Deputy vs Roz: pricing and features compared (Australia, 2026)

Short answer: Pick Roz if the roster itself is your daily pain point and you want AI to rebuild and repair it, at a flat, published per-site price. Pick Deputy if you want one large platform for rostering, time & attendance, payroll, and HR, priced per user. Vet teams at VetHQ and The Village Vet roster with Roz. Want more options? See 8 Deputy alternatives in Australia.

Last updated 27 September 2026 · Reviewed by the Roz team

Deputy is the largest, most established workforce-management platform in this market — rostering, time & attendance, payroll, HR, and now an agentic AI assistant, priced per user. Roz is a smaller, AI-first rostering specialist priced per site with unlimited management users. If the roster is your daily pain point, Roz does more of that work for you at a lower, published price; if you want rostering fused with deep time-and-attendance, award interpretation, and payroll in one large platform, Deputy is the fuller suite.

	Roz	Deputy
Core focus	AI-first rostering that drafts, rebuilds, and repairs the roster, then reaches staff to confirm the change.	Broad workforce-management platform: rostering, time & attendance, payroll, HR, and an AI assistant layer across all of it.
AI capability	Roz rebuilds the roster after a sick call, proposes rule-compliant swaps, and flags coverage gaps and overtime risk before you publish.	Deputy AI (launched late 2025) builds schedules and finds replacement staff from a natural-language prompt. Like Roz, it asks for your confirmation before publishing a schedule or approving a timesheet.
Compliance handling	Fixed rules you set for rest hours, qualifications/certifications, and availability blackouts, checked on every roster build.	A long-standing strength: automated award interpretation, a Pay Rate Builder, and regular updates as Fair Work modern awards change.
Staff communication	Roz messages staff on WhatsApp, Telegram, and email; staff reply on WhatsApp, Telegram, or in the Roz app to request leave, swap a shift, or say they're running late — included in every plan price.	In-app 1:1 and group messaging plus a News Feed, included free on every plan. Messaging+ (pinning, read receipts, voice notes, polls) is a $2.75/user/month AUD add-on, included free on Pro. No WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS channel found.
Pricing model	Per site + active staff, with unlimited management users on every plan. From $49/month AUD, incl. GST, published on the pricing page.	Per user, per month, excl. GST: Lite $6.75, Core $8.75, Pro $13, plus separate add-ons (Payroll $5, HR $3.50, Messaging+ $2.75, Analytics+ $2/user/month). $30 AUD minimum spend per invoice. Deputy All-in-One (rostering + payroll + HR bundled) is $13.95/user/month excl. all applicable taxes — a 15% saving on the $16.40 unbundled price.
Best for	Businesses with 1 to 8 sites that want AI doing the roster building and fixing without a per-seat bill that grows on every hire.	Larger or multi-site operators that want rostering, time & attendance, payroll, and HR running off one mature, widely-adopted platform.

Pricing checked 27 September 2026 from deputy.com/au/pricing and rozhq.com/pricing.

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Pricing, compared

Deputy's Australian pricing page lists three tiers, billed per user per month excl. GST: Lite $6.75, Core ("most popular") $8.75, and Pro $13, plus a $30 AUD minimum monthly spend per invoice. Four add-ons are billed on top, each AUD excl. GST per user/month: Payroll $5, HR $3.50, Messaging+ $2.75, Analytics+ $2. The clearest real-cost example is messaging: every Deputy plan already includes 1:1 and group chat, but Messaging+ (pinning, read receipts, voice notes, polls) costs extra, so a Core seat with Messaging+ runs $11.50 AUD excl. GST a month. Deputy also sells a bundled tier, Deputy All-in-One, combining rostering, payroll, and HR for $13.95 AUD excl. all applicable taxes per user/month — 15% cheaper than buying the three modules separately at Deputy's own $16.40 reference price. Roz includes staff comms over WhatsApp, Telegram, and email in its plan price, and charges per site plus active staff rather than per seat.

A worked example at a size where per-user pricing starts to bite: 35 staff, one restaurant. Deputy Core runs 35 × $8.75 = $306.25 a month excl. GST (about $337 incl. GST). Roz Starter covers up to 60 staff across 3 sites for $79 a month incl. GST for your first 12 months, then $149 — well under Deputy's per-user total either way.

When Roz is the better fit

If you're a single- or few-site business and the roster is where your time actually goes — covering sick calls, checking quals and rest hours, chasing staff for a yes — Roz is built for that. It drafts and repairs the roster, checks it against your rules, and messages affected staff on WhatsApp, Telegram, or email so you're not relaying every change by hand. The price is published, starts at $49/month AUD, incl. GST, and doesn't grow just because you add a second manager — unlimited management users are included on every plan, unlike Deputy's per-user multiplier.

When Deputy is the better fit

Deputy is a mature, widely-adopted platform, and its depth shows in the parts of the job Roz doesn't try to do. If you need biometric time clocking, detailed location hierarchies, SSO, or a Payroll/HR/Analytics stack on the same data as your roster, Deputy's Pro tier, All-in-One bundle, and add-ons cover that ground. Its award-interpretation tooling — Pay Rate Builder, automatic updates as Fair Work modern awards change — is a genuine, long-standing specialty for complex Australian pay compliance. Its new Deputy AI assistant now handles natural-language requests like finding multi-day sick cover across schedules and timesheets in one place. Deputy is also Xero's chosen workforce-management partner: when Xero retired its own Planday product in Australia in September 2024, it took a minority stake in Deputy and pointed Planday customers there instead — a sign of how established Deputy is in this market. For a larger, multi-site, or compliance-heavy operator that wants all of that under one roof, Deputy is the stronger, more complete choice.

What you give up if you leave Deputy

Roz builds and runs the roster. It has no clock-in, no timesheets, and no payroll export. If Deputy feeds hours into your payroll today, you'll need another way to capture hours worked, or you can keep Deputy for time and attendance and use Roz for the roster. Roz is the better fit when building and fixing the roster — not clocking hours or running payroll — is where your time goes.

Roz for your industry

Roz is built for multi-site operators, clinics, and cafes — see how it fits your business.

Common questions

Is Roz a Deputy alternative?

Yes, for businesses that mainly need the roster built and staff messaged. Roz is an AI-first rostering tool with published per-site pricing. Deputy is a larger, established workforce-management platform spanning rostering, time & attendance, payroll, and now an agentic AI assistant, priced per user. If you want a full workforce-management suite, Deputy is the broader platform.

What does Deputy cost in Australia?

Deputy's Australian pricing page lists three plans, per user per month excl. GST: Lite $6.75, Core $8.75, Pro $13. A $30 AUD minimum monthly spend applies per invoice. Four add-ons are billed on top, each AUD excl. GST per user/month: Payroll $5, HR $3.50, Messaging+ $2.75, Analytics+ $2.

Does Deputy have AI scheduling?

Yes. Deputy AI, launched in late 2025, can build schedules, find replacement staff for multi-day sick cover, and compare timesheets from a natural-language prompt. Like Roz, it asks for your confirmation before publishing a schedule or approving a timesheet. As of 27 September 2026, Deputy's AI page carries no introductory-free pricing badge for Deputy AI itself; the only promotion showing is "Switch & Get 3 Months Free" for switching WFM and Payroll before 30 November.

Does Deputy offer an all-in-one bundle?

Yes — Deputy All-in-One bundles rostering, payroll, and HR for $13.95 AUD excl. all applicable taxes per user/month, a 15% saving against Deputy's $16.40 unbundled reference price for the same three modules.

Is Roz cheaper than Deputy?

Usually, for a small single site. For 15 staff, Deputy's Core plan (auto-scheduling, AI features) runs about $131 AUD excl. GST a month; Roz's Lite plan is a flat $49 AUD a month, incl. GST, for the same headcount. Deputy's per-user pricing scales directly with headcount — Roz's flat banding doesn't move until you cross a staff-count threshold.

Does Deputy handle Fair Work award interpretation?

Yes — one of Deputy's longest-standing strengths. Its Australian site describes automated award interpretation, a Pay Rate Builder, and regular updates as Fair Work modern awards change. Roz's rules engine checks rest hours, qualifications, and availability blackouts on every build, but we don't claim to match Deputy's award-interpretation depth.

Can staff message Deputy or Roz on WhatsApp?

Not on Deputy, as far as we could find. Its messaging feature page describes 1:1 and group messaging (included free on every plan) plus a News Feed, all inside the Deputy app — no WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS channel is mentioned. The paid Messaging+ add-on ($2.75/user/month AUD) adds pinning, read receipts, and polls, but not a new channel. Roz messages staff over WhatsApp, Telegram, and email at no extra cost; staff reply on WhatsApp, Telegram, or in the Roz app to confirm shifts or request a swap.

Which is better for a single café or clinic?

Roz, in most cases. Deputy's tiered, per-user pricing and deeper modules (biometric clocking, location hierarchies, SSO on Pro) suit operators managing complexity across sites or awards. A single-site business usually just needs the roster built and staff told about it — Roz's Lite plan is priced flat for exactly that.

Is my staff data safe with an AI?

Your roster data is stored in Sydney. Roz's AI runs on Claude, made by Anthropic, which doesn't train on your data. Roz suggests changes, and no roster change goes out until you approve it. Read more on our security page.

Other comparisons

This comparison is sourced from Deputy's own public pricing page (deputy.com/au/pricing), its AI product page (deputy.com/ai), its messaging and award-interpretation feature pages (deputy.com/au/features/messaging, deputy.com/au/award-interpretation), and Xero's blog on the Planday retirement and Deputy partnership (blog.xero.com), checked 27 September 2026, plus rozhq.com/pricing for Roz. It's a fair, factual overview, not an exhaustive feature list. Deputy is a trademark of its respective owner; we're not affiliated with Deputy. For the latest on Deputy's features and pricing, check Deputy's own website.