Reception Star vs Cliniko

Same features. Fraction of the cost.

Comparing Cliniko and Reception Star for solo allied health practitioners in Australia.

Monthly cost comparison

Your week	Clinikoincl. SMS	Reception Star
5 appointments/wk	~$73/mo	~$6.60
15 appointments/wk	~$80/mo	~$20
25 appointments/wk	~$86/mo	~$33
40 appointments/wk	~$96/mo	~$53

Cliniko: USD $45/mo (~AUD $70) plus SMS on top. Totals above assume 1 reminder per appointment. Reception Star: initial $19 one-time + 33¢ per appointment including SMS reminders. All prices AUD.

What Cliniko does well

●Established and trusted — 100,000+ practices worldwide since 2012.
●Comprehensive feature set: telehealth, letters, detailed reporting.
●Strong integrations: Xero, Stripe, Mailchimp, and more.
●Well-documented with extensive help guides.
●Reliable uptime and solid engineering.

Common frustrations with Cliniko

Based on Capterra, G2, and SoftwareAdvice reviews (2024–2025).

×Silent email failures — emails marked "sent" but never delivered. The #1 complaint on review sites.
×Billed in USD. Australian customers pay exchange rate fees on every invoice.
×Limited reporting — practitioners want more flexibility in custom reports.
×Data imports frequently create duplicate patient records.
×Feature requests acknowledged but take years to ship.
×Performance can lag at scale with many practitioners.
×$70+/mo is hard to justify when you're just starting out with a handful of patients.

API & automation

Automation tools and custom integrations need to act on real-time events — patient books, appointment cancelled, invoice paid — and that requires webhooks. Cliniko has had an open request for webhooks since 2019. It still hasn't shipped.

Cliniko

×No webhooks — developers must poll the API repeatedly to detect changes
×Webhook support requested since 2019, still not available
×Polling means delays, wasted resources, and no 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 at no extra cost — no add-on, no credits, no separate subscription

How Reception Star is different

No monthly fee

Initial $19 one-time activation. Then 33¢ per appointment. Your costs match your actual patient load — not a fixed bill every month.

All features from day one

Scheduling, invoicing, SMS reminders, online booking, bank reconciliation, case notes. No tiers, no add-ons, nothing held back.

Unlimited users and locations

Add practitioners, reception staff, and bookkeepers — no per-user fees. Set up as many locations as you need — clinics, home visits, telehealth.

Encrypted-in-use

Patient data is encrypted before it's stored — not just at rest. We can't see your data even when troubleshooting.

Priced in AUD

No USD billing. No exchange rate surprises. What you see is what you pay.

Full API and webhooks included

REST API and real-time webhooks at no extra cost. Automate workflows, connect third-party tools, or build custom integrations — your practice data is yours to use.

$19 to get started. No monthly fee.

All features included. 33¢ per appointment. Cancel anytime.

Get started — $19

Money-back guarantee. No questions asked.

Not sure? That's OK. Cliniko is good software. We just think there's a better fit for solo practitioners who are watching every dollar while building their practice.