Nowsta alternatives for event staffing agencies (2026)

This list of Nowsta alternatives is written by one of the vendors on it, since Staff Buddy is listed first. So we held ourselves to the same rules as every other entry. Every statement about another tool comes from that tool’s own pages, linked in the sources below. Where a tool is the better pick, we say so.

Why agencies look at Nowsta alternatives

Nowsta describes itself as a workforce platform to “source, schedule, manage, and pay” an hourly and contingent workforce. Its home page lists six industries, with events and venues one of them. It also lists payroll integration and timesheet export. For a large US operation that wants that scope, Nowsta is a reasonable pick.

Agencies still go looking, and Nowsta’s own facts point to how it is bought. Nowsta’s own pricing page shows no price and sends visitors to a demo. Its Capterra listing shows three annual plans billed per year as a flat rate, and no free trial. If you run a smaller roster, want to try a tool before you commit, or need something shaped around clients and venues rather than industries, you will want to compare. The pricing table below lists each tool’s published price with the page it came from.

Each entry below says who the tool fits, one strength and one limitation. The limitation is a fact of scope taken from the vendor’s pages, not our opinion. Staff Buddy comes first, so you can judge us by the same format.

Staff Buddy

Staff Buddy is scheduling and staff management software for event staffing agencies. It fits agencies that plan events for many clients and venues, offer shifts to the right people, and track confirmations and check-ins in one place. See the feature overview for how that looks day to day.

Its strength is the staff side. The staff app is available in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese and French, and so is the back office. Assignments and changes reach staff by app push notification, email and SMS. Check-in and check-out work with poor reception and sync when the phone reconnects.

The limit is what is not live yet. WhatsApp notifications are coming soon, so if your staff live on WhatsApp, ask us where that stands. Your data is hosted in the United States, the European Union or Southeast Asia, by your agency’s region, and the security page has the details. It is also a newer product than most on this list.

Liveforce

Liveforce fits event staffing agencies, suppliers and venues that manage flexible workforces across multiple events. Its home page describes one platform to “recruit, schedule, communicate with and pay” an event workforce, and says it replaces spreadsheets, WhatsApp and email.

Its strength is scope. It lists recruitment and applicant tracking, timesheets and payment processing, compliance tracking and client invoicing, with SMS, email, push notifications and in-app chat for reaching crew. It lists the UK and international markets, and it publishes prices by region, which makes it easy to budget.

The limit is how the price is built. Its pricing page includes one admin per plan, and charges for each additional admin, for each extra block of 500 crew contacts and for SMS messages. A growing office team or roster moves you up the pricing table. We did not find the languages of its crew app on the pages we read, so ask if your staff need a language other than English.

Liveforce is the better choice if you want recruitment, timesheets, payment processing and client invoicing inside the same tool as scheduling.

Connecteam

Connecteam fits teams of deskless and frontline workers. Its home page lists construction, cleaning, healthcare, food and beverage, retail, field services and security as industries it serves. It brings scheduling, time tracking, communication and HR into one mobile app.

Its strength is breadth and a low entry cost. The pricing page offers a free plan for up to 10 employees, a 14-day trial, and three hubs for operations, communications and HR. Teams that want training, documents, forms and checklists next to the schedule get them in the same app.

The limit is scope. Event staffing is not among the industries on its home page. We did not find client or venue workflows on the pages we read.

Connecteam is the better choice for a small mixed team, or for an agency that also runs a permanent in-house workforce and wants HR tools in the same app.

Deputy

Deputy fits businesses that schedule shifts around locations. Its home page lists single location, multi location, franchise and enterprise setups, across industries such as hospitality, retail, healthcare and security, with entertainment on the list.

Its strength is transparent pricing. Three plans are priced per user per month, there is a free trial, and add-ons such as messaging, payroll and analytics are priced separately on the same page. Monthly billing allows plan changes without penalty.

The limit is how it counts. The pricing page says all administrators and supervisors count as billable users and sets a minimum monthly spend. Messaging and payroll are paid add-ons on top of the plan. The home page frames the product around locations, and event staffing is not named as an industry.

Deputy is the better choice for an agency whose work is mostly a few fixed venues with a stable roster, where per-user pricing stays predictable.

When I Work

When I Work fits hourly teams. Its home page says it is designed for hourly workers on the floor or in the field and lists over 30 industries, catering and events among them.

Its strength is staff messaging and a low published entry price. The home page describes team messaging that lets everyone communicate “without sharing phone numbers”, which matters if your staff are used to WhatsApp groups. The pricing page lists three plans per user per month, a 14-day trial and no contracts.

The limit is language. The home page is in English only and the pages we read do not say which languages the staff app supports, so confirm that before you roll out to a multilingual roster.

When I Work is the better choice for a US agency with an English-speaking roster that wants simple scheduling and messaging at a low per-user price.

CrewBrain

CrewBrain fits crew-heavy agencies in DACH. Its event agency page describes personnel planning and project management for event agencies, with scheduling, task management and time tracking in a web platform and a mobile app. The company says it operates in 24 countries and 7 languages.

Its strength is job-based planning. The page describes event and project-based scheduling rather than static weekly plans, and the testimonials come from event technical companies, full-service event agencies and gastronomy businesses. The pricing page lists a 30-day trial and 10 users included in every plan.

The limit is who the prices are for. The pricing page states that all prices are aimed at commercial customers from the EU and EEA, and they are shown net of VAT. An agency outside those states should ask about eligibility first.

CrewBrain is the better choice for a German-speaking agency that supplies technical crews to productions and wants a tool whose pages and support are in German.

Why marketplaces are a different category

Instawork and Coople appear in many alternatives lists, but they solve a different problem. Instawork says it connects businesses with a network of local workers, and that a business pays an all-inclusive hourly rate when a shift is booked. Coople’s page for event businesses describes assigning work to your own staff or accessing its wider pool of workers.

That is a supply of workers, not software for your own roster. A business that books through a marketplace is hiring from the marketplace’s pool, and supplying workers is also what an agency does. Marketplaces are the better choice when a business needs extra hands and has no roster of its own. If you are an agency that already has people and needs to run them across clients, you want scheduling software, which is what the rest of this list covers.

What to compare before you switch

Whichever tool you shortlist, check the same five things on a trial or a call:

• Whether the staff app is in the languages your staff speak, and which channels reach them.
• Whether it models clients and venues, or only locations and employees.
• What happens to the price when you add admins, crew or SMS. The pricing table shows which tools charge for each.
• Whether check-in works at a venue with poor reception.
• How migration works and whether you can run the old tool in parallel.

The pricing table

Every figure below was read on the linked page on the date shown in the “Last checked” line. Prices change, so open the source before you decide.

If you want to see Staff Buddy on your own events, watch the demo below.