Halaxy vs Cliniko (2026): Price, Claiming and Which to Choose

Halaxy is free to start and charges per use: credits for SMS, telehealth, e-scripts, the AI scribe and funding-body claims such as Medicare, DVA and NDIS, plus a percentage on card payments. Cliniko charges one flat monthly fee by number of practitioners, from US$45 for one to US$95 for two to five, with every feature included. Choose Halaxy if you are in Australia, claim from funding bodies every day and want no fixed cost. Choose Cliniko if you want one predictable bill, unlimited reception users and your data stored in Australia, the UK, Canada or Ireland. Facts are from both vendors' pages, checked on 27 October 2026.

Halaxy vs Cliniko at a glance

Cost: what you actually pay

Cliniko's bill is known before the month starts: US$45 for one practitioner, 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. Paying annually gives one month free. The only usage charge is SMS at 10 cents each. Cliniko says its prices have not changed since June 2011.

Halaxy's bill depends on what you use. The core platform costs nothing. SMS, telehealth, e-scripts, secure messaging, the AI scribe and every funding-body claim use credits at AU$0.15 to AU$0.22 each, and card payments cost 1.5 to 1.9 percent of each transaction, with a 75-cent to one-dollar fee on the lower volume bands. Two-way calendar sync, the API, white labelling and a dedicated practice phone number are subscriptions from 25 credits a month.

So the honest answer to "which is cheaper" is: Halaxy, for a practitioner who sends few messages, rarely runs telehealth and does not claim from funding bodies; it can cost more than Cliniko for a busy practice that does all three every day. Before switching, take one typical month from your current system and count SMS, telehealth sessions and claims, then price them in credits.

Claiming and payments

This is the biggest functional difference for Australian practices. Halaxy builds funding-body claiming into the same workflow as invoicing: Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, HICAPS, Workcover, Comcare and NDIS are named on its pricing page and paid in credits. It also runs patient payments in the background, so the card is charged without a terminal at the desk.

Cliniko handles the money side thoroughly (invoices to third parties, online payments, prepayments, statements, concessions, product sales and stock levels) and lets you create payment types for Medicare or private health and add item codes so patients can claim. Its feature pages do not list direct claiming. If you bill Medicare or NDIS all day, test that exact workflow in both trials before deciding.

Booking, notes and telehealth

• Both have online booking, appointment reminders, clinical notes with templates, patient records with file uploads, invoicing and financial reports.
• Cliniko adds, at no extra cost: integrated telehealth, group and class bookings, a wait list, automated follow-up messages, body charts, online intake forms, bulk SMS with replies in the communication log, time-zone support, privacy mode on the calendar and an internal message board.
• Halaxy adds a public directory listing next to online bookings, e-scripts, secure messaging and an AI scribe, all paid in credits, and a page for practices migrating to it.
• Neither has a tooth chart, and neither publishes a non-English interface.

Data and privacy

Cliniko stores each account in Australia, the UK, Canada or Ireland depending on where it is created, and offers a Data Processing Addendum with Standard Contractual Clauses for EU customers. Halaxy's pricing page does not state where data is hosted; ask before you sign if your regulator or your patients care, which in health they usually do.

Which to choose

• Choose Halaxy if you are in Australia, claim from Medicare, DVA or NDIS most days, want card payments to run without a terminal, and prefer paying for usage over a fixed fee.
• Choose Cliniko if you want one predictable monthly bill, unlimited reception users at no cost, telehealth, groups and wait lists included, and your data stored in a named region.
• Look at Zanda or Nookal too if you want the Cliniko model at a lower entry price (Zanda) or built-in Medicare and ACC claiming on a per-practitioner subscription (Nookal). See Cliniko vs Zanda and the full list of 12 Cliniko alternatives.

If you are in Europe

Both products are built around Australian payers and publish no interface languages besides English. A clinic in Cyprus or Greece that needs a Greek or Russian interface, GHS co-payments and claim tracking, a tooth chart or prices in euros can look at Relatica, our own product: free for one practitioner, €49 a month for Practice and €99 for up to five, with data in the EU. It has no telehealth and does not submit claims to any portal. See Relatica vs Cliniko.