FairTurns and Roster Volunteers

Two tools with the same aim

The Harbour Op Shop has 28 volunteers across a morning and an afternoon shift, six days a week. Kath, the coordinator, wants two things: the shifts covered without her ringing round, and nobody feeling they do more than their share. Both Roster Volunteers and FairTurns set out to do that. They ask different things of the volunteers.

How Roster Volunteers works

From its own pages, Roster Volunteers asks members to tick the dates and times they can do. Request emails carry an auto-login link that takes them straight to those boxes. When the scheduler fills a position, a drop-down shows only people who are qualified and have ticked that time, ordered so those who have worked least lately are at the top. Members can ask to sit a little higher or lower on the list. An auto-scheduling feature uses the same ordering to fill dates.

Members can view the schedule and a roster list filtered by position, to help arrange cover between themselves. They confirm attendance by clicking their own name. Schedulers send reminder emails for a chosen date range with one click, and can email everyone with a given qualification. Optional settings let people sign up for positions or schedule themselves. There are four access levels: member, leader, supervisor and administrator, and several locations can share one pool of volunteers without clashes.

The site does not publish a price. It invites organisations to email to see if they qualify for a free licence, and offers a demo.

How FairTurns works

FairTurns asks less of volunteers up front. Nobody has to fill in which dates they can do: people mark only the days they’re away, and if they never do, they are treated as able to do any date. You add repeating shifts, set positions and headcounts, and press Fill. Each empty place goes to whoever has had the fewest turns in that position, skipping anyone away or already on at an overlapping time in your organisation. People can be limited to the positions they’re set up for.

Everyone can see the roster on a public roster link, no sign-in. On Pro, A$1 a month per organisation paid a year or more at a time, reminder emails go before each date by themselves, people reply “I can do it” or “I can’t make it” from the email, and with filling by itself switched on, when someone can’t, the next person in line is asked.

Side by side

When Roster Volunteers is the better choice

• You want volunteers to say when they can come before anyone is rostered, and never be put on outside those times.
• You’d like volunteers able to sign up for positions or schedule themselves as an option.
• You need separate leader and supervisor levels, or several locations drawing on one pool of volunteers.
• Volunteers like to choose for themselves whether they are on more or less often.

When FairTurns fits better

• Your volunteers won’t reliably fill in a form, and you’d rather they only speak up when they’re away.
• You want a published price and no application: it is free for any number of people.
• You want reminders and finding cover to happen without a scheduler pressing send.
• You want a link anyone can open to see the whole roster, with names and dates only.

In FairTurns, volunteers don’t book their own shifts: you put them on, and they see it on the link.

Questions

Checked against Roster Volunteers’ own pages on 24 October 2026; prices and features change, so check theirs before you decide.