Free alternatives to Deputy for small Australian venues: what each one really covers

A 12-person cafe on Deputy pays $972 to $1,872 a year before GST, depending on the plan. That's 20 to 40 Sunday hours of a casual's wages, spent on a roster grid. So it's no surprise "free Deputy alternative" gets searched a lot by owners who've just opened the renewal email.

The trouble is that most free alternatives are free scheduling, not free Deputy. They cap your headcount, hold back the time clock or skip award pay. Here's what Deputy actually does for a small venue, which free options cover which part, and how to move without losing a pay run.

The short answer: Square Shifts is free for up to 5 team members, Connecteam for up to 10 users, Zoho Shifts for up to 25 and Sling's scheduling for up to 30. None of those free tiers lists Australian award interpretation. Shiftly is free at any headcount with rostering, timesheets and award interpretation for seven awards, plus on-demand staff when someone drops a shift. Prices are from each vendor's pricing page on 30 October 2026 and change often. General information, not financial or legal advice.

What you're really paying Deputy for

Deputy's Lite plan is $6.75 per user per month, Core is $8.75 and Pro is $13, all ex GST. Every admin, manager and supervisor counts as a user, so the owner who never works a shift still costs a seat.

Strip away the plan names and a small venue uses Deputy for four jobs. A free swap has to do all four, or you end up running two apps and a spreadsheet.

1. Build and publish the roster to a staff app, so nobody works from a screenshot in the group chat.
2. Record actual hours with a clock-in, because Fair Work requires time and wages records kept for 7 years.
3. Cost each hour at the right award rate, which in hospitality changes by day, time and employment type.
4. Send approved hours to payroll, usually Xero, without retyping them.

The free alternatives, job by job

Here's how each free plan stacks up against those four jobs for a venue with 12 people on the books. We've kept it to products you can sign up for in Australia today.

The pattern is clear. The generous free tiers handle job one well, and some handle job two. Job three, award pay, is where nearly every free plan stops, and it's the one that costs real money when it's wrong. We compared every free plan in more depth in our guide to the best free rostering software.

Why award pay is the job you can't drop

Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, a Level 2 casual earns $33.85 an hour on a weekday from 1 July 2026. On a Saturday it's $40.62, and on a Sunday it's $47.39. A free tool that only stores one hourly rate prices every Sunday at the weekday number unless you fix it by hand.

That's $13.54 an hour of gap. Across one six-hour Sunday shift it's $81.24, and it repeats every week for every casual. If you've ever tried doing this in a spreadsheet, our post on penalty rates in Excel shows where the formulas fall over.

Cancelling Deputy saves you about $1,000 a year. Pricing Sundays at the weekday rate can cost four casuals more than that in a season.

What staying on Deputy costs a 12-person venue

Here's the list price for one year at 12 users, before GST, set against the wage hours it would buy. Wage hours use the Level 2 casual Sunday rate of $47.39.

There are smaller costs on top. Deputy bills a new user for the full month, even if they start five days before it ends, and roster texts cost 5c per 160 characters in Australia. For a venue that hires a wave of summer casuals in December, those add up quietly.

Moving off Deputy in one fortnight

Switching fails when it happens mid pay cycle. Run it alongside your last Deputy fortnight and cancel only once the new numbers check out.

1. Export your timesheet history from Deputy before you cancel, and keep it with your records. The 7-year record-keeping rule doesn't stop when the subscription does.
2. Bring your staff across. Shiftly can import staff straight from Deputy, so you're not retyping names, phone numbers and emails.
3. Set each person's award, level, employment type and date of birth. Juniors and casuals are where most pay errors start.
4. Rebuild one real fortnight, including a Saturday, a Sunday and a late close, and have staff clock in on the new app.
5. Compare the calculated pay against the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide and against what Deputy produced. You stay responsible for the figures, whatever tool you use.
6. Post the approved timesheets to Xero and check the pay lines arrive the way your bookkeeper expects. Then cancel Deputy before the next billing period.

If your team still lives in the group chat, our first-fortnight rollout plan covers getting casuals to actually open the app.

Where Shiftly fits: the roster that fills itself

Every roster tool tells you when you're short. Shiftly fills the gap. The platform is free at every headcount: rostering, timesheets, leave, availability, paperless onboarding, messaging and award interpretation for seven awards, including the Hospitality and Restaurant awards. Rates are loaded from Fair Work Commission data and updated when the award changes. It's a calculation tool that helps you estimate and check pay, and your pay run stays in your payroll system.

The part Deputy doesn't do is cover the Saturday someone drops at 3pm. Shiftly On-Demand is available along the east coast of Australia, so you can post the open shift to a network of independent contractors your venue engages directly. You pay only when it's filled: the hours, super at 12%, an 8% service fee plus GST and a $1 super processing fee plus GST. A five-hour shift at $40 an hour comes to $242.70 all in. Get started with Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

Does Deputy have a free plan?

No. Deputy offers a free trial, but its cheapest plan, Lite, is $6.75 per user per month ex GST, with a $30 minimum spend per invoice on monthly plans, according to its Australian pricing page in October 2026.

What is the best free alternative to Deputy in Australia?

It depends on your headcount and whether you need award pay. Square Shifts suits a five-person team on Square, and Zoho Shifts or Sling suit scheduling only. For a hospitality venue that needs rostering, clock-ins and award interpretation in one free tool at any headcount, Shiftly covers all three.

Can I move my staff from Deputy to Shiftly?

Yes. Shiftly can import your staff from Deputy. Export your Deputy timesheet history before you cancel, because Fair Work requires time and wages records to be kept for 7 years.

How is Shiftly free?

Shiftly earns its revenue from On-Demand: the venue pays an 8% service fee plus GST and a $1 super processing fee on each filled shift, and the worker pays 8% too. If you never fill a shift through On-Demand, you pay Shiftly nothing.