Crew Active vs Planday
Planday is internationally strong in hospitality and retail, but not for construction sites or German industries.
Planday is a workforce management software originally from Denmark, now in the Xero family. Its focus is hospitality, retail, and hotels: industries with fixed locations, many part-time staff, and complex shift patterns. In shift scheduling and team chat Planday is internationally strong. What Planday does not deliver: real GPS time tracking on site, offline mode for sites without signal, German industry specialization (MiLoG, GDPR), and clear coverage for cleaning, landscaping, or construction.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Crew Active | Planday |
|---|---|---|
| Drag & Drop Scheduling | ||
| GPS Time Tracking | ||
| Integrated Team Chat | ||
| Mobile App (iOS & Android) | ||
| Offline Capability | ||
| Photo Documentation | ||
| Reports & Export | ||
| Multi-Industry (Cleaning, Landscaping, Construction) | ||
| Customer Management | ||
| GDPR Compliant (Servers in the EU) | ||
| 1-Month Free Trial |
Pricing Compared
- • Transparent, no minimum term
- • 1-month free, no credit card
- • All features included
- • Workforce Management for Hospitality & Retail
- www.planday.com
When Planday is the better fit
- You run a hotel, restaurant, or retail chain
- Your employees work at fixed locations with part-time shifts
- International expansion matters more to you than German industry specialization
- GPS verification of working hours on site is irrelevant to you
When Crew Active is the better fit
- You run a cleaning, landscaping, or construction business
- You need GPS time tracking with a location cross-check against the stored site address
- Your employees work offline without stable signal
- You want legally compliant documentation and an Excel export for payroll
- You prefer a German vendor with EU-based server hosting
- You want transparent pricing without expensive premium tiers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Crew Active and Planday?
Planday is built for hospitality, retail, and hotels with fixed locations. Crew Active is built for businesses with mobile teams on changing sites. GPS time tracking, offline mode, German compliance (MiLoG), and industry-specific features are clear Crew Active advantages.
Does Planday support GPS time tracking?
Planday does not offer real GPS-verified time tracking on site. For legally binding site-based working time proof, which MiLoG requires in Germany, that is a clear disadvantage. Crew Active clocks in with GPS verification and cross-checks the fix against the stored site address.
Is Planday GDPR compliant?
Planday is generally GDPR compliant, but hosts internationally. Crew Active keeps your customer, employee and time data in an EU data centre and provides the data processing agreement; a few add-on features (maps, push, email, AI reports) use named providers, some outside the EU. If your client specifically requires a German server location, we do not meet that today.
How much does Planday really cost?
The base price is around €2.49/user/month, but many important features (vacation requests, advanced reports, integrations) are only in higher premium tiers. In practice you end up at €6–10/user/month. Crew Active covers all core features in one package: €7.58 to €13.80 per seat depending on package size.
Try it free: no comparison headaches
1 month of full access to Crew Active. No credit card. No sales call. You try, you decide.