7shifts vs Deputy: A Fair Comparison for UK Hospitality

7shifts and Deputy both turn up on every "best scheduling app" list. 7shifts is built only for restaurants: founded in 2014 by Jordan Boesch ("born in the back office of a sandwich shop", as its About page puts it), it says more than 55,000 restaurants use it. Deputy launched in 2008, is headquartered in Sydney with an office in London, and serves hospitality alongside many other industries.

For a UK pub or restaurant, the most important question isn't which has more features. It's which one is set up for UK pricing, UK rules and UK payroll. This page covers that, plus what each does well. Every fact was checked on 7shifts' and Deputy's own websites as of October 2026 and is linked in the sources. ShiftComplete publishes this page; we've tried to be fair to both.

The short answer

• Choose 7shifts if you're restaurant-focused, want a free plan to start, and value tip pooling, task lists and a manager log book in the same app. UK operators should confirm UK support and pricing first.
• Choose Deputy if you want a UK site with prices in pounds, geofenced or facial-recognition clock-in, auto-scheduling from forecasts, and UK payroll and EPOS integrations.
• Look at a third option if you want a UK-built app with rotas, simple clock-in and food-safety records at a flat per-person price.

7shifts vs Deputy at a glance

Who 7shifts suits

What 7shifts does well. It thinks like a restaurant. Scheduling shows availability and time off as you build, auto-fills shifts from past schedules and availability, and uses POS sales to forecast how many people you need. Staff swap shifts through a shift pool with manager approval. The 7punches app lets staff clock in on a phone or tablet at the restaurant, only if they're scheduled, with optional photo clock-in or geofencing and alerts for breaks and approaching overtime. Tip pooling is built in and fed by sales and clock-in data. Task management lets you attach opening and closing checklists to shifts, with completion by photo, value or temperature readout, and a manager log book keeps shift notes, sales and labour data in one place. 7shifts also offers hiring, onboarding, training courses and its own payroll.

Best for: restaurant groups in the US and Canada, and UK restaurant operators who've confirmed 7shifts supports their billing, payroll and the UK rules they need.

Watch for: its labour compliance features are written around US law (fair workweek in California, DC, Nevada, New York and Philadelphia, tip credits, minors under 16/18). UK working time rules and holiday pay work differently, so check what's supported. We couldn't confirm pricing in pounds on its site.

Who Deputy suits

What Deputy does well. Deputy has a UK site, prices in pounds and a London office. Lite includes rotas, timesheets, basic time clocking, labour law compliance, shift swaps, leave accruals, messaging and payroll integrations. Core adds auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, wage budgets, micro-scheduling and biometric clocking. Its time clock lists GPS geofencing and an iPad kiosk with facial recognition. Its integrations page lists UK payroll tools (Xero, Sage, PayCaptain, MyPAYE), tills (Lightspeed, Square, Epos Now, Tabology) and TipHaus for tips.

Best for: UK venues and groups that pay from clock-in data, want the rota built from forecast demand, and want payroll and tills connected, all priced in pounds.

Watch for: managers count as paid users, a £20 per invoice minimum on monthly plans, and HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ as paid add-ons on Lite and Core.

A third option for UK hospitality: ShiftComplete

7shifts is built for restaurants but around North American rules; Deputy is UK-ready but built for every industry. ShiftComplete is built only for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels, and covers the kitchen records as well as the rota.

• Rotas: staff set availability from their phones weeks ahead. Add events (a Friday match needing two more on the bar), weight the people you want on, and ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds, fair across the team. Split shifts up to four blocks a day, custom staff areas, day notes, labour cost as you build, holiday requests from staff phones.
• Clocking in and out (a setting you switch on): on a phone or the shared tablet, with hours against the rota and a spreadsheet download with a total per person for payroll.
• Food-safety and venue records: proper temperature logs with a min/max range per fridge, freezer and hot-hold, the 14 UK allergens per dish, weekday checklists, incidents, maintenance and risk assessments.
• Price: £1.49 per staff member per month in pounds, every feature included, no contract. Free for 60 days, no card.

What it doesn't do: no payroll, no payroll, till or tips integrations, no sales forecasting and no GPS geofencing. If you need those, Deputy is the more complete option.

What it costs for a UK team

Deputy's UK list prices as of October 2026, per month, excluding taxes. 7shifts has a free Comp plan; for paid plans, check its pricing page for current prices in your currency, as we couldn't confirm them in pounds.

Deputy offers 10% off for annual billing. 7shifts lets you pay monthly or annually, with term agreements for larger groups.

The differences that matter in a UK venue

UK rules

UK rules aren't US fair workweek or tip-credit rules. GOV.UK says, for example, that workers can't work more than 48 hours a week on average (normally over 17 weeks) unless they opt out, and under-18s can't work more than 8 hours a day or 40 a week. Deputy's UK pages list labour law compliance on every plan; 7shifts' compliance pages name US jurisdictions. See our guide to UK working time rules.

Tips

7shifts has tip pooling built in; Deputy uses TipHaus. In England, Wales and Scotland, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 applies (it doesn't extend to Northern Ireland). GOV.UK says all tips must be given to workers without deductions, and its statutory code covers fair, transparent distribution and a written tipping policy. Check any tool against our tips and tronc guide.

Clock-in

Both offer geofencing. Deputy adds facial recognition on its kiosk; 7shifts offers photo clock-in and blocks unscheduled clock-ins.

The kitchen side

7shifts' task management can record temperature readouts as part of a checklist. Deputy doesn't list food-safety features on the pages we checked.

How to choose

1. US or Canadian restaurant, or a UK restaurant that's confirmed support? 7shifts, starting on the free plan.
2. UK venue wanting pounds, UK payroll and EPOS integrations, geofencing and auto-scheduling? Deputy.
3. UK venue wanting a fair rota, simple clock-in and temperature logs, allergens and checklists in one app? Try ShiftComplete free for 60 days, or book a 15-minute set-up call.

More options in our 7shifts alternatives and Deputy alternatives guides.