Rostering software NZ 2026: what it actually costs in NZD

Most rostering software sold to New Zealand businesses is not priced in New Zealand dollars. We could not find an NZ dollar price for Deputy, RosterElf shows Australian dollars on its New Zealand page, and Connecteam and Sling price in US dollars. That makes a fair comparison hard work, so we did the reading.

This guide shows what each product charges a business with 10, 20 and 30 staff on one site, billed monthly, on the cheapest tier that includes a roster, before GST or any other tax. Every figure is in the currency the vendor shows. Nothing is converted, because a converted figure is out of date within the week.

Prices verified on 17 September 2026. Each figure was read from the vendor's own public pricing page, which is linked in the table, and we re-check the table every quarter. Prices change, so open the linked page before you decide. We make Clockie, which is in the table, so check our working too.

The short version

• Three of the products New Zealand buyers are most often pointed to price in Australian dollars: Deputy, Tanda and RosterElf. For Deputy and RosterElf we found no NZ dollar figure at all. Droppah, which is built here, prices its New Zealand page in NZD.
• The roster itself is rarely the expensive part. It sits in the base tier almost everywhere. What costs extra is the kiosk, checking clock-ins against the roster, alerts and automatic scheduling.
• Per-user and per-location pricing give very different answers at 10 staff and at 30. Work out your own number before you compare.

What 10, 20 and 30 staff cost per month

One site, monthly billing, the cheapest tier with a roster, excluding tax. Where a free tier fits the head count, it is shown.

Flat per-location prices are shown as published. We did not check whether a per-location tier caps the number of staff, so confirm that on the vendor's page.

The gotchas that change the total

Currency

Deputy's Australian page prices in Australian dollars and its US page in US dollars; when we looked for a New Zealand pricing page we found no prices on it. RosterElf shows Australian dollars on its New Zealand pricing page. Droppah's New Zealand pricing page says its prices are in NZD and exclude GST; its international pricing page shows the same figures in US dollars, so check which page you are on before you budget. Tanda shows the same $12.80 plus GST on its Australian and New Zealand pages. When I Work, Homebase and Planday show a dollar sign with no currency label. 7shifts labels its price CAD for a New Zealand visitor.

An overseas price moves with the exchange rate every month, and your bank may add a foreign currency fee. Budget for the swing as well as the sticker price.

Minimum spends and who counts as a user

• Deputy has charged a minimum of AUD 30 per invoice on monthly plans since 1 September 2025 (pricing FAQ), which matters if you have four staff or fewer.
• RosterElf bills a minimum of three active staff, and admins and managers count.
• Planday Starter has a five-user minimum and Plus a ten-user minimum.
• Droppah's free tier counts archived employees towards the limit of 10. Its paid plans bill only the employees who were rostered or had timesheets that month, which helps a seasonal business.
• Clockie counts active staff. Five are included and each extra one is $2 a month.

Per user or per location

Homebase, 7shifts and Timble charge per location. That is good value for one busy site and doubles the day you open a second one. Per-user products (Deputy, RosterElf, RosterMates, Planday, When I Work) grow with every hire instead. Clockie is a mix: $2 per extra staff member and $10 a month for each location after the first.

Text messages

Text messages are often an extra cost, so check before you rely on them. Deputy turns SMS off by default and charges 5c AUD per segment in Australia and 7c USD elsewhere (publishing shifts). Droppah publishes by email and app notification and has no SMS option (publish rosters). Clockie includes 25 SMS a month, then charges 10c per SMS, and shows the estimate before you publish; email is free.

What sits behind the paywall

Rostering is in the base tier of nearly every product in the table. These are the things that are not:

• Deputy: auto-scheduling, demand forecasting, budgets and the face-unlock kiosk start at Core (plan table).
• Droppah: rostering itself, with auto-scheduling, shift costing and budgets, is in The Works; the $2 Time Clock plan has no roster.
• Sling: the kiosk, late and no-show tracking, geofencing and shift acceptance are Business only.
• Connecteam: limiting clock-in to scheduled shifts is on Expert and above (help).
• 7shifts: blocking unscheduled clock-ins needs a POS integration or the Pro plan.
• Homebase: AI scheduling starts at Plus.
• Planday: auto-scheduling is on Pro, which is quoted.

The pattern is consistent. The grid is cheap; the link between the roster and the time clock is where the tiers start.

If your payroll has no roster

Several New Zealand payroll products have no roster of their own. PayHero points customers to Droppah, which is made by the same company. Xero Payroll has no roster either; Xero's New Zealand app store keeps a collection of rostering apps for that reason. If you run one of these, the question is not which suite to move to. It is which roster sends clean hours to the payroll you already have.

Where the others are stronger

Clockie's roster is deliberately small. It does not build a roster from sales forecasts, it does not cost shifts in dollars, and it does not handle staff trading shifts with each other. If those are the reason you are buying, Deputy, Tanda and Droppah go deeper, and their higher tiers are priced for it. See our Deputy comparison and Droppah comparison for the detail.

What Clockie includes for the price

The Clockie roster is part of the $29 plan, not an add-on:

• A Monday to Sunday grid per location, with copy last week and saved templates.
• Approved leave shaded on the grid, and national public holidays marked.
• Publish by email, text message or WhatsApp, with the cost of any texts shown first.
• Staff see their published shifts on their personal clock page, and the kiosk shows who is rostered today.
• Early, late and unrostered badges on time entries, and a Rostered vs Actual report with CSV.
• Start a week from what actually happened: Clockie drafts it from the last eight weeks of clock-ins and gives a plain reason for every shift.
• Import your roster, inside Clockie: paste a spreadsheet or a message, or upload a photo of the whiteboard, and it is read into a draft week that you check before anything is saved.
• A read-only API for the roster.

Hours only. Clockie holds no pay rates, and clocking in never depends on the roster.

How to choose

1. Count the people you will actually roster next month, including managers, and check who counts as billable.
2. Write down the currency on the pricing page, not the one you assumed.
3. List the two things you need beyond the grid (a kiosk, texts to staff, a payroll export) and find the tier each one sits on.
4. Price a second location now, even if it is a year away.
5. Try it with a real week. Our free roster generator builds one with New Zealand breaks and public holidays, no account needed.

Related guides and free tools

• Free roster generator: type in your staff and their usual hours and get next week's roster.
• Roster templates by industry: a ready-made week for cafes, retail, childcare, trades and aged care.
• NZ break calculator: the rest and meal breaks a shift earns, by its length.
• Public holidays 2026 and 2027: the dates to mark before you price a roster for the year.
• Rest and meal breaks in NZ by shift length: what every rostered shift has to include.
• Cancelling a shift in NZ: notice, compensation and the records to keep.
• The Employment Leave Act 2026 and the notional roster: why roster records start to matter before 2028.

Try Clockie free and build a real week before you pay for anything. Current plans are on the pricing page.

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Clockie is NZ-built time clock, roster and visitor sign-in software with PIN/face verification, offline sync, and direct Xero & Crystal Payroll integration. Built for New Zealand businesses that want accurate hours without the paperwork.