Compared
CareMaster is a full provider platform with something we do not have — an app for participants as well as workers — and a certification we are still working towards. The comparison turns on what sits in the plan and what is an add-on.
Assessed 5 September 2026 from CareMaster's own published pricing and support-worker-app pages, with dated third-party listings cited only where those pages were silent. Their plans change; check anything decisive with them directly.
CareMaster is ahead of us on four things and we would rather say so plainly: they hold ISO 27001 where ours is still in progress, they state that all data is hosted in Australia with daily backups as standard, they ship a participant app alongside the support-worker app where we ship a worker app only, and they cover vehicle and property management where we do not. They also report to DSS DEX, which we do not. The table below has all of it, including the rows we lose.
CareMaster lists Payroll Award Interpretation (SCHADS and more) as an add-on at $155 a month, on top of the seat price. Ours is in the $11 plan: five specific SCHADS breaches checked and priced at your own casual loading while the roster is still a draft. For a small provider that add-on alone is the price of fourteen of our seats.
CareMaster records incidents across participants, workers, vehicles and property, which is broader than ours. What their material does not describe is the 24-hour reportable-incident clock that starts when an incident is logged, is moved along hourly inside the database, and escalates when nobody picks it up. If you are a registered provider, that is the control an auditor asks about.
Medication records, health records, a restrictive-practices register with authorisation state and review dates — all on the participant record, all in the base plan. CareMaster's participant profile carries medical history, care plans and medications according to their app-store listing; a restrictive-practices register and medication administration records are not described in their material.
Clock on, write a note and report an incident with no reception; it syncs when you are back, recorded at the time you acted. CareMaster's support-worker page describes shift management, a smart clock button, messaging and odometer prompts; it does not mention offline use. Our pricing is a per-user figure with relief bands; theirs is published, but the unit printed on their page is ambiguous enough that we would rather you confirm it with them than quote it here.
The rows we lose are in here too. If they were not, you would be right not to believe the rows we win.
| Capability | CareOp | CareMaster |
|---|---|---|
| Rostering and scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Support-worker mobile appOffline use is not described in CareMaster's material. | Yes | Yes |
| Participant app | No | Yes |
| Incident managementTheirs spans participants, workers, vehicles and property. Ours adds the escalating 24-hour reportable clock; theirs is not described. | Yes | Yes |
| Medications and clinical recordsTheir app-store listing describes medical history, care plans and medications on the participant profile; administration records are not described. | Yes | Partial |
| Restrictive-practices registerNot described in CareMaster's public material. | Yes | Partial |
| SCHADS award interpretationA $155-a-month add-on on their pricing page. Included in our $11 plan. | Yes | Partial |
| NDIA bulk claimingBoth are an export you upload; their pricing page lists NDIS export functionality. | Partial | Partial |
| DSS DEX reportingA $155-a-month add-on on their pricing page. We do not report to DEX. | No | Yes |
| Vehicle and property managementOn their Standard and Premium plans. | No | Yes |
| Document managementListed on their Premium plan. | Yes | Partial |
| Australian hostingBoth state it. They also state daily backups as standard. | Yes | Yes |
| Independent security certificationThey state accreditation against ISO 27001. Ours is in progress — see our trust page. | No | Yes |
| Free tierNeither of us. Their plans start at a five-user minimum. | No | No |
CareMaster's public pages do not describe offline use on the worker app, a restrictive-practices register, medication administration records, AI features, or a 24-hour reportable-incident clock. None of those is marked as missing above — we could not find them, which is not the same thing. Their pricing is published but the per-user figure on their page reads as a monthly total; confirm the unit with them before comparing bills.
a participant-facing app matters to the people you support, if ISO 27001 or DSS DEX reporting is a requirement this year, or if you run vehicles and properties and want them in the same system.
you want the award interpreted in the plan rather than as a $155 add-on, if reportable incidents need a clock rather than a form, if medications and restrictive practices are on every shift, or if a worker app that works with no signal is the thing your field staff actually need.