What is the best rota app for a small pub?

Short answer: for most small pubs, the best rota app is one that runs on any phone without a download, lets staff set their own availability, handles split shifts and separate bar and kitchen areas, shows labour cost while you build, and costs a few pounds a month in total rather than per site. Which app that is depends on what else you need. If you only want a free rota, a free plan may do. If you want rotas plus your food-safety records in one place, look at an app that includes both.

Disclosure: ShiftComplete publishes this guide. We've kept competitor facts to what each company says on its own website, checked in October 2026.

What "small pub" means here

This guide is for a pub with roughly 6 to 25 staff: a licensee or GM, maybe an assistant manager, a chef or two, and a mix of full-time and part-time bar and floor staff. Probably one site. The rota is written by the person who also does the ordering, the cellar and the cash.

At that size, you don't need demand forecasting, HR modules or integrations with an enterprise payroll system. You need the rota done quickly and seen by everyone.

The seven criteria that matter for a small pub

1. Staff will actually use it

The best app on paper fails if half the team won't open it. Look for an app that works on any phone, ideally in the browser so casual staff don't have to install anything, and shows each person their own shifts clearly.

2. Availability comes from staff

Your bar staff should mark when they can and can't work, weeks ahead, in the app. If availability still arrives by text, you've only moved half the problem.

3. It copes with how pubs work

• Split shifts: lunch, a gap, then the evening.
• Areas: bar, kitchen, floor, cellar, garden bar.
• Events: quiz night, match days, a wake on a Thursday afternoon.
• Late closes: a shift that finishes at 1am still belongs to the day it started.

4. Labour cost while you build

In a small pub, wages are usually the biggest cost you can control week to week. Seeing the cost of the rota before you publish it beats finding out from the accountant.

5. The real monthly price

Check per-user prices, minimum user counts, monthly minimum charges, headcount bands, per-site fees and paid add-ons. A cheap headline price can grow once you add clock-in or messaging.

6. No lock-in

Monthly billing, no contract, and the ability to remove staff when your summer team leaves.

7. What else it saves you

If you're still keeping fridge temperatures on a clipboard and the allergen chart in a ring binder, an app that holds those records too saves you a second system. If you've already got that sorted, it doesn't matter.

How the main options compare for a small pub (October 2026)

Prices below are taken from each company's own pricing page in October 2026. They change, so check before you buy. For a fuller comparison, read our guide to the best rota apps for UK hospitality.

What each does well

• Sling is hard to beat on price for scheduling alone. If you only want shifts on phones and time-off requests, its free plan covers a small pub.
• RotaCloud is a straightforward rota tool with a clear UK price for very small teams and a no-payment-details trial.
• Planday and Deputy are mature platforms with strong time-tracking and integrations, which suit pubs that pay from clocked hours and want those hours to flow into payroll software.
• ShiftComplete suits pubs that want the rota and the day-to-day records (temperatures, allergens, checklists, incidents) in one app, at a flat per-person price.

Where ShiftComplete fits

ShiftComplete is built for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels, and it's designed around the way a small pub actually runs.

• Staff set availability on their phones weeks ahead: available, partial or off, with a note.
• You add events (a Six Nations Saturday that needs two extra on the bar) and weight the people you want on.
• It builds a draft rota in seconds, fair across the team, which you adjust by dragging shifts around.
• Split shifts of up to four blocks a day, each tagged with an area such as Bar or Kitchen.
• Labour cost shown as you build; holidays recorded, with holiday requests from staff phones if you switch it on; fixed weekly schedules for regulars.
• Publish to everyone's phone under My rota, and email it too.
• Clock in and out (a setting): staff use their phone or a tablet behind the bar, and you download hours as a spreadsheet for payroll.

The same app holds temperature logs, allergens, checklists, incidents, maintenance and risk assessments, helping you keep the records an EHO asks to see.

Where it isn't the best fit: if you need a direct payroll integration, till integration or GPS-geofenced clock-in, one of the larger platforms will suit you better.

Price: a 12-person pub pays £17.88 a month; a 20-person pub pays £29.80. Free for 60 days with no card.

"The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file." Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch

Three small pubs, three different answers

The 8-person wet-led village local. Mostly the same faces on the same shifts, no kitchen to speak of, and a rota that barely changes. A free plan, or even a well-kept spreadsheet shared as a view-only link, may be all you need. Pay for software only when chasing availability starts eating your evenings.

The 18-person food pub. Lunch and dinner service, split shifts, a kitchen team on different hours from the bar, students whose availability changes every term, and an EHO who expects temperature records. This is where an app with staff availability, areas, split shifts and labour cost pays its way, and where having the food-safety records in the same app saves a second system.

The owner with two pubs. Staff who cover both sites, one person writing both rotas, and a need to see both venues at a glance. Look for multi-site support with no per-site fee, and staff who can be rota'd across venues without being set up twice.

How to choose in an afternoon

1. Write down your must-haves. For most small pubs: availability from staff, split shifts, areas, labour cost, phone access without fuss.
2. Decide on clock-in. Do you pay from actual clocked hours? If not, don't pay extra for it.
3. Decide on food-safety records. In the same app, or kept separately?
4. Price it for your headcount, including minimums and add-ons.
5. Shortlist two and run each for two real rota weeks with your actual team.
6. Ask the staff which one they'd rather use. They're the ones opening it every week.

Want to see how a rota is put together first? Read how to write a pub rota, or see what ShiftComplete does as a rota app for pubs.