Comparing Deputy Alternatives: 11 Top Options for 2025

ByEric Czerwonka Last Updated

Employee scheduling can seem like an impossible task. That’s why many businesses choose to use an employee scheduling solution like Deputy to simplify the process of creating work schedules.

However, Deputy’s features don’t match every employers’ wish list. If you’re in that group and are looking for a replacement, we’ve compiled these 11 great Deputy alternatives to consider.

1. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is a complete workforce management solution that helps business owners, managers, and human resources teams streamline time tracking, employee scheduling, and payroll.

Drag and drop scheduling

For a scheduling process that is far more efficient than calling, texting, or emailing employees, Buddy Punch has easy to use drag-and-drop scheduling. Just pick the employee, enter the start and finish times and the location, and drag and drop to build schedules. Then hit “publish” and you’re done!

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Schedule notifications

Once you publish or revise a schedule your employees will be notified. Since Buddy Punch isn’t only web-based, they can even use the Buddy Punch mobile app to check their shifts.

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Repeating shifts

Another great feature of Buddy Punch that will help you with employee scheduling is repeating shifts. This allows you to add a shift once and then choose for how long it will repeat, allowing you to create schedules fast and easily.

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Working hours and availability

Imagine never having to ask about (and remember) employee availability again. Well, that is precisely where Buddy Punch’s employee scheduling software can help, as employees can use the self-service features and simply input their availability so you never book them for a shift they cannot make.

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Shift trades

With Buddy Punch’s scheduling tool, coworkers can easily swap or trade shifts with each other. You can set it up so that you or a manager has to approve any shift trades to make sure you have the coverage you need.

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Shift start reminders

Buddy Punch will even send push notifications to your employees if they forget to clock in at the start of their shift, making sure everyone gets paid the right amount every time!

Additional features

In addition to employee scheduling, you can use Buddy Punch to track employee time, run payroll, and track paid time off. View all of Buddy Punch’s features.

Customer reviews

Buddy Punch has 1,000+ customer reviews on Capterra with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars! Below, you can see just a small portion of the reviews that describe how easy Buddy Punch is to use and how much customers appreciate the support Buddy Punch provides:

“Many of my employees are students with ever-changing schedules. Buddy Punch is easy to use for changing schedules weekly or even daily as things come up.”

“Having the availability option makes keeping up with personal time very simple. The features that allow changes to time and scheduling are simple, quick, and easy to perform.”

“I cannot say enough about their support. Even if the product was not as amazing as it is, I would highly recommend Buddy Punch due to the unbelievable support!”

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2. Homebase

Homebase has a lot of similar features as Deputy but expands in certain areas. It has automated scheduling features and a larger focus on team communication and management. It also has an employee happiness feature that helps you make sure that your employees aren’t frustrated with their schedules.

Key features

Homebase has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1,066 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“We implemented Homebase to track our employees’ hours for payroll. Each person has their own profile and can easily clock in and out. We are running the free version which is all we need at this time. Would definitely recommend.”

3. Connecteam

Connecteam lets you clearly plan your business work schedule with drag and drop interfaces. It also saves you time and effort by providing premade templates for single days and full weeks, as well as repeating shifts. 

Connecteam also helps you stay in contact with your team, ensuring they have access to all the scheduling and information they will need on their shift.

Key features

Connecteam has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 346 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“It has made my life so much easier. I use the forms feature, time clock, and quick tasks. I love the geofence which prohibits personnel from clocking in until they are on site. I love the quick tasks that run my office much smoother than the old fashioned diary.”

4. Paymo

Paymo offers a wide range of features designed to make scheduling faster and easier for all sizes of businesses — from enterprises to startups. Firstly, they offer easy scheduling on an aesthetically pleasing and uncomplicated visual timeline, which makes getting an overview of your entire scheduling situation a breeze. 

You can see both your project and employee schedules on the very same timeline, meaning you can easily make sure you have enough staff to cover tasks and meet your deadlines. Paymo also allows real-time scheduling by multiple managers, so your team can work together to come up with the most effective scheduling solutions. 

Lastly, Paymo, as well as being useful for employee scheduling, offers a helpful time tracking tool. This allows you to offer mobile time clocks to your employees and track their paid time with ease.

Key features

Paymo has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 691 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“It has helped our org so much. Great customer service. Intuitive. Affordable. I am excited to learn even more features and use it to its full potential.”

5. When I Work

When I Work can scale across multiple locations and cover the scheduling for your entire business. It also offers automated scheduling which means you can get all your week’s shifts covered in just a few clicks. 

When I Work will even check that you have enough staff and get them to confirm they have received their schedule while avoiding human error and misunderstandings. 

An added bonus to using When I Work’s employee management software is that it also makes any mobile device into a time clock.

Key features

When I Work has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1,128 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Overall, this is a great app for busy people who need an on-the-go scheduling app. I can quickly check my schedule and make changes when I need to. I am sure this is a lifesaver for employers trying to schedule multiple positions, especially with a lot of part-time workers.”

6. OnTheClock

OnTheClock is a great alternative to Deputy because it offers a range of features to assist you and your business with scheduling. You can use it to easily define shifts and then copy those for multiple employees and dates, saving you a great deal of time. 

OnTheClock also clearly shows how many hours each employee has been scheduled per week, so you can easily manage overtime or fill extra shifts when needed. OnTheClock can even be used to keep track of the hours of employees with set schedules.

Key features

OnTheClock has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 543 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“It provides many different ways of keeping track of employees. It’s user friendly for our employees and does not require computer skills. It will let you know who is in and out at any time of the day. It also lets you see where they are punching in.”

7. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is great for its tools that are more focused around productivity and attendance tracking, but it still has some of the other general options that you would want from a Deputy alternative. 

An interesting feature in Hubstaff is workforce analytics, which collects data over time so you can be given useful productivity information you can use to make decisions about your employees or projects.

Key features

Hubstaff has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1,507 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“What I liked most about Hubstaff is its easy time tracking and productivity monitoring. It integrates well with tools like Asana and Trello. The detailed reports help in optimizing workflows and tracking team performance.”

8. Workforce.com

Workforce.com is another great option for a Deputy alternative. It has all of the same features as Deputy, as well as some you don’t get in Deputy like performance, benefits, and task management. Its drag-and-drop scheduling makes parts of scheduling even quicker and easier for you to keep up with your employee’s schedules.  

Key features

Workforce.com has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 28 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“The ability to schedule in advance. Color code my employees for what job positions they are covering. Very organized and many options to view the schedule by. Cloud-based so I can pull it up from anywhere and look when needed. Affordable.”

9. Humanity by TCP

Humanity is an interesting alternative as it has unique and useful features like automated communications, which allows for you to quickly publish schedules and notify employees of their shifts and more. Their skill tracking even allows you to schedule based on employee skill, making every part of scheduling even quicker and easier. 

Key features

Humanity by TCP has an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 298 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Humanity makes it easier for companies to manage their employees’ shifts and have employees clock in and out. Employees can also mark themselves for leave and communicate with others in a way that makes working that much easier.”

10. Planday

Planday is a relatively simple option on this list, but it can still work well as an alternative to Deputy due to its close matching of certain features. Planday gives you many tools for understanding your employee’s availability, as well as making sure that schedules are adhered to when they’re put in place. 

Some of their reporting is also interesting and unique, such as their revenue forecasting, so you can create schedules that are in-line with your budgets and reduce the costs of business. 

Key features

Planday has an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 56 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Drag and drop functionality. Nice, clean, fresh layout. It’s also good that staff can swap shifts between themselves, giving them more flexibility and without putting a greater admin burden on managers. They listen to users and constantly improve the product.”

11. QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks Time is one of the most well known options on this list. It’s a fairly simple tool that provides some communication, time tracking, and scheduling tools that can get you incredibly far just on their own.

Key features

QuickBooks Time has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 6,962 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“As an accountant dealing with different employees on a contract, I see QuickBooks Time as the best assistant because it allows me to reconcile different data components when calculating employee wages and charging my clients. I get all this information in one place.”