Cliniko vs wai

Where wai is ahead

The consultation writes up as it happens. wai drafts the note, the referral and clinic letters, the coding and cited answers from the consultation for the clinician to sign, on the same record as the booking. Cliniko lists no scribe and no phone answering of its own, offering both through third-party apps, and no cited answers.

The front desk answers. Calls, email, web forms and WhatsApp land in one thread per patient with replies drafted for approval, so the clinic answers the patient who would otherwise ring the next practice on the list.

One record for the consult, the front desk and the patient's own profile, with booking links that read each doctor's calendar, waitlist backfill, and deposits, invoices and memberships through the clinic's own Stripe. Every AI action that affects a patient is drafted for a person to review and approve. The clinician signs the note, the letter and the codes, and the front desk approves each reply before it goes.

Where Cliniko is strong

Cliniko publishes its prices, keeps customisable treatment notes and letters with templates, and takes online bookings, invoices, payments and prepayments.

It sends SMS to clients at a published per-message price, and a connected apps directory brings in AI scribes and AI receptionists from third parties.

Who should choose which

Choose Cliniko if you run an allied health practice that wants dependable booking, notes and invoices at a low published price, and you are content to assemble a scribe and a receptionist from third-party apps.

Choose wai if you want the note and letters drafted from the consultation and the phones and messages answered, on the same record as the booking. For most private and independent clinics that is the decision that changes the evening, and the buyer's guide sets out the questions to ask any vendor, us included.

Moving from Cliniko to wai

Start with one clinician, alongside what you use today. Request a demo and bring one real consultation. In fifteen minutes you see the note, the letter and the codes it produces, on your own workflow.

Your history can stay in Cliniko while wai runs the consultation and the front desk alongside it. Signed notes and letters export to your record, and calendars connect from Google, Outlook and Apple. The switching checklist covers what to move, and when.

Then a 90 day pilot shaped around your team, which ends with three numbers from your own clinic, revenue, hours saved and patients cared for. The decision is then made on your data, not ours.

What it costs

wai publishes its prices. Clinician Plus is $550 a clinician a month, with bespoke templates, a records sync and a larger allowance, and Clinician is $350, with the note, letters, coding and cited answers from every consultation. Admin, the front desk, is priced per location after a demo.

Cliniko's published price, as its own page showed it on 16 October 2026, is in the first row of the table with its source. Set the seat against what it replaces. An hour of a clinician's evening, a letter that waits a day, a call that goes to voicemail and a patient who books elsewhere each cost more than the line on the invoice, which is why the comparison worth making is the whole day, not the note.

Frequently asked questions