The system is the diary
For a clinic, online booking is a feature of the practice management system (PMS), because the PMS holds the diary, the patient records, the treatment notes and the invoicing. A booking tool that does not write to the PMS is a second diary, and reception will spend the day reconciling it. So the question for a clinic website is: which PMS, how good is its online booking, and how well does it sit on a website?
Here is how the three most common allied-health systems compare, plus the alternatives, judged on what matters for a site whose job is to book patients.
Cliniko (AU, UK, NZ, CA and beyond)
Online booking: included in every plan. Patients choose location, practitioner and appointment type, see live availability, book, and receive confirmation and reminders. New patients register in the flow; existing patients are matched. Deposits and payments via Stripe. Intake forms can be sent on booking.
On the website: a hosted booking page (yourclinic.cliniko.com/bookings) with your logo and colours, and an embeddable widget via an iframe or Cliniko's embed code that can pre-select location, practitioner or appointment type via URL parameters. The embed is light and behaves well in phone browsers.
Strengths: simple, reliable, cheap, deep-linkable per service and practitioner, strong API for anything custom. Weaknesses: the widget's design is Cliniko's; limited waitlist; class and group bookings are basic.
Jane (CA, US, UK, AU)
Online booking: included. Live availability by practitioner and treatment, patient accounts, intake forms, deposits and payments, waitlist, packages and memberships, telehealth bookings. Patients can rebook from their account.
On the website: a hosted page (yourclinic.janeapp.com) and a "Book Online" button embed. Jane's approach is to send patients to the hosted page, which is polished and mobile-friendly, rather than to embed the whole flow. Deep links to a specific discipline or practitioner work.
Strengths: the best patient-facing experience of the three, excellent for multi-disciplinary clinics, strong waitlist and packages. Weaknesses: the flow leaves your site (acceptable, but the button and the destination should be branded consistently); pricing is per practitioner and higher.
Nookal (AU, NZ, UK)
Online booking: included. Live availability, practitioner and service selection, new patient registration, deposits, reminders, and good group and class booking. Supports multiple locations well.
On the website: an embeddable booking widget with configurable styling, plus a hosted page. The widget is more customisable than Cliniko's and can be embedded per page with pre-selection.
Strengths: strong for clinics with classes (Pilates, rehab groups) alongside 1:1 appointments; flexible widget. Weaknesses: the interface is denser; fewer third-party integrations than Cliniko.
Others worth knowing
Halaxy (AU): free tier, online booking included, good for solo practitioners. Power Diary (AU, UK, US): online booking and client portal, strong for psychology and counselling as well as physical therapies. TM3 (UK), PPS (UK): established UK physio systems with online booking modules of varying quality; check the widget on a phone. WriteUpp (UK): online booking with good intake forms. SimplePractice, TherapyNotes (US, mental health): client portals with booking. Practice Better, Healthie (US, nutrition and wellness): booking plus programmes.
Generic tools (Acuity, Calendly, Setmore): no PMS integration. A second diary. Only for a solo practitioner who can reconcile by hand, or as a "request a callback" rather than a booking.
What the website needs from whichever system
- One-tap booking on a phone. A Book button in the header on every page, going straight to the booking flow.
- Deep links per service. "Book a sports massage" on the sports massage page pre-selecting that appointment type, using the system's URL parameters. All three support this.
- Practitioner-specific booking. "Book with Sam" from Sam's profile. Patients who have chosen a practitioner should not have to choose again.
- New versus returning handled clearly, since returning patients may have an account.
- The widget tested inside Instagram's and Facebook's in-app browsers, where many clinic patients arrive from. Hosted pages are safer than iframe embeds there; test both.
- Speed. Load the widget on the booking page or on interaction, not embedded on every page.
- Tracking. A
booking_clickevent on every Book button; completed bookings by source from the system's reports. - A fallback. Phone number and a callback form for patients who will not self-book.
Choosing, if you are choosing
- Solo or small clinic, budget-conscious, wants simple: Cliniko.
- Multi-disciplinary, wants the best patient experience and waitlist: Jane.
- Classes and groups alongside appointments, multiple locations: Nookal.
- Already on one of them: stay. Switching PMS for the booking widget alone is rarely worth it; the website can make any of the three work well.
Where this sits
Integrating the clinic's existing system, deep-linking it per service and practitioner, testing it on a phone, and tracking it is the core of what we build into clinic websites. All three systems can produce a one-tap booking path from a fast website. Which one a clinic runs is a clinical operations decision; making it bookable from the site is ours.