The Best Rota Apps for UK Hospitality in 2026: An Honest Comparison

There's no single best rota app. A 12-person village pub, a 40-cover restaurant and a 9-site bar group need very different things. This comparison covers seven apps used in UK hospitality, including ours, with what each does well and who it suits. Everything here was checked on each company's own website in October 2026. Prices change, so check before you buy.

Disclosure: ShiftComplete publishes this guide. We've tried to be fair and to stick to what each company says publicly.

Quick comparison (as of October 2026)

All seven offer some form of clock-in or time tracking. ShiftComplete's is a simple clock in and out on a phone or shared tablet with a spreadsheet export of hours (no geofencing); RotaCloud's is a paid add-on; Deputy and 7shifts list geofenced clock-in.

What a 20-person pub might pay

This is a rough guide using published list prices only, for a team of 20 users. Feature sets differ a lot, so it isn't a like-for-like comparison.

The apps in more detail

ShiftComplete

What it is: an everyday operations and team-scheduling app built for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels. It runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer.

Strengths: staff set availability from their phones; managers add events and weight the people they want on, and ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds, fair across the team. Split shifts (up to 4 blocks a day) with custom staff areas, labour cost while you build, holiday requests from staff phones, fixed weekly schedules and staff who work across venues. Switch on time tracking and staff clock in and out on their phone or a shared tablet, with hours shown against the rota and downloadable as a spreadsheet with a total per person. The same app holds temperature logs with out-of-range flags, allergen mapping to the 14 UK allergens, weekday-specific checklists with photo evidence, incident and maintenance logs, risk assessments, team announcements, weekly reports and a CSV-exportable audit log. Multi-site with a group dashboard and unlimited managers.

Worth knowing: it doesn't run payroll or integrate with tills, payroll or accounting software (hours go to payroll as a spreadsheet), and clock-in has no GPS geofencing. If those are essential, look at Deputy, Planday or Bizimply.

Price: £1.49 per staff member per month, no per-site fee, no contract. Free for 60 days, no card.

Deputy

What it is: a workforce management platform headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco and London, serving many industries including hospitality.

Strengths: auto-scheduling, demand forecasting and wage budgets on its Core plan and above; time clock apps on tablet, mobile, web and watch with geofencing; labour law compliance features; messaging and a news feed; task management. Its UK integrations page lists Xero and Sage for payroll and Lightspeed and Square among its POS partners.

Worth knowing: HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ are paid add-ons on lower plans, there's a £20 per invoice monthly minimum on monthly plans, and admins and managers count as users.

Price (UK, excl. taxes): Lite £3.25, Core £4.25, Pro £6.50 per user per month. Free trial up to 31 days. See our Deputy alternative page.

Planday

What it is: a scheduling and workforce platform founded in 2004, headquartered in Copenhagen and acquired by Xero in 2021. Hospitality is one of its main markets.

Strengths: scheduling, time tracking, working-time rules with compliance warnings and team communication from the entry plan; leave and absence, payroll integrations and revenue integration on Plus; auto-scheduling on Pro. Integrations include Xero, Sage 50 and QuickBooks for payroll and Square, Lightspeed and Mews for revenue.

Worth knowing: Plus and Pro carry a monthly subscription fee on top of per-user pricing, users are billed in bundles of five, and SMS and paid onboarding cost extra.

Price: Starter £2.99 per user per month (minimum 5 users); Plus £3.99 per user plus £30 a month (minimum 10 users); Pro custom. 30-day free trial. See our Planday alternative page.

Rotaready

What it is: a hospitality-focused workforce platform, acquired by The Access Group in 2022 and now sold as part of Access's hospitality software. It targets catering and events businesses, restaurants, hotels, cafés, bars and pubs.

Strengths: rota scheduling with budgeting and forecasting, automatic checks for working time, minimum wage, rest breaks and contracted hours, tablet and mobile clock-in, a staff app with shift swaps and absence requests, HR records and document storage, and wellbeing and sentiment insights from feedback at clock-out. Integration categories include payroll, EPOS, and tips and tronc.

Price: not published. Plans are Pro, Pro + Forecasting and Premium, quote only. See our Rotaready alternative page.

RotaCloud

What it is: a rota and staff management tool from a York-based company, used across hospitality, care, retail and other shift-based sectors.

Strengths: drag-and-drop rotas, templates, labour costs, holidays and absence, shift swaps and availability, with free iOS and Android apps. Pro adds labour forecasting, budget caps, document storage and a logbook. Integrations include Sage, PayCaptain and Staffology for payroll and Tevalis for EPOS.

Worth knowing: clock-in (Time & Attendance) is a paid add-on. We didn't find auto-scheduling on its shift planning page.

Price: banded by headcount. Standard from £10 a month for 1–5 employees (£40 for 11–20); Pro from £15. 30-day free trial with no payment details.

Bizimply

What it is: workforce management for hospitality, retail and shift-based businesses across the UK and Ireland, founded in 2014 with offices in London and Dublin.

Strengths: rota, time and attendance, mobile apps, HR, tronc, forecasting and daily task workflows. Its hospitality page says it can digitise opening and closing duties, HACCP compliance, temperature logs and manager shift handovers, and it lists integrations including Toast, Lightspeed and ICR Touch for POS and Xero, Sage and BrightPay for payroll. It's the closest of the established players to combining scheduling with operational checks.

Price: not published; depends on employees, locations and products. Demo offered.

7shifts

What it is: a restaurant scheduling platform founded in 2014, with offices in Toronto and Saskatoon.

Strengths: scheduling from labour targets and projected sales, a time clock with geofencing, team messaging, tip management and pooling, and a free plan for a single location with up to 15 employees. Its task management add-on can record temperature readouts.

Worth knowing: as of October 2026 its pricing is shown in Canadian dollars per location, and Capterra UK lists its availability as Canada and the United States. Its compliance tools are described as state-based labour law tools, which are US-oriented. See our 7shifts alternative page.

How to choose

1. List what you actually need. If you need geofenced clock-in or direct payroll integrations, shortlist Deputy, Planday, Rotaready, Bizimply and RotaCloud. If simple clock in and out with a spreadsheet of hours is enough, ShiftComplete covers it.
2. Decide whether food safety records belong in the same app. If you're still on paper temperature sheets and a laminated allergen chart, an app that does both saves your team juggling two systems. ShiftComplete and Bizimply are the options here.
3. Work out the real monthly cost for your headcount, including minimums, subscription fees and add-ons.
4. Trial with real rotas. Use the free trial for two full rota cycles with your actual team, not a demo account.
5. Ask your team. The best app is the one your staff will actually open on their phones.

If ShiftComplete sounds like a fit, start a free 60-day trial or book a set-up call.