Rostering software in Australia, compared
Twelve products a small Australian business would actually shortlist, what each company’s own pages say they cost and do, and the six questions that decide between them. Listed alphabetically, because this is not a ranking.
Written by the team behind Roster Flow, which is one of themThe short answer
There is no single best rostering software in Australia, and a page that names one is usually selling it. What the shortlist comes down to for a small business is four things: whether the price is per person or per team, whether there is a genuine free plan or only a trial, whether you need the product to interpret an award or will enter your own rates, and whether it connects to the payroll system you already run.
Rostering and scheduling are the same thing, incidentally. Rostering is the Australian word, scheduling is the American one, and the same products answer both searches.
The six questions that decide it
Is the price per person or per team?
Per person is cheaper at three staff and dearer at thirty, and it makes adding somebody a decision about money. Per team is flat inside a band. Check the minimum monthly spend too, because it sets the bill for a small team whatever the per person figure says.
Is there a free plan, or a free trial?
They are not the same thing. A trial ends. Ask what the free plan caps at and which feature it holds back, because the answer is usually the payroll connection.
Does it interpret awards, or do you enter your own rates?
Award interpretation is the most expensive thing on this list to build and the most expensive to get wrong. Some products do it, some do not, and some charge for it separately. If you need it, make it the first question rather than the last.
Does it connect to the payroll system you already have?
Check the exact product, not the brand. A connection to one payroll product is not a connection to that company’s whole range, and a CSV export is a real answer as long as you know that is what you are getting.
Do staff have to install an app?
An app is a download, a login and a support question for every casual you hire. A browser page on their own phone is not. Neither is wrong, but it changes what onboarding a new starter costs you.
Is the price published at all?
Several products in this market do not publish one. That is not a red flag by itself, but it means a sales conversation before you can compare, and it means the number you get may not be the number somebody else got.
The shortlist
Alphabetical. Everything said about another product comes from that company's own public pages, read on 2 October 2026, and links to the comparison that lists the exact pages it came from. Where a page did not say, it says so rather than guessing.
Roster Flow
OursFree for up to 5 staff, then $29 a month for up to 10. A flat price for the whole team at each size, Australian dollars, GST included.
Suits a small Australian business that wants the price set by team size rather than headcount, staff clocking in from a browser with nothing to install, and approved hours going to Xero.
Does not interpret awards or work out what anybody is paid, run pay runs, payslips, superannuation or Single Touch Payroll, or connect to MYOB yet. The free plan exports hours as a CSV rather than connecting to payroll. Paid plans start with 28 days free and no card.
ClockOn
From $8.80 per employee per month on ClockOn Pro. A Starter package of basic payroll and Single Touch Payroll, free for eligible new businesses for up to 12 months or 27 submissions.
Suits businesses that want to replace their payroll system as well as their roster.
Also listed clockOn Standard is the narrower option, where integrated rostering is listed as optional or limited.
Connecteam
$29 USD a month for the first 30 users on Basic, plus $0.8 per additional user. Free for up to 10 users on the Small Business plan.
Suits teams that want geofenced clock in across several sites, which Connecteam lists from Advanced.
Also listed enterprise lists single sign-on and a personal success manager.
Deputy
$6.75 AUD per user per month on Lite, excluding taxes.
Suits businesses that want features Deputy lists on its higher plans, such as auto-scheduling, biometrics time clocking, and wage and labour budgets.
Also listed pro lists single sign-on and 24/7 live chat.
Employment Hero
HR Essentials at $10 per employee per month, with the rostering add-on on top.
Suits businesses that want HR, recruitment and payroll on one platform.
Also listed recruitment plans and HR advisory are also listed.
Findmyshift
$41 AUD per team per month on Starter, or $36 billed yearly. A free plan at $0 per team.
Suits businesses that prefer a price per team rather than by the number of people.
Also listed history kept ranges from 1 week on Free to 10 years on Enterprise.
Humanforce
Not published.
Suits organisations with complex operations, which Humanforce describes its Pro plan for.
Also listed single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and audit logs are listed.
RosterElf
$6 AUD per employee per month on Core, billed annually, or $8 monthly.
Suits businesses that want award interpretation included in the rostering plan.
Also listed an HR plan without rostering is listed at $3 AUD per employee per month, billed annually.
Roubler
Not published.
Suits businesses that want payroll, or managed payroll, in the same platform as rostering.
Also listed month-to-month subscriptions with no long-term contracts, as the page states.
Shiftly
No paid tier is listed; the only charge named is the 8% fee added to the standard shift cost of an on-demand shift. Free for all organisations, with unlimited staff, locations and integrations.
Suits venues that want award interpretation at no charge.
Also listed on-Demand, the part that is charged for, is listed as coming to the east coast.
Square Shifts
Plus from $5 per team member per month, with discounts for larger teams. Free for up to five team members.
Suits teams that want tips and commission management alongside shifts.
Also listed labour cost reporting and time-off requests are listed.
Tanda
$12.80 plus GST per user per month for HR, payroll and workforce management together.
Suits businesses that want HR, payroll and workforce management from one company.
Also listed hR features listed include onboarding, contracts and documents, and qualifications and licences.
What none of them does for you
- Decide which award covers your business, which is read from the award itself
- Make a roster legal. Notice, breaks and minimum engagements stay your responsibility whatever the software says
- Know who is actually available next week unless somebody keeps it up to date
- Replace a payroll system. Every one of these hands hours to payroll rather than running it
- Stop a wage bill growing if the roster is built without looking at the cost
- Fix a roster nobody reads. The publishing step matters more than the building step
Where the figures came from
- Each company’s own public pages, read on 2 October 2026. The exact pages are listed on each comparison, product by product.
- Roster Flow’s own figures come from the plan table the invoice reads, so this page and the bill agree.
- Nothing here comes from a review site, a forum, a sales call or memory.
- Where a company publishes no price, it says so rather than an estimate appearing in its place.
- Prices and features change. Read the source before you decide anything on the strength of a figure here, and see what rostering software costs for the full price tables.
Still to do on this page: re-read every public page before each release, and a legal and trademark review of every statement about another company’s product.
Questions
What is the best rostering software in Australia?
There is no single best one, and any page that names one is usually selling it. The published prices, the free plans and what each product does are set out on this page from each company’s own pages, so the answer depends on your team size, whether you need award interpretation, and which payroll system you already use.
What is the best free software for rostering staff?
Few products have a free plan rather than a free trial, and the ones that do cap it by team size or hold features back. Read what the cap is and what is missing before you commit, because a free plan that stops at the payroll step is a trial with a longer fuse.
Can Xero do rosters?
No. Xero Payroll records timesheets, leave and pay runs, but it does not build or publish a staff roster. Rostering products connect to it and send approved hours across as draft timesheets, which is what Roster Flow does.
Can ChatGPT make a roster?
It can draft one from a list of names and hours, but it does not hold your staff’s availability, does not know who is on leave, does not record what anybody actually worked, and cannot send hours to payroll. It is a starting point for a blank page, not a rostering system.
What is the best rostering software for a small business?
For a small team the things that decide it are usually the price at your headcount rather than per person, whether there is a genuine free plan, whether staff need to install an app, and whether it connects to the payroll system you already use.
What is the difference between rostering software and scheduling software?
Nothing. Rostering is the Australian and British word and scheduling is the American one, and the products are the same. Australian businesses search for both, and the same tools come back.