Rostera vs renting the software.
A weekly rota that catches double bookings, and a login for each person to see their shifts.
Competitor prices on this page read between 2026-09-03 and 2026-10-11, each row dated, each one read on the vendor's own page and linked in Sources.
The subscription math.
3 months of Homebase costs what Rostera costs once.
The fine print
How their pricing grows. Homebase meters by LOCATION rather than by employee, and adds payroll as a second meter with its own base fee plus a per-head rate.
“payroll is available as an add-on product on all plans for a standard $49 base fee / month + $6 per employee paid / month (read 2026-09-24)” Read 2026-09-03.
Who should stay with Homebase. Stay with Homebase if you want hiring, messaging, payroll and time clocks in one hosted account across sites. Rostera is the rota itself — a weekly schedule, exact hours and double-bookings caught — bought once and run on your own server.
How we counted. The entry PAID tier on annual billing, per location. Homebase is the one rival on this product that does not meter people — employees are unlimited and the location is the unit — so a big single-site team is where it is strongest and a multi-site operator is where it costs. Rostera is $69 once, for any number of staff on any number of sites you run it on under its license.
10 months of When I Work costs what Rostera costs once.
The fine print
How their pricing grows. When I Work bills per user per month, with the per-seat rate rising for multi-location businesses.
“When I Work pricing starts at just $2.50 per user per month for single-location teams, and $5 per user per month for multi-location businesses.” Read 2026-09-26.
Who should stay with When I Work. If you need built-in payroll integration and HR benefits management alongside scheduling, stay with When I Work — Rostera plans shifts only and holds no pay rates or wages.
How we counted. Per-seat monthly. Figure shown for 3 staff on Essentials, the single-location plan; Rostera is one payment, unlimited staff. Re-read 2026-10-11: prices unchanged; the plans are named Essentials, Pro and Premium again (on 2026-09-26 the page named them by what they cover, one location against several).
12 months of Sling costs what Rostera costs once.
The fine print
How their pricing grows. Sling charges per active user on its paid Premium and Business tiers and automatically prorates the bill when a team member is removed.
“If a team member leaves or is deactivated, we’ll prorate your account for the unused spot.” Read 2026-08-11.
Who should stay with Sling. If you need GPS or kiosk clock-ins, stay with Sling. Rostera plans the shifts; clocking in and out is Clockora's job — a live timer per person that files a draft timesheet entry — and both come in the Workforce Suite. Neither records anyone's location.
How we counted. Per-user - calculator assumes 3 staff x $2.00 = $6.00/mo on Premium (monthly billing; $1.70/user billed annually). Sling is genuinely cheap per head, so the payback is long for a small team and shortens as the roster grows; Rostera is one payment for unlimited staff. Annual billing is a stated 15% off on both paid tiers.
3 months of Deputy costs what Rostera costs once.
The fine print
How their pricing grows. Deputy bills per user across its Lite, Core, and Pro plans, and additionally enforces a minimum monthly spend per account regardless of how few people are on the team.
“Yes - there is a minimum monthly spend of USD $30/AUD $30/GBP £20 per month per invoice on our monthly Lite, Core & Pro plans from September 1, 2025.” Read 2026-08-11.
Who should stay with Deputy. If you need a built-in time clock with biometric attendance capture, stay where you are — Rostera is not a time clock and has no time or biometric capture.
How we counted. Per-seat with a $30/mo floor, so small teams pay at least that every month. Rostera has no seats and no recurring bill.
Work out your own numbers.
The rented figures use the cited plan price above; per-seat plans scale by the seat count from that same cited price. This is arithmetic, not a quote.
Also in this category.
“$39.99 CAD Per month/location Up to 30 employees”
Why owning beats renting here.
No per-month, per-seat or per-location fees: the license does not expire.
Your data sits on a server you choose; customer records are not held in a vendor's cloud unless you put them there.
Records, users and usage are limited by your hosting, not by a pricing tier.
It keeps working if the vendor doesn't: no one can switch your copy off, and keeping it up to date is in your hands.
The fair trade-offs: you host it, you back it up, and updates are yours to apply. The product page lists what Rostera deliberately doesn't do.
Related on this site
Sources
- Homebase: price checked 2026-09-03, source“basicget started with homebase and set up a new team.$0/ location / month for 1 location, up to 10 employees ... essentialssimplify the process of tracking & managing shifts.$30$24/ location / month unlimited employees ... (2026-09-24) payroll is available as an add-on product on all plans for a…”
- When I Work: price checked 2026-10-11, source“Essentials $2 .50 /user/month ... Pro $5 /user/month ... Premium $8 /user/month ... flexible monthly or annual billing options”
- Sling: price checked 2026-09-03, source“$ 2.00 1.70 per user per month”
- Deputy: price checked 2026-09-03, source“there is a minimum monthly spend of USD $30 ... per month per invoice on our monthly Lite, Core & Pro plans from September 1, 2025”
- 7shifts: price checked 2026-09-26, source“[line-up A, European time zone] Essentials ... $39.99 CAD Per month/location Up to 30 employees ... Pro ... $79.99 CAD ... Premium ... $134.99 CAD ... [Monthly] $44.99 CAD ... $89.99 CAD ... $149.99 CAD ... [line-up B] Pro $89.99 CAD Per month/location ... Premium $179.99 CAD ... [Monthly] $99.99…”
Competitor prices change, so always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown.