Need a hand?

Open servershift.app/play on your phone or computer. Lena, the host, walks you through your first shift at the diner. Guests show little bubbles above their table to tell you what they need. Tap a table to help it, and tap the kitchen or the bar to carry out whatever is ready.

No. Server Shift runs in your web browser. There’s nothing to install and no account or sign-in.

Yes. The whole game is free to play, and there are no ads and nothing for sale today. Optional ads and purchases are planned for later (see Coming later).

Yes. The button at the top right pauses the shift. The 1× button in the room switches the game speed between 1×, 2× and 3×.

• Menu: they’re reading. Give them a moment.
• Order pad: they’re ready to order. Tap the table.
• Clock: their food or drinks are being made.
• Plate or glass: something is ready. Carry it from the kitchen or bar.
• $ sign: they want the check. Tap to get paid and tipped.
• Request: a refill, ketchup or napkins. Bring it fast for a happier table.
• Wrong plate: the kitchen made a mistake. Fix it quickly.

When you take an order, the food goes to the kitchen and the drinks go to the bar. Each cook works one stove, and each bartender works one tap, so more stoves, taps and staff mean more food and drinks at once. Your tray decides how much you can carry per trip.

Now and then the kitchen sends out the wrong plate (about 1 in 15 at the diner, and less often with trained cooks). Take it back and the cook remakes it for free. The guest just gets a little less happy the longer it takes.

A table stays dirty after the guests pay, and the host never seats new guests at a dirty table. Clean it to turn the table and keep the money coming. If a drink gets spilled, tap the spill to mop it before someone slips.

Guests get happier with fast, correct service and grumpier when they wait. Happy guests tip more and raise your reputation. If they wait too long, they walk out and your reputation drops.

Each shift has a clock. When it runs out, you tip out the bartender 10% of your tips and get a report on how the night went. From your second shift on, you also get 3 goals each night: finish them for stars and bonus cash.

No. All money in Server Shift is game money with no real-world value. It can’t be cashed out, sold or traded.

There are two wallets. Restaurant cash comes from checks (after running costs) and pays for staff and renovations. Your tips are your own money: spend them on shoes, a better tray and uniforms that come with you to every job.

Between shifts the shop opens with four tabs: Staff (hire and train), Restaurant (stoves, taps, tables and renovations), Equipment (shoes, tray, uniforms, tailoring) and Career (job offers at new restaurants).

Training raises your whole team at once (all cooks, all bartenders or all servers), so they work faster and the kitchen makes fewer mistakes. New hires start at your team’s level.

Each new job asks for a higher level, a better reputation and a fixed-up restaurant. When you qualify, an offer appears in the Career tab. Your level, tips, gear and uniforms come with you.

• Daily gift: claim one gift a day, building to a big gift on day 7.
• First shift of the day: double XP and bigger tips.
• Special of the day: guests tip more on the special dish.
• Daily challenge: a harder night (like Rush Night or Critic Night). Earn 2 of the 3 goal stars to win a bonus and a trophy.

The game saves automatically every few seconds during a shift, when a new shift starts, after daily gifts and job offers, and whenever you switch away or close the page. It also keeps a backup of your previous save in case the newest one gets damaged. There’s no save button to remember.

Only in the browser you play in, on that device. It is never sent to us, so it doesn’t follow you to another browser, phone or computer.

• Clearing your browser’s history, cookies or site data (for all sites, or for servershift.app).
• Playing in a private or incognito window. Progress there disappears when the window closes.
• Switching to a different browser or device, or resetting or replacing your device.
• Cleaning or “booster” apps that clear browser data.
• On iPhone and iPad, Safari can clear a website’s saved data if you haven’t opened the site for about a week.

• Always play in the same browser on the same device, in a normal (not private) window.
• Don’t clear site data for servershift.app.
• On iPhone or iPad, play at least once a week, or add Server Shift to your Home Screen (Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”).

Not yet. Cross-device saving isn’t available. Each browser and device keeps its own separate progress.

Sorry, we can’t. Saves never leave your device, so we have no copy to restore. If the newest save was damaged, the game already tries your backup save automatically when it starts.

A reset button for players isn’t available yet. Clearing site data for servershift.app starts a fresh game, but it deletes your progress permanently.

Any up-to-date web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. We test on recent Google Chrome on Windows and at phone screen sizes. Safari, Firefox and Edge should work too, but they haven’t been fully tested yet. If something looks wrong, please tell us which browser you used.

Everything is tap or click. On a phone, hold it upright (portrait). On a computer, use your mouse. No keyboard is needed.

Not yet. An Android app is coming to Google Play, and an iPhone app will come later. Until our app is announced here, any app calling itself Server Shift isn’t ours.

The browser game needs an internet connection to load. Once it’s loaded, a short drop in your connection usually won’t interrupt a shift.

• Close other tabs and apps, then reload the page.
• Update your browser to the newest version.
• The first visit downloads the game’s pictures, so it’s faster the next time.
• Turn the music off in the pause menu if your device is older.

• Check your internet connection and reload the page.
• Update your browser, or try turning off ad blockers and other extensions for servershift.app.
• Try another browser. (Your progress won’t carry over to it.)

Browsers only play sound after you tap the page, so tap once. Then check that the music is on in the pause menu and that your device isn’t muted.

Reset your browser’s zoom (Ctrl + 0 on a computer), and hold your phone upright.

• What happened, and what you expected to happen.
• The steps to make it happen again, if you know them.
• Your device (for example “iPhone 15” or “Windows laptop”) and browser with its version (for example “Chrome 142”).
• About when it happened, and a screenshot if you can.

Never send passwords, payment details or other private information. We will never ask for them.

Email support@servershift.app. A real person reads every message. We can’t promise how fast we’ll reply, but we do read them all.