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Reception Star vs Cliniko

Pay per appointment when you work. Not a monthly clinic seat.

Comparing Cliniko and Reception Star for private practice in Australia: practitioners who invoice their own clients.

How Reception Star is different

No monthly fee

You only pay when you run appointments. 97¢ per appointment. Quiet month? $0 in Reception Star fees.

One plan

Calendar, booking, intake forms, reminders, session notes (body charts when you need them), invoices, bank import, and API. No feature tiers.

No seat fee

Reception, supervisor, and bookkeeper can all sign in. No extra charge per person.

One login, multiple practices

Work across separate practices with one account. Switch without logging out.

Field-level encryption

Sensitive client fields and clinical content are encrypted before storage, not only on the disk. We hold the application keys (not end-to-end). Details on Security.

Priced in AUD

No USD billing. No exchange-rate surprises.

API and webhooks

REST API and real-time webhooks for clients, appointments, invoices, and payments. Included. No separate automation tier.

Common frustrations with Cliniko

Mix of public review themes (Capterra, G2, SoftwareAdvice, 2024-2025) and structural product facts (billing currency, plan shape). Treat review lines as themes, not a census.

  • ×Billed in USD. Australian practices pay FX on every invoice.
  • ×Seat fee every month even on quiet weeks or leave.
  • ×Data imports can create duplicate client records (common review theme).
  • ×Feature requests often take a long time to ship.
  • ×Seat fee scales with practitioner count, and the bill is in USD (FX for Australian practices).
  • ×Harder to justify a seat fee when you are still building caseload.

What Cliniko does well

  • ●Established brand with a large practice base worldwide since 2011.
  • ●Broad feature set: telehealth, letters, reporting, and integrations.
  • ●Integrations such as Xero, Stripe, and Mailchimp.
  • ●Extensive help guides and long-running product.
  • ●Reliable uptime and solid engineering reputation.

What a month actually looks like

Your weekCliniko1 prac plan + ~1 SMS/appt (USD)Reception Star
5 appointments/wkUS$47/mo$19.40
15 appointments/wkUS$51/mo$58.20
25 appointments/wkUS$55/mo$97
40 appointments/wkUS$61/mo$155.20

Cliniko bills in USD: US$45/mo for 1 practitioner plus SMS at US$0.10/msg (Cliniko pricing page, Oct 2026). Table assumes one reminder SMS per appointment and four weeks. AUD equivalent moves with FX; we show USD as billed. Reception Star: 97¢ per appointment, no monthly fee, no seat fee, no per-SMS fee from us (reminders sit inside the appointment fee). All prices AUD. Card processors bill separately when used. At higher weekly volume, 97¢ times appointments can exceed a flat Cliniko seat. The fit is quiet months, no seat, AUD, and private-fee workflow. Not always cheaper.

API & automation

Real-time automation needs events (client books, appointment cancelled, invoice paid). Cliniko’s public API is poll-based; webhooks have been a long-standing request. Confirm current docs before you build.

Cliniko

  • ×No webhooks. Integrations typically poll the API for changes.
  • ×Webhook support has been requested for years without a ship date we can point to.
  • ×Polling means delay and extra work for real-time automation.

Reception Star

  • ✓Full REST API: read and write clients, appointments, invoices, payments
  • ✓Real-time webhooks: get notified instantly when data changes
  • ✓Included from day one: no add-on, no credits, no separate subscription

See an example

No monthly fee. No per-SMS fee. Open a sample week with your email.

See an example

90-day refund of Reception Star fees if it is not right for you.

Not sure? That is OK. Cliniko is good software. Reception Star fits practitioners who invoice their own clients: AUD usage pricing, no monthly seat.