Best for
Best for UK businesses with shift-based staff that want rota planning, holiday and absence in one tool and payroll handed to their existing software.
- Small and mid-sized
Shift Scheduling Comparison
RotaCloud vs. Shiftbase
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for shift-based businesses in the Netherlands and Germany that want scheduling, clocking in and a payroll-ready export in one tool.
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | RotaCloud | Shiftbase |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From £10 / month Standard plan for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £120 a year billed yearly. The price rises with the number of employees, counting all users, admins and managers; above 500 employees the vendor quotes a custom price. Time & Attendance and SMS notifications are add-ons. | Free up to 15 employees; Basic from €30 / month Basic, billed monthly, includes 6 employees and charges €4 a month for each additional one; Premium is €75 a month for 12 employees plus €5.25 each. Yearly billing saves 10% and lowers the extra-employee rate to €3.60 (Basic) and €4.73 (Premium). Enterprise includes 48 employees and is priced on request. Prices are also shown in GBP; App Center+ is a €20 monthly add-on. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial, no payment information required | 14-day free trial of the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees |
| Users | Growing businesses with shift-based staff; the vendor names restaurants, cafes and bars, hotels, care homes, retail, healthcare, dental practices, vets, leisure, security services and professional services | Shift-based businesses; the vendor names restaurants and bars, hotels, retail, care, recreation and transport |
| API | Yes, a REST API with bearer-token authentication and webhooks | API tokens through the App Center+ add-on, included on Enterprise |
| Hosting | Cloud, in the browser, with free mobile apps | Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android |
| Made in | United Kingdom | Netherlands |
| Shift planning and templates | Drag-and-drop rota planner with unlimited rotas and locations, templates applied across any date range, copying of single weeks, months or blocks of shifts, rolling patterns such as 2-on-2-off, customisable roles with hourly or per-shift rates, and shift and day notes; Pro adds bulk actions across many shifts | Drag-and-drop scheduling on every plan, with one department and five teams on Free, five departments and unlimited teams on Basic, and unlimited departments on Premium. Premium adds auto-scheduling that fills the required shifts for several departments and locations up to a month ahead as a draft to review, required-shift targets per team and day, and skill-based scheduling. |
| Shift swaps and open shifts | Staff arrange shift swaps or request to drop shifts in the app, and open shifts are sent to all eligible staff, who claim them either first come first served or with a manager approval step | On Basic, shift swaps and open shifts that staff can claim; Premium adds a flexpool of people who can be pulled into any location when gaps appear |
| Availability and time off | Availability patterns set by staff or by a manager and shown on the rota while planning, holiday management with leave shown on the rota, time off in lieu, and sickness and absence tracking; Pro adds custom rules for leave requests | On Basic, staff availability and absence management with requests, approvals and balances |
| Time clock and attendance | Time & Attendance add-on: clocking in and out of shifts and breaks on the staff's phones or on a tablet terminal with PIN entry and optional photos, with geofencing, GPS logging, Wi-Fi restrictions and rules for early clock-ins, feeding automatic timesheets that compare scheduled and worked hours and flag lateness | Manual time tracking with manager approval on Free; Basic adds clocking in and out on mobile, desktop or one shared kiosk device with a personal PIN, and Premium adds clock locations with geofencing and unlimited kiosks |
| Labour cost and forecasting | Daily, weekly and monthly labour costs while the rota is built on every plan; Pro adds labour forecasting as a percentage of expected sales and budget caps per rota, department or location, with revenue data entered by hand or synced from Tevalis | On Basic, performance insights on turnover, productivity, average wage and labour cost per department and team. Premium adds a labour cost target checked while the schedule is built, budget management with a labour cost or hours target per team and day, a KPI dashboard with trends and period comparison, and an AI forecast of next week's busyness from the business's own turnover data, which can come back from the POS. |
| Breaks, overtime and labour rules | Contracted hours tallied against each employee as shifts are added, breaks recorded on the timesheet, and pay rules for early clock-ins, late clock-outs and rounding of hours; overtime appears in the payroll report | On Basic, surcharges for a whole day such as Sundays or public holidays and tracking of German minijob hour thresholds; Premium adds surcharges for part of a day such as night or evening rates. Compliance+, which checks every shift against the working-hours rules of the employee's contract type, is announced as coming soon as an add-on at €0.50 per employee a month, with custom rulesets on Enterprise. |
| Payroll export and integration | A payroll report per pay period with hours, overtime, paid and unpaid leave and total pay, open to manual adjustments before export as a Sage-formatted file or CSV, or sent directly to Staffology or PayCaptain | On Basic, a payroll export of contract versus worked hours, surcharges and leave payouts as Excel or CSV; payroll integrations such as Nmbrs, Loket, AFAS, Exact Online and DATEV through the App Center+ add-on |
| Team messaging and notifications | Email and push notifications for shift updates on every plan, shift acknowledgements, open-shift notifications, and shift and day notes on the rota; SMS notifications are an add-on that also lets staff text in for their next shift | News messages for announcements to the whole team on every plan; a Chat add-on with one-to-one chats and group chats per location, per department or custom is listed with its price still to be determined |
| Platforms and mobile app | Web app in an up-to-date browser on Mac or Windows, free mobile apps for staff and managers, and a free clocking-in terminal app for iPad and Android tablets | Web app, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and a kiosk mode on a tablet, laptop or phone for clocking in |
| Integrations and API | REST API covering shifts, swap requests, availability, leave, terminals, clock-ins and payroll periods, with webhooks; integrations with Sage, Staffology, PayCaptain, Tevalis, Zapier, People HR, Breathe HR, IdencyTime, Optix, Care Consort and calendar feeds for Outlook, Google and Apple | Basic includes three integrations (Datafox, Mplus and Connexie); the App Center+ add-on at €20 a month opens every App Center integration across payroll, HR such as Personio and POS such as Lightspeed, plus API tokens. Enterprise includes App Center+, API access and custom integrations against the Shiftbase API. |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Chat, Phone | Chat, Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | Not stated | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Guided onboarding |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized | Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | more entries Sage, Staffology, PayCaptain, Tevalis, Zapier, People HR, Breathe HR, IdencyTime, Optix, Care Consort, Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar | Nmbrs, Loket, AFAS Software, Exact Online, DATEV, Personio, Lightspeed, Datafox, Mplus, Connexie |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
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 RotaCloud From £10 / month Shiftbase Free up to 15 employees; Basic from €30 / month
- Free trial RotaCloud 30-day free trial, no payment information required Shiftbase 14-day free trial of the paid plans, 30 days on Enterprise; free plan for up to 15 employees
- Hosting RotaCloud Cloud, in the browser, with free mobile apps Shiftbase Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Support RotaCloud Chat, Phone Shiftbase Chat, Email helpdesk
- Made in RotaCloud United Kingdom Shiftbase Netherlands
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
RotaCloud
Strengths
- 30-day free trial with no payment information required
- Monthly or yearly billing with no setup fees and no long-term contract
- Open shifts can go to the first claimant or through a manager approval step
- Payroll data exported for Sage or sent directly to Staffology and PayCaptain
- Tablet clocking-in terminal runs on an iPad or Android tablet the business already owns
Limitations
- Clocking in and timesheets need the paid Time & Attendance add-on
- Labour forecasting against sales and budget caps are limited to the Pro plan
- Sales data syncs automatically only from Tevalis; otherwise it is entered by hand
- Payroll itself is not run in RotaCloud; data goes to separate payroll software
Shiftbase
Strengths
- Free plan for up to 15 employees with drag-and-drop scheduling and the mobile app
- Payroll export separates contract and worked hours, surcharges and leave payouts
- Hours go to Dutch and German payroll such as Nmbrs, AFAS and DATEV through App Center+
- Monthly billing, or 10% off for yearly billing
Limitations
- Most integrations and API access need the App Center+ add-on at €20 a month
- Clocking in needs the Basic plan; on Free, hours are logged manually
- Automatic checks against working-hours rules are announced as coming soon
- Shiftbase Academy courses are available in Dutch and German only
Plans
Pricing
RotaCloud
- Standard £10 / month Price shown for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £120 a year billed yearly; it rises with the number of employees. Rota planning, templates, labour costs, holiday and absence management, shift swapping, availability, reports, mobile apps, and live chat and phone support.
- Pro £15 / month Price shown for 1 to 5 employees, billed monthly, or £180 a year billed yearly; it rises with the number of employees. Adds bulk actions, labour forecasting, budget caps, document storage, leave request rules, secure share links, a logbook and enforced two-factor authentication.
Shiftbase
- Free €0 / month Up to 15 employees, one department and five teams. Drag-and-drop scheduling, manual time tracking, employee profiles, news messages and the mobile app.
- Basic €30 / month Billed monthly, includes 6 employees, €4 a month for each additional one (€3.60 billed yearly). Adds availability, shift swaps and open shifts, clocking in, absence management, basic performance insights, payroll export, day surcharges, minijob contracts, three integrations and one kiosk.
- Premium €75 / month Billed monthly, includes 12 employees, €5.25 a month for each additional one (€4.73 billed yearly). Adds auto-scheduling, labour cost insights, KPI dashboard, part-day surcharges, budget management, AI forecast, skill-based scheduling, required shifts, flexpool, geofencing, custom fields and unlimited kiosks.
- Enterprise Not stated On request, includes 48 employees. Adds App Center+, API access, custom integrations, a dedicated success manager and personalised onboarding; Compliance+ and custom compliance rulesets are announced as coming soon.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
RotaCloud
- 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.
Shiftbase
- 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
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
RotaCloud https://rotacloud.com · checked against the official source on 2026-11-05
Shiftbase https://www.shiftbase.com/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-06
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.