ClockRota vs When I Work

ClockRota provides rota planning, clock-in, attendance, and payroll export tools for UK pubs, cafés, and restaurants. Managers can create weekly schedules in a grid by dragging, dropping, and duplicating shifts. Publishing a rota sends staff push and email alerts, and employees can arrange shift swaps for a manager to approve or decline. Attendance tools show who is working, who is late, and hours worked. ClockRota exports clocked hours as a CSV for payroll; no specific payroll integrations are named. Rota planning, staff clock-in, and payroll export work in a browser on phones, tablets, and computers. The site says a native app is in development, so clock-in currently uses the browser. The public beta is free for its duration, with every feature unlocked and no usage limits. After the beta, the listed plan for up to five staff is £9 per month; the 6–10 staff plan is £19 per month. Owners and managers count toward the team size, which determines the applicable staff band.

When I Work brings employee scheduling, shift swaps, team messaging, and time tracking together for shift-based workplaces. Auto scheduling assigns shifts using staff availability and qualifications, and managers can oversee multiple stores, departments, or job sites from one dashboard. The time clock tracks attendance, breaks, and time off, while staff can message without sharing phone numbers. It runs on the web, Android, and iOS. Essentials costs $2.50 a month billed per user per month; Pro is $5 a month billed per user per month; Premium is $8 a month billed per user per month. A 14-day trial offers complete access and requires no credit card, but there is no free plan. API key access, webhooks, and SAML/SSO are included in Premium. When I Work says it uses AWS, TLS, daily backups, multiple-disk writes, and mobile two-step verification. It does not offer an SLA, although its hosting partners guarantee 99.9% uptime.