Deputy vs SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Deputy
This app simplifies employee scheduling, time tracking, and workforce management for businesses. It allows for easy creation of balanced schedules, communication with staff, and integration with payroll systems. Employees can view their schedules, manage availability, and clock in/out.
- Create balanced, cost-effective schedules
- Publish shift information via push notification
- Fill open shifts with team pick-up
- Approve leave and shift changes
- Manage team communications and tasks
- Track time and attendance
- Integrate with payroll and POS systems
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Deputy is the ultimate employee scheduling app, shift planner, staff timesheet app, & complete workforce management solution. Get started for free today! Over 250,000 workplaces in 90+ countries trust Deputy for their employee scheduling software, leave management, time & attendance tracking, team task management, staff communication, demand forecasting and performance management. HOW DEPUTY HELPS BUSINESSES ◆ Easily create balanced, cost-effective schedules in minutes from any device. ◆ Publish personalized shift information to your team via push notification, email, and SMS. ◆ Fill open shifts easily by pushing alerts to your team and letting them pick up available shifts. ◆ Approve leave from your mobile easily so you're never caught off guard. ◆ Quickly approve employee shift swaps and shift changes in seconds straight from a mobile device. ◆ Manage team communications easily in one place: broadcast announcements, assign tasks to specific individuals / shifts, and get confirmation that your team has seen it. ◆ Get greater insight and control of your business, and keep yourself compliant with inbuilt fair workweek compliance. ◆ Connect with your existing apps to give you end-to-end visibility. Deputy syncs with over 300+ of the world's most used solutions such as ADP, Square, QuickBooks, Xero, Gusto, NetSuite, Revel, LightSpeed and many more! HOW DEPUTY HELPS EMPLOYEES ◆ Get your work schedule on your device as soon as it’s published. ◆ View all your upcoming shifts in one place and receive alerts on days when you’re due to work. ◆ Manage your availability and time off easily, see what’s approved, and make it simple for your manager to know when you are and aren’t available. ◆ Clock in and out of work quickly from the app. ◆ See important company updates, manage your tasks and communicate with your team from your mobile device. TRY DEPUTY TODAY Setting up your business? Sign up for a free trial today. No setup fee. Pick the plan to suit your business: monthly, annually or flexi. Always know that you have the right people scheduled with our Shift Planner: Deputy makes it easy to create fully costed schedules in minutes, then notify staff when they’re working. Deputy will even automatically remind employees of their shifts on the morning that they are due to work. Manage employees’ leave requests or unavailability from a central location, then integrate with your online schedules so there’s no risk of scheduling someone who is not available. Need to be smart about staffing levels? Deputy integrates with your POS & payroll information to make sure you’re scheduling efficiently, and pulls in real-time weather information so you know if you need extra shifts or not! Clocking in to work is made simple with our time clock software, including GPS validation, to quickly track time and attendance (or optionally from a tablet Kiosk, using our inbuilt facial detection technology). Finalizing your timesheets and exporting to payroll can be done with one click from your mobile device. Joining an existing team? It's free - just log in. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS “Straightaway, the time and attendance headache disappeared. There’s no need to manually enter data from one system to another. It’s all uploaded effortlessly. And on our tablets or phones, we can sign off timesheets with a swipe." "Everyone gets alerted to their shifts, which they can check on their smartphones. Everyone knows where they should be, when they should be there and what they should be doing." "Deputy has been a revelation for our business. We’re saving approximately $30,000 a year in admin costs alone. But even more importantly, we’re now able to optimize all shifts and staffing levels." ABOUT DEPUTY APP Our staff scheduling app is updated regularly to make sure we’re always providing the best and most flexible features to the businesses we work with. Any feedback? Need help? Email experience+ios@deputy.com Terms of Use: https://www.deputy.com/subscription-agreement
SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
This app simplifies employee scheduling and attendance tracking for businesses. It allows managers to create schedules, manage time off, and track employee hours efficiently. Team members can also manage their availability and swap shifts.
- Easy employee scheduling
- Time clock and tracking
- Time off requests and availability
- Shift swapping
- Open shifts
- Automatic notifications
- Calendar sync
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SHIFTR makes it easy to build and manage the employee schedule and track attendance. Start scheduling for free and create the team schedule in minutes! Flexible features include: • Easy Employee Scheduling • Time Clock & Time Tracking • Time Off Requests & Availability • Shift Swapping • Open Shifts Up For Grabs • Templates, Copying & Recurring Schedules • Budgeting & Labor Costing • Automatic Notifications • Calendar Sync • Easy Employee Onboarding • Account Customization Enjoy streamlined, on-the-go, scheduling from a web browser or the mobile app. EASY EMPLOYEE SCHEDULING • Quickly see who is available and eligible to work each shift • Know you’re covered with highlighted conflicts • Add daily notes to the schedule for team communication • When the schedule is finished, simply publish it to the team for digital access • Access the schedule anytime, anywhere TIME CLOCK & TIME TRACKING • Allow team members to clock in and out via a device you've designated as an on-site kiosk and/or use their own devices • Track time clock entries by location, department and role • Automatically calculate regular and overtime hours • Create custom time tracking categories (i.e. holiday, vacation, sick, etc.) • View detailed reporting and export entries for payroll needs • Option to disable time clock TIME OFF REQUESTS & AVAILABILITY • Manage time off requests and availability to avoid conflicts • Save time by having employees submit their requests for manager response • Changes to availability can be set to take effect immediately or at a future date • Detailed reporting allows you to quickly spot gaps in coverage SHIFT SWAPPING • Allow team members to swap shifts and find coverage on their own • Control eligibility and approval requirements OPEN SHIFTS UP FOR GRABS • Create open shifts for team members to pick up—great for extra hours, volunteers and events! • Control eligibility and preferences TEMPLATES, COPYING & RECURRING SCHEDULES • Create auto-load templates for each day of the week—with or without employees included. Great for recurring schedules! • Create templates for custom events and situations • Copy individual days or a full week • Highlighted conflicts allow for quick adjustments BUDGETING & LABOR COSTING • Calculate hours and budgeting in real-time including weekly labor budgets, daily sales projections, target labor ratios, overtime, salary overhead, and more • Budgeting and labor costing information is optional and only seen by administrators AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATIONS • Streamline communication with automatic notification options for new schedules, time off requests, shift swapping, shift reminders, and more • Notifications are available via text, email, app push notifications, and the SHIFTR dashboard • The notification history log lets you see a full history of your notifications including when you read and responded to them CALENDAR SYNC • Subscribe via your preferred calendar client to automatically sync your work schedule with your calendar EASY EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING • Invite team members to join via an email invitation or create and share a custom URL or invite code • Assign team members to their qualified roles, departments and locations for fast and accurate scheduling ACCOUNT CUSTOMIZATION • Feature your logo, user photos, and more • Customize your account features and preferences to fit your needs TEAMS OF ALL SIZES • Manage a variety of teams all in one place • Enjoy flexible features for teams of all sizes—no team too big or small! COMPLIMENTARY SUPPORT & TRAINING • Complimentary support and training via phone, email, and live chat
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SHIFTR Employee Scheduling at none against Deputy's 2. SHIFTR Employee Scheduling also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). Deputy's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and ratings volume (6.1K vs 755). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Deputy sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $59.99 per month. SHIFTR Employee Scheduling asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Deputy against 4.7 for SHIFTR Employee Scheduling. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Deputy has 6.1K ratings behind it against 755, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 59% of Deputy's written reviews are positive against 65% of SHIFTR Employee Scheduling's.
Deputy ships an update weekly, SHIFTR Employee Scheduling monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Deputy | SHIFTR Employee Scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (6.1K ratings) — better | 4.7 (755 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 59.2% of reviews | 65.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6.1K — better | 755 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 285 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Deputy.com | Specsoft |
Customer experience
Deputy
SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
User reviews
Deputy
From 6.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Convenient for scheduling and timekeeping
- 👍 Helpful for managing staff
- 👍 Reliable and efficient
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitches and bugs
- 🐛 Unreliable location tracking
- 🐛 Inconsistent performance after updates
- 🔍 Limited customization options
- 💰 Expensive for some businesses
SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
From 755 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly and intuitive interface
- 🚀 Efficient scheduling and time-saving features
- 💬 Excellent customer support and live assistance
- 📱 Mobile accessibility for employees
- 💡 Innovative shift swap and time-off request features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Calendar navigation issues and bugs
- 💳 Misleading free trial to paid conversion
- ❌ Limited free version functionality
- 📱 Text notification feature missing
- 🔐 Login requirement barriers
Bugs and requests
Deputy
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes or freezes frequently
- Timesheets not accurately recording hours worked
- Shift scheduling issues after updates
- Notification system not reliable
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to cancel shifts
- Improve communication features between employees
- Provide more detailed reporting and analytics
- Allow employees to view their leave balances
- Integrate with more payroll/HR systems
SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
Reported bugs
8 issues- Calendar skips to 1970, preventing historical shift review
- Blank white screen on login
- Login credentials not visible when typing
- Schedule fails to load
- App lags and crashes
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Clock in/clock out functionality broken
- Activation emails not sent
- Login boxes display issues
Requested features
6 requests- Fix calendar to prevent skipping to 1970
- Add text message notifications
- Improve free version capabilities
- Simple week-at-a-glance view (Monday-Sunday)
- Direct schedule download and text sharing
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Enhanced time lock functionality
In-app purchases
Deputy
- 10 users1 Month trial$59.991 Month
- 25 users1 Month trial$144.991 Month
SHIFTR Employee Scheduling
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Deputy free?
Is SHIFTR Employee Scheduling free?
Which has better reviews, Deputy or SHIFTR Employee Scheduling?
Do Deputy or SHIFTR Employee Scheduling have ads?
Which is updated more often, Deputy or SHIFTR Employee Scheduling?
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