Rotaready vs Planday: Which Suits Your Hospitality Business?

Rotaready and Planday are both workforce platforms with deep roots in hospitality, and both now belong to bigger software groups: Rotaready to The Access Group since 2022, Planday to Xero since 2021. If you're running a restaurant group, a hotel or a busy pub estate, there's a good chance both are on your shortlist.

They differ most in how you buy them. Planday publishes its prices and lets you start a free trial today. Rotaready (part of The Access Group) is quote-based and sold through a demo, with more built in for forecasting, compliance and HR. Every fact below was checked on each company's own website 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 Rotaready if you're a multi-site operator wanting forecasting from sales, weather and local events, automatic wage and working time checks, GPS, PIN or photo clock-in, HR and a tronc integration, and you're comfortable with a quote and a demo.
• Choose Planday if you want published per-user pricing, a 30-day trial without a sales call, solid scheduling and phone clock-in, and a Xero-backed product with wide payroll and till integrations.
• Look at a third option if you run one or a few venues and want rotas plus food-safety records at a flat price.

Rotaready vs Planday at a glance

Who Rotaready suits

What Rotaready does well. It's built specifically for hospitality and goes deep on the things that drive labour cost in a group. Its pages describe forecasting that uses sales history, weather and local events; forecast versus actual versus budget tracking; and live sales, bookings and covers pulled from your EPOS into the rota. Automatic checks flag working time, minimum wage, rest break and contracted-hours issues as you schedule. Time and attendance covers tablet or mobile clock-in with GPS, PIN or photo options, holiday accrual and overtime. HR features include employee records, absence management, document signatures and onboarding. It integrates with tips and tronc tools, and asks staff for feedback at clock-out so managers can spot overwork. Every plan includes a customer success plan.

Best for: multi-site restaurant, bar, pub and hotel groups with an operations or finance team who want forecasting, compliance and HR in one workforce system and are happy to buy through a demo.

Watch for: no published prices, no free trial found, and a managed payroll bureau that costs extra. Budget time for a sales process and set-up.

Who Planday suits

What Planday does well. Planday is quick to try and transparent on price. Starter covers scheduling, simple time tracking, working time rules and compliance warnings, basic payroll reporting and team communication. Plus adds advanced scheduling, leave and absence, payroll integrations, revenue integration and reporting, API access and employee documents. Its hospitality page covers reusable rotas across teams and locations, open shifts, phone clock-in with remote approval, real-time staff costs and revenue forecasts. Its integrations page lists Xero, Sage 50 and QuickBooks Online, and tills including Lightspeed, Square, Zettle and GoodTill by SumUp.

Best for: single sites and small groups that want to start this week, see the price up front, and connect payroll or a till without an enterprise sales process.

Watch for: minimum users (5 on Starter, 10 on Plus), billing in bundles of five, the £30 monthly fee on Plus, auto-scheduling only on the custom-priced Pro plan, and paid onboarding and SMS charges listed in its FAQ.

A third option for UK hospitality: ShiftComplete

Rotaready and Planday are workforce systems. Neither lists the kitchen-side records an EHO asks to see. ShiftComplete is the everyday operations and rota app for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels, so the rota and the food-safety records live in the same place.

• Rotas: staff set availability from their phones weeks ahead. You add events (a Saturday wedding needing three more on the floor), weight the people you want on, and ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds, fair across the team. Up to four time blocks per person per day, custom staff areas, day notes, labour cost as you build, and staff who work across more than one venue in a group.
• 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: temperature logs, the 14 UK allergens per dish, weekday checklists, incidents, maintenance and risk assessments, plus a group dashboard and area-manager roles.
• Price: £1.49 per staff member per month, every feature included, no per-site fee, no contract. Free for 60 days, no card.

What it doesn't do: no forecasting from sales, no payroll, no payroll, till or tronc integrations and no GPS geofencing. If those are central to how you run your group, Rotaready or Planday will fit better.

What you'll pay

Planday's list prices as of October 2026, per month, before any VAT, rounded up to the next bundle of five users. Rotaready doesn't publish prices, so ask The Access Group for a quote for your headcount and sites.

When you get a Rotaready quote, ask what's included in each plan (one plan is called Pro + Forecasting), whether there are set-up fees, the contract length and how users are counted, so you can compare like for like.

The differences that matter in a venue

Buying and getting started

Planday lets you sign up and run a 30-day trial without speaking to anyone. Rotaready is sold through a demo and quote. Neither is better in itself, but a single pub usually wants the first and a 20-site group often values the second.

Forecasting and labour control

Rotaready is the stronger choice if you want forecasts built from weather and local events and labour tracked against forecast and budget. Planday's revenue integration and forecasts cover the basics on Plus.

Clock-in and compliance

Rotaready lists GPS, PIN and photo clock-in, plus automatic minimum wage and contracted-hours checks. Planday includes working time rules and compliance warnings from Starter, with phone clock-in.

HR and pay

Rotaready offers HR records, onboarding, a tronc integration and an on-demand pay module on every plan. Planday covers leave, absence and employee documents on Plus and integrates with a wide range of payroll systems.

How to choose

1. Multi-site group wanting forecasting, compliance checks and HR in one? Get a Rotaready demo.
2. Want published prices, a trial today and Xero or till integrations? Planday.
3. Want a fair rota, simple clock-in and temperature logs, allergens and checklists in the same app? Try ShiftComplete free for 60 days, or book a 15-minute set-up call.

See also our Rotaready alternatives and Planday alternatives guides.