Best Deputy Alternatives in the UK with Payroll (2026)

Deputy is one of the most widely used employee scheduling apps in the UK. It’s popular in hospitality, retail and care for its mobile app, shift swaps and time clock. But Deputy doesn’t include UK payroll, so approved timesheets have to be exported to separate payroll software every pay period.

For a small team with simple pay, that export is a minor step. For businesses with variable hours, multiple pay rates, tronc or several sites, it’s where most pay errors start: hours that don’t match, rate changes that don’t carry over, and manual corrections every pay run.

This guide compares the best Deputy alternatives for UK businesses that want scheduling and payroll to work together, with an honest assessment of where each one fits.

The short answer: the best Deputy alternative for most UK shift-based businesses is Workforce.com. It matches Deputy on scheduling, adds an AI Rota Agent, and offers HR and HMRC-recognised UK payroll as optional modules, so you can replace just your rota tool or your whole setup. Fourth suits large hospitality groups, and the Access Group suits businesses wanting several products from one supplier. If you only need simple rotas, Planday and RotaCloud are lower-cost options, with payroll kept separate

The Best Deputy Alternatives at a Glance

• Workforce.com: best overall Deputy alternative, with scheduling, time and attendance, HR and UK payroll in one system
• Fourth: best for large hospitality groups wanting an enterprise hospitality platform
• Access Group: best for businesses wanting workforce management and payroll from one large supplier
• Planday: best for small teams that use Xero and want rotas and staff messaging in one app
• RotaCloud: best for single sites wanting simple, affordable UK-built rota software

Quick Comparison Table

Why UK Businesses Look for Deputy Alternatives

Deputy is a strong scheduling tool. Businesses usually look elsewhere for one of these reasons:

• No built-in UK payroll. Hours must be exported every pay period, adding a manual step and a second system to maintain.
• Errors between rota and pay. When shifts are swapped, extended or edited after export, the rota and the pay run no longer match.
• Holiday pay for variable-hours staff. Calculating holiday pay correctly, using the 12.07% accrual for irregular-hours workers or a 52-week average for others, is harder when hours and pay live in different systems.
• Multi-site reporting. Groups want labour cost against budget by site and department in one place, without joining data from two platforms.
• Growing complexity. As businesses add sites, roles and pay rates, keeping two systems in line takes more time.

What to Look for in a Deputy Alternative

• HMRC-recognised UK payroll, with automated RTI submissions, PAYE, National Insurance and auto-enrolment
• Employee scheduling at least as good as Deputy’s: shift patterns, open shifts, shift swaps and a mobile app staff will use
• Time and attendance that feeds pay directly, from approved timesheets
• Multiple roles and pay rates for the same employee in the same pay period
• Holiday pay calculated from actual hours worked, with leave management built in
• Real-time labour costs while the rota is being built
• Multi-site management, with consistent processes and group-level reporting
• Help with migration, so switching doesn’t disrupt pay runs or RTI submissions

Alternatives with UK Payroll Built In

1. Workforce.com: Best Overall Deputy Alternative

Workforce.com is modular workforce management software. You can switch from Deputy for scheduling and time and attendance alone, or add HR and HMRC-recognised UK payroll, either straight away or later. Because every module uses the same employee records, adding payroll later doesn’t mean moving data again. For a head-to-head breakdown, see our Workforce.com vs Deputy comparison.

Scheduling: how it compares with Deputy

Both platforms cover the scheduling basics well. Where Workforce.com goes further:

• AI Rota Agent: builds a draft rota for managers to review, adjust and publish, instead of starting from a blank week.
• Plain-English changes: managers can ask the Rota Agent to change the rota, for example “cover Saturday’s late shift at the Leeds site” or “reduce hours on Tuesday”. It also works in the mobile app.
• Standing instructions: set rules once, for the whole business or for each location, such as minimum staffing or who can’t work together. The Rota Agent follows them every time it builds a rota.
• Usual rotas: save repeating shift patterns and reuse them, so you’re not rebuilding every week.
• Labour costs and budgets while you build: see the wage bill against budget as shifts are added, before you publish.
• Sales forecasting: plan staffing around expected trade.
• Qualifications: keep track of who’s qualified for which role, so the right people are rostered.
• Staff self-service: open shifts, shift swaps with manager approval, availability and leave requests in the mobile app.

Time and attendance

• Clock in on the mobile app or a shared device, with breaks and timesheet approval
• Approved timesheets feed straight into pay if you use the payroll module, or can be exported if you don’t

Optional modules

• UK payroll: HMRC-recognised, with automated FPS and EPS submissions, PAYE, National Insurance, auto-enrolment, statutory payments, multiple pay rates per employee, and holiday pay calculated from hours actually worked
• Tronc: set up a tronc with a troncmaster, share tips daily or weekly using points and hours worked, and settle each employee’s share into payroll, with a full breakdown and audit trail
• HR: contracts, right-to-work checks (on supported plans), onboarding documents and employee records
• Bureau payroll service: for businesses that want payroll handled by specialists

Pros

• Matches Deputy’s scheduling basics and adds an AI Rota Agent with plain-English changes
• Modular: replace just your rota tool, or your rota, HR and payroll together
• Removes the export step between rota and pay if you add payroll
• Scales from one site to a multi-site group without changing systems

Cons

• Requires initial setup and configuration, so it isn’t suited to same-week deployment
• Quote-based pricing makes early budget comparisons harder

Who it suits best: UK hospitality, retail, care and other shift-based businesses that want faster rota building than Deputy, especially multi-site operators, and businesses that want HR and payroll connected now or later.

Pricing: Quote-based, by module, depending on headcount and sites. Bureau payroll service also available.

2. Fourth: Best for Large Hospitality Groups

Fourth is a hospitality-focused platform used by many large UK restaurant, pub and hotel groups. Alongside scheduling, time and attendance, HR and payroll, it offers back-of-house tools such as inventory and purchasing.

Pros

• Built specifically for hospitality
• Workforce management, HR and payroll, plus stock and purchasing
• Established with large UK hospitality groups

Cons

• Designed mainly for larger operators
• Quote-based pricing
• Implementation is typically a larger project than replacing a rota app

Who it suits best: Large UK hospitality groups wanting one hospitality-specific supplier for workforce management, payroll and back-of-house operations.

Pricing: Quote-based. Contact Fourth for pricing.

3. Access Group: Best for Businesses Wanting a Broad Software Suite

The Access Group is a large UK software supplier offering workforce management, HR and payroll products for hospitality, care, retail and other sectors. Businesses can combine several Access products to cover scheduling through to payroll.

Pros

• Wide range of products across workforce management, HR, payroll and finance
• Sector-specific versions for hospitality and care
• One supplier for several systems

Cons

• Scheduling, HR and payroll are often separate Access products, so check how closely the ones you need connect
• Pricing varies with the products you choose
• Can be more complex to implement than a single platform

Who it suits best: Mid-sized and larger UK businesses that want several systems from one established supplier.

Pricing: Quote-based. Contact the Access Group for pricing.

Rota Tools That Connect to Separate Payroll

These don’t include UK payroll, but they’re common alternatives to Deputy for teams happy to keep payroll in a separate system.

4. Planday: Best for Small Teams Using Xero

Planday is a shift scheduling and staff communication app owned by Xero. It combines rotas with built-in messaging and connects to Xero Payroll, which is included with most Xero plans.

Pros

• Rotas and staff messaging in one app
• Close connection to Xero Payroll and accounting
• Affordable per-user pricing

Cons

• No native UK payroll; hours move to Xero or another system
• Built mainly for hospitality and retail, with less depth for complex 24/7 shift patterns
• Multi-site groups may need more reporting and control

Who it suits best: Small UK teams already using Xero that want rotas and staff messaging in one place.

Pricing (as of 2026): From £2.99 per user per month. Check Planday’s website for current pricing.

5. RotaCloud: Best for Simple, Affordable Rotas

RotaCloud is a UK-built rota and time and attendance platform known for being simple to set up and use.

Pros

• Simple drag-and-drop rotas
• UK-built and UK-supported
• Low starting price and a free trial

Cons

• No native payroll, with a limited number of payroll integrations
• Not designed for multi-site groups with complex approvals
• Hours still need to move to payroll each pay period

Who it suits best: Single-site UK businesses that want a simple, affordable alternative to Deputy and are happy to keep payroll separate.

Pricing (as of 2026): From £10/month for up to 5 employees, plus an add-on for time and attendance. Check RotaCloud’s website for current pricing.

Other Options Worth Knowing

UK payroll to pair with a rota tool
If you keep Deputy or another rota tool, you’ll still need UK payroll software. BrightPay and QuickBooks Payroll are common for small businesses, and Sage Payroll for established SMEs. Larger employers often choose a managed service such as ADP or Moorepay. Compare them in our guide to the best payroll software in the UK.

Global HR and payroll platforms
Rippling and Deel run UK payroll alongside HR and benefits administration, and suit companies with employees in several countries. Neither is built around shift scheduling, so shift-based teams usually pair them with a rota tool. BambooHR is a popular HRIS for employee records and onboarding, but doesn’t run UK payroll itself.

Other UK rota and workforce tools

• Sage HR with Sage Payroll: shift scheduling in Sage HR, connected to Sage Payroll. Better for simpler shift patterns.
• Rotaready: UK scheduling and labour-cost platform popular in hospitality, with payroll integrations.
• Bizimply: hospitality workforce management for the UK and Ireland, with payroll integrations.
• Connecteam: an all-in-one employee app with scheduling, a time clock with geofencing and task management, but no UK payroll.

Popular US Tools That Don’t Run UK Payroll

Many lists of Deputy alternatives are written for the US market, so you’ll often see these recommended:

• Gusto and Paychex are payroll providers built for US payroll and tax rules.
• Homebase, When I Work and 7shifts are popular scheduling apps whose payroll features, where offered, cover the US, not the UK.

Their leave tracking is also usually built around US paid time off (PTO) rules, not UK statutory holiday. If you need HMRC-recognised payroll, look at the UK options above.

When Deputy Is Still the Right Choice

Deputy remains a good fit for:

• Small teams with straightforward pay, where exporting hours is quick
• Businesses whose accountant already runs payroll and only needs an export of hours
• Teams that mainly need strong mobile scheduling and clock-in tools, quickly

If that describes your business, switching may not be worth it. If you’re correcting pay every period, running several sites, or managing variable hours and tronc, a platform with payroll built in will usually save more time than it costs to switch.

How to Choose the Right Deputy Alternative

• If you want faster rota building than Deputy, with an AI Rota Agent: Workforce.com, starting with scheduling alone if you like.
• If you want scheduling, HR and UK payroll in one system: Workforce.com, with HR and payroll as optional modules.‍
• If you’re a large hospitality group wanting an enterprise hospitality platform: Fourth is worth evaluating.‍
• If you want several systems from one large supplier: consider the Access Group.‍
• If you use Xero and want rotas plus staff messaging: Planday suits small teams.‍
• If you run one site and want simple, affordable rotas: RotaCloud is a strong starting point.

See our guides to rota software with payroll built in and the best staff rota software in the UK for broader comparisons.

Summary

• Workforce.com: best overall Deputy alternative, with an AI Rota Agent and optional HR and UK payroll modules
• Fourth: best for large hospitality groups
• Access Group: best for one supplier across several systems
• Planday: best for small teams using Xero
• RotaCloud: best simple, affordable option for single sites

Deputy does scheduling well. But for most shift-based businesses, the bigger cost is the gap between the rota and pay: the export, the mismatched hours and the corrections every pay run. A Deputy alternative with UK payroll built in removes that gap.

See How Workforce.com Works as a Deputy Alternative

If you’re using Deputy alongside separate payroll software and spending time fixing hours, rates or holiday pay every pay run, Workforce.com can help. See how it brings scheduling, time and attendance, HR and payroll together, starting with just the modules you need, and how our team helps you switch without disrupting your pay runs. Book a demo to see how it works for your business.