Free online rota maker — make a staff rota free
Build the weekly staff rota online — drag shift templates onto the week, copy from last week, and publish to your team's phones. Starter is free for up to 10 employees, with UK working-time checks and labour-cost estimates included. No credit card or time limit.
No credit card required · UK-built & hosted
Ready to send it to your team?
Create a free account to save your rota, reuse it next week and share shifts straight to staff phones.
How do I make a staff rota online for free?
Sign up for the free WorkSchedule Starter plan, add your staff, create a few reusable shift templates, then drag them onto the week and publish. It takes about ten minutes for a first rota, stays free for up to 10 staff, and warns you before you break UK working time rules.
- 1Create a free account — no card, no trial clock.
- 2Add up to 10 staff individually on Starter; bulk import requires Professional.
- 3Save shift templates such as "Lunch", "Evening" or "Bar close".
- 4Drag templates onto the week, check the warnings, and publish to phones.
What "free" actually means
Most "free" rota tools either lock the useful bits behind a paywall or expire after 14 days. WorkSchedule's Starter plan is free for small teams forever — full drag-and-drop rota building, mobile sharing, and UK working time warnings included.
- No credit card to sign up
- No 14-day clock — Starter stays free
- No watermarks on printed rotas
- Professional extras are paid even for teams of 10 or fewer
How the free rota maker works
Add your team, build a few reusable shift templates (e.g. "Lunch", "Evening", "Bar close"), then drag them onto the week. Conflicts and Working Time breaches are flagged before you publish.
UK working-time checks included in Starter
Starter includes daily-rest, weekly-rest and under-18 checks, plus average-hours checks over 17 weeks where applicable. Rest exceptions require manager decisions and compensatory-rest details; warnings remain. Checks do not establish legal compliance.
Make a rota online in six steps
A first weekly rota usually takes about ten minutes. After week one you copy the previous week and adjust, which takes a couple of minutes.
- 1. Create the free account and name your site — e.g. "The Old Bakery, Leeds".
- 2. Add up to 10 staff individually with their contracted hours; imports require Professional.
- 3. Save shift templates for your real trading pattern, such as Open 07:00–15:00 or Close 17:00–00:30.
- 4. Drag templates onto the week — one row per person, one column per day.
- 5. Read the warnings: double bookings, rest gaps under 11 hours, anyone over 48 hours.
- 6. Publish. Staff get a link and open the rota in any phone browser.
What it looks like in a real week
Three examples from UK hospitality teams building a rota online:
- Café, 6 staff: two templates (Open, Mid) cover the whole week, with a third Brunch shift added for Saturday and Sunday.
- Pub, 14 staff on Professional: bar and kitchen kept as separate work areas, with a Close template that triggers a rest-gap warning if the same person is on Open the next morning.
- Restaurant, 22 staff on Professional: split shifts for lunch and dinner service, plus a part-time under-18 whose hours are capped automatically.
What you get
Free Starter plan
Free for up to 10 employees. Weekly rotas, UK checks and labour-cost estimates. No card or expiry.
Drag-and-drop building
Click a shift template, drag it onto a day. No formulas, no merged cells.
Mobile for staff
Employees see their shifts on any phone — no app install needed.
UK compliance built in
Warnings for the 48-hour week, 11-hour rest gap, weekly rest day, and under-18 rules.
Free essentials. Professional extras.
Starter is free forever for up to 10 employees — no credit card required. Professional is a paid plan from £2.25/month after a 14-day free trial. The £2.25/month minimum still applies under 10 employees; each employee beyond 10 adds another £2.25/month.
Starter · Free for up to 10 employees
Weekly rotas with reusable templates and copy-week, staff access on any phone, time-off requests and approvals, UK working-time checks and reports. Authorised managers can see live labour-cost estimates — including employer NIC, pension and optional holiday accrual — and export labour-cost reports as CSV. No card or expiry.
Professional · Paid, after a 14-day trial
Everything in Starter, plus monthly schedule views, delegated admin-team roles, bulk staff CSV import, Excel/CSV rota import, custom branding and private support chat. Grow beyond 10 employees.
FAQs
Is the rota maker actually free?+
Yes. The Starter plan is free for small UK teams with no credit card and no time limit. You only pay if you outgrow the included team size or want advanced features.
What's the catch on the free plan?+
Starter supports up to 10 employees. Professional adds monthly views, role-based access, bulk staff CSV import, Excel/CSV rota import and custom branding. Professional costs £2.25/month minimum after a 14-day trial, plus £2.25/month per employee beyond 10.
Do staff need to install an app?+
No. They view the rota in any phone browser — no app store install, no friction.
Can I import my existing rota?+
Professional includes staff CSV import and Excel/CSV rota import. Starter lets you add staff individually and build weekly rotas.
More questions? See pricing & plan FAQs or email us.
Related guides
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