An honest comparison
roster vs the spreadsheet
The spreadsheet is free, everybody knows it, and it works until it does not. This page is not about the spreadsheet being bad. It is about the three moments where it stops being free: a swap nobody recorded, a wage query with no record, and a Saturday with a gap.
| roster | A spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | €29.99 a month per venue, flat, unlimited staff. Public at roster.ie/pricing. | Free. The cost is the manager's evening, every week. |
| Publishing | One click and the week is on every phone, changes flagged. | A photo in the group chat. Out of date the moment someone swaps. |
| A dropped shift | The schedule posts the gap as a paid shift and a vetted, rated worker fills it. Built in. | Ring around. Cover it yourself. |
| Hours worked | Clock-in with a PIN and a photo on any phone. Timecards show scheduled, clocked and paid. | Whatever was written down, or remembered. |
| Wage queries | The record is the timecard: punches, breaks, approvals, adjustments with reasons. | Your word against theirs. |
| Irish rules | Sunday premium, breaks, public holidays, sick pay and tips statements applied and recorded. | Applied if remembered, recorded nowhere. |
| Payroll | One payroll-ready CSV with Sunday and public holiday hours broken out, for whatever software your accountant runs. | Typed into the payroll system from the sheet. |
| Switching cost | Import the spreadsheet itself: names, roles and rates come with you. | n/a |
Written from what venues tell us about running the week on a spreadsheet, as of September 2026. If your spreadsheet does something this page says it cannot, tell us at hello@roster.ie and we will correct it.
Credit where due
Where the spreadsheet is strong
It is free, it needs no training and it is yours. For a venue of three people who never swap and never dispute an hour, it may be all you need. roster earns its price the first time a swap goes wrong or a wage query lands.
Switching
An afternoon, not a project.
Save the spreadsheet as CSV, import it into roster, and your team is on a schedule in an afternoon.
Seven days free · no contracts · cancel any time · no card to start
Built in Ireland
Built for Irish employment law, with support based in Ireland.
Seven days free
No card to start, no contract, cancel any time.
Payments by Stripe
Card details never touch roster. Shift payments are held and released by Stripe.
ID-verified workers
Every marketplace worker has had their identity and right to work checked.
