$0 fully featured hospitality rostering software
The best Tanda alternative
Tanda is powerful but expensive, complex to set up, and built for enterprise. Join Australian venues switching to Shiftly — purpose-built for hospitality, completely free, with free onboarding support and no lock-in contracts.
Free forever. No credit card required. Free onboarding included.
Tanda is a well-known Australian workforce management platform built around compliance and award interpretation. While its Fair Work engine is strong, its per-user pricing, steep setup process, and enterprise-level complexity make it overkill for small-to-medium hospitality venues that just need to roster, track time, and pay staff correctly.
Tanda alternatives at a glance
Tanda charges per user with a steep setup curve and minimum monthly spend. Tanda charges per user with a steep setup curve and minimum monthly spend.
Shiftly
Tanda
Platform status
Active, growing rapidly
Active (enterprise)
Target market
5–200+ staff
200+ staff
Pricing
Free for every venue
Per user oricing
Australian support
AU-based, included
Global
Free onboarding support
Yes, everything included
Paid implementation
Lock-in contract
No contract. Ever.
Monthly subscription
Mobile App
Shiftly Me / Shiftly Go
Tanda
On-demand staffing
Coming soon
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Why venues need a Tanda alternative
Tanda is powerful software — but it's built for enterprise-scale compliance, not single-venue hospitality. The setup is an implementation project, the pricing is per-user, and the mobile app is a step behind the desktop. Here's what venues are weighing up.
Per-user pricing adds up fast
Tanda charges per user per month — $5.50 on Starter, $7.50 on Growth, up to $12.80 + GST for the All-in-One bundle. There's no free tier, only a 14-day trial, and a minimum monthly spend of $50–$80 applies. For a 30-person casual roster on Starter, that's $165/month — and it climbs fast once you add payroll or HR modules.
Tanda is built for enterprise compliance, not small hospitality
Tanda's award interpretation engine is best-in-class for complex Enterprise Bargaining Agreements and multi-award environments. But for a single venue running standard hospitality awards, the setup complexity and cost aren't justified.
Complex setup, not out-of-the-box
Tanda's initial configuration — setting up locations, teams, award templates, and custom pay rules — is an implementation project, not a 30-minute setup. If the rules are configured incorrectly, the automation will repeatedly calculate wages wrong. For venues that just want to roster and go, the overhead is hard to justify.
Support is moving to appointment-only
Tanda users report that support has shifted toward an email and appointment-only model. If a pay run breaks on a Tuesday, waiting 24 hours for a response is a massive source of stress — especially for small teams without a dedicated payroll admin.
Key Benefits
Why choose Shiftly
Shiftly was built for Australian hospitality venues that need rostering, timesheets, award-aligned pay, and a staff app that actually gets opened. Here's how we line up on the features that matter most.
Rostering
Easily plan shifts, publish rosters, sync timesheets and export in seconds
Pay calculations
Set or calculate your rates, breaks penalties, allowances, and overtime once and apply them on every shift
Employee onboarding
Automatically sync with Xero for payroll. Reduce the manual workload and onboard staff in minutes
Time tracking
Calculations aligned with configured award rates and hours
Job costing
Track labour costs per job, project, client, or event with live reporting and budgets.
Employee mobile
View full schedules, Clock in and out, cover team-mates, and manage availability
Rostering
Rostering without the implementation project
Tanda's rostering works well once configured — but getting there takes days, not minutes. Custom award templates, location hierarchies, and pay rules all need to be set up before your first roster goes live. Shiftly skips the implementation project entirely. Drag, drop, publish — your team gets notified instantly, and the award calculations happen in the background.
Drag-and-drop weekly calendar with position templates
Copy-paste shifts and weekly templates for fast publishing
Multi-location rostering with built-in conflict alerts
Open shift requests and shift swaps via the mobile app
Instant push notifications when rosters are published or changed
Everything Tanda's roster does for hospitality, without the week-long setup or the per-user bill.
Time and attendance
Geofenced clock-in. One-click timesheet approval
Tanda uses photo-verified iPad kiosks and GPS clock-ins to prevent buddy-punching — but that means buying hardware and configuring devices at every site. Shiftly's geofenced mobile clock-in does the same job through the staff app alone. No tablets, no hardware costs, no IT setup.
Mobile clock-in / clock-out via the Shiftly Me app
Geofencing to prevent off-site clock-ins
Timesheets auto-linked from published shifts
Breaks captured and costed automatically against awards
One-click manager approval
Payroll-ready timesheet exports
Tanda's kiosk approach works but costs more. Shiftly's app-based geofencing is simpler, cheaper, and just as accurate.
Award interpretation
Built from the ground up for Australian awards
Tanda's award engine is built for EBAs, multi-award environments, and SCHADS — the most complex compliance scenarios in Australia. But most independent hospitality venues run a single award (HIGA) with standard penalty rates. Shiftly's award engine is purpose-built for this: hospo awards pre-configured, no implementation project, no consultant needed. Penalty rates, overtime, allowances, and age-based thresholds — calculated automatically, every shift.
Shiftly
Tanda
Hospitality awards pre-configured
including HIGA
Managed templates, complex setup
Free award configuration support
included in onboarding
Implementation project required
Penalty rates and overtime
Automatic calculation
Automatic calculation
Age-based pay thresholds
Real-time shift cost as you roster
Yes, everything included
All plans (core strength)
Fair Work compliance
Tanda's compliance engine handles the most complex award scenarios in Australia. But if your venue just needs HIGA covered correctly, Shiftly does it out of the box — no consultants, no implementation fees.
Paperless onboarding
Employee onboarding without the paperwork
Tanda's onboarding tools live behind the $12.80 All-in-One tier. Shiftly includes paperless onboarding on every plan — verified employment details, automatic Xero sync, and discrepancy alerts before anything hits payroll. No upgrade required, no extra cost.
Fully digital, paperless onboarding flow
Verified employment details
Live sync to Xero
Alerts for data discrepancies
New starters appear on the roster immediately
Tanda bundles onboarding into its $12.80 All-in-One tier. Shiftly includes it free — with deeper Xero sync and built-in data validation.
Payroll integration
Direct, end-to-end Xero integration
Tanda now offers its own native payroll — but only in the $12.80+ All-in-One bundle. If you're on a lower tier, you're back to pushing timesheets to Xero or MYOB. Shiftly's Xero integration is built in from day one, free on every plan — award-interpreted hours flow straight into your pay run without mapping payroll codes or paying for a premium tier.
Staff details pulled directly from Xero
Onboarding data validated against Xero records
Two-way sync keeps employee data aligned
Award-interpreted hours pushed to Xero Payroll
Job costing align with Xero cost centres
Tanda locks Xero payroll behind its premium tier. Shiftly includes it free from day one.
Staff mobile app
A staff mobile app to enable your team
Tanda's desktop manager view is strong, but users consistently report the mobile app is a step behind — limited configuration, clunky roster views, and occasional sync issues. Shiftly Me was built mobile-first for hospitality staff: clean roster views, one-tap geofenced clock-in, shift swaps, availability, and leave — all in an app your 18-year-old casual can pick up without training.
View rosters and upcoming shifts
Submit availability and swap requests
Request open shifts as they're posted
One-tap geofenced clock-in
Leave requests
Where Tanda's mobile app falls short, Shiftly Me was built from scratch — mobile-first, hospo-first, free for every team member.
Let us show you around
We’ll walk you through how Shiftly works and help you see if we're the right fit for you
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