Shift Scheduling Comparison

Deputy vs. When I Work

At a glance

Deputy

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

When I Work

Best for

Best for hourly teams that need a published rota and a GPS time clock whose hours go straight into payroll.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

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

Full Comparison

Criterion	Deputy	When I Work
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.	lower value From $2.50 / user / month Essentials $2.50, Pro $5 and Premium $8 per user per month, each with unlimited users. Time tracking and attendance is offered as an add-on toggle on every plan.
Free trial	Free trial, no credit card required	14-day free trial, no credit card required
Team size	Priced per user, per month	Priced per user per month, unlimited users on every plan
Users	Shift-based teams across more than 15 industries, among them hospitality, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics, construction and engineering, education, security and cleaning	Hourly and shift-based teams in restaurants, retail, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, call centres, franchises, events and non-profits
API	Yes, a developer API alongside prebuilt payroll, point-of-sale, HR and accounting connectors	Yes, API key access and webhooks on the Premium plan
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock	Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device terminal
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	Auto scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling and reusable custom schedule templates from Essentials; Pro adds advanced scheduling, scheduling rules and role permissions
Shift swaps and open shifts	Open shifts, open shifts with approval, swapping and offering shifts, and find a replacement, from the Lite plan	OpenShifts and shift swapping from Essentials, with managers keeping final approval; Pro allows overlapping OpenShifts
Availability and time off	Leave and availability management from the Lite plan	Availability, time-off requests, qualifications and shift preferences in one place; managers approve or decline requests on web or mobile, and auto scheduling fills shifts from availability and qualifications
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 from mobile, web, tablet or a dedicated terminal, with GPS captured on every punch, geofencing that limits clock-in to the work location, photo clock-ins for identity verification, break logging, real-time overtime alerts, manager approval of timesheets and an edit log for the audit trail
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	Forecast tools from Essentials track scheduled against budgeted hours, with labour costs in the scheduling view; Pro adds custom unit forecasting and labour sharing
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	Overtime and maximum-hours alerts while scheduling and when an OpenShift or trade would add overtime, plus break logging on the time clock
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	Payroll and point-of-sale integrations from Essentials, among them Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online and OnPay, which take the approved timesheets
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	In-app team messaging from Essentials, with notifications to managers about time-off requests and staff nearing their hours
Platforms and mobile app	Clock-in apps on web, mobile, tablet and watch, with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock	Web, plus iOS and Android apps; the time clock runs on mobile, web, tablet or a dedicated terminal
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	Prebuilt payroll and operations connectors for Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, OnPay, SimplePay, GoCo and ResaleAI, Zapier for anything else, and API key access with webhooks on the Premium plan
AI features	stated Yes	No
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Chat, 24/7	Chat
Onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	more entries 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	Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, OnPay, SimplePay, GoCo, ResaleAI, Zapier

Compare more tools

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

Starting price Deputy From $5 / user / month When I Work From $2.50 / user / month
Team size Deputy Priced per user, per month When I Work Priced per user per month, unlimited users on every plan
Free trial Deputy Free trial, no credit card required When I Work 14-day free trial, no credit card required
Hosting Deputy Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device time clock When I Work Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device terminal
Support Deputy Chat, 24/7 When I Work Chat

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

When I Work

Strengths

GPS, geofencing and photo clock-ins tie every punch to the scheduled location
Auto-scheduling assigns shifts by eligibility, availability and approved time off
Forecast tools put a sales and hours budget next to the schedule while it is built
Unlimited users on every plan, from $2.50 per user per month

Limitations

No client invoicing: the timesheet is built for payroll rather than for billing work
API key access, webhooks and single sign-on require the Premium plan
Time tracking and attendance is an add-on toggle rather than part of the plan price
No free plan, only a 14-day trial

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.

Visit site

When I Work

Essentials $2.50 Per user per month. Unlimited users, auto scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling, schedule templates, forecast tools, in-app team messaging, OpenShifts and shift swapping, help centre and live chat, and payroll and point-of-sale integrations.
Pro $5 Per user per month. Everything in Essentials plus advanced scheduling, scheduling rules, role permissions, labour sharing, custom unit forecasting, 24-hour callout reporting, custom reporting, overlapping OpenShifts and timezone toggling.
Premium $8 Per user per month. Everything in Pro plus API key access, webhooks and SAML single sign-on.

Visit site

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.

When I Work

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

When I Work https://wheniwork.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-16

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