Rotaready Alternatives for UK Pubs, Restaurants and Hotels

Rotaready has been a familiar name in UK hospitality for years, especially with restaurant and bar groups. Since The Access Group bought it in 2022, it's been sold as part of Access's wider hospitality software. That suits some operators and pushes others to look around. This page lays out what Rotaready does well, why people look elsewhere, and the main alternatives, with every fact checked on the companies' own websites as of October 2026.

ShiftComplete publishes this page. We've aimed to be fair to every product named.

What Rotaready does well

According to The Access Group's Rotaready pages:

• Hospitality focus. It's aimed at catering and events businesses, restaurants, hotels, cafés, bars and pubs of any size.
• Forecasting and budgeting. Rota scheduling with budgets and forecasting, with a dedicated Pro + Forecasting plan.
• Automatic compliance checks against working time rules, minimum wage, rest breaks and contracted hours as you build.
• Clock-in by tablet or mobile.
• Staff app with shift swaps, absence requests and messaging.
• HR records, absence, document storage and e-signatures.
• Wellbeing insights from feedback staff give when they clock out.
• Integration categories including payroll, EPOS, applicant tracking, training, and tips and tronc, plus payroll exports.
• Part of a bigger suite. It powers the HR and workforce module of Access's Hospitality People Suite, which matters if you already use other Access products.

For a multi-site group that wants forecasting, compliance checks, HR and wellbeing in one workforce platform, and possibly other Access software alongside it, Rotaready is a strong candidate.

Why operators look for a Rotaready alternative

• No published price. Pricing is by quote. Smaller operators often want to know the cost before booking a demo.
• More than they'll use. A single pub or café may not need forecasting, sentiment insights or e-signatures.
• Food safety stays separate. We didn't find temperature logs, allergens or food-safety checklists on Rotaready's pages, so those stay on paper or in another tool.
• Being part of a larger group. Some operators prefer a supplier focused on one product; others are happy with a big-suite vendor. It's a matter of preference.

Rotaready vs ShiftComplete at a glance

The main Rotaready alternatives

ShiftComplete: rotas and venue records together

Best for: independent venues and small groups that want a fair rota and their food-safety and venue records in one app, at a published price.

Staff set availability from their phones (available, partial or off, with a note). You add events and weight the people you want on, and ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds. Publish it to every phone and by email. Switch on time tracking and staff clock in and out on their phone or the shared tablet; you see hours against the rota and download them as a spreadsheet. The same app holds temperature logs with out-of-range flags, allergens, weekday checklists with named ticks and photos, incidents and maintenance, risk assessments and a weekly report.

Trade-off: no HR documents, e-signatures, sales forecasting, payroll or till integrations.

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

Planday

Best for: hospitality teams who want scheduling, time tracking and payroll integrations at a published price.

Owned by Xero since 2021 and headquartered in Copenhagen. Starter includes scheduling, time tracking, working time rules and compliance warnings; Plus adds leave and absence, payroll and revenue integrations; Pro adds auto-scheduling.

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

Deputy

Best for: operators who want auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, geofenced clock-in and a wide integration list.

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

Bizimply

Best for: UK and Irish multi-site operators who want workforce management plus operational checklists from one supplier.

Bizimply covers rota, time and attendance, HR, tronc and forecasting, and its hospitality page says it can digitise opening and closing duties, HACCP compliance and temperature logs.

Price: on request.

RotaCloud

Best for: smaller businesses that want a simple, UK-based rota tool with free mobile apps.

Price: banded by headcount, Standard from £10 a month for up to 5 employees; clock-in is an add-on. 30-day free trial.

Which should you choose?

What to ask in a Rotaready demo

If you're comparing Rotaready with an app that publishes its prices, go into the demo with a list:

• What will it cost per month for our headcount and number of sites, and what's the contract length and notice period?
• Which features in the demo are in the plan you're quoting (Pro, Pro + Forecasting or Premium)?
• How long does onboarding take, and is there a set-up fee?
• Which payroll and EPOS systems do you integrate with, specifically?
• Can we run a trial with our own team before signing?

Ask the same questions of every supplier, including us, so you're comparing like with like.

Moving across from Rotaready

1. Export what you need first. Past hours, absence records and HR documents. Check your contract's notice period.
2. Set up your venue and staff areas in the new app. In ShiftComplete that takes about five minutes.
3. Ask staff to set availability on their phones for the next few weeks.
4. Run one rota in both systems, then switch.
5. Add your food-safety records: fridges, checklists and allergens. This is often where operators see the biggest change day to day.

"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

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