A rota generator promises to write the week for you, and the promise is about half true. The half that is true is the arithmetic: given the days you open, the shifts in a day, the people each shift needs, the hours in a shift and your rate, a rota maker can tell you the shifts to fill, the hours, the cost and whether the team is big enough, instantly and without a mistake. The half that is not true is the names. An automatic rota generator that places people needs their availability, their contracted hours, their skills and the business's own sense of who should not work the Saturday close alone, and no free online rota maker knows those. This page is about which half you are buying.
What a rota generator can automate, honestly
Everything that is a multiplication. Days times shifts times people is the shifts to fill; times hours a shift is the rota hours; over the headcount is the average per person; times the rate is the cost of the week; against contracted hours is the gap. That is the whole of what the free rota planner on this site does, and it does it in the page with no account. On the worked example seven days, two shifts, three people and eight hours becomes 42 shifts, 336 hours, 28 hours a head and £4,270.56 at £12.71 an hour, before any name is placed.
Why the automatic part still needs a person
Placing names is a constraint problem, and the constraints live in your head: who is trained on the till, who cannot work Wednesdays, who has done three closes in a row, who is on 16 contracted hours and already has 20 on the rota. A rota creator that guesses those produces a rota that is technically full and practically unworkable, and the supervisor rewrites it by hand, which is the afternoon the tool was supposed to save. The useful automation is the checks: hours over the weekly limit, hours under contract, shifts still empty, flagged as you place people rather than found on the day.
Free rota planners, online rota makers and what free means
A free staff rota generator is free in one of three ways: it stores nothing, like the worksheet on this site; it stores a small team and charges above a cap; or it stores everything for a trial period. The first is free forever because it costs nothing to run for you; the other two are per user software with a free door. Decide which you are looking at before you build the rota in it. Here the planner is free forever and keeping the rota, with names, publishing and swaps, is Weekrota Pro at a flat £6.50 a month.
Questions people ask about rota generator
Is there a rota generator that is completely free online?
For the arithmetic, yes, on this site, with no account. For placing and storing names across weeks, free almost always means capped by users or by time; read the cap before you rely on it.
Can an automatic rota generator handle a 4 week rolling pattern?
The arithmetic side handles any cycle, because a cycle is just weeks. The placement side needs the pattern defined by a person first; once it is, the generator's job is to roll it forward and flag the exceptions.
What is the difference between a rota planner and a rota maker?
Nothing consistent. Both names are used for the same two things: a sheet that works out the week, and software that places and stores names. The free rota planner here is the first; Weekrota Pro is the second.