Deputy vs When I Work

Deputy

Auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, micro-scheduling and wage-and-labour budgets are named features, and single-location through enterprise and franchise operations are addressed, but the captured pages never say which data source feeds the forecast, and I found no public information on qualifications or staffing requirements per shift. A proposal engine I cannot trace does not earn full demand-driven credit.

When I Work

Shift templates, skills and certification management, open shifts and labor sharing across unlimited locations are all described, and a smart auto-scheduler proposes shifts from eligibility, availability and preferences with budgeting and labor forecasting alongside. We found no public information naming the data source behind the forecast — the pages say only that scheduled hours are compared against "future demand" — and the method is marketed as "smart" rather than documented.

Deputy

"Labor Law Compliance" appears in every plan and the pages do name break-planning and fair-workweek compliance, which is more than a bare claim. But I found no public information on rest periods, daily hour maxima, Minijob earnings limits, or night, Sunday and holiday surcharges, and nothing states whether a check blocks publication or only warns — for a German close, nothing here turns a worked hour into a correctly topped-up wage.

When I Work

Beyond "overtime and break tracking" and "custom scheduling rules" no rule is ever named: we found no public information on rest periods, daily hour limits, youth or maternity protection, Minijob earnings limits, or night, Sunday and holiday surcharges from a collective agreement. The terms state the service "is designed for use by Workplaces and individuals in the United States", so the worked month leaves these pages with no enforceable rule behind it.

Deputy

A mobile app with leave and availability management, shift swap and find-replacement, a messaging news feed, and a time-clock app with biometric clocking are all named. I found no public information on swaps being checked against the rule set before approval, offline clocking or language coverage, so it falls short of the complete shop-floor offer.

When I Work

The floor worker gets a real mobile app — availability and time-off requests, OpenShifts to claim, swaps under manager review, GPS or geofenced clock-in, shift confirmation alerts, and built-in team messaging with reminders and direct messages that keep shift talk out of private chats. We found no public information on swap approvals being checked against eligibility or rest rules, on offline clock-in handling, shared terminals, or language coverage.

Deputy

Custom access levels exist in the Pro plan and there is a privacy centre with GDPR resources and sub-processor change notifications. But biometric time clocking is presented with no statement that it can be switched off, I found no public information on retention or deletion periods for availability and absence data, and no audit log of who viewed an individual's record — thin material for a works agreement.

When I Work

Visibility is a fixed set of roles — Admin, Supervisor, Manager, Employee — plus a one-line "Advanced privacy and data controls", and we found no public information on configurable visibility of absence reasons, an audit log of who viewed or changed someone's data, or retention periods for availability and absence records. GPS location collection is permission-based and geofenced clock-in is marketed prominently, and we found no public information on switching monitoring functions off or on material a works council could review.

Deputy

Payroll is sold as its own module — "Available on annual Core and Pro plans in the US. Monthly base and per employee fee varies by business size." — alongside unnamed "Payroll & HR Integrations" and a public API. The captured pages name no payroll system, no POS and no HR system, and I found no public information on wage types per surcharge, a lock step before transmission, or corrections after the month closes; as a handoff story this is a promise, not a design.

When I Work

Attendance and labor data sync to named platforms — Rippling, ADP, QuickBooks, Gusto — with POS integration, third-party import/export and a documented API, which is more than a raw CSV handoff. We found no public information on wage types mapped per surcharge, a lock step before transmission, retro corrections after the month closes, or any European payroll route; the tips tracking shown is US-style gratuities, not collective-agreement surcharges.

Deputy

The contracting entity shown on the captured pages is Deputy Corporation in San Francisco, the vendor is Australian, hosting region is nowhere stated, and no sub-processor is named beyond an option to be notified of changes. A GDPR privacy centre exists, but nothing shows where the employee data lives.

When I Work

Contracting entity and primary data centers sit in the United States — When I Work, Inc. of Minneapolis, terms governed by Minnesota law, "We maintain primary data centers in the United States" — and the only subprocessor the pages name is Clair, which receives hours worked, hourly rate and break information for on-demand pay. We found no public information on an EU hosting option or the wider subprocessor chain, so availability, absence and location data on employees rest wholly outside the EU.

Deputy

Three tiers carry public per-user prices — Lite at "$5 per user per month (USD excl. all applicable taxes)", then "$6.50" and "$9" — with billing options and a 10% annual discount stated. But the payroll add-on's fee "varies by business size", the Flexi plan is unpriced, Deputy AI is only "INTRODUCTORY FREE", and I found no public information on minimum terms or how inactive and seasonal staff are counted.

When I Work

The per-user maths is public — $2.50 per user per month for a single location or schedule, $5 per user per month for multiple — with monthly or annual billing, a free 14-day trial without a credit card, no setup fees and cancellation at any time. Enterprise pricing goes through a sales conversation and single sign-on or API access is posed as a question rather than priced, and we found no public information on VAT treatment, how inactive or seasonal staff are counted, or terminal hardware, so the annual invoice is still not computable from public pages alone.