What it really costs
Cliniko, over five years.
Cliniko is a good product and we would not try to rebuild the clinical side of it. It also bills Australian clinics in US dollars, which means the price of your practice software moves with the exchange rate and nobody consulted you about that.
The bands are the thing to watch. One practitioner is US$45. Two to five is US$95. Six to eight is US$145. The ninth practitioner does not cost a little more than the eighth, they cost US$50 a month more, because they push you into the next band.
Their published price
Cliniko, as Cliniko prints it.
The other meters
Source: www.cliniko.com/pricing/, read 17 August 2026. Published in US dollars, so the Australian cost moves with the exchange rate. The page does not state its GST treatment.
The sum
Multiply it out. That is the whole trick.
Today’s published price, held flat for sixty months, in USD. Held flat is generous: it assumes Cliniko never raises a price for five years, which nobody has ever done. The break-even column compares against Premium at $9,000, paid once.
Do it on your own number
Set the dial to what you actually pay Cliniko, including the meters most people forget: SMS, card processing, the extra seats, the add-ons.
Honestly
What Cliniko is good at, and where it stops fitting.
Genuinely good
- Genuinely well made, and the clinical side is not something we would try to rebuild
- Bands rather than pure per-seat, so hiring inside a band costs nothing
- The price has moved remarkably little since 2011, which is rarer than it sounds
Where it stops
- Billed in US dollars, so an Australian clinic's software bill moves with the exchange rate and nobody asked you
- Crossing a band is a step change, not a nudge: the ninth practitioner costs more than the eighth by a wide margin
- It is a clinical record system. The business around the clinic, referrers, programs, funding, equipment, is where clinics end up back in spreadsheets
If Cliniko fits, stay on it. A build is worth doing when the software is fighting the business, or when the meter has grown past what the software is worth to you. Neither of those is true for everyone reading this, and we would rather say so here than on the invoice.
The alternative
What we would build instead.
For most allied health clinics the answer is keep Cliniko for the clinical record and build around it. Patient notes, appointments and clinical history are exactly the kind of regulated, well-solved problem where replacing a mature product is a bad trade.
What clinics actually end up building
The business around the clinic. Referrer relationships and where referrals actually come from. Programs and multi-session packages. Funding streams, including the parts Cliniko has no shape for. Equipment and room utilisation. The reporting a practice owner wants on a Monday morning, which is almost never the reporting a clinical product ships with.
That is the honest boundary, and it is the same one on our allied health page: we do not build clinical records systems, and we say so before you ask.
When replacing it does make sense
A clinic in the 13 to 25 band is paying US$295 a month, which is US$17,700 over five years before SMS. If most of that clinic’s actual work has drifted outside the clinical record, the balance changes. Run it on your own number above.
Common questions
Cliniko, answered plainly.
How much does Cliniko cost?
Cliniko prices in bands by practitioner count: US$45 a month for one, US$95 for two to five, US$145 for six to eight, US$195 for nine to twelve, US$295 for thirteen to twenty-five and US$395 for twenty-six to two hundred. Taken from cliniko.com/pricing on 17 August 2026. SMS is 10c a message and annual billing gives one month free.
Is Cliniko priced in Australian dollars?
No. Cliniko publishes its pricing in US dollars, so an Australian clinic's bill moves with the exchange rate. It is worth knowing, because a fifteen per cent move in the dollar is a fifteen per cent price rise you were never notified about.
What does Cliniko cost over five years?
At today's published price held flat: a solo practitioner is US$2,700, a five-practitioner clinic is US$5,700, an eight-practitioner clinic is US$8,700 and a clinic in the 13 to 25 band is US$17,700 over sixty months. Add SMS and the exchange rate on top.
Should an allied health clinic replace Cliniko with a custom build?
Usually not, and we will say so. Clinical records are a solved, regulated problem and Cliniko solves it well. What clinics genuinely need built is the business around the clinic: referrer tracking, programs, funding, equipment and real reporting. We build that and leave the clinical record where it is.
Can a custom system talk to Cliniko?
Yes, that is the normal shape of these projects. Cliniko keeps the clinical record, the custom system runs the business process, and the two stay in step. It is a smaller and much safer project than a replacement.
What happens when we cross a Cliniko band?
The price steps rather than nudges. Going from eight to nine practitioners moves you from US$145 to US$195 a month, so one hire costs US$600 a year in software alone. Bands are still kinder than pure per-seat pricing, but the step lands at exactly the moment you are absorbing a new salary.
Where to next
Bring the invoice, not the brochure.
The free cost check takes twenty minutes. We add up what you actually pay across every meter, run it out five years, and tell you honestly whether a build is worth it for a business your size. You keep the numbers either way.