Deputy Alternatives in Australia: Simpler Rostering Apps for Small Teams
30 October 2026 · The Rosterly team · 5 min read
The best Deputy alternatives are simpler rostering tools for teams whose payroll provider already handles award rates. If you need award interpretation, penalty rates and overtime worked out inside the roster, Deputy is hard to beat. If you mainly need rosters, swaps, leave, a time clock and an export, a flat-priced tool such as Rosterly can cost less and take minutes to set up.
Deputy is a powerful workforce platform, widely used in Australia. The question isn't whether it's good; it's whether you need everything you're paying for. This post covers what Deputy does well, when a simpler tool fits, and how the costs compare.
What Deputy offers
When we checked Deputy's Australian pricing page on 17 October 2026, it listed:
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Lite (A$6.75 per user per month): basic rostering, timesheets, time clocking and award interpretation.
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Core (A$8.75): adds advanced rostering, timesheet auto-approval, biometric time clocking and advanced award interpretation.
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Pro (A$13): custom access levels, location hierarchies and pay centres, sold through sales.
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Minimum: A$30 per invoice on monthly Lite, Core and Pro plans.
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Add-ons (per user per month): Payroll A$5, HR A$3.50, Messaging+ A$2.75, Analytics+ A$2.
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All-in-One bundle: A$13.95 per user per month.
When award interpretation is worth it
Australian awards set penalty rates for evenings, weekends and public holidays, plus overtime and allowances. Getting them wrong is costly. If nobody else in your business applies those rules, having them calculated inside the roster is valuable. That's Deputy's real strength.
But many small businesses already have this covered: their payroll provider or accountant applies the award to approved hours. In that case, paying for award interpretation inside the roster means paying for it twice.
Signs a simpler tool will do
A simpler alternative fits if most of these are true:
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your payroll software or bookkeeper already applies award rates and overtime
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you mainly need a roster, swaps, leave and a time clock
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managers want something they can set up in an afternoon
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you don't need geofencing, biometric clocking or tablet kiosks
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the per-user bill plus add-ons has crept up as you've hired
How the costs compare
For a café with 20 staff on Deputy Core at A$8.75 per user, the roster alone is A$175 a month, before any add-ons. Rosterly's Team plan covers up to 25 staff for A$59 a month including GST, and the price doesn't change as you hire within the plan.
Be honest with yourself on these before you cancel anything:
1.
Who applies the award today? If the answer is "Deputy, and nobody else checks", moving to a simpler tool means your payroll provider must take that job on. Confirm they can, and what it costs.
2.
Which add-ons do you use? List Payroll, HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ and what replaces each.
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Do staff clock in on a shared tablet? If so, plan how they'll clock in on their own phones instead.
4.
What do your timesheet approvals look like? Auto-approval in Deputy Core becomes a manager approval step in most simpler tools. Decide who approves, and when.
A switching checklist for Australian teams
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Export a recent pay period's timesheets from Deputy for reference.
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Confirm with your payroll provider which CSV columns they need.
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Add your people, skills and locations, and rebuild one typical week.
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Run one pay period side by side and compare the hours.
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Talk the team through the change before go-live. Moving the same roster to a new tool isn't a change of hours, but explaining it avoids confusion.
Other alternatives to consider
Deputy isn't the only option. These are the main alternatives, with the prices listed on each vendor's own pricing page. We checked Tanda and Sling on 2 November 2026 and the others on 17 October 2026. Currencies aren't converted.
Tool
Best for
Listed price
Tanda
Best for: Award interpretation, payroll and HR in one Australian platform
Listed price: A$12.80 + GST per user a month for the bundle; other plans on request
When I Work
Best for: Native apps and integrations
Listed price: US$2.50 to US$8 per user a month
7shifts
Best for: Restaurants that want POS-driven labour targets
Listed price: Free for one site up to 15 staff; paid plans from CA$39.99 per location a month
Sling
Best for: Simple scheduling for small teams, with a free plan
Listed price: Free for up to 30 users; US$2.00 or US$4.00 per user a month
Rosterly
Best for: Rosters, time clock and leave for one flat price
Listed price: A$29, A$59 or A$119 a month by team size, including GST
Whichever you choose, test it on a real week at your café, shop or venue. Our café rostering page shows how Rosterly handles a typical café week, and you can browse rostering software by industry.