Deputy

Who it's for

Deputy fits a service business that wants shift scheduling, time clocking and labor reporting under one predictable per-user structure, with the option to add payroll or HR later without switching platforms. Its three tiers (Lite, Core, Pro) step up cleanly from basic scheduling to more automated scheduling logic and access controls, which suits an owner who wants to start simple and upgrade only when the team needs it.

A field service or hospitality crew with hourly, variable-shift staff is the clearest fit: the time clock app runs on tablets, phones or desktop, and scheduling supports drag-and-drop shift building, shift swapping and leave requests.

Deputy also markets demand-based scheduling for hospitality specifically, aligning staffing with occupancy or sales forecasts, automated break and overtime tracking for labor-law compliance, and digital records kept for auditing.

Tiers at a glance

Who should look elsewhere

A business that wants a genuinely free plan for a small team should look at Sling first — its free tier covers core scheduling and messaging for a meaningful number of users before any paid plan is required, while Deputy has no free tier at all. See Sling.

A business that has already outgrown thirty employees and specifically wants payroll available as an add-on inside the same scheduling tool, rather than a fully separate payroll product, is closer to what Deputy offers than Sling, whose own top tier does not include payroll. See Sling for the comparison point.

A business that wants team messaging included in its base price rather than paying extra for it should compare against When I Work, which bundles in-app messaging into every tier instead of selling it as a separate add-on the way Deputy does on its lower tiers. See When I Work.

What it does well

Deputy's three tiers are laid out clearly, so a business can see exactly which features sit on which plan rather than negotiating a custom quote.

Scheduling includes demand forecasting and auto-scheduling on top of manual drag-and-drop building, useful for a manager trying to match staffing to expected demand rather than guessing at headcount per shift.

Its news feed feature lets a manager push documents, videos or policy updates to staff and records confirmation that each person reviewed them, which is a documented internal-communication trail useful for onboarding or safety-policy sign-off.

Integrations span payroll, point of sale and HR categories, including named payroll partners and POS platforms, so a business can connect the accounting and register systems it already runs instead of re-entering data.

Limits to know

Payroll is not included in any base tier; it runs through a partner integration and is billed as a separate add-on, and HR is a second, separate add-on on top of that. A business that wants payroll bundled into the same line item as scheduling should weigh that against a payroll-native tool.

A minimum monthly spend applies to every monthly plan, independent of how many seats are actually paid for. For a very small team, this floor can make the effective per-seat cost higher than the advertised per-user rate; annual billing changes the billing structure and carries its own discount. Check the pricing table on this page for current figures rather than the numbers below.

Messaging and analytics beyond the basics are separate paid add-ons on the two lower tiers and are only folded into the top tier by default, so a business on the entry tier that wants those features pays extra for them.

What to check on pricing

Deputy's exact per-user rates for each tier, the current minimum monthly spend, the annual-billing discount, and the separate add-on costs for payroll, HR and messaging all change periodically, so confirm current figures on the pricing table on this page and on the Deputy pricing page rather than relying on a fixed number here.

Alternatives and when they fit

• Sling if you want a genuinely free plan for a smaller team, or if scheduling and messaging alone cover your needs without paying for a paid tier at all.
• When I Work if you want team messaging bundled into every tier rather than paying extra for it, and you are comfortable with a trial instead of a free plan.
• Homebase if you want scheduling and time tracking paired with hiring and onboarding tools in the same platform rather than an HR add-on.

How we reviewed it

We checked Deputy's pricing page directly for its three named tiers, the minimum monthly spend, the annual-billing discount and the separate payroll, HR, messaging and analytics add-ons. We separately reviewed its features page for scheduling, time tracking, tasking, communication and reporting capabilities, and its integrations page for the payroll, point-of-sale and HR partners it lists. We did not rely on any third-party review site for feature claims in this review, and we did not restate specific dollar or percentage figures shown on those pages in the text above.