TL;DR: ShiftCare, Nightingale and Brevity all handle the core NDIS provider workload — rostering, progress notes, invoicing and bulk claims — but they suit different organisations. ShiftCare is the accessible all-rounder for small-to-medium teams with per-user pricing from around $9–$25 per user per month. Brevity is purpose-built for Australian disability and aged care with deep NDIS integration (including plan OCR and NDIS API connectivity) and per-client pricing from around $45 per month. Nightingale targets mid-to-large providers (roughly 50+ staff) with configurable forms, workflow automation and real-time award interpretation, on quote-only pricing. Pricing and features change frequently — confirm with each vendor before committing.
Choosing care management software is one of the more consequential operational decisions an NDIS provider makes: it shapes rostering, claiming, compliance evidence and how much time your team spends on administration. This independent comparison looks at three platforms frequently shortlisted by Australian providers. Disability Insights has no commercial relationship with any vendor; details below are drawn from public information as at August 2026 and should be confirmed directly with vendors, as features and pricing change often.
How do ShiftCare, Nightingale and Brevity compare at a glance?
| ShiftCare | Nightingale | Brevity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best suited to | Small–medium providers | Mid–large providers (50+ staff) | Small–medium disability & aged care providers |
| Pricing model | Per user, per month | Quote on request | Per client, per month |
| Indicative cost | ~$9–$25/user/month (5-user minimum) | Not published | From ~$45/month, varies by client volume |
| NDIS claiming | Bulk claim exports, budget tracking | Automated claims and invoicing | Direct NDIS API connectivity, bulk claims, plan OCR |
| Rostering | Strong, with mobile app | Competency-based, shift bidding, real-time award interpretation | Full scheduling and staff management |
| Mobile app | Well-regarded worker app | Support worker and family apps | Worker app included |
| Origin | Australian, cloud-based | Australian (Perth), since 2016 | Australian, disability & aged care focus |
What does ShiftCare do well?
ShiftCare has become one of the most widely adopted entry points for small and growing NDIS providers, and its appeal is straightforward: it is quick to set up, priced per user at rates that suit small teams, and covers the essentials without demanding a system administrator. Rostering, shift notes, client budgets and NDIS bulk claiming are all built in, and its mobile app for support workers — used for shift acceptance, progress notes and travel records — is consistently one of its best-reviewed features.
The trade-off is depth. Larger organisations with complex intake workflows, incident management needs or heavy custom reporting requirements can outgrow it. For a small provider moving off spreadsheets, though, it is often the least painful first step — and if you are still weighing up whether to register at all, start with our guide to whether NDIS registration is right for you.
What does Nightingale do well?
Nightingale, Australian-owned and Perth-based since 2016, plays at the other end of the market: mid-sized to large providers with dozens or hundreds of staff. Its strengths are configurability and automation — custom forms and workflows, automated alerts, competency-based rostering with shift bidding, and award interpretation applied in real time as rosters are built, which matters given how easily SCHADS Award compliance can go wrong at scale. Separate apps for support workers and for families extend visibility beyond the office.
The trade-offs mirror its target market: pricing is not published (expect a sales conversation and implementation project rather than a self-serve signup), and the configurability that suits a 200-person organisation can be overkill for a five-person team.
What does Brevity do well?
Brevity is purpose-built for Australian disability and aged care, and its stand-out capability is the depth of its NDIS plumbing: it is an NDIS Digital Partner with direct API connectivity, supports bulk claiming, and can OCR-scan NDIS plan documents to load budgets automatically — genuinely useful for plan-managed and agency-managed caseloads. Client records, scheduling, documents, budgets and invoicing sit in one system.
Its per-client pricing model (from around $45 per month at the base tier, scaling with client volume) suits providers whose staff numbers are large relative to their client count — the reverse of ShiftCare's per-user economics. Which model is cheaper for you depends entirely on your staff-to-client ratio, so model both against your actual numbers.
Which should you choose?
- Choose ShiftCare if you are a small or newly registered provider that wants low-friction rostering, notes and claiming with a strong worker app, at predictable per-user cost.
- Choose Brevity if NDIS billing depth matters most — API claiming, plan OCR, budget automation — or if your staff-to-client ratio makes per-client pricing cheaper.
- Choose Nightingale if you are a mid-to-large organisation that needs configurable workflows, real-time award interpretation and family-facing visibility, and you have the scale to justify an implementation project.
Whatever you shortlist, insist on a trial or sandbox with your own roster and claiming scenarios, and check how each platform evidences compliance for audits and registration requirements — exporting your data cleanly matters as much as entering it. We compare three more platforms — Astalty, FlowLogic and Vertex360 — in a companion article.
Key Takeaways
- All three cover the NDIS core — rostering, notes, invoicing, claims — but target different organisation sizes.
- ShiftCare: per-user pricing (~$9–$25/user/month), fast setup, strong mobile app; best for small–medium teams.
- Brevity: per-client pricing (from ~$45/month), deepest NDIS integration with API claiming and plan OCR.
- Nightingale: quote-only, built for 50+ staff organisations, with custom workflows and real-time award interpretation.
- Compare pricing models against your actual staff-to-client ratio, and always confirm current pricing and features directly with vendors.
