Deputy Alternatives 2026: Prices for 10, 25 and 50 Staff

Deputy is the name that comes up first when you ask almost anyone, human or AI assistant, for employee scheduling software. It earned that spot: scheduling, time clock, compliance and payroll connections sit in one product used by hourly teams in Australia, the UK and the US. But a tool built to do everything is priced for everything, and a lot of managers mostly need one part of it: a fair rota, built quickly, that people can see on their phones.

In short: the best Deputy alternative depends on which part of Deputy you would actually miss. If you rely on Australian award interpretation, demand forecasting or a built-in time clock tied to payroll, stay with Deputy; if you need a built-in time clock with payroll for a small team, Homebase or Connecteam cost less; if you mainly need scheduling at a lower cost, When I Work, Sling and Homebase charge less for a 25-person team, and imRoster drafts the whole roster with AI for a per-account, credit-based price instead of a per-user fee.

Every price below was read on the vendor's official pricing page on 19 October 2026. Prices change often and differ by country, so confirm before you sign. For the wider rostering market, including specialist tools, see our separate guide to rostering software alternatives.

What is Deputy best at?

Before looking at alternatives, it is worth being fair about why Deputy is so widely recommended. As of October 2026, its strengths are real:

• Compliance: every plan lists labour law compliance, Core and Pro add advanced compliance, and Deputy publishes material on US fair workweek (predictive scheduling) rules.
• Award interpretation in Australia: Deputy calculates pay under modern awards, including penalty rates, overtime and allowances, keeps its award library updated as Fair Work rules change, and added a Pay Rate Builder in 2025 for enterprise agreements and custom rules.
• Forecasting and labour budgets: the Core plan includes demand forecasting, labour optimisation, wage and labour budgets and auto-scheduling that builds and fills shifts from business needs and staff availability.
• Time clock: basic time clocking on Lite, biometric clocking and timesheet auto-approval on Core, with timesheets that feed payroll.
• Payroll and HR integrations on every plan, plus a payroll add-on in the US (enabled by Paycor) for annual Core and Pro customers.

If award interpretation or clock-in data flowing straight into payroll is central to your business, Deputy is hard to beat. The alternatives below make sense when you are paying for depth you do not use.

Why do teams look for Deputy alternatives?

Per-user pricing and the $30 minimum

Deputy charges per user per month: Lite at $5, Core at $6.50 and Pro at $9 (as of October 2026, US dollars, excluding tax; annual billing saves about 10%). Since 1 September 2025, monthly Lite, Core and Pro plans carry a minimum spend of $30, A$30 or £20 per invoice, which Deputy says covers setup, support and technology costs. For most teams the per-user fee matters more than the minimum: on Lite the minimum only bites below six users, but every casual or part-timer you add raises the bill by the full per-user price, even if they work two shifts a month. Auto-scheduling and forecasting sit on Core, so a team that wants Deputy to build the schedule pays at least $6.50 per person.

What reviewers say

Deputy's reviews on Capterra, G2, Software Advice and GetApp are mostly positive. Summarised, the themes that keep coming up are:

• Praised: ease of use, flexible scheduling across teams and locations, the mobile app for clocking in and checking shifts, and payroll-ready timesheets.
• Criticised: occasional bugs, slow loading or crashes; some reports of time tracking or hour calculation inaccuracies; notification noise; leave and break management that feels complicated; uneven support experiences; and cost for teams with many low-hour staff.
• Mixed: some long-time users find the newer interface harder to learn.

Where Deputy AI stands

Deputy AI is a conversational assistant for managers: you ask in plain language and it proposes shift changes, finds replacements or edits timesheets, and nothing is published or approved without your confirmation. As of October 2026, Deputy's help centre describes it as an open beta, and the pricing page says it is included in every plan at an introductory free rate, with price and availability subject to change. Deputy's own help pages also note that it does not yet build a full schedule from forecasts or optimise labour cost, so for now it works as a faster way to edit the schedule rather than a way to generate the whole thing.

What does a 10, 25 or 50-person team pay per month?

The table compares list prices for one location with monthly billing, using each vendor's official pricing page on 19 October 2026. Each tool appears twice where it matters: its cheapest plan that includes scheduling, and the plan that adds automatic scheduling.

How to read it, and what it leaves out:

• All figures are US dollar list prices for monthly billing, excluding tax, on one location. Annual billing is cheaper: about 10% at Deputy, 20% at Homebase ($24, $56 and $96 per location), 15% at Sling ($1.70 and $3.40 per user) and roughly 18% at Connecteam ($29, $49 and $99 for the first 30 users). When I Work offers annual billing but does not publish the annual price.
• When I Work's time tracking is a separate add-on whose price is not shown in the page text, so its row covers scheduling only.
• Homebase Plus was shown at $0 for six months under a payroll promotion on the day we checked. Payroll add-ons (Homebase, Deputy) are not included.
• imRoster prices are limited-time launch prices (regular $12, $45 and $110). Plans differ by monthly credit allowance (100, 500 or 1,500), not by user count, and every plan has the same features.
• Free tiers are not equal: Sling Free has no time clock or shift swaps, and Homebase Basic and Connecteam Free cap the team at 10.

Per-user tools scale with every name on the payroll; per-location and flat tools stay level until a threshold. At 50 people, Deputy Core costs $325 a month at list price while Homebase Essentials stays at $30. Price is only half the decision, though: a cheaper tool that cannot do what you need will cost you more in manager hours.

The best Deputy alternatives in 2026, by use case

The list is ordered by the job each tool does best, with where each one beats Deputy and where it falls short.

1. Homebase: best for US small businesses that want a free or flat-priced start

• Best for: single-site restaurants, shops and service businesses in the US.
• Pricing model: per location. Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees; Essentials $30, Plus $70 and All-in-One $120 per location per month with unlimited employees (as of October 2026).
• Better than Deputy at: cost for larger teams on one site, a genuinely free tier, and an optional built-in payroll add-on.
• What it lacks: the AI Scheduling Assistant only starts on Plus; it is built for the US market, with no Australian award interpretation; multi-site businesses pay again for every location.

2. 7shifts: best for restaurants

• Best for: restaurant groups that want scheduling tied to sales, tips and the point of sale.
• Pricing model: per location, with a free Comp plan and a 14-day trial of the top plan, no card needed. Paid plan prices load dynamically on its pricing page, so check the live figures.
• Better than Deputy at: restaurant-specific workflows such as tip management and sales-based forecasting.
• What it lacks: it is built for restaurants, so clinics, care homes, security firms and retail chains get little from its specialist features.

3. Connecteam: best for deskless and field teams

• Best for: cleaning, construction, home services and other teams that work across sites.
• Pricing model: flat for the first 30 users, then per extra user. Free for up to 10 users; Basic $35, Advanced $59 and Expert $119 a month with monthly billing (as of October 2026).
• Better than Deputy at: GPS clock-in on the entry plan, geofencing, and a flat price that stays low up to 30 people.
• What it lacks: automatic shift assignment only on Expert; per-user charges return above 30 users; no award interpretation or demand forecasting on the scheduling plans.

4. When I Work: best for simple, low-cost per-user scheduling

• Best for: small hourly teams that want a familiar per-user model at a lower rate.
• Pricing model: per user. Essentials $2.50, Pro $5 and Premium $8 per user per month, 14-day free trial with no card (as of October 2026).
• Better than Deputy at: price per head, and Auto Scheduling is included from the entry plan rather than reserved for a middle tier.
• What it lacks: time tracking and attendance is a separate add-on; the FAQ ties the $2.50 price to single-location teams; no Australian award interpretation or built-in payroll.

5. Sling: best for very small budgets

• Best for: teams of up to 30 that need a shared schedule and messaging and little else.
• Pricing model: per user. Free for up to 30 users; Premium $2 and Business $4 per user per month with monthly billing (as of October 2026). Sling is now part of Toast.
• Better than Deputy at: cost. Scheduling, templates, time-off requests and messaging are free for up to 30 people.
• What it lacks: the free plan has no time clock, shift swaps or unavailability; auto-assigning is only on Business; no demand forecasting or award interpretation listed.

6. RotaCloud: best for UK small and mid-sized businesses

• Best for: UK teams that want a straightforward rota tool with leave management built in.
• Pricing model: priced by team size in pounds. Standard is £10 and Pro £15 a month for 1 to 5 employees, with a 30-day trial and no payment details needed (as of October 2026).
• Better than Deputy at: holiday, time off in lieu and absence tracking included on every plan, and pricing in pounds for UK buyers.
• What it lacks: time and attendance is a paid add-on; labour forecasting is Pro only; no auto-scheduling is mentioned on its pricing page.

7. imRoster: best for an AI-drafted fair roster without per-user pricing

• Best for: managers who build a weekly or monthly roster by hand and want the AI to draft it, in any sector, including nurses, care homes, security, hospitality and factories.
• Pricing model: per account, credit-based. Starter $5, Growth $20 and Pro $50 a month at limited-time launch prices (regular $12, $45 and $110), with a 30-day free trial and no card (as of October 2026). Every plan has the same features.
• Better than Deputy at: drafting the whole roster from a plain-language description of your team, shifts, time off and rules; never scheduling past the rules you set, such as 11 hours of rest between shifts or night-shift limits; spreading nights and weekends fairly; and a price that does not grow with headcount.
• What it lacks: no payroll or timesheet approvals, no biometric, QR or kiosk clocking (staff clock in from a phone or browser, with location checked against a geofence), no labour-cost or sales forecasting, no award interpretation, no POS integrations and no free-forever plan. It is also a younger product without Deputy's long track record of third-party reviews.

imRoster vs Deputy at a glance

Put simply: Deputy is the better choice when the schedule is one part of a time, pay and compliance system. imRoster is the better fit when building a fair, rule-safe roster is the hard part of your week and you already run payroll elsewhere.

How to choose a Deputy alternative

Whichever way you lean, test with a real month, not a demo team. Build next month's schedule, approve a leave request, process a swap and check whether the tool would have caught a missed rest period. If the roster itself is what eats your time, you can try imRoster free for 30 days without a card: describe your team and rules in one sentence, let the AI draft the schedule, and compare that first draft with what your current tool gives you.

Frequently asked questions