Deputy Alternatives for UK Hospitality: A Fair Comparison

Deputy is one of the best-known workforce apps in the world, and plenty of UK hospitality businesses use it well. But it's built to serve many industries, from healthcare to call centres, and its pricing and feature set reflect that. If you run a pub, restaurant, café or hotel and you're wondering whether something else would fit better, this page sets out the honest trade-offs.

All facts about Deputy and other apps were checked on their own websites as of October 2026. ShiftComplete publishes this page.

What Deputy does well

Credit where it's due. According to Deputy's UK site:

• Auto-scheduling and forecasting. Core and above include auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, wage and labour budgets and micro-scheduling.
• Clock-in everywhere. Time clock apps on tablet, mobile, web and watch, with geofencing and a biometric kiosk.
• Integrations. Payroll (Xero, Sage), POS and EPOS (Lightspeed, Square and others) and tip pooling (TipHaus).
• Compliance features, with advanced labour law compliance on Core.
• Team tools: messaging, news feed and task management.
• Global scale. Headquartered in Sydney with offices in San Francisco and London, serving hospitality alongside many other industries.

If your business pays from clock-in data, forecasts labour from till sales and wants those numbers flowing into Xero or Sage, Deputy is a serious option and may well be the right one.

Why UK hospitality operators look for an alternative

These are the common reasons we hear. Not all will apply to you.

1. Price adds up. Deputy's UK plans are £3.25 (Lite), £4.25 (Core) and £6.50 (Pro) per user per month, excluding taxes. Admins and managers count as users, and HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ are add-ons on lower plans.
2. Minimum spend on monthly plans. Deputy lists a £20 per invoice monthly minimum on monthly plans.
3. More than a small pub needs. Many independent pubs don't need geofencing, biometric kiosks or sales-based forecasting. They want a fair rota on everyone's phone, simple clock-in, and hours they can hand to the bookkeeper.
4. Food-safety records live elsewhere. We didn't find temperature logs, allergens or food-safety checklists on Deputy's pages, so those stay on paper or in a second app.

Deputy vs ShiftComplete at a glance

The main Deputy alternatives for UK hospitality

ShiftComplete: rotas plus venue records, one flat price

Best for: independent pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, hotels and small groups that want rotas and food-safety records in one simple app.

Staff set availability from their phones weeks ahead. You add events (a Friday match needing two more on the bar) and weight the people you want on, then ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds that's fair across the team. Drag shifts around, publish, and it appears on every phone under "My rota" and by email. The same app runs temperature logs, allergens, weekday checklists, incident and maintenance logs and risk assessments, with a weekly report and a full audit log.

Switch on time tracking and staff clock in and out on their phone or the tablet behind the bar; you see hours against the rota and download them as a spreadsheet for payroll.

Trade-off: no payroll, till or accounting integrations and no geofencing, so if you need clock-in data flowing straight into Xero or Sage, Deputy or Planday will suit better.

Price: £1.49 per staff member per month. 60 days free, no card.

Planday: scheduling and time tracking, Xero-owned

Best for: hospitality teams wanting scheduling and time tracking with payroll integrations, at a lower entry price than Deputy.

Planday has been owned by Xero since 2021. Its Starter plan includes scheduling, time tracking, working time rules and compliance warnings, and team communication; Plus adds leave and absence, payroll integrations and revenue integration.

Price: Starter £2.99 per user per month (minimum 5); Plus £3.99 per user plus a £30 monthly subscription fee (minimum 10); Pro custom. 30-day free trial. More in our Planday alternative guide.

RotaCloud: simple UK rota tool

Best for: small businesses that want straightforward rotas with free mobile apps and a UK supplier.

RotaCloud is based in York. Both plans include drag-and-drop rotas, labour costs, holidays and absence, shift swaps and availability; clock-in is an add-on.

Price: banded by headcount, Standard from £10 a month for up to 5 employees. 30-day free trial.

Bizimply: workforce management with operational checks

Best for: UK and Irish multi-site operators who want clock-in, HR and forecasting plus operational checklists.

Bizimply's hospitality page says it can digitise opening and closing duties, HACCP compliance, temperature logs and shift handovers, alongside rota, time and attendance, HR and tronc.

Price: on request.

How to decide

Ask yourself three questions:

1. Do we need geofenced clock-in? If yes, Deputy lists it. If simple clock in and out with a spreadsheet of hours is enough, ShiftComplete does that.
2. Do we need till and payroll integrations? If yes, Deputy, Planday and Bizimply list them.
3. Are our temperature logs, allergens and checklists still on paper? If yes, ShiftComplete or Bizimply would put them in the same app as the rota.

If the answers are "no, no, yes", ShiftComplete is likely the simplest fit.

Switching from Deputy: a one-week plan

Keep any exports of past timesheets and payroll data from Deputy for your records before you close the account.

"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

Want help moving over? Book a free 15-minute set-up call.