The short answer
You can buy a rota app to sit alongside Famly and give your staff a proper schedule on their phones. The best value one costs a few thousand a year.
But here is the catch, and it is the same catch for every product on the market. None of them build the rota for you, and none of them understand a ratio. They hand your managers a blank grid and leave the hard part, the part that takes the days and causes the mistakes, exactly where it is now.
So buying something gets you a tidier grid and a staff app. It does not get you the thing you actually asked for: a rota that builds itself from the numbers and refuses to go out if it breaks ratio. That has never been made.
This report walks through what is out there, exactly where it stops, what it costs, and which one we would point you at if you decided not to build.
What is out there
You are staying on Famly, so the real question is what bolts onto it. There are two kinds of product on the market, and only one of them fits that.
Rota apps that bolt on
Planday, Deputy, RotaCloud, Findmyshift. Built to schedule shifts for any business. They sit alongside Famly happily. Good staff apps, good multi-site views. This is the camp that fits you.
Whole nursery systems
Connect Childcare, eyworks, Blossom. Full systems with a rota module built in. But to use their rota you would have to leave Famly entirely. You are not doing that, so they are out.
So the realistic shortlist is the rota apps that bolt onto Famly, plus one more option people forget: Famly already has its own rota tool on its top tier. You may be paying for it without using it. We have included all of them below.
How they compare against your list
The shortlist scored against your full request list. The top group is everyday scheduling, and they do it well. The bottom group is the nursery-specific part you asked for, and it is almost all crosses.
| Can it… | Famly rota | Planday | Deputy | RotaCloud | Findmyshift |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everyday scheduling | |||||
| Give staff a phone app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Show all seven sites in one view | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Let staff swap shifts and book leave | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cost the shifts and export to payroll | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nursery-specific | |||||
| Pull child numbers straight from Famly | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Track qualification and certificate expiry | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Show a live ratio through the day | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Track staffing cost against your income target | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Build the rota from your numbers | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Hold back a rota that breaks ratio | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Work out age mixing to save staff | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
✓ does it ✗ does not. Scroll the table sideways on a phone.
The three things none of them do
They do not build the rota
The hard work, turning the children you expect into the cheapest legal staffing across seven sites, is left to your managers in every product. You are still building it by hand, just in a nicer grid.
They do not stop a broken rota going out
At best they show a warning. None of them block you publishing a rota with an under-ratio room or a lapsed first aid certificate. You said this was the single most important thing.
They do not work out the age mixing
Placing older children into a younger room at the tighter ratio to save a member of staff. Your clever manual trick is unbuilt anywhere on the market.
What it would cost you
These are the realistic options, costed for your setup: 170 staff across 7 sites. This is the rota app only, on top of what you already pay Famly. The nursery-system route is left out because it means leaving Famly.
| Option | Per month | Per year | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Findmyshift | ~£55 | ~£660 | Cheapest by far. All 170 staff in one plan. Basic rota and a basic app. No lock-in, 3 month trial published |
| RotaCloud | ~£375 to £410 | ~£4,500 to £4,900 | A proper UK rota product. Good staff app, leave and shift swaps, all sites included, no lock-in estimated |
| Famly's own rota | ~£350 more | ~£4,200 more | Already on Famly's top tier. No second system. But dated, and still a blank grid published |
| Deputy | ~£725 | ~£8,700 | Polished, lots of add-ons, but priced per head so it climbs fast at 170 staff published |
| Planday (as you were quoted) | ~£1,420 | ~£17,000 | Roughly double its own published rate. Ask them to itemise it before taking it seriously quote |
The spread is wide because these tools are priced very differently. Findmyshift charges per team, so 170 staff costs the same as 17. Deputy and Planday charge per head, so they get expensive at your size. The Planday quote in particular does not match its own pricing and should be challenged.
If you were not building, what is the best option?
None of them solve the real problem, so the honest test is simply: which gives your managers and staff the biggest step up from Excel, for the least money and the least risk? On that test there is a clear answer.
RotaCloud, with Findmyshift as the budget option
RotaCloud is the best all-round buy. It is a proper UK product built for exactly this: a clean staff app, shift swaps, leave booking, time and attendance, all seven sites in one place, and no lock-in contract. At roughly £4,500 a year it is a real upgrade on the spreadsheet, and your staff would feel the difference immediately.
If cost is the only thing that matters, Findmyshift does the basics for about £660 a year, because it charges per team rather than per head. It is less polished, but it is a tenth of the price and it would still get you off Excel.
We would not recommend Deputy or Planday for you. They are good tools, but priced per head they punish a 170-staff group, and the Planday quote is roughly double what it should be.
But be clear about what that buys. Even the best option here is a tidier grid and a phone app. Your managers still build every rota by hand, still hold the ratio rules in their heads, and nothing stops a broken one going out. The £32,000 agency bill and the morning sickness scramble are not touched by any of it.
The honest bottom line
There is no off the shelf answer
The best thing you can buy is a £4,500 a year staff app that sits next to Famly and leaves the hard part exactly where it is. That is the ceiling of what the market offers. None of them build the rota. None of them stop a broken one. None of them work out the age mixing.
The one thing you actually asked for has never been made. That is the gap, and building it is the only way to close it.
One thing worth knowing: Famly is investing in this area, so the gap will not stay open forever. The time to move is while it is still open.
How this was put together
Every product on the UK market was examined, every price checked against the vendor's own site where possible, and every figure labelled by how sure we are of it: published from the vendor, or estimated where the real price sits behind a sales call. We do not pass marketing off as fact. Full working and the source list sit behind this report and are available on request.