What the six already have in common
Semble, Cliniko, Jane, Meddbase, Zanda and Pabau are the systems private dermatology clinics run. Start with the shared floor: each offers online booking that can be embedded into a website and styled to match it, each can send a patient an intake form ahead of the appointment, and each handles more than one clinician and more than one site — which a clinic with three consultants and two rooms needs on day one.
That floor is why a feature grid helps so little: the decision is not about capability. It is about how the thing behaves once your own appointment types are in it, and what reception touches every morning.
So there is no ranking here
The system that suits one consultant seeing self-referred mole checks is not the one that suits a six-consultant clinic with an insurer mix and a minor-surgery list.
So instead: the questions that actually separate these six for a skin clinic. Ask them on a trial, with your real appointment types built, before any patient records are inside.
Can a patient book a screening without a referral?
Ask this first, because it eliminates fastest. Most dermatology diaries hold both self-referred appointments and referral-only ones. Check whether the system can publish availability for the first group while the second stays internal, and whether it can do that without exposing the entire diary. A tool that is all-public or all-private pushes the mole check back onto the telephone — the one appointment you least want there.
Does each appointment type carry its own length and fee?
A skin-cancer screening, a first consultation and a procedure slot are three durations and three prices. Ask whether a type can hold its own length, its own fee and its own preparation notes, and what happens when a patient books the wrong one: whether it can be moved, or cancelled and rebuilt.
Does the intake form change with the appointment type?
Sending medical history in advance is the whole reason to book through clinical software rather than a form. But what you need before a screening is not what you need before a procedure. Ask whether intake attaches per appointment type, whether it goes out automatically with the confirmation, and what the system does when a patient simply ignores it.
Can the patient pick the consultant?
Dermatology patients choose a person. They have read a profile, checked a registration and decided before they look at a calendar. Ask whether booking can be filtered to one consultant, whether each consultant holds their own types and durations, and whether you can get a link that books that one consultant directly — because that link is what belongs on their profile page.
Can you deep-link a single appointment type?
Every condition and procedure page needs a button that starts the right booking, not one that drops the patient at the top of a general calendar. Ask for a URL per appointment type. Where the only entry point is one booking page, every page funnels patients into the same list, and some choose wrong and arrive for the wrong length of appointment.
Where do patient details and photographs land?
Patients will try to send an image of whatever is worrying them, invited or not. Ask where that arrives: inside the clinical record, or in a shared mailbox somebody forwards. Patient-data rules differ by country and the country pages set out which apply where you practise, but the vendor question is the same everywhere: which fields are stored, where, and who can see them.
Run the trial in this order
Load two weeks of your genuine diary, then book yourself as a patient, on a phone, on mobile data. Book a screening. Book a consultation with a named consultant. Ignore the intake form and see what chases you. A quarter of an hour of that tells you more than a fortnight of demo calls, and tells you before your records have moved in.
Where this sits
Every dermatology clinic website we build embeds whichever of these six you already run, wired to your calendar, at a fixed price. For the Semble-specific version, read embedding Semble on a dermatology site, and to audit what you have now, run the six phone tests.