Deputy Pricing Explained (2026): Lite, Core, Pro, and the Minimum Spend

Deputy is a scheduling and time and attendance platform built for shift work in retail, hospitality, and healthcare, per our Deputy comparison page, and its price list reads that way. The tiers are keyed to how deep the scheduling goes, the add-ons cover payroll, HR, messaging, and analytics, and there is a minimum monthly spend. Every figure below comes from Deputy's pricing page as of September 8, 2026, plus what we recorded on the comparison page in July 2026. The dollar amounts are in the table; the prose explains what they mean for a crew that works at job sites rather than behind a counter.

01

What the price includes

Every tier is priced per user per month, in USD, excluding taxes, and you can pay monthly or upfront. Here is what each tier lists on the pricing page, as of September 8, 2026:

Lite covers the basics a crew needs to record hours: a clock, timesheets, a schedule, and leave. Core adds the scheduling features for a business whose staffing rises and falls with customer traffic. Pro adds admin controls: custom access levels, location hierarchies, and single sign-on. Our comparison page recorded a 31-day free trial in July 2026.

02

What costs extra

The first extra is the minimum spend. Deputy bills a minimum amount in USD each month, and the amount is in the table above. The math for a three-person crew is simple: three seats on Lite come to half the minimum, so the invoice is the minimum, and three seats on Core or Pro also fall short of it. A crew of six on Lite lands exactly on the minimum; below that headcount, the invoice is the minimum rather than the seat total.

The second extra is the add-on list, all priced per user per month. The payroll add-on, listed as Paycor on the page, has a per user rate plus its own monthly base fee. HR, Messaging+, and Analytics+ each add a per user amount. Annual billing takes 10 percent off add-ons. If you want payroll inside Deputy, the payroll base fee sits on top of the seats and the minimum, so watch that line.

The third item is something the page does not list. The tier lists we read on September 8, 2026 do not mention geofencing on any tier, and our comparison page recorded location capture at clock-in rather than job-site geofencing. Deputy records where a punch happened; whether it can stop a punch away from the job is a question for the rep.

03

Questions to ask on the demo

1. Does Deputy fence a job site so that a clock-in away from the site is stopped or reported, or does it capture location at clock-in only?
2. What does the minimum spend mean at my headcount, and does it count seats only or seats plus add-ons?
3. Which tier carries the break and overtime rules for my state, and what does "labor law compliance" on Lite cover, exactly?
4. What do the add-ons total for my crew, and does the payroll base fee apply on top of the minimum spend?
5. Is upfront billing a 12-month commitment, and what happens to the bill if I drop seats?
6. What does "location hierarchies" on Pro mean for a company whose locations are job sites that open and close?
7. Which payroll export formats are available for my payroll provider?

Ask for each answer in writing, dated, so the quote matches the invoice.

04

When Deputy is the right choice

Deputy fits a shift-based business that needs demand forecasting and wage budgets to build a roster: a restaurant, a store, a clinic, any business with rotating shifts at fixed addresses. Auto scheduling, shift swaps, and forecasting are the features Deputy lists on its tiers, and a business that runs on a weekly roster gets real value from them.

It also fits a trades company with a front counter: a supply desk or showroom with hourly staff on rotating shifts and a separate crew in the field. Price it against the minimum spend for the counter headcount alone, and decide the field side on its own terms.

05

How Clox compares

Clox has one plan. It costs $29 a month, which includes the first 3 users, and $6 per user per month after that. A three-person crew pays $29. Six people is $47 a month ($29 plus 3 × $6), and 10 people is $71. On annual billing the same crew pays $240 a year for the first 3 users and $60 per user per year after that, about 20 percent off.

The base already covers the first three users, so a one-person or two-person shop pays the same $29 as a three-person crew, and there is no minimum beyond that base. There are no add-ons, no tiers, no sales call, and no onboarding fee. The full price is on the pricing page.

The difference that matters for a field crew is where the punch happens. Worksites in Clox are named locations with a GPS coordinate and a radius (200 meters by default). Geofencing is switched on per employee, so the field crew can be fenced and the counter staff left alone. A fenced worker outside every assigned worksite at clock-in sees the punch blocked with a message to get on site; the worksites and geofence docs show the setup.

Location is read only at the moment of the punch, with no tracking between punches and no live map. Because the location comes from the phone, the geofence is a deterrent rather than proof that the worker was on site. A site WiFi check adds a second, independent test for indoor and multi-floor sites.

Scheduling is included. Managers build shifts on the web or in the app on a drag-and-drop week board, rows for people and columns for days, with recurring series and project colors. You can also require a scheduled shift before someone can clock in. The crew sees upcoming shifts on their phones.

Clox has a limit in the other direction: no demand forecasting, no wage budgets, and no auto scheduling. If your staffing decisions come from a forecast of customer traffic, Deputy's Core tier does something Clox does not. What Clox does instead is the field work: one-tap punches that queue offline and send when signal returns, a PIN kiosk for a shared tablet, and job and task costing. Weekly and California daily overtime rules, multi-rate pay, time off, and approvals with an audit log are on the same plan.

Exports produce payroll files for ADP RUN, ADP Workforce Now, Paychex Flex, Gusto, QuickBooks Desktop, and a universal CSV. For QuickBooks Online there is a CSV import and an optional live sync. The time clock app cost post puts minimum spends and base fees side by side across vendors.

06

FAQ

Clox is free to try for 14 days with no card on file, and the first paid subscription carries a 30-day money-back guarantee. Start a free trial, set up a worksite and a schedule, and run one real week with the crew.