$0 fully featured hospitality rostering software
The best Deputy alternative
Deputy charges per user and the costs keep climbing. Join Australian venues switching to Shiftly — purpose-built for hospitality, completely free, with free onboarding support and no lock-in contracts.
Free forever. No credit card required. Free onboarding included.
Deputy is a popular workforce management platform used across industries for rostering, time tracking, and shift management. While it covers the basics well, its per-user pricing model, add-on fees, and enterprise-leaning feature set leave small-to-medium hospitality venues paying more for tools they don't need — and missing the ones they do.
Deputy alternatives at a glance
Deputy charges per user with costly add-ons that quickly add up. Deputy charges per user with costly add-ons that quickly add up.
Shiftly
Deputy
Platform status
Active, growing rapidly
Active (enterprise)
Target market
5–200+ staff
200+ staff
Pricing
Free for every venue
Per user pricing
Australian support
AU-based, included
Globall
Free onboarding support
Yes, everything included
Paid implementation
Lock-in contract
No contract. Ever.
Monthly subscription
Mobile App
Shiftly Me / Shiftly Go
Deputy
On-demand staffing
Coming soon
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Why venues need a Deputy alternative
Deputy users are switching because there's a better fit. Per-user pricing, enterprise complexity, and missing hospitality-specific features are pushing small-to-medium venues to look elsewhere. Here's what venues are weighing up.
Per-user pricing adds up fast
Deputy charges per user per month — $7.50 on Lite, 9.75 on Core, up to 14.50 on Pro. Add-ons like HR (3.50), Messaging+ (2.75), and Analytics+ (2.00) push costs higher. For a 30-person casual roster on Core, that's $292/month before payroll — and a $30 minimum monthly invoice applies even for tiny teams.
Deputy supports many industries. Shiftly is hospitality-first.
Deputy serves sectors including aged care, government, and large retail operations. Shiftly is built around the day-to-day realities of hospitality venues and small hospitality groups, with workflows and pricing designed to suit the way hospitality teams operate.
Per-user costs keep climbing
Deputy operates on per-user pricing with a minimum monthly invoice. Add-ons like HR, Analytics+, and Messaging+ push costs even higher. For venues with large casual pools working limited hours, the per-head model makes no sense.
Limited support for small venues
Deputy users consistently report difficulty reaching live human support, especially on weekends — exactly when hospitality venues need it most. Having a provider with dedicated, hands-on Australian support matters.
Key Benefits
Why choose Shiftly
Shiftly was built for Australian hospitality venues that need rostering, timesheets, award-aligned pay, and a staff app that actually gets opened. Here's how we line up on the features that matter most.
Rostering
Easily plan shifts, publish rosters, sync timesheets and export in seconds
Pay calculations
Set or calculate your rates, breaks penalties, allowances, and overtime once and apply them on every shift
Employee onboarding
Automatically sync with Xero for payroll. Reduce the manual workload and onboard staff in minutes
Time tracking
Calculations aligned with configured award rates and hours
Job costing
Track labour costs per job, project, client, or event with live reporting and budgets.
Employee mobile
View full schedules, Clock in and out, cover team-mates, and manage availability
Rostering
Rostering that fits the way venues actually work
Both Deputy and Shiftly cover the same core workflow: build a roster quickly, match staff to shifts, notify the team, and capture actual hours. Shiftly delivers all of this with a clean, hospitality-tuned interface that staff can pick up in minutes — without charging per user.
Drag-and-drop weekly calendar with position templates
Copy-paste shifts and weekly templates for fast publishing
Multi-location rostering with built-in conflict alerts
Open shift requests and shift swaps via the mobile app
Instant push notifications when rosters are published or changed
Shiftly replaces every core Deputy rostering workflow venues use day to day, with a hospo-tuned interface and no per-user fees.
Time and attendance
Geofenced clock-in. One-click timesheet approval
Shiftly's time and attendance tools match what Deputy offers, with one improvement venues consistently ask for: geofencing built into the staff mobile app, so clock-in only happens when staff are physically at the venue.
Mobile clock-in / clock-out via the Shiftly Me app
Geofencing to prevent off-site clock-ins
Timesheets auto-linked from published shifts
Breaks captured and costed automatically against awards
One-click manager approval
Payroll-ready timesheet exports
Shiftly's geofenced mobile clock-in matches what Deputy users expect, with cleaner timesheet approval and zero hardware to buy.
Award interpretation
Built from the ground up for Australian awards
This is one of the most important features for hospitality venues, and it's where Shiftly's purpose-built focus pays off. Penalty rates, overtime, allowances and age-based pay thresholds are calculated against current Australian hospitality award provisions — every shift, every time.
Shiftly
Deputy
Hospitality awards pre-configured
including HIGA
Pay Rate Builder setup required
Free award configuration support
included in onboarding
Self-serve or paid onboarding
Penalty rates and overtime
Automatic calculation
Automatic calculation
Age-based pay thresholds
Real-time shift cost as you roster
Yes, everything included
Core plan or higher required
Fair Work compliance
Shiftly's hospo-focused award engine covers what venues need without the enterprise setup overhead. Configuration is included free in onboarding, not invoiced.
Paperless onboarding
Employee onboarding without the paperwork
Bring new staff on without the back-and-forth. Shiftly captures verified employment details digitally, syncs them with Xero, and flags any discrepancies before they hit payroll — keeping your data clean from day one.
Fully digital, paperless onboarding flow
Verified employment details
Live sync to Xero
Alerts for data discrepancies
New starters appear on the roster immediately
Shiftly's paperless onboarding matches Deputy's flow with deeper Xero sync and built-in data validation.
Payroll integration
Direct, end-to-end Xero integration
Deputy users typically rely on Xero for payroll. Shiftly's Xero integration is built to do the same job cleanly — staff imports, payroll syncing, and award-interpreted timesheet data flowing straight through to your pay run.
Staff details pulled directly from Xero
Onboarding data validated against Xero records
Two-way sync keeps employee data aligned
Award-interpreted hours pushed to Xero Payroll
Job costing align with Xero cost centres
If Xero is your payroll engine, Shiftly is built around it. Pay runs that used to take an afternoon take minutes.
Staff mobile app
A staff mobile app to enable your team
The Shiftly Me app gives every staff member their roster, shift swap requests, open shift bidding, availability management and one-tap geofenced clock-in — all in a clean, mobile-first interface designed for hospitality teams.
View rosters and upcoming shifts
Submit availability and swap requests
Request open shifts as they're posted
One-tap geofenced clock-in
Leave requests
A focused hospo-built staff app, free for every team member.
Let us show you around
We’ll walk you through how Shiftly works and help you see if we're the right fit for you
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