Both are free. Neither asks you to sign up. Both are built for the worker rather than the payroll department. The difference is scope: ShiftPayCal checks one thing carefully, and Cimplora models the schedule that thing sits inside.
| Cimplora | ShiftPayCal | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free — “100% free forever” |
| Account needed | No | No — “no sign-up, no email, no paywall” |
| Night differential | Yes | Yes — this is its whole focus |
| Rotations (14/14, 21/7, 2-2-3, 9/80) | Yes | Not shown |
| Day rate | Yes | Not shown |
| Overtime per workweek | Yes | Within its differential scope |
| Tax and deductions to take-home | Yes | Not shown |
| Compare two offers | Yes | Not shown |
| Currencies | 40+ | US dollars |
| Speed to first number | One tap to open the calculator | Faster — the input is the landing page itself |
| Ratings or user numbers | None published yet | None published |
Two things, and neither is small.
It converts with zero clicks. Its calculator input is the first screen. You arrive, you type, you have a number. Cimplora asks you to open the calculator first. For a single quick check, that is one step more than it needs to be.
Its stance is easier to feel. “Workers, not HR.” “Built for the worker — not the payroll department.” You know whose side it is on before you read anything else. Cimplora says the same thing with privacy claims, which is accurate but colder.
A shift differential is one line on a stub. The thing that decides your year is the shape of the schedule around it.
Take the one that costs rotational workers the most: overtime is federal and weekly, and it is calculated per workweek — not per hitch and not per pay period. On 12-hour days, each 7-day stretch is 84 hours: 40 at straight time and 44 at time and a half. Two of those weeks make a hitch. Get that boundary wrong and the error is not a rounding difference, it is thousands a year.
And the differential itself has an overtime consequence a differential-only tool does not follow through: under 29 CFR 778.115, a premium paid for night work goes inside your regular rate before overtime is worked out, not beside it afterwards. Paid the second way, the gap is worth up to $5,720 a year on a typical night rotation — the arithmetic is here.
Everything above describes ShiftPayCal as an independent site audit found it in October 2026. Competitor sites change, and a feature that was not shown then may exist now. If you are choosing between the two, open both — they are free and neither needs an account, so it costs you nothing but five minutes.
Honestly: both, for different jobs. ShiftPayCal for a fast single-question differential check. Cimplora when the question is bigger than one line — a hitch, a day rate, an offer, or what lands in your account after tax.