Deputy alternative
A Deputy alternative where the rota comes with the rest of HR
Deputy is a specialist scheduling and time-clock tool, priced per user, with HR sold as an add-on. Omega People is an HR system with the rota and the time clock included, priced per company: £35 a month for up to 25 people. For a very small team that only needs scheduling, Deputy costs less; once you also need leave, contracts, hiring and expenses, or the team grows, the per-company price is the lower one. Deputy does more in scheduling itself, and this page says where.
Checked on
In short
What changes compared with Deputy
- HR is the product, not the add-on. In Deputy, hiring, onboarding and documents are an HR add-on charged per user on top of the plan, in the US, the UK and Australia. In Omega People employee records, contracts, e-signature, leave, expenses, reviews and training sit alongside the rota in every band.
- The price does not move with each hire. Deputy charges per user per month, and managers and admins count as users. Omega People costs £35 a month for up to 25 employees, £69 for up to 75, £119 for up to 200 and £179 for up to 500, excluding tax; managers are not charged separately.
- A rota that checks the rules. Shift templates with staffing needs, copy a week, draft and publish, swaps with optional approval, and checks against daily rest, weekly rest, maximum weekly hours and consecutive days under the country’s working-time rules.
- Where Deputy costs less. If scheduling and a time clock are all you need, Deputy Lite on monthly billing is cheaper than our first band for up to 9 users in the UK, 7 in the US and 7 in Australia.
- What Deputy has that Omega People doesn’t: auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, wage budgets, biometric clock-in at the kiosk, iPhone, Android and tablet apps, award interpretation in Australia, and payroll add-ons in Australia and the US.
Cost
The monthly bill by market, for 25 and for 60 people
| Market and team | Omega People (every module) | Deputy Lite | Deputy Core | Deputy Core + HR add-on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom, 25 people | £35 | £90 | £118.75 | £168.75 |
| United States, 25 people | US$39 | US$137.50 | US$181.25 | US$231.25 |
| Australia, 25 people | A$59 | A$187.50 | A$243.75 | A$331.25 |
| United Kingdom, 60 people | £69 | £216 | £285 | £405 |
| United States, 60 people | US$79 | US$330 | US$435 | US$555 |
| Australia, 60 people | A$119 | A$450 | A$585 | A$795 |
Omega People: monthly price excluding tax, every module included; pay yearly and get 2 months free. Prices for all six countries are in the pricing section.
Deputy: per user per month on monthly billing, excluding tax, multiplied by the number of people; managers and admins count as users. Billed annually, the per-user rates for Lite, Core and Pro are £3.25, £4.25 and £6.50 in the UK, US$5, US$6.50 and US$9 in the US and A$6.75, A$8.75 and A$13 in Australia. The HR add-on is £2, US$2 and A$3.50 per user per month. Minimum monthly spend: £20, US$30 and A$30. New Zealand is billed in Australian dollars; Canada and everywhere else in US dollars. Checked on 5 October 2026.
Read the table both ways. A team of 9 in the UK that only needs a rota and a time clock pays less with Deputy Lite than with our first band. The comparison turns when the rest of HR has to be bought as well, and as headcount rises: our price is the same for 10 people as for 25.
Deputy is a trademark of its respective owner. Omega People is not affiliated with or endorsed by the owners of these trademarks. Other vendors’ prices and features were taken from their official websites on 5 October 2026: they may change, so please check before you decide.
Feature by feature
Scheduling and HR, side by side
| Feature | Omega People | Deputy |
|---|---|---|
| Rota and scheduling | Yes: templates with staffing needs, copy a week, publish, multi-site | Yes, from Lite |
| Shift swaps and availability | Yes, swaps with optional approval | Yes, from Lite |
| Auto-scheduling and demand forecasting | No | From Core |
| Labour budgets | No; reports show estimated labour cost | Wage budgets, from Core |
| Time clock and timesheets | Yes, with corrections, overtime thresholds and time off in lieu | Yes, from Lite |
| On-site kiosk | A web page on a tablet: badge code or QR code, optional PIN | Tablet app; biometric (face) clock-in from Core |
| Clocking in from a phone | In the browser, nothing to install | iPhone and Android apps |
| Leave | Balances, accrual, carry-over and statutory minimums for six countries | Leave and availability, from Lite |
| Hiring, onboarding and documents | Included in every band | HR add-on, per user, in the US, the UK and Australia |
| Expenses, performance reviews, training, speak-up channel | Included in every band | Not compared here: see the vendor’s website |
| Country rules | UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland: leave minimums, public holidays by nation, state, province or canton, working-time limits, onboarding checklists | Award interpretation in Australia; fair-workweek compliance in the US |
| Payroll | Does not run payroll: it prepares the month (hours, overtime, absences, reimbursements) and exports a file for your payroll software or accountant | Its own payroll add-on in Australia; through Paycor in the US |
| Pricing model | Per company, in bands by headcount; managers and HR admins are not charged per user | Per user; managers and admins count as users |
| Price list | Published for six countries: pounds sterling, US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars, Swiss francs | US dollars, Australian dollars and pounds sterling |
The country rules in Omega People were last reviewed against official sources on 5 October 2026. They are a starting point, not legal advice: contracts, awards and collective agreements can differ, and you can change every value.
Deputy is a trademark of its respective owner. Omega People is not affiliated with or endorsed by the owners of these trademarks. Other vendors’ prices and features were taken from their official websites on 5 October 2026: they may change, so please check before you decide.
From Deputy to Omega People
Moving your employee records across
One spreadsheet with one row per person is enough to start. You decide what to bring; the rest stays where it is until you no longer need it.
How to move across
- Export your employee list, or a report of employee records, as CSV or Excel from Deputy.
- Open the file and check it has a header row and one row per person. Save it as .csv or .xlsx (the older .xls format is not read).
- In Omega People, go to Employees › Import and choose the file. The columns are recognised automatically from their headings, in English, German or French.
- Do the dry run first: it shows what the import would do before anything is written. Then import. If the result is not what you expected, undo the import and try again.
What comes across to Omega People
- Names and contact details
- Job title, department, site and manager
- Contract type, working hours and start date
- Salary and employee number
- National ID and bank details
- The opening annual-leave balance, so nobody’s remaining days are lost
What stays behind
- Documents and signed files: they are not part of the import
- Absence and attendance history: bring the balance, and keep the history as an export
- Performance reviews and goals from past cycles
- Payroll history and past payslips
Run both for a month
Keep Deputy until one full month, from the first clock-in to the payroll file, has gone through Omega People. If a column in your file is not recognised, write to us from the contact page: support answers by email, Monday to Friday.
Honestly
When it makes sense to stay with Deputy
Deputy does one job in depth, and in that job it goes further than Omega People. Stay if:
- you run a shift-based business where the schedule is built from demand: auto-scheduling, forecasting and wage budgets;
- you want biometric clock-in at the kiosk, or your staff expect the Deputy apps on their phones;
- you are in Australia and need award interpretation, or in the US and need fair-workweek compliance;
- you are a small team that only needs scheduling: at that size Deputy Lite is the cheaper choice.
Omega People makes sense when the rota is one part of what you manage: the same people also need contracts signed, leave approved, expenses reimbursed and a file ready for payroll at the end of the month, and you would rather pay once for the company than per user for each layer.
Questions
What people ask us about this
What is a good Deputy alternative for small businesses?
Omega People is HR software with a rota, a time clock and timesheets built in, plus employee records, leave, expenses, hiring and document signing. It is priced per company: £35 a month for up to 25 employees, £69 for up to 75, £119 for up to 200 and £179 for up to 500, excluding tax. For a small team that only needs scheduling, Deputy Lite costs less; Omega People is the lower price once HR is needed too.
How much does Deputy cost?
According to the price lists on the Deputy website, checked on 5 October 2026, per user per month billed annually: Lite £3.25, Core £4.25 and Pro £6.50 in the UK; US$5, US$6.50 and US$9 in the US; A$6.75, A$8.75 and A$13 in Australia. Billed monthly, Lite is £3.60, US$5.50 and A$7.50. The HR add-on is £2, US$2 and A$3.50 per user per month, and managers count as users.
Does Omega People run payroll like Deputy?
No. Deputy offers its own payroll add-on in Australia and payroll through Paycor in the US. Omega People does not calculate pay, tax or award rates: it prepares the month from approved timesheets and exports a file for the payroll software you use, in a generic CSV or a named layout (in Australia: Xero Payroll AU, MYOB Business / AccountRight, Employment Hero Payroll (KeyPay), QuickBooks Online Payroll AU).
How do staff clock in without the Deputy app?
In Omega People staff clock in from their own page in the browser on a phone or computer, from a personal link with no account, or at an on-site kiosk: a web page on a tablet where they type their badge code or hold their badge’s QR code to the camera, with an optional PIN. There is no app to install.
Get started
Build next week’s rota and see the rest
Import your people, publish one week of shifts and let staff clock in from their phones. Leave, documents and expenses are already there. The first month is free, no card needed.
- No credit card required
- Nothing is charged unless you add a card