ShiftCare alternative for a one-person care business
What one person actually pays on each, with ShiftCare's five-staff minimum done as arithmetic — and where ShiftCare is still the better buy.
Both products run the same working week — clients, visits, notes, invoices. They part company on how they are sold. ShiftCare prices per staff member and every plan starts at a minimum of five, so a sole trader pays for five seats and fills one. This page does that arithmetic, and says where ShiftCare is still the better buy.
The long version, with sources →
No card, no sales call. ShiftCare figures are theirs, published, and dated at the foot of this page.
What one person actually pays
ShiftCare bills per login, and its own pricing page counts admins and care workers alike. The entry plan is A$9 per user per month on monthly billing, in Australian dollars and excluding GST — but the minimum is five staff, so the smallest monthly bill is A$45 whether you are five people or one. Annual billing brings the entry rate to A$8 per user, paid up front, which is A$40 a month at the same five-seat floor.
| Team | HarvestFlow Care | ShiftCare |
|---|---|---|
| Just you | Basic, A$15 a month — one office login and one worker sign-in included | Five seats at the entry rate, because five is the minimum |
| You and one support worker | Still Basic, still A$15 — the included worker sign-in is the second person | Still five seats; you now fill two of them |
| You and four support workers | Basic plus worker sign-ins at A$5 each, or Pro at A$30 with more included | Five seats, now filled — the floor stops costing you anything extra |
That last row is the honest one: the five-seat minimum stops being a penalty at exactly five people. This comparison is about the years before that, not a claim that it never adds up.
Why the minimum is the whole difference
A five-seat floor is not a trick. It sets a sales price that suits the buyer ShiftCare is built for — an agency with a roster, a payroll run and an audit to pass — and it keeps that product worth building. It only becomes a problem when the buyer is one person, because then four fifths of the bill buys nothing.
- Every login counts toward the minimum, and ShiftCare's own FAQ says admins and care workers both count
- The floor applies to every plan, not only the entry one
- Prices are quoted excluding GST, so the amount that leaves your account is higher again
- There is no free plan — the trial is seven days with everything switched on
When ShiftCare is the better answer
Plenty of the time, and the moment it stops being close is usually the moment you start employing people.
- You employ staff under the SCHADS award and need penalty rates, broken shifts and allowances interpreted for you — HarvestFlow does not do award interpretation at all
- You are a registered provider claiming in bulk from the NDIA, rather than invoicing plan managers and self-managed participants
- You roster a team: shift bidding, availability matching and gap detection across a group of workers
- You want a native app from the app stores, with GPS clock-in built around a workforce rather than a phone-first web app
- You are already at or above five staff, where the minimum costs you nothing
When this one is
The mirror image, and it is a narrower case on purpose.
- You are one person, or one person and a handful of contractors, and expect to stay that shape for a while
- You invoice plan managers and self-managed participants directly, and never touch a bulk claim file
- You want the bill to move when your business does, not before — no minimum seats, no per-participant fee, and no percentage of what you invoice
- You work from a phone between visits, and want check-in, the note, the signature and the invoice to be the same short flow
What HarvestFlow does not do
- No SCHADS award interpretation. It records hours and visits and hands the timesheet data to your payroll system
- No NDIA bulk claiming. Invoices go to the plan manager or the participant, who pay you directly
- It is not an NDIS digital platform — it does not find you clients or handle their plan funds
- No free tier that runs indefinitely. The free months are the full Basic plan for a fixed term, after which the workspace turns read-only and nothing is deleted
The longer read
This page is the arithmetic. The post walks the same comparison as prose, with every figure sourced, and the buying guide covers the five ways vendors in this market charge — including the free tiers two of them now publish.
Is ShiftCare worth it for one person →
How NDIS software vendors charge →
ShiftCare's plan names, per-user rates, five-staff minimum, GST basis and trial length are as published on shiftcare.com/pricing and read on 16 September 2026. Vendor pricing changes without notice — check the source before deciding. HarvestFlow's own figures on this page come from its live rate card.