Switching from Leave Dates
Leave Dates is a simple UK leave planner, priced per user with no free plan. Rotaleave does leave too, adds a rota and clocking in, and is free for teams of 10 or fewer. It also imports your Leave Dates reports.
30 days free, full access, no card. Free forever for 10 or fewer.
What it costs
Monthly prices before VAT. Leave Dates keeps TOIL, limits on who is off and calendar sync for its Essential plan. Rotaleave includes those, plus the rota and clock-in, so both Leave Dates plans are shown.
| Feature | Rotaleave | Leave Dates |
|---|---|---|
| 10 people | £0 | £10/month on Starter, or £20/month on Essential |
| 15 people | £10/month | £15/month on Starter, or £30/month on Essential |
| 25 people | £20/month | £25/month on Starter, or £50/month on Essential |
Leave Dates prices are per user per month in GBP, excluding VAT, on monthly billing: Starter £1.00, Essential £2.00, Plus £2.50. Yearly billing is £9.00, £18.00 and £22.50 per user per year. From leavedates.com/pricing-plans, checked October 2026. Rotaleave: free for 10 or fewer, then £5/month + £1 per person over 10, plus VAT where applicable.
Rotaleave and Leave Dates, feature by feature
| Feature | Rotaleave | Leave Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, up to 10 people, with every feature | No. A 30-day free trial of any plan, then paid per user |
| Price model | Free up to 10, then £5/month + £1 per person over 10 | Per user per month: Starter £1.00, Essential £2.00, Plus £2.50. A quarter off on yearly billing |
| Who counts | Everyone not archived, admins included | Every employee added, even if they never log in. Leavers archived on Essential or Plus do not count |
| Rota and shifts | Included: weekly rota grid, repeating templates, publish with notifications, open shifts. Shift swaps once an admin switches them on | None on their features or pricing pages |
| Clocking in and timesheets | Included and on from the start: phone app or a shared kiosk tablet with a PIN, site geofences, weekly timesheets with CSV export | None on their features or pricing pages |
| Holiday in hours | Yes. Book in 15-minute steps; balances kept in hours and minutes | Yes. Allowances in days or hours on every plan |
| Limits on who is off | Included: a limit per department, plus cover rules by skill | Limits and overlaps on Essential and Plus |
| TOIL | Included, once an admin switches it on | On Essential and Plus |
| Bradford factor report | Included | Not in their plan comparison. They offer a separate free calculator |
| Integrations | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google and Outlook calendar sync, iCal feeds, payroll CSV (Xero and QuickBooks formats), API and webhooks | Calendar sync and Slack from Essential; API, webhooks and Zapier on Plus |
| Single sign-on and two-factor sign-in | Not yet | SSO on Plus |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel any time | Monthly or yearly, cancel any time |
| Bringing your data | A Leave Dates importer: upload their Employees report and an optional Leave report, preview, then import | — |
| Mobile apps | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android |
| Track record | New: launched in 2026 | Launched in 2019. They say thousands of people use it every day |
Leave Dates details from its pricing, features and why-us pages, checked October 2026. Check their site for changes. In Rotaleave, Slack, Teams and calendar sync are switched on for your organisation on request; payroll export and the API are switched on by an admin.
Where Leave Dates is better
Leave Dates has been running since 2019 and is a focused, well-made leave planner. Its Plus plan adds single sign-on, Zapier, and a leave year that can start on each person’s own date. Rotaleave has no single sign-on or two-factor sign-in yet. And if you have more than 20 people, only need holiday booking and will pay a year up front, Leave Dates Starter at £0.75 a head a month costs less than Rotaleave.
Rotaleave is the better fit when you plan shifts as well as holidays, when you want clocking in and timesheets in the same account, or when your team is 10 people or fewer and you would rather pay nothing. TOIL and limits on how many people are off are part of Rotaleave’s price, not a higher plan.
How to move from Leave Dates
Rotaleave reads the reports Leave Dates already gives you. The Leave Dates import guide lists every column it reads and what a re-import changes.
1
Download two reports from Leave Dates
Log in to Leave Dates as an admin. Download the Employees report from Reports, as CSV or Excel. If you want past leave too, download the Leave report for the dates you need.
2
Preview, then import
In Rotaleave, open Settings → Data → Import / Migrate and choose Leave Dates. Upload the files and click Preview. Nothing is saved until you click Import, and anything the importer does not recognise is listed as a warning.
3
Check balances and working days
Remaining balances are not imported, so spot-check a few people and add opening adjustments where needed. The Leave Dates files hold no working days, so set working-hours templates.
4
Build a rota and invite the team
Plan your first week on the rota grid, with approved leave showing in each person’s row. Set up clocking in if you want it, then invite everyone.
Guides: working-hours templates · build and publish a rota · invite your team
Leave Dates switching questions
Does Leave Dates have a free plan?
No. Leave Dates offers a 30-day free trial of any plan, with no card needed, and then charges per user. Its cheapest plan, Starter, is £1.00 per user per month, or £0.75 a month on yearly billing, before VAT. Rotaleave is free for teams of 10 or fewer, with every feature, for as long as you stay at that size.
Can Rotaleave import my Leave Dates data?
Yes. Rotaleave has a Leave Dates importer. Upload the Employees report from Leave Dates, and the Leave report if you want history, as CSV or Excel. It brings across people, emails, roles, departments, start dates, annual allowances and leavers, plus past bookings with their leave types, half days and status. Remaining balances, working days and department managers do not come across. If your export’s columns are not recognised, the preview says so, and the staff CSV import is the fallback for your people.
What should I check before importing from Leave Dates?
Check your own row. Roles come from the Role column every time: Administrator becomes admin, Approver becomes manager, and anything else becomes employee. If your own row is not marked Administrator, the import takes away your admin role. Then read the warnings: new leave types are set to come off the allowance unless their name is one of a short list, such as Sick or Unpaid. Importing sends no invitations, but reminders go to imported staff two days later.
Is TOIL included in every Leave Dates plan?
No. Leave Dates lists time off in lieu on its Essential and Plus plans, not on Starter. Essential is £2.00 per user per month on monthly billing. In Rotaleave, TOIL is part of the price for every team. An admin switches it on, and it is then tracked in hours, with an expiry if you want one.
Does Leave Dates do staff rotas or clocking in?
Not that we can find. Its features and pricing pages, checked October 2026, cover leave, allowances, TOIL and reports, but no rota, shift planning, clocking in or timesheets. Rotaleave has a rota and clock-in on from the start, in the same account as leave, so you plan shifts with approved holiday in view.
Can we run Rotaleave alongside Leave Dates before we switch?
Yes. Rotaleave’s 30-day free trial needs no card and has no limit on team size. You can import, run both for a week or two, then import a fresh Leave Dates report before you switch. Re-running is safe: people are matched by email and bookings by their reference. But a re-import puts the file’s values back over changes you made in Rotaleave, so make your final import before you start editing people.
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Switching to Rotaleave
Every importer, and the staff CSV for everything else.
Bring your Leave Dates history with you
Upload their reports, preview, then import. 30 days free. Free forever for 10 or fewer.
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