Rota Calendar vs My Shift Planner
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/
My Shift Planner
This app helps shift workers manage their schedules, track earnings, and plan personal time. It offers a clear view of work hours, overtime, and availability, adapting to various shift patterns. Users can also manage vacation and time off alongside their work calendar.
- Easy-to-use shift calendar
- Custom shift patterns
- Overtime and earnings tracking
- Vacation and time off management
- Shift alarms and notifications
- Calendar integrations
- Cloud synchronization
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MyShiftPlanner helps shift workers stay organized, informed and in control of their working life. Whether you work days, nights, rotating shifts or an irregular schedule, MyShiftPlanner gives you a clear view of your work schedule so you always know when you're working, what you're earning and when you're available for life outside of work. Used by nurses, healthcare staff, emergency services, retail teams, transportation workers, manufacturing employees and many other shift-based professions, MyShiftPlanner is designed specifically for the realities of shift work. KNOW YOUR SCHEDULE Managing shifts can be challenging when your working pattern changes every week. MyShiftPlanner helps you keep track of upcoming shifts, recurring schedules, overtime, and days off in one place. Whether you work a fixed schedule, rotating pattern or a completely flexible work schedule, MyShiftPlanner helps you stay organized and avoid surprises. TRACK PAY, OVERTIME AND EARNINGS Shift work often means variable income. MyShiftPlanner helps you understand what you're earning by tracking hours worked, overtime, and pay rates. Build a clearer picture of your earnings, monitor overtime and keep records that help you stay on top of your finances. PLAN LIFE AROUND WORK Shift work affects more than your job. It affects family time, social plans, appointments, vacations and personal commitments. MyShiftPlanner helps you see your availability at a glance so you can plan ahead with confidence, organize important events and make the most of your time away from work. MANAGE VACATION TIME AND TIME OFF Keep track of vacation time, sick leave, training days and other absences alongside your shifts. By viewing work and leave together, you can better manage your work-life balance and avoid scheduling conflicts. BUILT FOR SHIFT WORKERS Unlike general calendar apps, MyShiftPlanner is designed specifically for people who work shifts. Whether you're managing hospital schedules, emergency service schedules, retail shifts, factory schedules, transportation timetables or other shift-based work, MyShiftPlanner adapts to the way you work. FEATURES *Easy-to-use shift calendar *Custom shift patterns and schedules *Multiple schedule support *Overtime tracking *Earnings and pay calculations *Vacation time tracking *Notes and reminders *Shift alarms and notifications *Calendar integrations *Widgets and home screen tools *Backup and restore options *Cloud synchronization *Custom colors and shift types *Reports and summaries PRO PACK Unlock even more powerful tools with Pro Pack, pay tracking, automatic overtime calculations, enhanced work-time reports, calendar sync, calendar sharing, expanded calendar features, enhanced customization options and premium productivity tools. Whether you're trying to stay organized, understand your earnings, manage your time off or simply make shift work easier to manage, MyShiftPlanner helps you stay one step ahead. ABOUT MYSHIFTPLANNER MyShiftPlanner was created with one simple goal: making shift work easier to manage. We're a small independent team dedicated to supporting shift workers through better technology. Every feature we build is designed to help people stay organized, reduce stress and feel more in control of their working lives. We understand the challenges of shift work because we speak to shift workers every day. Your feedback helps shape the future of the app, and many of our most popular features have come directly from user suggestions. Need help? We're here for you. If you have a question, need support or have an idea for a future feature, get in touch. Every support request is answered by a real person who genuinely wants to help. Thank you for choosing MyShiftPlanner. Together, we're making shift work easier to manage.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Rota Calendar at none against My Shift Planner's shown. Rota Calendar also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly). My Shift Planner's advantage is review sentiment (97% vs 65%) and ratings volume (3.6K vs 732). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 My Shift Planner sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. 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 My Shift Planner. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 732 and 3.6K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Rota Calendar's written reviews are positive against 97% of My Shift Planner's.
Rota Calendar ships an update every 5 days, My Shift Planner monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rota Calendar | My Shift Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (732 ratings) | 4.8 (3.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.4% of reviews | 97.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 732 | 3.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 174 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JRW Studio Limited | MyBuzz Technologies Limited |
Customer experience
Rota Calendar
My Shift Planner
User reviews
Rota Calendar
From 732 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
My Shift Planner
From 3.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Customizable shift patterns
- 💡 Ability to share schedules with family/coworkers
- 👍 Helpful for planning ahead
- 👍 Versatile for different work schedules
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs or glitches
- 💡 Could use more customization options
- 💡 Wish it had more integration with other calendars
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
My Shift Planner
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login screen issues
- Calendar sync problems
- Unexpected app crashes
Requested features
4 requests- Add option to set Sunday as first day of week
- Improve visibility of notes/events on calendar view
- Integrate with payroll/overtime tracking
- Add ability to track shift premiums/differentials
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
My Shift Planner
- Live Sharing Subscription1 Month trial$0.991 Month
- Pro Pack Add-On (Monthly)7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Pro Pack Add-On (Annual)7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Remove Ads$2.99
- Hard Workers Upgrade to Pro$24.99
- Pro Pack (Lifetime License)$49.99
Questions
Is Rota Calendar free?
Is My Shift Planner free?
Which has better reviews, Rota Calendar or My Shift Planner?
Do Rota Calendar or My Shift Planner have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rota Calendar or My Shift Planner?
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