Cliniko vs Halaxy (formerly HealthKit): Which PMS Fits an Australian Clinic?

Two Melbourne-built practice management systems compared on pricing models, Medicare and funding-scheme claiming, daily workflow, integrations and data hosting.

Cliniko and Halaxy sit on plenty of Australian clinic shortlists, and they earn their places for opposite reasons. Cliniko charges a flat monthly rate and includes everything. Halaxy charges nothing for its core software and meters the extras through a credits system. Two clinics with identical rosters can pay very different amounts on each, depending on how much claiming, messaging and telehealth they run, which makes this a sharper contrast than most head-to-heads in this category.

Halaxy is the platform formerly known as HealthKit: it rebranded in August 2019, so clinics comparing Cliniko vs HealthKit are comparing Cliniko vs Halaxy. Beyond that, search results for this comparison offer little help. Cliniko's own page declines to review its competitor, joking that it does not know a lot about Halaxy, and the rest of the results are software directories.

BookedSolid's AI receptionist integrates directly with Cliniko, and this comparison has been kept strictly to what each vendor publishes, with every claim linked to its source. It covers how the two pricing models behave as a clinic grows, how Medicare, DVA, NDIS and health-fund claiming work on each, then daily workflow, the two ecosystems, and where patient data physically sits.

First, the Name: HealthKit Became Halaxy

The rebrand matters for anyone comparing the systems today, because most of what is written about HealthKit predates it. HealthKit launched in Melbourne in 2012 as a practice management platform with an unusual promise for the time: the core software was free. In August 2019 the company renamed itself Halaxy, saying it had outgrown the original name. The free-core model, the founders and the Melbourne base all carried over.

Anything published about HealthKit before 2019, including old reviews and comparison posts still ranking in search, describes the same company at an earlier stage. This comparison uses the current name and current published pricing throughout.

Halaxy at a Glance

Halaxy is practice management software built around a free core, founded in Melbourne in 2012 by Alison Hardacre and Lachlan Wheeler and renamed from HealthKit in 2019. The pricing page states the platform is 100% free to use, with no sign-up costs and no card required.

The free tier is not a cut-down trial: it covers calendar and appointment scheduling, patient records and clinical notes, invoicing, email reminders and a library of more than 700 clinical templates and tools. More than 90 professions are supported, with unlimited practitioners, locations and file storage. Online bookings run through a profile in Halaxy's practitioner directory, which patients can search and book from, with visibility controlled by the practice.

The commercial model sits in the add-ons. Prepaid credits, priced between AUD $0.15 and $0.22 each including GST and cheaper in bulk, pay for the actions a busy clinic runs daily: SMS reminders and messages, electronic claiming across Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, Workcover, Comcare, NDIS and HICAPS, and clinical add-ons including e-scripts, telehealth, secure messaging and an AI Scribe. Subscription features start from 25 credits a month, covering two-way calendar sync, white-label branding and a dedicated practice phone number, and the Halaxy API subscription costs 150 credits a month. Automated patient payments carry processing fees between 1.5% and 1.9% plus 75 cents to $1 per transaction.

The trade-offs follow from the model. A clinic's monthly cost is variable rather than fixed, shaped by claim volumes and message counts, and features arrive as metered add-ons rather than plan inclusions. The integration route requires IT support, using Halaxy's own API and webhooks rather than a public app directory.

Cliniko at a Glance

Cliniko was founded in Melbourne in 2011 and is still owned by Red Guava, a deliberately small, self-funded company. It donates at least 2% of subscription revenue to charity and makes the product free for registered charities. Cliniko is a general allied health system with particular depth in physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic and podiatry.

Cliniko pricing is a flat monthly rate per team-size band rather than a per-user or per-action charge. It runs $45 for one practitioner, $95 for two to five, $145 for six to eight and $195 for nine to twelve, with higher bands stretching to 200 practitioners. Every feature ships at every tier, with unlimited admin staff, patients, locations and storage. The only usage cost is prepaid SMS at ten cents a message. The trial runs 30 days with no card required, and paying annually earns a free month.

Distinctive strengths come with that pricing predictability. One number covers the month regardless of how many appointments, claims or video calls the clinic runs. Telehealth is native, browser-based and free, group calls included, and group appointment types handle classes and rehabilitation groups. Behind all of it sits an open API published since 2013, which has grown into a directory of 96 connected apps across artificial intelligence, patient care, booking, finance, prescriptions, forms and reporting.

The trade-offs mirror Halaxy's strengths. There is no free tier, so the smallest practices pay $45 from day one. Medicare, DVA and health-fund claiming run through Tyro Health rather than the product itself, and NDIS billing uses general invoicing.

Cliniko vs Halaxy: Feature by Feature

The table sticks to what each vendor publishes. Where a capability is metered or arrives through a partner, the table says so.

Sources: halaxy.com/pricing, Halaxy's API guide, Halaxy's security page, cliniko.com/pricing, cliniko.com/connected-apps. Verified August 2026; both vendors update their pages, so figures should be re-checked before deciding.

Pricing Compared: Free Plus Credits vs One Flat Rate

The headline gap looks enormous: $0 against $45 a month for a solo practitioner. The real comparison is about where each model's costs live, and it rewards a clinic that knows its own volumes.

Halaxy's base price stays at zero at any team size, which is unique among the systems this comparison series has covered. The costs sit in activity. Every SMS reminder, every electronic claim and every telehealth consultation draws down prepaid credits at the published rate of $0.15 to $0.22 each including GST, and conveniences such as calendar sync or API access add monthly credit subscriptions. Automated patient payments take a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction. A quiet practice sending a handful of reminders a week may spend very little. A busy multi-practitioner clinic processing hundreds of claims and reminders a month is running a real, variable bill that tracks activity rather than headcount, and it needs pricing from Halaxy's own schedule against its own numbers before assuming free means cheap.

Cliniko inverts the shape. On current AUD list prices, ex GST, the flat bands run $45 for one practitioner, $95 for two to five, $145 for six to eight and $195 for nine to twelve. The bill is known before the month starts, and activity is almost all inclusive: unlimited appointments, free telehealth of any length, and every feature at every tier. The only meter is SMS at ten cents a message.

On base price alone, all-full-time clinics land like this:

The table only becomes a comparison once a clinic prices its own activity into the first column: reminder volumes, claim counts, telehealth minutes and any credit subscriptions. Note also that Halaxy quotes credit prices including GST while Cliniko's AU prices are ex GST, so like-for-like sums need the tax treatment aligned. Clinics working from a tight budget can see how both approaches sit against the wider market in the cheap practice management software roundup for Australian clinics, which profiles Halaxy's free tier alongside the paid entry plans.

Claiming and Funding: Built In on Credits, or Through a Partner

For an Australian clinic this is the sharpest practical difference.

Halaxy builds claiming in, and its published breadth is unusual. The pricing page lists electronic processing across Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, HICAPS, Workcover, Comcare and NDIS, all handled from the patient invoice inside the platform, with each claim drawing on credits. For a practice whose revenue arrives through several schemes at once, compensable work and NDIS alongside Medicare care plans, having every funder inside one billing engine is a real operational advantage. Halaxy also states its Medicare and DVA integration has passed the schemes' system-wide security and operational tests.

Cliniko reaches Medicare, DVA and HealthPoint health-fund claiming through its Tyro Health integration, a long-established partner workflow that Australian allied health has run for years. It works well, but it is a second vendor relationship with its own onboarding, terms and transaction fees, and those belong in any honest cost comparison. NDIS billing on Cliniko runs through general invoicing rather than a scheme-specific workflow, which suits practices where NDIS is a minority of the caseload and creates more manual work where it is the majority.

The practical test is proportion. A scheme-heavy practice will feel Halaxy's built-in, all-funder claiming every day and should weigh the per-claim credit cost against Tyro's fees on its own claim volumes. A largely private-pay clinic will barely notice the difference and can decide on other grounds.

Daily Workflow: A Platform of Add-ons vs Everything Included

Halaxy's day-to-day strength is scope. The free core covers scheduling, records, notes and invoicing, and the add-on layer keeps the practice inside one product for e-scripts, secure messaging, telehealth, SMS campaigns and AI-drafted notes, each switched on when needed and paid per use. Online bookings feed from a patient directory as well as the clinic's own site, which can bring new patients in rather than only serving existing ones. The cost of that scope is configuration: a new practice has decisions to make about which add-ons to enable and how fast the credits will run.

Cliniko's edge is operational simplicity. Every feature ships to every customer, so nothing needs unlocking as the clinic grows. Telehealth is native, browser-based and free, with no download for the patient and group calls up to four participants included. Group appointment types handle classes and rehabilitation groups directly, a capability Halaxy does not publish. The interface has a long reputation for being learnable in an afternoon.

Reporting deserves a trial-week test on both sides. Halaxy publishes practice tracking and financial reports in its free core; reporting depth remains the most consistent request in recent Cliniko user reviews. A data-hungry multi-site practice should put its own questions to both reporting suites during the trial period rather than take either vendor's word for it.

Data Residency, Security and Compliance

Both vendors publish real detail, with different geographic scope.

Halaxy stores Australian practices' data in Australia, on AWS, with EU-based practices' data stored in the EU under GDPR. It encrypts data at rest and in transit, backs up daily, offers two-factor authentication, and publishes four practitioner access levels plus three administrative ones so sensitive clinical and financial data can be restricted by role. Its data-breach policy aligns with Australia's Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. Two things are not published: a UK-specific data-residency position (only Australia and the EU are named) and independent certifications of its own, with the platform leaning on AWS's ISO 27001 and PCI DSS Level 1.

Cliniko stores data in-region for Australia, the UK, the US, Canada and the EU. It publishes its GDPR and Australian Privacy Act positions, encrypts data in transit and at rest, and offers two-factor authentication. Clinics outside its named regions, New Zealand included, are hosted in Australia, with a dedicated NZ Privacy Act 2020 guide.

For an Australian clinic the practical outcome is the same on either system: patient data stays in Australia.

Which Practice Type Suits Which System?

Patterns drawn from the two products' own positioning and pricing:

• A new or part-time solo practice starts at zero on Halaxy, with costs only as activity arrives. That is the gentlest entry price in the market, against Cliniko at $45 a month from day one.
• A scheme-heavy practice, working across Medicare, DVA, TAC, Workcover, Comcare or NDIS, plays to Halaxy's breadth: every funder inside one billing engine, priced per claim.
• A clinic that wants one predictable bill leans Cliniko. The flat band is known in advance, and telehealth, group appointments and every feature come included, with SMS the only meter.
• A growing multi-practitioner clinic should model both shapes on its own roster. Halaxy's base stays at zero as headcount grows; Cliniko's $95 band absorbs practitioners two to five with no per-head cost, while credits scale with the whole clinic's activity.
• A telehealth-heavy clinic gets video included free on Cliniko at every tier; on Halaxy telehealth is a credit-based add-on, so the running cost needs pricing against real consultation volumes.
• A clinic running classes or rehabilitation groups leans Cliniko, for native group appointment types and included group video calls.
• A practice with an established toolkit, or plans for phone automation, AI scribes or custom reporting, will find Cliniko's free open API and 96-app directory the lower-friction route. Halaxy's API is capable but metered, and its integrations are not publicly listed.

How to Choose Between Cliniko and Halaxy Without Regret

Four steps keep the decision grounded rather than theoretical.

First, count the practice's real monthly volumes: SMS reminders sent, electronic claims processed, telehealth consultations run. Price that activity on Halaxy's fees schedule and set it against Cliniko's flat band for the same roster, with GST treatment aligned on both sides.

Second, work out what proportion of revenue arrives through funding schemes, and which ones. Multi-scheme practices should test their exact claim types on Halaxy's built-in processing and on Cliniko's Tyro Health route, including each route's fees.

Third, list the tools the practice already relies on. Check each against Cliniko's connected apps, and ask each vendor of the tools you're already using directly about Halaxy, which publishes an API but no public app directory.

Fourth, trial the workflows that fill the day: booking, notes, invoicing and claiming. Halaxy needs no trial period, since the core product is free to use from sign-up; Cliniko offers 30 days with no card.

Wider context sits in the Australian practice management software roundup, and the rest of the shortlist is covered in this series: Cliniko vs Jane, Zanda, formerly Power Diary, vs Cliniko and Nookal vs Cliniko.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HealthKit the same as Halaxy?

HealthKit and Halaxy are the same platform under two names. HealthKit, the Melbourne practice management system founded in 2012, renamed itself Halaxy in August 2019 and has operated under that name since. The product, founders and free-core pricing model carried over; only the name changed. The HealthKit name is now associated with Apple's health developer framework, which is unrelated. Clinics reading older reviews or comparisons of HealthKit are reading about the platform now called Halaxy, usually at a much earlier stage of the product.

Is Halaxy really free?

The core software is free, and Halaxy publishes that plainly: calendar, patient records, clinical notes, invoicing, email reminders and online bookings cost nothing, for unlimited practitioners, locations and storage. The paid layer is usage. SMS messages, electronic claiming, telehealth, e-scripts and the AI Scribe draw on prepaid credits priced between AUD $0.15 and $0.22 each including GST, subscription features such as calendar sync and API access run from 25 credits a month, and automated patient payments carry transaction fees. A clinic's real monthly cost depends on its activity volumes.

Is Halaxy or Cliniko cheaper?

It depends on how busy the practice is. Halaxy has no base price at any team size, so a quiet or part-time practice can run it for very little. Cliniko charges a flat $45 a month for one practitioner and $95 for two to five, ex GST, with almost everything included and SMS at ten cents the only meter. A busy clinic processing hundreds of claims, reminders and telehealth sessions a month should price that activity in credits on Halaxy's fees schedule and compare the total against Cliniko's fixed band; the answer genuinely differs from clinic to clinic.

Which is better for Medicare, DVA and NDIS claiming?

Both process Australian claiming, by different routes. Halaxy builds it in, with published electronic processing across Medicare, DVA, ECLIPSE, TAC, HICAPS, Workcover, Comcare and NDIS, each claim drawing on credits. Cliniko covers Medicare, DVA and HealthPoint health-fund claiming through its Tyro Health integration, a long-established partner workflow with its own terms and fees, and handles NDIS through general invoicing. Practices working across several schemes at once tend to feel Halaxy's breadth most; practices already comfortable with Tyro lose little on Cliniko.

Does Halaxy have an API or integrations?

Halaxy publishes a FHIR-based API that can retrieve and create appointments, patients, claims and clinical notes, with webhooks for real-time updates. It runs as a subscription at 150 credits a month, with a 30-day trial, and keys are managed by the account owner. What Halaxy does not publish is a directory of third-party apps, so clinics need to ask individual vendors about support. Cliniko's API has been public and free since 2013 and underpins a directory of 96 connected apps across categories from artificial intelligence to reporting.

Can UK and New Zealand clinics use Halaxy?

Halaxy operates internationally and its free core works anywhere, with European practices getting euro pricing and EU data storage under GDPR. Its distinctive claiming engine is Australian, though, and its security page names only Australia and the EU as storage regions, so a UK clinic should confirm data residency and insurer billing with the vendor before committing. Cliniko publishes native UK and New Zealand pricing, stores UK data in the UK, and routes UK insurer claims to Healthcode through a connected app, which makes it the more fully local option in both markets.

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• Best Practice Management Software for Allied Health Clinics in Australia
• Jane vs Cliniko: Which Practice Management Software Fits Your Clinic?
• Zanda (Formerly Power Diary) vs Cliniko
• Nookal vs Cliniko for Australian Clinics