Searching for a staff rota app or a free rota app usually means one of two things, and they need different answers. Either you want the week worked out now, on your phone, without opening an account, or you want to run the whole team on something that costs nothing indefinitely. This site answers the first properly and is honest about the second. Both worksheets here are free forever, with no account, no card and no trial clock, and they return the shifts to fill, the hours, the cost and the gap against contracts every time you open them. What free does not do is remember anything: the moment the rota has to be there tomorrow, published to the team and changed by a named person, something has to store it.
What the best rota app does that a spreadsheet on a phone does not
It shows each person their own shifts without them scrolling a grid meant for a printer. It lets a supervisor publish a week and change it, and it records who changed what. It totals the hours and the cost as the shifts move rather than when someone remembers to add them up. And it holds the person's rate and contracted hours so the totals mean something. A rota app that only displays the spreadsheet more prettily has solved the wrong problem; the spreadsheet was never hard to read, it was hard to keep true.
What a free staff rota app in the UK usually caps
Headcount, most often: free up to a handful of users, then per user per month above that. Or time: a free trial with a clock on it. Or the feature you actually need, usually publishing to staff or the swap history, which sits on the paid tier. None of that is dishonest, it is how per user software is sold, but it means free rota software is free until you hire, and the comparison to run is your headcount times their per user price. Deputy's UK page, read on 5 September 2026, lists its plans at £3.25, £4.25 and £6.50 per user per month with a £20 monthly minimum.
What is free here, what is not, and why the line is where it is
The two worksheets are free, permanently: the work rota template and the hourly rate calculator, the whole calculation, no account. What is not free is keeping it: staff, weeks, shifts, swaps, publishing and export are Weekrota Pro at a flat £6.50 a month for the whole team. The line sits there because the answer is what you came for and putting it behind a login would be a bait, and because storing your team's rota costs something to do properly and should be paid for plainly rather than recovered from a per user price that grows every time you hire.
Questions people ask about staff rota app
Is there a free rota app with no user limit?
The worksheets on this site have no user limit, no account and no trial, because they do not store anything. Apps that store the rota almost always cap the free tier by users or by time; read the cap before you build your rota on it.
Does the free rota software here work on a phone?
Yes. Both worksheets compute in the page and print, on any device, with no download. The paid workspace is also in the browser, so there is nothing to install for the team.
What does the paid plan cost?
Weekrota Pro is £6.50 a month for the whole team, billed monthly, however many people you add. Cancel yourself from the account page at any time.