Here, the data agreement is the feature
Jane, Cliniko, Zanda, SimplePractice, Power Diary and WriteUpp all handle a therapy diary, session types, and online booking. On capability they are close enough that a feature table would tell you almost nothing.
What separates them for a counselling practice is duller and more important: what each one does with client data, in the country you practise in, and whether the agreement you can sign covers the way you actually work. Start there, then look at the diary.
Ask about the data agreement first
Ask which agreement is available for your country and what it covers. In the United States the question is whether the tool is HIPAA-capable and will sign accordingly. Elsewhere the equivalent obligations differ, and "we take security seriously" is not an answer to any of them.
Also ask what leaves the system: where records sit, who can access them, and what an export looks like if you move. A practice that cannot leave a system ends up shaping its site — and its notes — around that system's limits.
Can it offer booking and enquiry side by side?
Many clients cannot face booking a first session cold. They want to send a message and hear back. Check the system does not force everyone through a calendar, and that an enquiry can arrive without a slot attached.
If it cannot, that is fine — the enquiry form lives on the website instead, and the booking tool handles the clients who are ready. What matters is that both routes exist somewhere.
Does a first session differ from a subsequent one?
Assessment sessions often run longer and sometimes cost differently. Check the system holds separate types with their own durations and prices, and that the right one is offered to someone booking for the first time.
How does it handle cancellations and the policy?
Your cancellation window is part of your fee structure. Check the policy can be shown at the point of booking, that a card can be held where you use one, and that the reminder cadence is something you control rather than a default you inherit.
Does it do online sessions properly?
If you work online, check how the link is generated and delivered, whether it arrives in the reminder, and whether the platform meets the same data obligations as the rest of the system. A booking tool that hands off to a consumer video link is a gap in an otherwise careful setup.
What the embed does to the page
Test on a phone, on mobile data. A therapy site's whole job is to feel calm, and a booking widget that shifts the layout while it loads undoes that in the first second. Load it only on the page where booking happens, and keep the areas-of-work pages — the ones that actually bring people — fast and still.
Where this sits
Every counselling website we build embeds whichever system you already run, alongside a confidential enquiry route, at a fixed price. For the build cost, see what a counselling website costs.