Starter plans are fairly restrictive.

Best Fit and Access from China

Heybegin is better suited to European or international service-industry stores, restaurant chains, multi-location hotels/cafés, and similar teams that need lightweight scheduling and time management. Access from China is unknown; the page does not mention Chinese language support, local payment methods, or domestic deployment. If using it in mainland China, teams should first test network connectivity, mobile app availability, and euro-denominated payments. Alternatives to compare include Deputy, When I Work, Homebase, 7shifts, and Planday; in China, it may also be worth evaluating scheduling and attendance solutions within the WeCom/钉钉 ecosystems.