Comparison

CLWRota 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

CLWRota

Access your department's live schedule and manage your leave directly from your smartphone. View rota information by location or person, and easily contact colleagues. Book and bid for uncovered sessions, and communicate with administrators.

Highlights
  • Live rota access
  • Personal rota and leave diary
  • Book and manage leave
  • View rota by location or person
  • Contact colleagues via call link
  • Integrated rota mapping
  • Bid for uncovered sessions
  • Direct messaging with administrators
Features
Read full description

CLWRota allows you to view your department's rota, manage your leave, process extra claims, respond to offers for additional work, create exception reports and more - all from within a convenient app that can be accessed while on the go. The app provides an always-up-to-date view of both your own roster and leave, as well giving you easy access to view colleague’s rosters and how best to contact them if needed. Other built-in messaging allows you to message rota coordinators directly from within the app, or to receive notifications about changes to your rota, updates on leave, or offers for additional work. An easy-to-use calendar subscription feature also allows you to directly import events from CLWRota onto a personal calendar, or to share with friends, family or colleagues via a simple link. A variety of departmental or organisational processes can be handled from within the app, including managing extra claims for additional work delivered on your rota - from initial assignment through to payment. For resident doctors, you can also create new Exception reports, as well as displaying any reports that you have already created. CLWRota is used across the NHS and beyond as a trusted single source of truth for roster and leave management, and is the only app designed specifically with the needs of anaesthetists in mind. If you have any further queries, would like to provide feedback, or require any additional help then please call us on +44 (0)20 7631 1555 or email us at support@rotamap.net.

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

CLWRota4 screens
Rota Calendar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Rota Calendar at 65% against CLWRota's 7%. Rota Calendar also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). CLWRota's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, ads and device support 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. Rota Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. CLWRota asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CLWRota ships an update every 3 months, Rota Calendar every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
CLWRota versus Rota Calendar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCLWRotaRota Calendar
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.7 (731 ratings) — better
Positive reviews7.1% of reviews65.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings—731 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRotamap LtdJRW Studio Limited

Customer experience

CLWRota

Written reviews56 reviews
Positive7.1%
Neutral7.1%
Negative85.7%

Rota Calendar

All ratings731 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews188 reviews
Positive65.4%
Neutral5.9%
Negative28.7%

User reviews

CLWRota

From App Store reviews

What we love

  • 👍 Useful for rota management
  • 👍 Good for seeing colleague locations
  • 👍 Offline access is useful
  • 👍 Seamless integration with service
  • 👍 Fast and readable layout (older reviews)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App is still bugged
  • 🐛 Messages not received
  • 🐛 Notifications inconsistent
  • 🐛 Significant notification issue
  • 🐛 No iCal support

Rota Calendar

From 731 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

CLWRota

Reported bugs

62 issues
  • App is still bugged
  • Not receiving messages
  • Notifications work sometimes, not others
  • Significant notification issue
  • Cannot log in
Show 57 more
  • "Stay logged in" option does not work
  • Only displays first two theatres
  • Does not keep info offline
  • Crashes frequently
  • Cannot handle rapid scrolling
  • Not reliable enough
  • Doesn't load rota
  • New design no longer displays info
  • Colour of rings on rota difficult to discern
  • Cannot go past the first page
  • Fails to get past start splash screen
  • Crashes on opening
  • Broken again, doesn't get past initial screen
  • Useless, has to log in every few minutes
  • Only displays first two theatres, doesn't load others until restarted
  • Does not keep info offline
  • Crashes frequently, cannot handle rapid scrolling
  • Not reliable enough, resorting to web app
  • Broken, doesn't load rota anymore
  • New design no longer displays info like theatre contact numbers
  • Colour of rings on rota difficult to discern
  • Completely broken, cannot go past the first page
  • Failed, no longer gets past start splash screen
  • Avoid update, can't get beyond opening screen
  • Crashes on opening "My Rota" tab
  • Broken Again, renders it useless, doesn't get past initial screen
  • Still crap
  • Please make latest version work, used to be fast and reliable
  • Used to be ok but not now, tells "not found"
  • Still doesn't recognise the server
  • Not able to open this in the iPhone 6 and 6 plus
  • Not updated for ages, basically unusable
  • Have CLW abandoned the app?
  • Freezes almost everytime, has to be removed and restarted
  • Useless, doesn't work at all with ios 8
  • Won't open at all on iPhone 6
  • App currently freezes, can't see notes on lists via app
  • Not working with the new iPhone 6, crashes every time
  • Stopped working with iPhone 6
  • NEEDS UPDATING! KEEPS CRASHING, can't get it to work with ios8
  • Does not work on any platform, just doesn't load, useless
  • Not compatible with up to date iOS updates
  • Out of date & doesn't work on iOS 8
  • Crashes on my iPhone 5 running iOS 8.1
  • Works, just not on iPhone 6, app won't open
  • Not working with iOS 8- frozen, will not load
  • Crashes when you try to open the app on the iPhone 6
  • Not compatible with iPhone 6, app won't even open
  • Still working on my iPad (iOS 8) but won't even open on my iPhone
  • Not working on iOS 8, was ok before but still not optimised for bigger screens
  • Won't open for 3 weeks now since getting the iPhone 6, goes black and self closes
  • Needs bug fix, was working fine before downloading IOS 8, but now it does not even open
  • Not working on my new iPhone6, crashing before opening
  • Keeps freezing and now crashing on iOS 8
  • Not working in IPhone 6. Does not work in iOS 8. Keeps crashing without opening.
  • App stuck in waiting mode, refused to work after a week
  • Useless, keeps saying data providing error despite login being correct

Requested features

18 requests
  • iCal support
  • Sync with personal calendars
  • Seamless integration with Google Calendar or iCal
  • Personal subscribable iCal
  • iOS “Today” widget
Show 13 more
  • Show more than one profile/login
  • Offline mode for key information
  • Push notifications for rota changes
  • Optimised for bigger screens
  • iPhone 5 compatibility
  • Update for current iOS versions
  • Fix for iPhone 6/6+ compatibility
  • Update for iOS 8 compatibility
  • Fix for iOS 7 compatibility
  • Fix for iOS 6 compatibility
  • Fix for iOS 8 compatibility
  • Fix for iOS 8.1 compatibility
  • Fix for current iOS updates

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

None

CLWRota

No in-app purchases

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 CLWRota free?
CLWRota is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Rota Calendar free?
Rota Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do CLWRota or Rota Calendar have ads?
Neither CLWRota nor Rota Calendar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CLWRota or Rota Calendar?
CLWRota ships an update every 3 months, and Rota Calendar every 5 days. Most recently, CLWRota was updated on October 26, 2026 and Rota Calendar on October 23, 2026.

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