Comparison / Cliniko vs Custom

Cliniko or custom?
Most clinics
pick both.

Cliniko is excellent at clinical records. It’s mediocre at the patient-facing booking experience. Most multi-practitioner clinics we work with land on a hybrid: Cliniko for clinical, custom for patient-facing booking. Here’s the honest breakdown.

TL;DR

The verdict.

Stay on Cliniko alone if you’re a solo or small allied health clinic, your patients find you via referrals, and the per-practitioner subscription is comfortable.

Custom-only rarely makes sense for medical / allied health — Cliniko’s clinical depth is hard to replicate and usually shouldn’t be.

Custom + Cliniko is the pattern most multi-practitioner clinics end up on. Branded patient-facing booking on your domain, Cliniko handling clinical records, two-way API sync. Best of both. Most cost-effective at 3+ practitioners.

01 // Side by side

Cliniko vs custom vs hybrid

	Cliniko	Custom (Qarbi)	Custom + Cliniko
Build cost	$0 upfront	$10K–$18K	$10K–$15K
Per-booking commission	$0	$0	$0
Monthly subscription	$95–$195+ per practitioner	$0	Cliniko subscription stays
Patient-facing booking flow	Generic Cliniko default page	Fully custom, on your domain	Fully custom, on your domain
Treatment notes, e-prescribing	Strong (clinical PMS)	Custom (we can build it)	Cliniko handles it
Branded checkout	Limited	Full control	Full control
You own data	Cloud-hosted	Yes	Mixed (Cliniko clinical, you own booking)
Best for	Solo / small clinics needing only clinical PMS	Clinics that want everything custom	Clinics that want patient-facing custom + keep Cliniko clinical

02 // The math

3-year cost by practitioner count

1 practitioner

Cliniko alone: $95/mo × 36 → $3,420 over 3 years

Custom-only: $10K build / Custom + Cliniko keeps you on $3,420 + $10K

3 practitioners

Cliniko alone: $195/mo × 36 → $7,020 over 3 years

Custom-only: $14K build / Custom + Cliniko: $7K + $12K

5+ practitioners

Cliniko alone: $295/mo × 36 → $10,620 over 3 years

Custom-only: $18K build / Custom + Cliniko: $10K + $14K

For most multi-practitioner allied health clinics, the “Custom + Cliniko” hybrid breaks even in year 2 and gives you a branded booking experience patients actually want to use.

03 // What Cliniko users say

The patterns we hear

"Cliniko is great for clinical records. The patient-facing booking page looks like every other Cliniko clinic. Branding leak." — physiotherapist, Sydney

"We tried using Cliniko's online booking. Patients kept getting confused by the cliniko.com domain on the URL." — chiropractic clinic

"The per-practitioner pricing got painful as we grew. Five practitioners is $1k/month before we add anything." — multi-location physio

04 // Honest counter-position

When Cliniko alone
is still the right call.

You're a solo or 2-practitioner allied health clinic. The clinical PMS features (treatment notes, SOAP notes, billing) justify the subscription on their own.
You don't care about branded patient-facing booking — your patients find you via word-of-mouth, not your website.
You're not on a growth trajectory and don't want to invest in custom infrastructure.

For solo allied health, Cliniko’s clinical features genuinely justify the subscription on their own. The hybrid approach starts paying off at 3+ practitioners — once the per-seat costs and the patient-facing branding leak both start to bite.

05 // FAQ

Cliniko vs custom — common questions

Most allied health clinics keep Cliniko for clinical records (treatment notes, SOAP, billing) and use a custom patient-facing booking layer that syncs with Cliniko via API. Best of both: the clinical depth Cliniko provides, plus a branded booking flow you own. We've done this configuration multiple times.

Cliniko bills $95–$195+ per practitioner per month. At 5 practitioners that's $475–$975/month, $5,700–$11,700/year — and that compounds with growth. A custom patient-facing layer plus Cliniko clinical typically costs less over 3 years for clinics with 4+ practitioners.

Yes — but it's usually not the right call. Cliniko has 10+ years of clinical workflow refinement, AHPRA-compliant note structures, and integrations with most allied health insurers. We build clinical features when there's a specific gap, but for most clinics the "Custom + Cliniko" pattern is cheaper and faster.

Two-way sync. Bookings made through your custom site write to Cliniko. Practitioner schedules and availability come from Cliniko. Treatment notes stay in Cliniko. Your front-end is custom; your clinical source of truth stays Cliniko.

Cliniko or custom?Most clinicspick both.