Three standalone video consultation platforms and the video built into practice management software, compared on pricing, workflow and what regulators expect.
Video consultations outlasted the pandemic that made them normal. Doxy.me alone states that more than 1.8 million people delivering care have used it, across 13.2 billion minutes of calls. In Australia, telehealth became a permanent part of Medicare in January 2022, with allied health practitioners among those funded. For a private clinic, the question is no longer whether patients will accept a video appointment. It is which platform to run those appointments on.
Most comparison guides answer that question for hospitals or for the American market. A private clinic has narrower questions. Which platforms are built for clinics rather than business meetings. What they cost per practitioner. And what the practice management software (PMS) the clinic already pays for includes, because in 2026 most systems build video in.
This guide compares the three standalone video consultation platforms private clinics meet most often. It then covers the video tools inside the PMS, the rules in each market, and how a clinic should choose.
What Video Consultation Software Does
Video consultation software runs a clinical appointment over video instead of in the treatment room. Telehealth is the wider term: care delivered at a distance, by video or phone. Private clinics use video for follow-ups, exercise reviews, talk-based care and triage, and for patients who travel far or cannot leave home.
A purpose-built platform differs from a general meetings tool in the workflow around the call. The patient joins from a link in the browser, with no account and nothing to install. A virtual waiting area holds them until the practitioner is ready. Consent can be collected before the call starts, and some platforms take payment on entry. The general tools have none of this, which is why the choice is not only about video quality.
What Private Clinics Should Check Before Choosing
The platforms look alike in a demo. Six checks separate them in practice.
- What their PMS already includes. Most practice management systems now ship a video layer, included or metered. A clinic that checks this first often saves the cost of a separate platform. The matrix below covers eight systems.
- Patient join friction. Every abandoned join is a wasted slot. The test is whether a patient can get from a reminder to a working call in one click, in the browser, with no app, account or password. Cliniko, for example, states that patients join from the confirmation email with no login or password required.
- Clinic workflow, not meeting workflow. A waiting area with a patient queue, consent capture before the call, and payment on entry are the features that remove admin. Coviu builds all three in; Doxy.me has the waiting room and queue on its paid plan. A general meetings tool leaves the clinic to assemble each one around the call.
- Privacy, hosting and the paperwork. The platform processes health data, so the clinic needs a data processing agreement, a clear answer on where calls and chat are hosted, and encryption stated plainly. Regulators expect the practitioner to know the answers: Australia's regulator asks practitioners to "understand the technology platform being used, how it captures and stores personal information".
- The session shapes the clinic sells. One-to-one calls are universal. Group shapes are not: classes, couples and family sessions need the right participant cap. The spread is wide, from Cliniko's groups of up to four to Semble's 200-participant calls.
- Price shape and currency. Standalone platforms price per user per month, cheaper on annual billing. Doxy.me, Zoom and Jane publish UK prices; Coviu's are in Australian dollars. A UK clinic comparing platforms should check which currency the quote will actually arrive in.
The Best Video Consultation Platforms at a Glance
The three standalone platforms below are compared on their published positions as of October 2026, before the individual reviews.
| Platform | Published price | Free option | Built for clinics? | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doxy.me | Premium £21 / user / mo, billed annually | Yes, free plan | Yes: waiting room, patient queue, consent | Free plan plus published UK pricing |
| Coviu | From A$40 / user / mo, billed annually; no GBP price published | Trial, no card | Yes: consent forms, payments on entry | Deepest clinic workflow; Australian allied health standard |
| Zoom | Pro £13.99 / user / mo, billed annually, incl. VAT | Yes, 40-min cap | No: general meetings tool | Familiarity, and the engine inside several PMS video tools |
Doxy.me: the Free Way to Start
Doxy.me is where many clinics start, because starting costs nothing. The company offers what it calls a "completely free version" for practitioners who are getting started, use telehealth rarely or cannot take on another cost. The paid Premium plan is £21 a user a month billed annually on the UK pricing page, with a trial that needs no credit card.
Premium is where the clinic features live. It adds HD video, group calls for up to 25 participants, screen sharing and file transfer. The virtual waiting room comes with a patient queue, invites by email or SMS, and patient forms and consent workflows. Clinic-level reporting and custom branding round it out. Patients join in the browser from a link, which keeps join friction low.
One caution belongs in the comparison. Doxy.me is an American company, and its published security language is written for the American market. Before rolling it out, a clinic should ask for the data processing agreement, the hosting locations and the local privacy position. The rules section below covers the same checks.
Best for: clinics that want a free way to start, published UK pricing, and a purpose-built waiting room without a big platform decision.
Coviu: the Australian Specialist with the Deepest Clinic Workflow
Coviu is an Australian-built telehealth platform, and it is the name allied health clinics in Australia and New Zealand meet first. The workflow runs deeper than the call itself. An Individual plan carries unlimited video consultations, a virtual waiting area and customisable consent forms. Unlimited SMS and email invites, an in-call resource library and payment capture on entry complete it. The Clinic plan adds a shared reception area across multiple waiting rooms, free admin users, call transfers and clinic-wide reporting. Video calls take up to six participants.
Pricing is in Australian dollars. Coviu's own page shows the figures without naming the currency; Capterra lists the starting price as A$40 a month. Individual is A$40 a user a month billed annually, or A$48 monthly. Clinic is A$54 a clinician a month. The Clinic Bundle at A$99 folds in an AI scribe and a clinic phone line. No pound pricing is published, and UK visitors are served the company's American site. A UK clinic that wants Coviu should confirm the rate and the contract currency on the sales call.
The integration story is strong in its home market. Nookal lists Coviu among its connections, alongside Zoom and Doxy.me, so Australian clinics can tie the video layer to the diary they already run.
Best for: Australian and New Zealand allied health clinics, multi-practitioner clinics on Nookal, and any clinic that wants consent and payment inside the call flow.
Zoom: the Generalist Most Patients Already Know
Zoom is not clinic software, and it does not pretend to be. The case for it is familiarity and price. The free Basic plan runs meetings of up to 40 minutes with 100 participants. Pro is £13.99 a user a month billed annually, including VAT, and it lifts the cap to 30 hours. For a clinic that runs occasional video follow-ups, that can be enough.
The limits show up in the workflow. There is no patient queue, no consent capture and no payment step. The clinic assembles each one around the call: consent on a form, payment by invoice, joining instructions in the reminder. The 40-minute cap on the free plan is the sharpest edge, because it ends a running consultation.
Zoom's quieter role in this market is as the engine inside other products. Zanda's telehealth is "Powered by Zoom", and Physitrack's video runs on Zoom too. A clinic on either system gets Zoom's call quality wrapped in a clinical workflow, which is usually the better shape.
Best for: clinics that already run Zoom, hold their consultations one-to-one, and want the lowest-friction start at the lowest published price.
The Video Tool Already Inside the Practice Management System
Before buying any standalone platform, a clinic should open its own PMS settings, because most systems in this market now include video. The call sits on the appointment, the link rides the confirmation, and the notes stay in the record. Six of the eight systems below build video in; the other two link out to the platforms above.
| System | Video consultations | What is included | Group calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cliniko | Built in | Included with every plan; patients join from the confirmation email with no login | Up to 4 people |
| Zanda | Built in, powered by Zoom | Telehealth Basic on every plan with unlimited 40-minute sessions; 4 free 3-hour Pro sessions per practitioner each month | Up to 20 plus the host |
| Semble | Built in, powered by Whereby | Browser join with no downloads, virtual waiting room, notes and records open in-call | Up to 200 participants |
| WriteUpp | Built in | 1,000 free video minutes to start, with recording and automatic transcription | Not published |
| Jane | Built in | 1:1 video on every plan (UK plans from £29 a month) | Add-on at £8 a month per practitioner, up to 15 |
| Physitrack | Built in, runs on Zoom | 60 free telehealth minutes per licence, then the Telehealth Pro upgrade | One client at a time |
| splose | Via links | Google Meet, Teams or Zoom links ride confirmations and reminders automatically | Depends on the linked platform |
| Nookal | Via partners | Lists Coviu, Zoom and Doxy.me among its connections | Depends on the linked platform |
Cliniko includes telehealth on every plan, with end-to-end encryption stated and groups of up to four.
Zanda includes unlimited 40-minute sessions on every plan, with longer Pro sessions metered after four free each month and groups of up to 20.
Semble's video is powered by Whereby, joins in the browser and scales to 200 participants.
WriteUpp starts every account with 1,000 free video minutes and can transcribe the call into a draft note.
Jane includes one-to-one video on every plan and sells group sessions as an add-on at £8 a month per practitioner.
Physitrack includes 60 minutes per licence before its Pro upgrade, one client at a time.
splose and Nookal take the other route and connect to the platforms a clinic chooses.
The trade-off runs the same way as every built-in versus standalone choice. The in-PMS tool keeps the diary, the link and the record in one system, and in Cliniko, Zanda and Jane it is already in the plan. The standalone platforms are deeper on clinic workflow: patient queues, consent capture, payments on entry and bigger group shapes. A clinic already paying for a PMS with video should trial the built-in tool first and let a standalone platform earn the extra subscription.
The Rules by Country
No regulator in these three markets publishes an approved list of video platforms for private clinics. The duty sits with the clinic and the practitioner. The expectations are consistent: the same standard of care as in person, informed consent, and a platform the practitioner understands.
United Kingdom
UK GDPR applies in full, so the clinic needs a data processing agreement with the platform and a clear answer on hosting. The NHS assesses digital health tools against the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC), which covers clinical safety, data protection, technical security, interoperability and usability. Private clinics sit outside NHS procurement, but asking a vendor for its DTAC position is a quick way to hold it to a healthcare standard.
Australia
Telehealth is a permanent part of Medicare, and the regulator's expectations are published. Ahpra's virtual care guidance, reviewed in October 2025, applies across the National Boards. It asks practitioners to assess whether video suits the patient, and to obtain informed consent, including for any AI scribe on the call. It also expects privacy protected at both ends, and a practitioner who understands how the platform captures and stores personal information.
New Zealand
The Medical Council's telehealth statement sets the expectations for doctors practising telehealth in New Zealand and from overseas, including registration, examinations and prescribing. For implementation help, the NZ Telehealth Resource Centre, funded by Health NZ, publishes guidance on setting up and growing a telehealth service, video consultations included.
How to Choose a Video Consultation Platform
Most clinics can go from shortlist to decision inside a month, and the trial costs little or nothing.
1. Open the PMS first
Check what the practice management system already includes, using the matrix above as the map. If the built-in tool covers the clinic's session shapes, the decision may already be made.
2. Shortlist one standalone platform against it
Pick the platform whose workflow fills the gap the PMS leaves. Doxy.me suits a free start and a patient queue. Coviu brings consent and payments into the call flow. Zoom covers familiar one-to-one calls.
3. Run the governance checks before the trial
Ask each vendor for the data processing agreement, the hosting locations and the encryption position, and write the consent wording patients will see. Doing this first means the clinic never has to unwind a platform the team already likes.
4. Trial on real appointment types
Run two weeks of real follow-ups and reviews on each candidate. The measures that matter are join friction (how many patients needed help getting in), call quality on the clinic's own connection, and the admin minutes around each appointment.
5. Decide on the numbers, then tell patients
Pick the platform, put the joining explanation in the booking confirmation and the reminder, and brief the front desk on the common patient questions. The reminders guide covers how the joining link should ride the reminder sequence.
The Part No Video Platform Covers: Filling the Diary
A video consultation still starts the way every appointment starts: a patient rings, messages or fills in a form, and someone finds a slot. The platform runs the call, but it does not answer the phone, book the appointment, move it when the patient cannot make it, or chase the no-show. Clinics that add telehealth without covering the front desk simply route the same missed calls to a different appointment type. The missed-calls guide sets out what each unanswered call costs.
Where BookedSolid fits
BookedSolid is an AI receptionist built for private clinics. It answers calls, SMS, web chat and email around the clock. It books straight into the clinic's practice management system, and hands anything that needs a person to the team with the details attached. A video appointment books, moves and cancels like any other appointment, so a telehealth diary fills the same way the in-person one does. Pricing is a fixed monthly subscription by practitioner count: £49 a month for a single practitioner, £99 for up to four. Inbound calls and patient replies are included.
The Bottom Line
Most private clinics should start inside their own practice management system. Cliniko, Zanda, Semble, Jane, WriteUpp and Physitrack all ship video. In Cliniko, Zanda and Jane it is included on every plan. Clinics that need more workflow should trial Doxy.me free or take Coviu's demo, and clinics that only ever run one-to-one follow-ups can defend Zoom Pro at £13.99. Whichever platform wins, the constants are the same. The patient joins in one click. The paperwork is signed before the first real call, and the standard of care matches the treatment room.
Telehealth slots still need patients in them
BookedSolid runs a 7-day free trial with no setup fees and no contract. A clinic can divert its calls for a week, watch the answered calls and bookings land in its practice management system, and decide with its own numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is video consultation software?
Video consultation software runs clinical appointments over secure video. Around the call it carries the workflow a clinic needs: browser joining for patients, a virtual waiting area, consent capture and sometimes payment on entry. It differs from a general meetings tool, which carries the video but none of the clinic workflow. Telehealth is the wider term covering remote care by video or phone.
How much does video consultation software cost for a private clinic?
A clinic can pay nothing at all: Doxy.me offers a free plan, and Cliniko, Zanda and Jane include video in every plan. Published paid pricing runs from £13.99 a user a month for Zoom Pro to £21 for Doxy.me Premium, with Coviu from A$40 a user a month billed annually. Metered models exist too, such as Zanda's free monthly allowance of longer Pro sessions and WriteUpp's 1,000 free video minutes.
Can a clinic just use Zoom for video consultations?
Zoom carries the video well, and several PMS telehealth tools run on it under the hood. Used directly, the free plan's 40-minute cap can end a running consultation, and the clinic has to assemble consent, payment and joining instructions around the call itself. Regulators also expect the practitioner to understand how any platform handles patient data, so the governance checks apply to Zoom exactly as they do to the healthcare platforms.
Which practice management systems have video consultations built in?
Cliniko, Zanda, Semble, WriteUpp, Jane and Physitrack all build video in, on the vendors' own pages as of October 2026. Cliniko includes it on every plan with groups of up to four. Zanda includes unlimited 40-minute sessions, and Semble's Whereby-powered calls reach 200 participants. WriteUpp starts with 1,000 free minutes, Jane includes one-to-one video on every plan, and Physitrack includes 60 minutes per licence. splose and Nookal connect to external platforms instead.
Do patients need to download an app for a video consultation?
On the purpose-built platforms, no download is needed: the patient opens a link and the call runs in the browser. Cliniko states that patients join from the confirmation email with no login or password, and Semble states that patients join from any browser without downloads. Join friction is worth testing in the trial, because every patient who cannot get in costs a slot.
Are video consultations regulated in the UK, Australia and New Zealand?
The platforms themselves are not licensed, and no regulator publishes an approved list for private clinics. The practitioner's obligations are regulated. Ahpra's virtual care guidance expects the same standard of care as face-to-face, with informed consent and a platform the practitioner understands. The Medical Council of New Zealand publishes equivalent expectations. In the UK, UK GDPR governs the data, and the NHS's DTAC framework is a useful benchmark to hold vendors to.
Who books and fills video consultation appointments?
The video platform runs the call, and the front desk still fills the diary. Patients ring, message and fill in forms to book telehealth exactly as they do for in-person care. An AI receptionist such as BookedSolid answers those calls and messages around the clock and books the appointment straight into systems including Cliniko, Nookal, Splose and Semble. The two tools pair naturally, because one fills the telehealth diary and the other runs the consultation in it.
