Rota Calendar vs Shift Calendar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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/
Shift Calendar
Easily manage your work schedule with customizable shifts, rotations, and earnings tracking. This app simplifies planning and provides clear visual overviews of your work commitments. Export reports and sync with your calendar for seamless organization.
- Customizable shift icons and colors
- Automated custom shift rotations
- Track weekly and monthly earnings
- Export reports to PDF or spreadsheet
- iOS Calendar and iCloud sync
- Today extension widget for upcoming shifts
- Dark mode support
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EASY SHIFT INPUT Adding a shift is as simple as tapping on the calendar. An entire month could be filled up in a few seconds. Feel free to customize all the icons with a variety of colors. This way, you can see your schedule without any confusion! CUSTOM ROTATIONS The app also includes a rotation feature, so you don’t have to add all shifts manually, which is very helpful. Just create a rotation and you can populate a year of schedule in a few seconds. TRACK YOUR EARNINGS Shift Calendar also helps you track your earnings. You can see the monthly and weekly hours of work time for each day as well as breakdowns of your earnings. TONS OF HELPFUL FEATURES Shift Calendar allows you to export a monthly report as a PDF or spreadsheet. It also comes with a dark mode, complete iCal and iCloud support, today extension widget. All you have to do is to give our app a try and adapt it to your schedule. Key Features: · Customizable icons · Custom rotations · Add notes for each event · Keep track of your earnings · Add break time for your shifts · Export a report to PDF or spreadsheet (Excel) · iOS Calendar sync and iCloud sync · See your upcoming shifts through widgets · Dark mode Additional features: · Push notifications for shift events · Add up to 3 shifts per day · 12-hour support Shift Calendar’s unique customization features bring you all the necessary support and assistance as you try to plan your schedule at a professional level! If you always wanted to handle your shifts quickly and simply, don’t hesitate and give Shift Calendar, the ultimate shift planner a try today. This is the ultimate shift planner for shift workers and it makes it easier than ever to track your work schedule from your phone. It’s fast, convenient and it offers you all the necessary support and assistance you need without the hassle. Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/90542716 Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Rota Calendar at every 3 days against Shift Calendar's every 2 weeks. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Rota Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Shift Calendar sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Rota Calendar against 4.8 for Shift Calendar. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 728 and 321 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 65% and 64% positive.
Rota Calendar ships an update every 3 days, Shift Calendar every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on September 19, 2026.
| Parameter | Rota Calendar | Shift Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (728 ratings) | 4.8 (321 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.2% of reviews — better | 64.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 728 — better | 321 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JRW Studio Limited | Arife Tuba Baskurt |
Customer experience
Rota Calendar
Shift Calendar
User reviews
Rota Calendar
From 728 App Store ratingsWhat 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
Shift Calendar
From 321 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 📆 Helpful for scheduling shifts
- 💰 Useful for tracking earnings
- 🔗 Good calendar integration
- 🎨 Customizable icons and colors
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sync issues between devices
- 🔧 Limited customization options
- 💰 Paid features required for full functionality
- 📅 Difficulty adding recurring shifts
- 🕰️ Inaccurate time display
Bugs and requests
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
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- Shift-specific alarms/notifications
Shift Calendar
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashes after recent update
- Calendar dates not displaying correctly
- Unable to edit or delete shifts
- Additional pay conditions causing issues with regular hours
- Color customization feature not working as expected
Requested features
5 requests- Add option for biweekly pay periods
- Implement overtime pay calculations based on daily hours
- Allow sharing of calendars between users
- Expand color and icon options
- Improve widget functionality
In-app purchases
Rota Calendar
- 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
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- 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
Shift Calendar
- Shift Calendar Pro$2.991 Year
- Shift Calendar Pro$4.991 Year
- Shift Calendar Pro$2.99
- Shift Calendar Pro2 variants$6.99
Questions
Is Rota Calendar free?
Is Shift Calendar free?
Which has better reviews, Rota Calendar or Shift Calendar?
Do Rota Calendar or Shift Calendar have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rota Calendar or Shift Calendar?
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