Rotahr vs Ordio
Rotahr and Ordio both handle staff scheduling, but they solve different problems: Rotahr is one flat-priced app that also covers bookings, food safety records, stock and payroll for a single venue, while Ordio is a dedicated workforce platform priced per location and bolted to other tools for the rest.
German workforce platform for shift-based teams — scheduling, time tracking, employee file and payroll, sold per location.
Below is a straight comparison, including the cases where Ordio is the better choice. If that's you, we'd rather you knew now than found out after paying us.
Short version
A strong, well-built workforce platform that happens to serve hospitality, rather than a hospitality system. If you only need staff operations and you are in Germany, they are a genuinely good product.
What each one costs
Rotahr
€49/mo
Flat monthly, VAT included. Up to 15 staff; €89 up to 30. Hiring doesn't change the bill.
Ordio
per location
Published per location, per month on annual billing: Starter €89, Plus €129, Pro €169, Enterprise from €344. Time tracking is not in Starter — it begins at Plus. Checklists begin at Pro. Net payroll is a €15 add-on.
Rough cost at 12 staff: €89/month for one venue on Starter, but without time tracking. With clock-in you are on Plus at €129/month. Headcount does not change either figure.
Ordio pricing taken from their own pricing page, checked 2026-08-16. Vendors change prices — verify before you buy. We don't quote third-party aggregators because they're often years out of date.
Where Ordio is better
No point pretending otherwise.
- ✓Founder-led hospitality credibility — David Keuenhof built it while running rotas and payroll for 125 staff across three Sushi Ninja sites in Cologne.
- ✓Payroll is calculated in the product rather than only prepared for an accountant, with a paid add-on for net pay.
- ✓A real integration surface: a public REST JSON API, partner integrations and their own app store. Rotahr has fewer published integrations today.
- ✓Hardware-grade time tracking on the upper tiers — tablet team terminal, optional GPS check, digital signature verification and documented late arrivals.
- ✓Documents and e-signature, plus a document generator on Enterprise.
- ✓Scale and breadth: they state 2,500+ businesses across more than 72 industries, so the product is well proven outside hospitality too.
Pick Ordio if…
You operate in Germany, want payroll calculated rather than prepared, need an open API to plug into existing systems, and you already have reservations and food safety handled elsewhere.
Where Ordio leaves gaps for a small venue
- ✕Priced per location, so the bill multiplies with venues. Three sites on Plus is €387/month before add-ons.
- ✕Time tracking is withheld from the entry tier, so the realistic hospitality price is the €129 Plus plan rather than the €89 headline.
- ✕Nothing for front of house. No table reservations, no floor plan and no customer list, so the diary stays in a second system.
- ✕No food safety module in the core product — HACCP temperature and cleaning records are not what it is built to hold.
- ✕Built for German rules and marketed to teams in Germany; their own scheduling page still offers a free start “when Ordio launches in your region”, so Irish and UK availability should be confirmed before you plan around it.
The real difference
Most tools here do the rota well. The question is what happens to everything else — the temperature checks, the delivery notes, the bookings, the bag of receipts. Rotahr was built by a chef who was doing all of it by hand.
| Included as standard | Rotahr | Ordio |
|---|---|---|
| Staff rota & shift swaps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Clock in / out with break tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| HACCP food safety records | ✓ | ✕ |
| Table bookings & floor plan | ✓ | ✕ |
| Receipt scanning & bookkeeping | ✓ | ✕ |
| Stock & recipe costing | ✓ | ✕ |
| Customer list & offers | ✓ | ✕ |
Based on each vendor's publicly marketed feature set as of 2026-08-16. Ordio may offer some of these through integrations or partners rather than natively.
Common questions
Is Rotahr cheaper than Ordio?
For a single venue that needs clock-in, yes. Ordio puts time tracking on its Plus plan at €129 per location per month; Rotahr Starter is €49 a month including VAT with clock-in and break tracking in the box. The gap widens with venues, because Ordio charges per location and Rotahr Enterprise is €215 flat for unlimited sites.
What does Rotahr do that Ordio does not?
Front of house and food safety. Table bookings with a visual floor plan, a customer list built from reservations, and HACCP temperature, delivery and cleaning records with PDF export for inspections. Ordio is a workforce platform, so those stay in separate tools.
What does Ordio do that Rotahr does not?
It calculates payroll rather than preparing it, publishes a REST API with an app store of integrations, and offers e-signature and a tablet clock-in terminal. If those matter more to you than reservations and HACCP, Ordio is the better fit.
Is Ordio available in Ireland and the UK?
Ordio markets itself to teams in Germany and its site refers to a free start when Ordio launches in your region, so availability outside the German-speaking market is worth confirming with them directly. Rotahr is built around Irish and UK rules — statutory break entitlements, VAT and Form 46G — and also supports USD, GBP, CAD and AUD.
There seem to be two products called ordio — which is which?
There are. ordio.com is the German workforce platform described on this page. getordio.com is a separate, unrelated vendor aimed at US restaurants, selling a single plan at $125 per location per month for up to 25 users, with prep lists, inventory and invoice processing. If you are comparing quotes, check which one you are actually talking to.