ShiftCare vs Tendaroo: An Honest Comparison

You serve more than NDIS. ShiftCare supports aged care, allied health, and disability support on the same platform. Tendaroo is NDIS-only by design. If you're running multiple verticals, ShiftCare lets you keep one tool. Tendaroo means running two.

You're large and worker-light per participant. A provider with 200+ participants and 25 workers will pay materially less on ShiftCare than on Tendaroo. The participant-based model makes sense when participant count is what scales with revenue; for other shapes, it's the wrong shape.

You need a longer feature track record. ShiftCare has been around longer, has more reviews, and has shipped more incremental features over time. eMAR, AI summaries, family portals — they've had years to harden these. Tendaroo is newer; some of our newer features land more roughly in the first 90 days post-ship.

You've already invested in ShiftCare training. If your team is fluent in ShiftCare and your data is already clean inside it, the switching cost — even to a meaningfully better-fit tool — is real.

You're NDIS-only and want depth over breadth. Tendaroo is built around the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, the NDIA's PACE claim system, the NDIS Practice Standards audit cycle, and the specific workflows that matter to a provider of NDIS supports. Multi-vertical platforms have to compromise; we don't.

Predictable billing matters to you. With ShiftCare, hiring 5 more support workers next quarter raises your software cost by ~$75/month (Professional tier). With Tendaroo, that hire doesn't change your bill at all. Removing software cost from the hiring equation simplifies the call.

Your participant-to-worker ratio is high or your worker headcount is volatile. Day programs, group activities, community access, drop-in support — all have high participant counts per worker. ShiftCare's model penalises you for the second metric while charging you for the first. Tendaroo's model only charges for the first.

You value specific NDIS workflow features. The Friday close-out wizard drops fortnight close-out from ~90 minutes to under 15. Same-day notes are workflow-level enforced — workers can't start their next shift until the previous note is submitted, so backdated notes vanish as a category. Audit pack by Practice Standard exports a downloadable record per NDIS Practice Standard with one workflow.

Australian data residency is non-negotiable. Tendaroo's data lives in AWS Sydney (ap-southeast-2). ShiftCare doesn't publish their data residency policy as prominently — verify directly with their team if this is critical for you.

The biggest difference between the two isn't a feature. It's the pricing model.

ShiftCare: per worker, per month

ShiftCare's published pricing (as of April 2026):

A 5-user minimum applies. NDIS claiming requires the Professional tier or higher — it's not in Basic, which matters for any provider doing meaningful claim volume.

Tendaroo: per active participant, per month

All tiers include unlimited workers and unlimited shifts. NDIS claiming is in every tier, including Starter.

What this actually costs at real provider sizes

The pricing model difference matters more than the headline numbers. Four worked profiles:

Small provider — 50 participants, 15 workers (1:3 ratio)

• ShiftCare Professional: 15 × $15 = $225/month
• Tendaroo Growth: 50 × $11 = $550/month
• ShiftCare wins by ~60%

Mid-sized provider — 150 participants, 30 workers (1:5 ratio)

• ShiftCare Professional: 30 × $15 = $450/month
• Tendaroo Scale: 150 × $15 = $2,250/month
• ShiftCare wins by ~80%

High-ratio provider — 80 participants, 8 workers (1:10 — group programs, day services)

• ShiftCare Professional: 8 × $15 = ~$120/month (5-user min applies)
• Tendaroo Growth: 80 × $11 = $880/month
• ShiftCare wins dramatically

Round-the-clock SIL provider — 6 participants, 24 workers (intensive 24/7)

• ShiftCare Professional: 24 × $15 = $360/month
• Tendaroo Starter: 10 × $8 = $80/month (10-participant minimum applies)
• Tendaroo wins by ~75%

The honest read: ShiftCare is meaningfully cheaper at most typical NDIS provider profiles. Tendaroo's pricing model wins specifically on predictability (hiring doesn't increase your software bill) and at provider profiles with lots of workers per participant (intensive 24/7 supports).

Pricing reflects ShiftCare's published pricing as of April 2026 and Tendaroo's as of May 2026. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's website before deciding.

• You operate across multiple verticals (NDIS + aged care + allied health) and want a single platform
• Your participant-to-worker ratio is low — typical for 24/7 SIL, high-acuity 1:1 supports, hourly home-care models
• You value the broader feature set of an established platform with a longer track record
• Your monthly software cost being tightly tied to headcount is a feature, not a bug

• You're an NDIS-only or NDIS-primary provider
• You want predictable billing that doesn't go up when you hire (unlimited workers in every tier)
• Your participant-to-worker ratio is medium-to-high — typical for community access, drop-in support, group programs, day services
• You want NDIS-specific workflows out of the box: Friday close-out wizard, audit pack by NDIS Practice Standard, enforced same-day notes
• Australian data residency is a hard requirement