RosterMate vs Droppah
Two Kiwi-built rostering tools — Droppah from Wellington's FlexiTime, RosterMate from us. Droppah's sticker price is lower, but it's a slimmer tool that leans on PayHero for leave and payroll. RosterMate is the complete package — rostering, GPS time clock, leave, forms, messaging, events and IRD filing — with free onboarding and unlimited support from the team that builds it. Here's what each dollar actually buys.
Feature and pricing comparison for New Zealand businesses, from each company's public pages and third-party reviews as of July 2026.
| RosterMate | Droppah | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing (per employee/month, NZD) | $8 flat — the complete platform, plus free onboarding & unlimited support | $4 The Works · $2 Time Clock only — rostering + kiosk; leave & payroll live in PayHero |
| Free tier | No — 30-day free trial, with setup done for you | Free ≤10 employees — but no GPS clock-in, leave or forms at any tier |
| Mobile GPS clock-in with geofencing & facial verification | Yes — staff clock in from their own phones | No — photo kiosk on a shared tablet (per third-party reviews) |
| Native leave management | Yes — annual, sick, alternative & family violence leave | No — leave syncs in from PayHero |
| Manager mobile experience | Yes — full manager experience on mobile | Employee app only — no manager app (per third-party reviews) |
| AI auto-rostering | Yes — AI Auto-Roster | Yes — on The Works plan |
| NZ payroll integrations | Xero NZ, PayHero, Smartly, Crystal + iPayroll export | PayHero native (excellent); Xero integration documented for AU payroll |
| IRD payday filing & NZ bank batch files | Built in | No — handled by PayHero, not Droppah itself |
| Event staffing with shift bidding & waitlists | Yes | No |
| Custom forms with AI builder | Included | No |
| Team messaging | Group chats, channels & announcements | Group messaging on The Works |
| Free onboarding — setup done for you | Yes — staff imported, templates built, managers trained | Self-serve setup |
| Support | Unlimited & free — NZ humans, replies in minutes | Help centre + email support |
| Custom solutions & roster automations built for you | Yes — tell us the problem, we build the fix, free | Standard product roadmap |
| Reviews | — | Effectively no public review footprint yet — Capterra 0 reviews (as of Jul 2026) |
| NZ owned & operated | Yes — 100% NZ owned | Yes — FlexiTime Ltd, Wellington |
Droppah pricing and features from droppah.com public pages and third-party reviews as of 5 July 2026 (NZD pricing excl. GST; free plan limited to 10 employees including archived; only active employees billed). Droppah is a product of FlexiTime Ltd. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Example: a café or bar with 20 rostered staff. Droppah's sticker is lower — but it's buying a smaller product, with leave and payroll still living in PayHero.
No cheap shots at fellow Kiwi builders — Droppah has its niche. Just be clear-eyed about how narrow that niche is, and how much more the $8 column includes.
Choose Droppah if…
- You have 10 or fewer staff, only need a basic roster with a shared-tablet kiosk, and are happy running leave and payroll over in PayHero
- The lowest possible sticker price outranks everything else — and you're certain you'll never need GPS clock-in, leave in the roster, forms or events
- You already run PayHero and want roster and payroll from the same vendor, accepting the single-ecosystem lock-in that comes with it
- A shared tablet at the counter genuinely covers your clock-in needs — nobody ever starts a shift off-site
Choose RosterMate if…
- Your staff clock in from their own phones — GPS, geofencing and facial verification are built in, not tablet-bound
- You want leave handled inside the roster — annual, sick, alternative and family violence leave, no payroll round-trip
- You use any payroll other than PayHero — Xero NZ, Smartly, Crystal, iPayroll export, plus IRD payday filing built in
- Managers work on the move — the full manager experience is on mobile, not just an employee app
- You staff events or need forms — capacity-based shift bidding with waitlists and AI-built custom forms are included
- You want a partner, not just a login — free onboarding where we import your staff and build your templates, and unlimited support that answers in minutes
- You want software that adapts to you — tell us your problems and we build solutions, including complex roster and event automations set up for you, free
The table above only counts features. Every RosterMate plan also comes with a New Zealand team doing the heavy lifting for you — included in the price, not sold separately.
Free onboarding, done for you
We import your staff, build your roster templates, set up your positions and areas, and train your managers — free. You start with a working roster, not a blank screen.
Support in minutes, not days
Unlimited free support from the NZ team that actually builds RosterMate. Call or message — a human answers fast. No ticket tiers, no offshore queue, no chatbot maze.
We build what you need
Got a problem your software ignores? Tell us. We listen, design a solution and ship it — RosterMate customers watch their feedback become features that better their business.
Complex setups automated, free
Rotating patterns, event crews, multi-site rosters — our team builds your complex roster and event automations for you, at no charge. If it can be automated, we'll set it up.
Our verdict
Droppah is a tidy product at a low sticker price, and for a tiny PayHero café that never needs more than a basic roster and a tablet kiosk, it does that job. But be clear about what the $4 doesn't buy: no GPS mobile clock-in, no leave in the roster, no manager app, no forms, no events — and a payroll path that assumes you're on PayHero. Droppah isn't really a standalone system; it's the rostering arm of the FlexiTime ecosystem.
RosterMate is the complete platform: rostering, mobile GPS clock-in with facial verification, native Holidays Act leave, custom forms, team messaging, event staffing with shift bidding, and IRD payday filing — with whatever payroll you run. And it comes with us: free onboarding where we import your staff and build your roster templates, unlimited NZ support that answers in minutes, and a team that turns your feedback into features — we'll even build complex roster and event automations for you, free. That's what the $8 is. Try it free for 30 days and see the difference in your first week.
Try RosterMate FreeCommon questions from teams comparing the two Kiwi options.