Deputy Review 2026: Pricing, Pros and Cons
Reviewed November 1, 2026 by Loïc Joachim
A polished scheduling and time attendance platform from Australia, priced per user with a monthly minimum.
| Best for | Multi site hospitality, retail and healthcare businesses with complex rosters and award rules. |
|---|---|
| How staff clock in | Tablet kiosk, Mobile app |
| Free plan | No |
| 20 staff | $100 / month |
| 50 staff | $250 / month |
| 100 staff | $500 / month |
| Made in | Australia |
| Website | deputy.com |
Prices are in US dollars for the cheapest plan that includes a time clock, as of our last review. Check the vendor's site for current pricing.
Our Deputy review
Deputy is one of the most established scheduling and time attendance products, and it is clearly built for businesses with complicated rosters: multiple sites, award rates, demand based scheduling and lots of part time staff. The kiosk takes a photo on every clock in and the mobile app supports geofencing.
Pricing is per user, starting around $5 per user per month on the Lite plan, and monthly plans have a $30 minimum per invoice. HR, extra messaging and analytics are add-ons, so the real bill is often higher than the headline price. There is no free plan.
It is a capable product, but it takes real setup time and some training before managers are comfortable with it. For a single site business that just needs reliable clock ins, it is more than you need.
Pros
- Mature scheduling with demand forecasting and award interpretation
- Kiosk with photo capture, plus mobile clock in with geofencing
- Large range of payroll integrations
Cons
- No free plan, only a 30 day trial
- Priced per user, with a $30 monthly minimum on monthly plans
- HR, messaging and analytics are paid add-ons on top
- A lot of configuration to get right before it runs smoothly
Deputy features
- Tablet kiosk app
- Clock in from a phone
- Desktop app
- Proprietary hardware clock
- Paper card punching
- PIN entry
- NFC cards or tags
- Face recognition
- Fingerprint reader
- GPS location checks
- Cloud based
- Ongoing subscription
- Locks you into their hardware
Weighing up Deputy against us? Read our side by side Timeclock.Kiwi vs Deputy comparison.
Looking for something simpler?
Timeclock.Kiwi was built by people who were fed up with time clocks that take three screens and a training session to use. Staff tap their name and a PIN on any tablet, a photo is taken in the background, and hours export straight to your payroll. You pay per kiosk, not per employee, from $5 a month.
Free for 3 months, no credit card required.
Deputy alternatives
- Homebase A broad scheduling, time clock and HR toolkit for hourly teams, with a free plan for small single location businesses.
- 7shifts Restaurant scheduling software with a separate time clock app called 7punches.
- Connecteam An all in one app for deskless teams with a time clock, scheduling, chat and forms, priced with a flat base for the first 30 users.
- Gusto A leading US payroll provider whose time tools and kiosk come with the Plus and Premium payroll plans.