Reception Star vs Cliniko

Built for solo practitioners. Not enterprise clinics.

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

How Reception Star is different

No monthly fee

You only pay when you're working. 47¢ per session, capped at $67/month. Take December off, pay nothing.

Everything included

Booking, reminders, case notes, invoices, bank reconciliation, calendar sync. No tiers, no add-ons.

Unlimited users

Your receptionist, supervisor, bookkeeper — no per-user fees. Set up multiple locations if you need them.

One login, multiple practices

Work across separate practices with one account. Switch instantly — no logging out.

Encrypted client records

Your client data is encrypted before it's stored. We can't read your session notes — the system is built that way.

Priced in AUD

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

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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.
×Work at two separate clinics? You need two separate Cliniko accounts with two separate logins.

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.

What a month actually looks like

Your week	Clinikoincl. SMS	Reception Star
5 appointments/wk	$67.68/mo	$9.40
15 appointments/wk	$73.44/mo	$28.20
25 appointments/wk	$79.20/mo	$47
40 appointments/wk	$87.84/mo	$67 (capped)

Cliniko: USD $45/mo (~AUD $64.80 at 1.44 FX) plus SMS at USD $0.10/msg (~AUD $0.14). Totals above assume 1 reminder per appointment. Reception Star: $19 one-time + 47¢ per session including SMS reminders, capped at $67/month. All prices AUD.

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 from day one — no add-on, no credits, no separate subscription

No monthly fee. You only pay when you're working.

$19 one-time to set up. Then 47¢ per session, capped at $67/month.

Get started

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.