Deputy started in Australia and is now a global workforce-management platform: scheduling, time and attendance, compliance rules and a long list of integrations. It is strong for chains and franchises with HR requirements. ShiftMaster is deliberately smaller: a schedule, an AI that drafts it, and Canadian payroll numbers, for a flat price.
Bottom line up front: Deputy is the more powerful system and it shows in the price and the setup. For a single Canadian café or shop with 5 to 30 staff, ShiftMaster covers the daily job at a fraction of the cost and is the only one of the two that calculates Canadian deductions.
Side-by-side feature comparison
| Feature | 🍁 ShiftMaster | Deputy |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | ✅ 30-day free trial, no card | ⚡ Free trial; no free plan |
| Paid pricing | ✅ $5 CAD/month flat, every feature, any team size | ⚡ Per user per month in USD (scheduling, time & attendance or both); typically $4–$6 USD per user |
| Built in Canada 🍁 | ✅ Canadian company, Canadian pricing | ❌ Australian company; serves Canada |
| Canadian payroll deductions | ✅ Built in: CPP/QPP, EI, QPIP, federal + provincial tax | ❌ No Canadian payroll; exports to payroll providers |
| Every province and territory | ✅ All 10 provinces and 3 territories, 2026 CRA and Revenu Québec tables | ❌ Not applicable |
| AI auto-scheduling | ✅ Included: trained on your own past schedules | ⚡ Auto-scheduling on the Premium tier |
| Employee availability | ✅ Yes, with conflict warnings when you book | ✅ Yes |
| Shift swaps | ✅ Yes, coworker accepts, manager approves | ✅ Yes, with approval |
| Publish and notify | ✅ One click, each person emailed their own shifts | ✅ Yes, with push notifications |
| Labour cost tracking | ✅ Live projected labour vs weekly budget | ✅ Yes, with wage and sales forecasting |
| Mobile for staff | ⚡ Browser portal on any phone, nothing to install | ✅ Native apps, including a kiosk mode |
| Time clock / punch-in | ❌ Not yet | ✅ Yes, with facial recognition kiosk |
| Team messaging | ❌ Not yet (email notifications only) | ✅ Yes, news feed and messaging |
| POS integrations | ❌ None | ✅ Square, Lightspeed, Vend and many HR/payroll tools |
| Setup time | ✅ Under 10 minutes | ❌ Hours to days for rules and integrations |
| Team size sweet spot | ✅ Built for 5–30 staff | ⚡ Mid-size and multi-site businesses |
Deputy details are from its public website and pricing page as of September 2026, converted loosely to give a sense of scale; plans and prices change, so confirm on their site. ShiftMaster's column describes the current product.
Best for Canadian small businesses: ShiftMaster
Every shift becomes a payroll line with CPP or QPP, EI, QPIP where it applies, and federal and provincial income tax for all 13 jurisdictions, at $5 CAD a month. Deputy needs a separate payroll tool to get the same numbers.
Where Deputy still has an edge
To be fair, Deputy has things ShiftMaster does not have yet:
- Compliance rules — break rules, fatigue rules and award interpretation, useful for regulated workplaces
- Time and attendance — kiosk clock-in with photo verification and timesheet approval
- Integrations — dozens of POS, HR and payroll connections
- Scale — designed for franchises and chains with many locations
Choose Deputy if you have several locations, need enforced compliance rules or a clock-in kiosk, and already run payroll in a provider Deputy integrates with.
The Canadian payroll difference
Deputy sends approved hours to payroll systems, but none of its Canadian integrations replace the deduction math; you still pay for and reconcile a separate payroll service.
With Deputy in Canada the monthly routine still looks like this:
- Export hours from Deputy
- Import them into a Canadian payroll service (typically $40–$150 CAD a month) or a spreadsheet
- Reconcile the two sets of numbers
- Work out CPP or QPP, EI, QPIP and income tax for each person
- Remit to the CRA (and Revenu Québec) separately
ShiftMaster does steps 1 to 4 inside the schedule. Open a pay period, expand an employee, and the gross, deductions, net pay and employer cost are there. You can check the math against our free Canadian payroll deductions calculator, which runs on the same engine.
Try ShiftMaster free for 30 days
No credit card. Drag-and-drop scheduling, an AI that drafts next week from your own history, staff shift swaps, and Canadian payroll for every province.
Start Free Today →Verdict
Choose ShiftMaster if: you are a Canadian café, restaurant or retail shop with 5 to 30 staff, you want the schedule and the payroll numbers in one place, and you want to be set up in an afternoon.
Choose Deputy if: you have several locations, need enforced compliance rules or a clock-in kiosk, and already run payroll in a provider Deputy integrates with.