Deputy vs. Rotaready Evo

At a glance

Best for

Best for businesses rostering hourly staff across sites, where the hours have to reach payroll rather than an invoice.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Best for

Best for hospitality groups that want rotas, time and attendance and HR in one app, with wage costs and sales forecasts visible while the rota is built.

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	Deputy	Rotaready Evo
Starting price	From $5 / user / month The $5 Lite plan covers basic scheduling, timesheets and time clocking. Core is $6.50 and Pro $9 per user per month. Deputy Payroll adds $8 per user per month plus a $49 monthly base fee, HR $2, Messaging+ $1.95 and Analytics+ $1.50 per user per month.	Not stated
Free trial	Free trial, no credit card required	Not stated
Team size	Priced per user, per month	Not stated
Users	Shift-based teams across more than 15 industries, among them hospitality, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics, construction and engineering, education, security and cleaning	Hospitality businesses
API	Yes, a developer API alongside prebuilt payroll, point-of-sale, HR and accounting connectors	Open API and webhooks in the Premium plan
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock	Cloud, with iPhone and Android mobile apps
Shift planning and templates	Basic scheduling on Lite with shift templates for weeks, months or custom periods; Core adds advanced scheduling, micro-scheduling and auto-scheduling	Drag-and-drop rota editor with automated rota scheduling, a rota approval process, notable events, a local 10-day weather forecast and an audit history of all changes, listed on all three plans
Shift swaps and open shifts	Open shifts, open shifts with approval, swapping and offering shifts, and find a replacement, from the Lite plan	Shift swaps and Shift Broadcast are listed on all three plans, and the vendor names shift swaps and absence requests among the tools in the employee app
Availability and time off	Leave and availability management from the Lite plan	Availability patterns, absence and time off, holiday allowances and allowances for any absence type, with automatic holiday accrual from time and attendance
Time clock and attendance	Time clocking from the iOS and Android apps or a shared device, with biometric time clocking from the Core plan, timesheets with auto-approval from Core and advanced timesheets on Pro, plus shift swaps, find-a-replacement, leave and availability management and labour-law compliance rules	Clock-in via GPS, PIN code or photo capture, by tablet or mobile, with attendance matched automatically to shifts, automatic issue detection, rounding with custom rules, overtime tracking and approval, and an audited sign-off process
Labour cost and forecasting	Wages shown against scheduled hours; Core adds demand forecasting, labour optimisation and wage and labour budgets, with forecast-to-actual variance in sales and wage metrics	Live labour calculations while the rota is built, budgeting, custom sales and revenue streams, forecast against actual against budget, and tracking of wages, hours, sales, wage percentage, covers and covers per labour hour. Pro + Forecasting and Premium add sales predictions from historical sales, weather, reservations, notable events and holidays, including pooled data from industry peers
Breaks, overtime and labour rules	Labour-law compliance on Lite and advanced labour-law compliance on Core, with paid and unpaid breaks scheduled by time and duration	Automatic application of pay and break policies, live validation of every change and Working Time regulations compliance, listed on all three plans
Payroll export and integration	Payroll and HR integrations from the Lite plan; the Deputy Payroll add-on, enabled by Paycor and offered in the US on annual Core and Pro plans, sends approved timesheets, pay rates and leave to Paycor	Timesheets with overtime and breaks export to third-party payroll providers, with integrations named for payroll systems such as Sage Payroll, BrightPay, PayCaptain and Xero, and a fully managed payroll bureau at extra cost
Team messaging and notifications	Messaging and a news feed from the Lite plan, with the Messaging+ add-on for a more integrated messaging experience, included in Pro	Real-time chat, group conversations and messaging between sites, email, SMS and push notifications, and Engage Lite, a feed for posting updates and tagging colleagues
Platforms and mobile app	Clock-in apps on web, mobile, tablet and watch, with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock	Cloud-based, with iPhone and Android mobile apps and clock-ins by tablet or mobile. Multiple languages on all plans; multiple time zones and currencies in Premium
Integrations and API	A developer API plus prebuilt connectors for payroll (ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Paycor, Paylocity, OnPay, Wagepoint, Xero), point of sale (Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel, Epos Now), HR (BambooHR, HiBob, Rippling, TriNet, Okta) and accounting (QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero), with Zapier for anything else	Open API and webhooks in Premium, together with single sign-on through Google and Azure and Sign-in with Rotaready over OIDC. The vendor names real-time integrations with EPoS, reservations, payroll, applicant tracking, training and tips systems, including Tenzo, ICRTouch, OpenTable, NCR Aloha, Zonal, Lightspeed, ResDiary, SevenRooms and Epos Now
AI features	Yes	Yes
Deployment	more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS)
Support	Chat, 24/7	Not stated
Onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Not stated
Integrations	ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Paycom, Paycor, Paylocity, OnPay, Wagepoint, Talenox, Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel, Epos Now, BambooHR, HiBob, Rippling, TriNet, Okta, JobAdder, Box, Dropbox, ServiceM8, Tapcheck, Wagestream, TipHaus, Zapier	more entries Tenzo, ICRTouch, Talent Funnel, Comtrex, OpenTable, NCR Aloha, eploy, Tevalis, Monotree, Zonal, Tayl, Centera, Clover, Recruit Genie, PayCaptain, Goodtill by SumUp, PointOne, Epos Now, Staffbase, CPL, Lightspeed K Series, ResDiary, Newbridge, Sage Payroll, TiPJAR, Wagestream, Workvivo, SevenRooms, Yapster, Guestline Rezlynx, Xero, Azuronaut, BrightPay, Temtailor, Lightspeed, Flow Hospitality

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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Deployment Deputy Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Rotaready Evo Cloud (SaaS)
Hosting Deputy Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock Rotaready Evo Cloud, with iPhone and Android mobile apps
Users Deputy Shift-based teams across more than 15 industries, among them hospitality, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics, construction and engineering, education, security and cleaning Rotaready Evo Hospitality businesses
API Deputy Yes, a developer API alongside prebuilt payroll, point-of-sale, HR and accounting connectors Rotaready Evo Open API and webhooks in the Premium plan
Shift planning and templates Deputy Basic scheduling on Lite with shift templates for weeks, months or custom periods; Core adds advanced scheduling, micro-scheduling and auto-scheduling Rotaready Evo Drag-and-drop rota editor with automated rota scheduling, a rota approval process, notable events, a local 10-day weather forecast and an audit history of all changes, listed on all three plans

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Deputy

Strengths

Biometric time clocking and a shared-device clock cover on-site and shift work
Deep payroll and point-of-sale connector list, including ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Xero, QuickBooks and Square
Demand forecasting and auto-scheduling build rosters against wage and labour budgets
Single sign-on, custom access levels and location hierarchies on the Pro plan

Limitations

No client invoicing: timesheets are built for payroll rather than for billing work
Forecasting, auto-scheduling and biometric clocking all require the Core plan or above
Payroll, HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ are separately priced add-ons, and Deputy Payroll carries a monthly base fee
No free tier; Lite is the cheapest paid plan

Rotaready Evo

Strengths

Wage percentage, covers per labour hour and forecast against budget shown while the rota is built
Clock-in via GPS, PIN code or photo capture, matched automatically with shifts
The vendor states its integrations with EPoS, reservations and payroll systems are included free
Chat, group conversations and messaging between sites on every plan

Limitations

No amounts appear in the pricing page text; the monthly cost comes from a calculator
Open API, webhooks and single sign-on are limited to the Premium plan
Sales forecasting needs the Pro + Forecasting or Premium plan
The product and its integration list are built around hospitality

Plans

Pricing

Deputy

Lite $5 Per user per month. Basic scheduling, timesheets and time clocking, labour-law compliance, shift swap and find a replacement, leave and availability management, basic reporting, messaging and news feed, and payroll and HR integrations.
Core $6.50 Per user per month. Everything in Lite plus advanced scheduling, timesheet auto-approval, biometric time clocking, micro-scheduling, auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, labour optimisation, wage and labour budgets and a customer success manager.
Pro $9 Per user per month. Everything in Core plus custom access levels, advanced timesheets, location hierarchies, single sign-on, a dedicated customer success manager, a sandbox environment, 24/7 live chat and the Analytics+ and Messaging+ add-ons.
Add-ons Not stated Deputy Payroll $8 per user per month plus a $49 monthly base fee, HR $2, Messaging+ $1.95 and Analytics+ $1.50 per user per month. HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ carry 30-day free trials.

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Rotaready Evo

Pro Not stated Rota scheduling, HR, wellbeing insights, time and attendance, cost control, payroll export, integrations, messaging and the mobile apps. Includes a customer success plan.
Pro + Forecasting Not stated Everything in Pro, plus sales forecasting from historical sales, weather, reservations and events.
Premium Not stated Everything in Pro + Forecasting, plus the open API and webhooks, single sign-on, and multiple time zones and currencies.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Deputy

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

Rotaready Evo

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

How we check reviews

Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.

Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.

What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.

A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.

Read the full version on our methodology page

Where this comes from

Deputy https://www.deputy.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-12

Rotaready Evo https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/our-brands/rotaready-evo/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-08

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.