Supp alternative, both halves priced
A cheaper alternative to Supp for a cafe or bar
That depends on which half you meant. Roster by Supp is free to 10 workers, then $25 to $100 a month per venue. Shiftly is free at any headcount, with no per venue fee. To fill a shift, Supp charges the venue 12% and Shiftly On-Demand, coming soon, will charge 8%.
Free for every feature. No per user fee, no per venue fee, no contract.
Two bills, not one
Supp sells a rostering subscription and a staffing marketplace, and they are charged in completely different ways. One is a flat monthly fee for running your own team. The other is a percentage of a shift worked by somebody who is not on your books. Priced as a single number, the answer comes out wrong.
Which half is on your invoice
A flat amount against a venue name is the roster. A percentage against a shift date is the fill. A cafe that has never posted a gap is paying the first and nothing for the second, and a venue that leans on the pool every Saturday is mostly paying the second. Only one of them is the bill you came here to shop.
Each half has its own answer
Shiftly answers the rostering half by not charging for the software at all, at any headcount and any number of venues. It answers the staffing half with a lower fee on the filled shift, 8% to the venue rather than 12%. The rest of this page prices each half on its own.
The short answer, both halves
No band to sit in
Roster by Supp is free up to 10 team members, then $25 a month per venue to 30 people, $50 to 100, and $100 above that. Shiftly has no bands. A cafe with 9 names and a pub group with 90 pay the same for the software, which is nothing.
Charged only on a filled shift
Supp publishes a 12% service fee to the venue, with no upfront or recurring charge. Shiftly On-Demand charges the venue 8%, and only when a shift is actually filled. In a week your own team covers everything, neither one bills you.
The eleventh name on the books
Supp counts active staff invited to the venue, and casuals who fill through the marketplace do not count. So three December casuals on an eight person cafe crosses the band. On Shiftly the eleventh person changes nothing, because there is no band to cross.
The rostering half, band by band
Roster by Supp prices one venue by team size, so the bill steps up when your list of names crosses a band. Shiftly has no per user fee and no per venue fee, so the software column reads $0 on every line. The Supp figures are its published Australian list prices, excluding GST.
| Shiftly | |
|---|---|
| Software, 1 to 10 people on the books | $0 |
| Software, 11 to 30 people | $0 |
| Software, 31 to 100 people | $0 |
| Software, 101 people and up | $0 |
| A second venue | $0 |
| Award pay tools on the free plan | |
| Fee to fill a shift from outside your team | 8% to the venue |
| Software, 22 names on a cafe roster, a year | $0 |
The staffing half
The staffing half, shift by shift
Price one Saturday close in a bar, six hours on the floor. Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, your own casual at food and beverage attendant grade 1 sits on 150% on a Saturday, which is $39.66 an hour once the 25% casual loading is in, so covering it internally costs $237.96. When nobody can, that figure is what the fill gets priced against. A 12% venue fee puts $28.56 on top of it. The 8% on Shiftly On-Demand puts $19.04. One Saturday, $9.52 apart. At one fill a week, about $495 across a year.
- Shifters are independent contractors, engaged directly by your venue, at rates set at or above award minimums, plus super
- Shiftly facilitates the match and moves the payment. It is not the employer, not an agency and not a payroll service
- Nothing is charged in a week when your own team covers every shift
- Coming soon to Sydney, hospitality first
Supp's figures were read on 10 October 2026 from its own published pages: the tiers and the per venue basis from Roster by Supp pricing, and the 12% service fee to the venue from its page for managers. Prices are in Australian dollars excluding GST, and list prices move, so check them yourself before you sign anything.
Rates last verified: 10 October 2026, against the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009) on the Fair Work Commission website, consolidated to 1 July 2026. The $39.66 is a food and beverage attendant grade 1 on the Saturday casual penalty in Table 14, being 150% of the $26.44 minimum hourly rate, inclusive of the 25% casual loading in clause 11.1. Those rates apply to your own casual employees. Awards do not apply to independent contractors, so on-demand cover is engaged at rates set at or above award minimums instead. The full MA000009 rate tables cover every level, and every figure here is a starting point for your own check rather than a substitute for it.
What to check before you move either half
Four questions worth putting to any hospitality tool, this one included, before a cafe or bar moves its roster or its shift cover.
Count the names, not the hours
Open the roster and count everyone still active in the system, the December casuals and the Sunday uni student included. On a per venue plan that headcount is what sets your band, and it is what turns a free plan into $25 a month the week you take on a third summer casual. Work out which band your real list of names lands in before you compare anything.
Split the subscription from the fill fee
They move independently. A quiet winter drops the fill fee to nothing and leaves the subscription exactly where it was, and a big December does the opposite. Put twelve months of each in its own column, because a tool that is cheap on one half can be the expensive one on the other.
Check the award rules run on the timesheet too
A cafe or bar on MA000009 needs Saturday and Sunday penalties, the evening loading after 7pm, casual loading and junior percentages, and it needs them on the hours actually worked, not only the hours you planned. Ask whether the same rules run a second time on the approved timesheet. Every tool here produces an estimate your venue is responsible for verifying before pay goes out.
Ask where the pool actually is
A lower fee is worth nothing if nobody picks the shift up. Supp has been filling hospitality shifts since 2017 and lists more than 15,000 venues across Australia and New York. Shiftly On-Demand is coming soon, starting in Sydney, hospitality first, with the waitlist open. Ask both how many workers sit a short trip from your venue at 5pm on a Saturday, because that is what decides whether the gap closes.
Moving the rostering half
Import the team, publish before the next service
Moving the rostering half is the cheap experiment, because there is no subscription waiting on the other side of it. Bring your staff in from Xero or a CSV, set MA000009 as the award, set each person's classification and employment basis once, and send next week to every phone. Weekend penalties, the evening loading and junior rates are costed on the shift card as you build, then run again on the approved timesheet for your venue to confirm.
- Rostering, timesheets, leave, availability, messaging and onboarding, all on the free plan
- Award pay tools for MA000009, with the estimate on the shift before you publish
- Australian support, included, with no setup fee, no contract and nothing to cancel later
Try it on next week's roster
Sign up free, import your staff from Xero or a CSV, set MA000009 as your award and publish Saturday before the next service. There is no subscription on the other side of it, so if it does not suit the venue you have spent nothing finding out.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Supp for rostering a cafe or bar?
Yes, for any venue with more than ten people on the books. Roster by Supp is free to 10 team members, then $25, $50 or $100 a month per venue depending on team size. Shiftly is free for every feature at every headcount and every site, so the software line on the invoice is $0 and stays there when you take on summer staff.
What if my cafe has fewer than ten people on the books?
Then both are free and price is not the thing to decide on. Look at what happens next instead. The month you invite an eleventh person, a summer casual or a second barista, a per venue plan moves you into its first paid band. Shiftly has no band to cross, so the answer does not change as the team grows.
How do the fees to fill a shift compare?
Supp publishes a 12% service fee charged to the venue, with no upfront or recurring charge. Shiftly On-Demand charges the venue 8% on a filled shift, and nothing in a week you cover everything from your own team. Both sit well under a labour hire agency, where the markup to the venue is typically around 22%.
Can I keep one half and move the other?
Yes, and for a lot of venues that is the sensible first move. The subscription and the fill fee are separate bills, so a cafe can run its roster, timesheets and award pay on Shiftly for nothing and still post the odd gap wherever it gets picked up fastest. Moving the rostering half costs nothing to try and closes no door on the fill.
Does Shiftly do the rostering a cafe or bar actually needs?
It is built for it. Drag and drop rostering with templates for the Saturday brunch double and the Friday close, live wage cost on the shift card, GPS clock in, timesheets built from worked hours, leave, availability, shift swaps, messaging, paperless onboarding and a Xero export. Every one of those is on the free plan, because there is no other plan to move up to.
Does Shiftly work out Hospitality Award penalty rates?
Shiftly calculates weekend and public holiday penalties, the evening loading, casual loading and junior percentages against the award you select, and puts the cost on the shift card before you publish. It is a calculation tool designed to assist with pay, not a payroll service. The figures are an estimate to work from, and your venue is responsible for verifying pay before it goes out.
Is Shiftly the employer of the worker who fills the shift?
No. Your venue engages the worker directly as an independent contractor with their own ABN, at rates set at or above award minimums, plus super. Shiftly matches the two sides and moves the payment. It is not the employer, not an employer of record and not a labour hire agency.
Is Shiftly free forever, or is this a trial?
It is free, not a trial. No credit card at signup, no per user fee, no per venue fee, no setup fee and no contract, and nothing switches off after a period. Shiftly earns its revenue on the on-demand marketplace instead, on the 8% service fee when a venue chooses to fill a shift from the pool.