Comparison

Spark vs Rota Calendar

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Spark

This app simplifies shift work for professionals like first responders and healthcare workers. It offers full customization, secure cloud syncing, and streamlined shift trading. Plan your life and stay organized with instant visual cues and reliable support.

Highlights
  • Full shift customization
  • Secure cloud sync
  • Streamlined shift trades
  • Instant visual cues
  • Comprehensive shift coverage
  • User-friendly interface
Features
Read full description

Spark: Your Ultimate Shift Calendar App For over 15 years, Spark has been the go-to app for simplifying shift work. Loaded with powerful, user-friendly features, Spark helps you balance work and personal life in one place—trusted daily by fire, police, EMS, healthcare professionals, and shift workers worldwide. With Spark’s unique "Cloud Connect" system, you can sync and share your schedule across all devices, keeping you and your loved ones in the loop anytime, anywhere. Why Spark? Here’s why your colleagues love it: Full Customization Spark is designed for you. Track and log anything you need—vacation, sick time, comp time, overtime, trades, and more. Can’t find something? Add it with ease! Spark’s sleek, intuitive design lets you personalize everything to suit your work style. Secure & Reliable Your data is safe with us. Spark’s "Cloud Connect" syncs your encrypted calendar across devices, linked to your email. Lose or upgrade your phone? Just log back in, and it’s like you never left. Comprehensive Shift Coverage From pre-loaded schedules to custom department setups, Spark supports thousands of shift calendars. Don’t see yours? Easily create it, and it’s saved for you and your team. Streamlined Shift Trades & Swaps Manage and track all your trades and swaps down to the individual. Spark’s “Trade Board” lets you request and confirm trades within the app, automatically updating your calendar and stats—no extra steps. Instant Visual Cues Color-code shifts, events, and stats for at-a-glance planning. With Spark, you’ll know exactly what’s on the agenda without extra clicks. Unmatched Customer Support Our app thrives on user feedback. We’re committed to fast, helpful support, with most emails resolved in under two hours. Spark evolves with your input, making it the app you can rely on for years to come. Try Spark free for 30 days, and experience the app that’s helping shift workers around the world stay organized. Visit www.LeakyNozzle.com to learn more!

About

Rota Calendar

Easily plan your life around work with this shift worker's calendar. See your schedule years in advance, customize shifts with colors and emojis, and sync with your existing calendars. Share your availability with others.

Highlights
  • Scrollable calendar view
  • Generate schedules up to 5 years ahead
  • Customizable shift colors and labels
  • Sync with existing calendars
  • Share schedules via AirDrop (iOS)
  • Supports repeating and irregular shifts
Features
Read full description

Does working shifts make planning your personal life difficult? Rota Calendar helps shift workers scroll through shifts, see schedules years ahead, and plan life around work with confidence. Standard digital calendars make it hard to understand long-term shift patterns. Rota Calendar is built specifically for shift work, making it easy to see when you’re working, resting, or free — even years in advance. Enter the date of your next shift and your rotation is calculated instantly, generating your shift schedule up to five years ahead. From there, scroll smoothly through time to plan vacations, social events, family commitments, and important dates without guesswork. Designed for Real Shift Work Rota Calendar supports both repeating and irregular shift patterns. You can manually add, edit, or adjust individual shifts at any time, making it ideal for complex or changing schedules. Customize shifts with your own colors, labels, times, and emojis so different shift types are easy to recognize at a glance. Individual shifts can be edited once they are on the calendar, giving you full control over your schedule. Continuous Scroll Calendar Instead of rigid month-by-month views, Rota Calendar uses a continuous, unbroken scrolling calendar. This makes it easy to see how shifts flow across weeks and months, including where schedules overlap month boundaries. Long-term work patterns become clear and easy to understand at a glance. Sync and Compare With Your Calendar Rota Calendar syncs with calendars already on your device, including iOS, Google, and Facebook calendars. View your work shifts alongside personal events in one place, and add or edit these events directly within Rota Calendar to avoid conflicts. Simple, Clear, and Built for Individuals Rota Calendar is designed for individuals, not companies or teams. There are no accounts to create and no unnecessary features — just a clean, easy-to-use layout designed to make shift planning simple. Trusted by thousands of shift workers, Rota Calendar is used daily by people working rotating schedules, offshore roles, oil and gas, emergency services, and other non-standard work patterns. If you need a powerful yet easy-to-use shift planner that lets you scroll through years of schedules and take control of your time, Rota Calendar is built for you. Excellent - 5 Star Best app I’ve used. Extremely easy to add rota and use. Would, and have, recommended to anyone that needs a rota app. The best app I’ve got! 5 Star Of the dozens of apps I’ve got this is the best. Use it constantly and was easy to set up. I’ve moved on to a different rota but can still see my old one which is really useful. Always get a reply when I send a query and comments are taken on board. Best app out for rota - 5 Star As I work in the oil rigs 2 weeks on 2 weeks off this app was perfect for working out my rota in seconds! And worth every penny! Perfect - 5 Star This is the only shift predictor in the app store that I can actually use to plan my very random shift pattern. First class, Rota calendar - 5 Star Excellent app for offshore rotas Great great and just great - 5 Star I love this app its great for me for when i am offshore i hope they keep it on here forever Shift Cal - 5 Star Found this app so easy to use for a 3 on 3 off days and nights was done in a min forever fantastic. Rota - 5 Star This is perfect for shift workers and works well. I have a complicated shift pattern and this makes it so easy to look up future dates instantly. I rate this highly. www.facebook.com/jrwstudio www.jrw-studio.com twitter.com/jrwstudio By using this app, you agree to Apple's Standard End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Spark4 screens
Rota Calendar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Rota Calendar at every 3 days against Spark's every 5 weeks. Spark's advantage is ratings volume (7.5K vs 728) and review sentiment (75% vs 65%). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Spark sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Rota Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Spark against 4.7 for Rota Calendar. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spark has 7.5K ratings behind it against 728, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Spark's written reviews are positive against 65% of Rota Calendar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spark ships an update every 5 weeks, Rota Calendar every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Spark versus Rota Calendar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSparkRota Calendar
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (7.5K ratings) — better4.7 (728 ratings)
Positive reviews74.5% of reviews — better65.2% of reviews
Number of ratings7.5K — better728
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperE.L.K. Equities LLCJRW Studio Limited

Customer experience

Spark

All ratings7,300 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.9%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews157 reviews
Positive74.5%
Neutral8.9%
Negative16.6%

Rota Calendar

All ratings728 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews187 reviews
Positive65.2%
Neutral5.9%
Negative28.9%

User reviews

Spark

From 7.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent calendar app
  • 👍 Easy to use and set up
  • 🔒 Secure and reliable
  • 💡 Customizable and feature-rich
  • 👍 Great for shift work and emergency services

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Subscription model and pricing issues
  • 🔧 Needs more frequent updates
  • 🔧 Compatibility issues with newer devices
  • 🔧 Lack of certain features (e.g., widgets, dark mode)

Rota Calendar

From 728 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to program repeatable rota/roster pattern
  • 👍 Keeps track of work and personal life
  • 👍 Ideal for shift work schedules
  • 👍 Syncs with other calendars
  • 👍 Configurable for different shift types

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Issues with recent updates overriding or deleting existing shifts
  • 🐛 Crashes when trying to airdrop shifts
  • 🐛 Inability to save individual shift changes
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • 🔒 Concerns over subscription model and loss of functionality for previous paid users

Bugs and requests

Spark

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login and authentication problems
  • Data loss and sync issues after updates
  • Unreliable performance on some devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to sync with more calendar services
  • More customization options
  • Improved user interface and design
  • Ability to view past schedules and events

Rota Calendar

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Rota not properly accounting for holidays and days off
  • Inability to handle complex shift patterns beyond 9 weeks
  • Sync issues between iPad and iPhone versions
  • Day/month display not working after recent update

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to share rota/schedule with partner
  • More color options for shifts
  • Separate view for each month
  • Ability to add travel days to shifts
  • Integration with Apple Watch
Show 1 more
  • Shift-specific alarms/notifications

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Spark

One-time2
  • Annual Subscription Renewal$0.99
  • Initial Annual Subscription$5.99
10 purchases

Rota Calendar

Subscriptions10
  • Rota Calendar Supporter Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Platinum Special Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Pro Monthly: Unlimited Edits7 Days trial$2.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Gold Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Platinum Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Supporter Yearly: Backup Only7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Platinum Special Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Pro Yearly: 5 Years Cloud Sync7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Gold Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Platinum Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Spark free?
Spark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Rota Calendar free?
Rota Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spark or Rota Calendar?
Spark is rated higher. Spark averages 4.8 out of 5 from 7.5K ratings, while Rota Calendar averages 4.7 from 728 ratings.
Do Spark or Rota Calendar have ads?
Neither Spark nor Rota Calendar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spark or Rota Calendar?
Spark ships an update every 5 weeks, and Rota Calendar every 3 days. Most recently, Spark was updated on September 22, 2026 and Rota Calendar on September 19, 2026.

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