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TimeTracker
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Best Deputy Alternatives for 2026, Free and Paid

Deputy is built to roster shifts. If that is what you need, two tools here beat it on price. If it is not, you may not need a scheduler at all.

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Why people switch

Why people look for a Deputy alternative

What it is

A Deputy alternative is another workforce tool you move to when Deputy stops fitting your team. Deputy is a scheduling product first. It builds the rota, checks people in against the shift they were rostered on, and reads award and overtime rules. People leave for two different reasons. Some want that same job done cheaper, and Homebase and When I Work both undercut it. Others bought Deputy for timesheets, never built a rota, and are paying for scheduling they do not run. Work out which one you are first, because the right answer is very different.

Who needs this

A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Meet both products

Compare the two products at a glance

TimeTracker and this competitor cover the same job in different ways. Here is what each one includes.

Best fit

TimeTracker

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem.

Best for
Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.
Pricing
Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.
  • One-click task timers
  • Timesheet submission and approvals
  • Effective-dated billing and cost rates
  • Live project budgets and profitability
  • Client invoicing and payments
  • Client portal with a cost firewall
  • Reports and dashboards
  • Expense tracking with billable markup
Start tracking free

Deputy

Auto-scheduling builds the rota for you from demand, availability, and cost rules, then the time clock checks people in against the shift they were actually rostered on.

Best for
Shift-based businesses like hospitality, retail, and care that need to build rotas and control labour cost.
Pricing
Per user a month: Lite $5, Core $6.50, Pro $9, with a $30 minimum monthly spend, so a four-person Lite team pays $30 rather than $20. Payroll is an $8/user/mo add-on plus a $49 monthly base fee, powered by Paycor, US only, on annual Core or Pro. Other add-ons run $1.50 to $2/user/mo.
  • Auto-scheduling and micro-scheduling
  • Shift swapping and availability
  • Time clock with biometrics
  • Timesheet auto approval
  • Award and overtime interpretation
  • Payroll add-on
Full comparison

See how the alternatives stack up

Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for TimeTracker and every tool in this comparison.

Comparison dimensionTimeTrackerBest fitDeputyHomebaseWhen I WorkJibble
CategoryProject time trackingTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendance
Best forAgencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill.Shift-based businesses like hospitality, retail, and care.Single-site small businesses like cafes and shops that.Local businesses that want straightforward shift.Small to mid-size teams, especially hourly, field, or.
Starting price$12/user/month$5/user/monthFree$2.5/user/monthFree
Top strengthTies every time entry to a task, so hours and money are.Auto-scheduling is genuinely good and saves real hours on.A real free plan that covers scheduling and a time clock.One of the cheapest per-user prices for real scheduling.Free tier is unusually full-featured for unlimited users

Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.

Every option, in full

Each Deputy alternative, and who it suits

Each tool below covers a different kind of team, so this is not a ranking. We list what each one does badly as well as what it does well, with the date we last checked its pricing.

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.

Checked 13 July 2026

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem. A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Where it wins

  • Ties every time entry to a task, so hours and money are the same record instead of two systems to reconcile
  • Live budget and profitability rollups instead of a month-end spreadsheet
  • Timesheet approval locks numbers before they hit an invoice, so billed hours cannot silently drift
  • No screenshots, keystroke logging, or GPS tracking, by design

Where it falls short

  • Newer product than long-established time trackers, so its integration marketplace is still small
  • No native payroll run; timesheets export for an external payroll tool instead
  • Built for client-project delivery, not a general work OS, so it will not replace a wiki or a sprint board

Deputy

Best for

Shift-based businesses like hospitality, retail, and care that need to build rotas and control labour cost.

Pricing

Per user a month: Lite $5, Core $6.50, Pro $9, with a $30 minimum monthly spend, so a four-person Lite team pays $30 rather than $20. Payroll is an $8/user/mo add-on plus a $49 monthly base fee, powered by Paycor, US only, on annual Core or Pro. Other add-ons run $1.50 to $2/user/mo.

Checked 31 July 2026

Auto-scheduling builds the rota for you from demand, availability, and cost rules, then the time clock checks people in against the shift they were actually rostered on. A multi-site business rostering hourly staff, where the weekly schedule and labour cost against sales are the numbers that matter.

Where it wins

  • Auto-scheduling is genuinely good and saves real hours on a weekly rota
  • Strong award, break, and overtime interpretation, which matters for compliance
  • Time clock ties each punch to the rostered shift, so variances are obvious

Where it falls short

  • A $30 minimum monthly spend means teams under six pay for seats they do not have
  • Add-ons stack up, and the payroll one carries a $49 monthly base fee on top of per-user pricing
  • Built around shifts, so it is heavy for a team that just logs project hours
  • No client billing or invoicing, so agency work needs a second tool

Homebase

Best for

Single-site small businesses like cafes and shops that want free scheduling and a time clock for a small crew.

Pricing

Free for 1 location up to 10 employees. Essentials about $24/location/mo annual ($30 monthly), Plus about $56, All-in-One about $96, all per location.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on Homebase

Priced per location instead of per user, and free for one location with up to 10 employees, which makes it the cheapest real option for a single small site. A single cafe, shop, or restaurant with under 10 hourly staff that wants a rota and a clock without paying anything.

Where it wins

  • A real free plan that covers scheduling and a time clock for up to 10 staff
  • Per-location pricing is cheap when one site has a lot of part-time people
  • Bundles hiring and messaging, so a small shop needs fewer tools

Where it falls short

  • Per-location pricing gets expensive fast once a business runs several sites
  • Built for hourly shift work, with no client billing or project profitability
  • The free plan stops at one location and 10 employees

When I Work

Best for

Local businesses that want straightforward shift scheduling and attendance in one cheap per-user app.

Pricing

About $2.50/user/mo for the entry plan and $5/user/mo for Pro. Month-to-month or annual, with a free trial.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on When I Work

Focused tightly on scheduling and attendance at a low per-user price, with auto scheduling, shift swapping, and GPS clock-in included on every plan. A restaurant, clinic, or retail team of 10 to 100 hourly staff whose main problem is publishing next week's rota.

Where it wins

  • One of the cheapest per-user prices for real scheduling plus a time clock
  • Every plan includes GPS clock-in, shift swapping, and overtime tracking
  • Well liked for how quickly a manager can build and publish a week

Where it falls short

  • Scheduling and attendance only. No client billing, budgets, or invoicing
  • Reporting is thin next to workforce platforms like Deputy
  • Multiple time zone views and advanced coverage need the Pro plan

Jibble

Best for

Small to mid-size teams, especially hourly, field, or shift workers, who want free attendance tracking.

Pricing

Free for unlimited users, including GPS, kiosk and face recognition. Paid tiers exist for PTO accruals and multilevel approvals, but Jibble no longer publishes their prices.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on Jibble

The most generous free plan in the category: unlimited users, GPS geofencing, and facial recognition to stop buddy punching, all at no cost. Small businesses and hourly or field teams that need reliable, verified clock-in and attendance reporting without a big budget.

Where it wins

  • Free tier is unusually full-featured for unlimited users
  • Strong, hardware-free buddy-punching prevention via facial recognition
  • Easy to set up, and kiosk mode works well for shared-device clock-ins

Where it falls short

  • Paid-tier prices are not published, so budgeting means asking Jibble first
  • PTO accruals, multilevel approvals, and live location need paid tiers
  • Mobile app dashboard is underdeveloped for on-the-go managers
Why switch

Reasons teams switch

Popular features

Time Tracking

Employee time tracking your team will actually use

One click starts a timer, or people type hours in by hand. Every entry ties to a client, project, and task, so the record stays clean.

Explore Time Tracking→
Timesheets

Timesheets your team submits on time

Hours build into a timecard as people work. Send the week for approval, lock it once it is signed off, and bill from a number that cannot quietly change.

Explore Timesheets→
Billing

Bill for every hour you earn

Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.

Explore Billing→
Use cases

Use cases this solves

More comparisons

Compare other tools

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does TimeTracker do shift scheduling like Deputy?
No. There is no rota builder, no auto-scheduling, and no shift swapping. If you publish a weekly schedule, TimeTracker is the wrong tool and Homebase or When I Work will serve you better. TimeTracker records and bills the hours people work, through timesheets rather than shifts.
How much does Deputy cost?
Lite is $5 per user a month, Core $6.50 and Pro $9. Every monthly account also pays a minimum of $30, so a team of four pays $30 rather than $20. The payroll add-on is another $8 a user plus a $49 monthly base fee, and HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ run $1.50 to $2 a user. Prices read off Deputy's own pricing page on 31 July 2026, and broken down in full in our explainer on what Deputy is.
Is there a free Deputy alternative?
Homebase is free for one location with up to 10 employees, and Jibble's free plan takes unlimited users. Deputy itself has no free plan. TimeTracker is free for up to 3 people and is built for billing rather than rostering, so compare it on billable hours tracking instead of scheduling.
What is the cheapest Deputy alternative for scheduling?
When I Work, at about $2.50 a user a month, which is well under Deputy's $5 Lite plan and carries no minimum monthly spend. It still includes auto scheduling, shift swapping and GPS clock-in. For a single site under 10 staff, Homebase is free outright. Both prices checked in July 2026.
Should I switch from Deputy if I never use the rota?
That is the clearest case for switching. If nobody works a published shift, you are paying for scheduling and using only the timesheets. A tool built around timesheet approvals and client billing will cost less and fit better.
Can Deputy invoice a client for tracked time?
No. Deputy costs labour and feeds payroll, but it does not build a client invoice. That is the main gap for agencies and consultancies. TimeTracker turns approved hours into a bill, see how invoicing from tracked time works.
Does TimeTracker have a time clock with a kiosk?
No shared kiosk and no PIN punching. Everyone signs in as themselves on their own phone or in a browser, so a crew cannot clock in from one tablet by the door. Deputy, Homebase and When I Work all beat TimeTracker here. What it does instead is team time reporting tied to clients and projects.
Does Deputy handle overtime rules?
Yes, and it is one of Deputy's real strengths. It reads award, break and overtime rules and applies them to the timesheet, which matters if you are compliance-driven. TimeTracker shows overtime tracking so you can see who is running over, but it does not interpret award rules for you.
Is switching from Deputy hard?
It depends what you are moving. Hours and people move in an afternoon. A rota does not move at all, because TimeTracker has nowhere to put it, so that part is a decision to stop scheduling in software rather than a migration. You can export your data to CSV on the way out of either tool.
Which Deputy alternative is right for my team?
If you roster shifts, When I Work for price or Homebase for a single free site. If you want free attendance for a big team, Jibble. If you bill clients for time and never needed a rota, TimeTracker, where hours feed project profitability directly.
A professional team working on a laptop at a warm wooden desk in an office.

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