If you run a pub, cafe, or restaurant and you’re shopping around for rota software, you’ve probably come across the same three names: RotaCloud, Deputy, and RotaReady. They’re well-established, they’re well-marketed, and they all do the basics well enough. But once you get past the free trial and start looking at what you’re actually going to pay, the picture changes.
This post breaks down what each platform costs, what you get for that money, and where the hidden costs tend to appear. We’ve also included RotaKeep in the comparison, because we think the pricing model is genuinely different in a way that matters for hospitality businesses.
The pricing problem with rota software
Most scheduling software is priced per user, per month. On the surface that sounds fair. In practice, it creates a problem for hospitality operators.
Pubs and restaurants typically run with a mix of full-time staff, part-timers, and zero-hours workers. Headcount shifts with the seasons. You might have 12 people on the books in January and 22 in August. Under a per-user pricing model, your software bill fluctuates with every new hire, every seasonal worker, every extra pair of hands you bring in for a busy period. You end up either overpaying for users you do not need, or scrambling to archive and reinstate people to keep costs down.
There is also the question of what is and is not included in the base price.
RotaCloud
RotaCloud is a UK-based platform with a solid reputation, particularly among smaller hospitality and retail businesses. The scheduling interface is clean, the support team is based in York, and the reviews are consistently positive.
Pricing is banded by headcount rather than strictly per user. For teams of 1 to 5, the Standard plan starts at £10 per month and the Pro plan at £15 per month. The price increases as you add more employees, with a slider on the pricing page adjusting the monthly rate accordingly. Annual billing saves the equivalent of two months.
The base plans cover the core scheduling features well: drag and drop rota planning, shift templates, holiday management, sickness tracking, shift swapping, labour cost reporting, and free mobile apps. What is not included is time and attendance. Mobile clocking in, GPS restrictions, automated timesheets, holiday accrual, attendance reporting, and payroll export all sit behind a Time and Attendance add-on priced at £4.50 per month. SMS shift notifications are a further £2 per month on top. For most pub operators those are not optional extras, they are part of the job, so factor those in when comparing the headline price.
RotaCloud does offer a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, which is a genuine positive.
Best suited to: Small to medium teams who want solid UK-based scheduling software and are comfortable with add-ons for time and attendance.
Deputy
Deputy is the biggest name in this space globally. It is used by large hospitality groups, care providers, and retailers across the UK, US, and Australia. The product is mature, feature-rich, and the mobile apps are well-regarded.
UK pricing (excluding VAT) runs at £3.25 per user per month on the Lite plan, £4.25 on Core, and £6.50 on Pro. For a team of 20 that works out at £65 to £130 per month before add-ons. There is a minimum monthly spend, and additional functionality including HR tools (£2 per user), advanced messaging (£1.40 per user), and analytics (£1 per user) all carry separate charges.
Deputy’s Core plan includes AI auto-scheduling and demand forecasting, which is genuinely useful for high-volume sites with variable footfall. If you are running a large operation and want that level of sophistication, Deputy is worth serious consideration.
For a single-site pub with a team of 15 to 25, however, the per-user model combined with add-on costs can make Deputy feel expensive relative to what you actually use. The feature depth that justifies the price for a 200-person hospitality group is largely irrelevant at pub scale.
Best suited to: Multi-site operators or larger venues that need advanced forecasting, payroll integration, and enterprise-level reporting.
RotaReady (now RotaReady Evo)
RotaReady was originally built specifically for hospitality, leisure, and retail, and it shows in the product. The scheduling interface is intuitive, the labour cost tracking is strong, and the integrations with till systems and reservations platforms are genuinely useful for operators who want their rota connected to the rest of their tech stack.
In 2022, RotaReady was acquired by The Access Group and rebranded as RotaReady Evo. It now sits within a broader suite of Access products.
Pricing is site-based rather than purely per-user. Each site includes up to 15 people, with additional staff charged at £4.40 per person on Essentials or £4.95 on Pro. Starting price is from £98 per month. Crucially, pricing is based on a 12-month contract. There is no rolling monthly option.
For a pub group with multiple sites and larger teams, the site-based model can work out well. For a single site with 20 staff, you are looking at a minimum of £98 per month tied into an annual commitment before you have properly tested whether the product works for your operation.
Best suited to: Multi-site hospitality groups, particularly those already using other Access Group products.
RotaKeep
RotaKeep takes a different approach to pricing. There are no per-user fees. You pay a flat monthly rate regardless of how many staff you have on the rota.
Paid plans run at £25 per month for teams of 1 to 15 (Essential), £49 per month for 16 to 35 staff (Plus), and £79 per month for 36 to 50 staff (Pro). Every feature is available on every plan. There is no feature gating, no add-ons, and no per-user charges that creep up as your team grows.
For a pub with 20 staff, you are paying the same monthly rate as a pub with 35 staff. When you take on seasonal workers over summer, your software bill does not go up. When you run on a leaner team through January, your bill does not go down either, but the predictability cuts both ways.
RotaKeep was built by someone who spent 25 years in the UK hospitality industry, including running a busy pub at one of the country’s busiest transport hubs. The features reflect the reality of pub and restaurant scheduling: shift patterns, split shifts, open shifts, labour cost tracking against revenue, and absence management. It is not trying to be an enterprise HR platform. It is trying to be the best rota tool for a UK pub manager.
Best suited to: Independent pubs, cafes, and restaurants that want predictable costs, a simple tool that does the job, and no surprises on the monthly invoice.
Side-by-side summary
| RotaCloud | Deputy | RotaReady Evo | RotaKeep | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Banded by headcount | Per user | Per site + per user | Flat monthly |
| Starting price | £10/month (1-5 staff) | £3.25/user/month | £98/month | £25/month (1-15 staff) |
| Add-ons required | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Annual contract | No | No | Yes (12 months) | No |
| All features included | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| UK-built | Yes | No (Australian) | Yes | Yes |
Which one should you choose?
If you are running a multi-site group with complex labour forecasting needs and a dedicated operations team, Deputy or RotaReady Evo are worth a serious look. The sophistication is there if you need it.
If you are running one or two sites and you want software that is easy to set up, does not require a procurement process, and will not send you a bigger invoice every time you hire a new member of staff, RotaKeep or RotaCloud are the more sensible options.
RotaKeep is built by OnShift Ltd and designed for UK pubs, cafes, and restaurants. Flat monthly pricing, no per-user fees, every feature on every plan. Try it free at app.rotakeep.co.uk