Cliniko vs Semble: Which Practice Management System Fits a UK Clinic?

Two clinic systems compared for UK practices: pricing, the clinical record, insurer billing, integrations and where patient data sits.

UK clinics comparing practice management software keep meeting two names from opposite ends of the market. Cliniko was founded in Melbourne in 2011 and became one of the best-known systems in allied health, used by clinics in dozens of countries. Semble is built and run from London. More than 17,000 healthcare professionals across 80 specialities use it, from private GPs and consultants to mental health and allied health teams. It operated as Heydoc until a 2022 rename, so some clinics still know it by the old name.

A Cliniko vs Semble comparison is really a comparison of two clinic models. Cliniko is built around the diary, the treatment note and the invoice. Semble is built around the medical record, so prescriptions, lab tests, referrals and insurer billing sit inside it. Plenty of clinics could run on either. This guide shows where the line falls.

BookedSolid's AI receptionist connects to both systems, and Cliniko lists it in its own apps directory, so there is no axe to grind either way. Everything below comes from what the two companies publish. It covers pricing, the clinical record, insurer billing, bookings, integrations and data security.

Cliniko at a Glance

Cliniko is practice management software for appointment-led clinics. The company is still owned by its original founders, takes no outside investment, and donates at least 2% of subscriptions to charity. Its customer base leans toward allied health: physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, podiatry and psychology. The product covers the diary, online bookings, treatment notes, letters, invoicing, reporting and native telehealth.

Cliniko pricing is a flat monthly rate per team-size band, starting at £29 a month for one practitioner. Every feature ships at every tier. Admin users, reception users, locations, file storage and patients are all unlimited. The trial runs 30 days with no card needed, and the only metered cost is SMS at 5p a message.

Behind the product sits an API that has been public since 2013. A directory of 96 connected apps has grown on top of it, covering AI tools, bookings, forms, finance and patient care. The gaps are clinical and UK-specific. Prescribing and lab ordering are not built in, and private medical insurance billing runs through a connected app rather than natively.

Semble at a Glance

Semble positions itself as the clinical operating system for private healthcare. More than 17,000 professionals rely on it across 80 specialities, serving over 11 million patients. The platform spans the diary, online bookings, a patient portal, telehealth, invoicing and a full electronic health record (EHR).

The EHR is where Semble separates itself. Clinicians work from speciality-specific consultation templates, prescribe with built-in guidance and clinical alerts, and order lab tests without leaving the record. Semble describes its lab and pharmacy network as the largest in the UK: eleven pathology partners and seven e-prescribing pharmacy partners at the October 2026 count. An integration with Heidi adds an AI scribe inside consultations, and ORB Connect gives consented viewing of a patient's NHS GP record.

The commercial model is different too. Semble publishes no price list, and plans are quoted after a demo; Capterra lists a starting price of £119 a month. Its security page carries the certificates a medical clinic gets asked about: Semble's own ISO 27001, the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit and Cyber Essentials Plus. Patient data is hosted in UK and EU data centres.

Cliniko vs Semble: Feature by Feature

Sources: Cliniko's pricing and connected apps pages; Semble's EHR and integrations pages. Verified October 2026; both vendors update their pages, so details should be re-checked before deciding.

Cliniko Pricing vs Semble Pricing

Cliniko publishes everything. The full ladder sits on one pricing page, and the company says the prices have not changed since 2011:

The bands behave like steps. One rate covers the whole band, so a two-practitioner clinic and a five-practitioner clinic pay the same £59. Hiring inside a band costs nothing, and every feature is included at every tier. There is no contract, plan changes are prorated, and paying annually earns a free month. UK prices are published in pounds, with SMS credits at 5p a message.

Semble takes the opposite approach. There is no public price list. Plans are scoped and quoted after a demo, and the plans differ by inclusions; Heidi's scribe, for example, is included on its Together plan. A clinic comparing costs should ask for the quote in writing, with the roster, the modules and the contract term on it.

The gap between £29 and a quoted plan looks big, and at list level it is. But the two prices buy different things. A Cliniko subscription covers the diary, notes and invoicing, with clinical extras bought separately through connected apps that carry their own fees. A Semble quote prices in prescribing, labs and insurer billing. Clinics shopping on cost alone can see the wider market in the cheap practice management software guide.

The Clinical Record: Treatment Notes or a Medical EHR

Cliniko's record is built for hands-on and talking professions. Practitioners write treatment notes against custom templates, attach files and letters, and move on to the next patient. For a physiotherapy, osteopathy or psychology caseload, that is the whole job, and the record stays fast because it carries nothing extra.

Semble's record is a medical EHR. Consultation templates follow the speciality, prescribing comes with built-in guidance and clinical alerts, and lab tests are ordered without leaving the record. Referrals, care plans and letters run from the same place, with results returning into the patient's file. For a doctor-led clinic, the record is the workflow.

The test is concrete. Does anyone in the clinic prescribe? Does anyone order blood tests? If the answer is yes, those workflows live natively in Semble and not in Cliniko. If the answer is no, the extra machinery sits unused, and the simpler record is easier to run.

Private Medical Insurance Billing: The Healthcode Difference

Most UK private medical insurers collect claims electronically through Healthcode, the industry's clearing house. The Healthcode guide explains the system in full. For a clinic with insured patients, how the practice management system reaches Healthcode decides a real share of weekly admin.

Semble connects directly: invoices for insured patients go out through its Healthcode integration, alongside Xero and Semble Pay on the money side. The claim runs from the same record as the consultation, with no re-keying.

Cliniko publishes no native Healthcode link. UK clinics on Cliniko typically run claims through Effra, a connected app that reads Cliniko invoices, submits them through Healthcode and posts remittances back. The route works, and it is one more vendor relationship with its own onboarding and fees.

The deciding factor is the billing mix. A clinic that is almost entirely self-pay may never touch Healthcode. A clinic with real insurer volume will feel the difference every week.

Bookings, the Patient Portal and the Front Desk

Both systems take bookings online. Cliniko's booking page is embeddable in a clinic website and included at every tier, with group appointment types for classes. Semble pairs its booking module with a patient portal, where patients cancel and reschedule themselves, and it also accepts bookings from partner platforms.

Neither replaces the phone. Patients who are older, new to the clinic, or checking an insurance question still call, and after-hours calls land on voicemail in both systems. Both platforms leave that layer to their integrations, which is where the ecosystems come in.

Integrations and APIs: Broad Directory or Clinical Network

Cliniko's ecosystem is the larger and older one. Its API has been public since 2013, and the connected apps directory lists 96 tools across AI, bookings, forms, finance, exercise prescription and patient care. A clinic with a niche workflow can usually find something already built. AI receptionists sit in this layer, BookedSolid among them, answering the phone and writing bookings straight into the diary. The Cliniko call-automation guide covers how that works.

Semble's ecosystem is curated around clinical work. An open GraphQL API with public documentation sits under it, and Semble Connect reaches more than 1,200 tools. The named partners map the care pathway: pathology labs, e-prescribing pharmacies, the Heidi scribe, Healthcode and Xero. BookedSolid connects to Semble the same way, booking against live availability, and the Semble call-automation guide walks through the setup.

The philosophies differ more than the openness. Both publish their API documentation. Cliniko's directory is broader and self-serve; Semble's partner network is clinical and hand-picked. The practical check is the same on both sides: list the five tools the clinic already relies on and look each one up in each directory.

Data Security and UK Compliance

Semble leads with paperwork. Its security page shows its own ISO 27001 certification, the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit and Cyber Essentials Plus. Patient data sits in UK and EU data centres, encrypted at rest and in transit. Access runs through role-based controls, single sign-on and two-factor authentication. A CQC toolkit on its site supports registered services with their evidence.

Cliniko publishes a plain and thorough security statement. Data for UK accounts stays in the UK, and the company states UK GDPR compliance. The technical measures are solid: AES-256 encryption at rest, two-factor authentication with passkey support, and daily backups. The certificates it cites are its host's, AWS ISO 27001, rather than its own.

Both publish enough for a clinic's data protection review. The difference is certification depth. Semble holds its own certificates and the NHS-facing attestations that CQC-registered and corporate clinics get asked for. Cliniko is strong on fundamentals and lighter on formal certificates.

Which System Suits Which UK Clinic?

Patterns drawn from the two products' own positioning and pricing; the UK practice management software roundup covers the wider field:

• A physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic or podiatry clinic gets everything it needs from Cliniko's model: diary, notes, bookings and billing at a flat published rate.
• A private GP or consultant group fits Semble's model, with prescribing, labs, referrals and insurer billing inside one record.
• A clinic with a heavy insured caseload feels Semble's native Healthcode route daily. On Cliniko the same work runs through Effra as a third-party bridge.
• A CQC-registered service gets certificates and a CQC toolkit from Semble that make compliance evidence easier to assemble.
• A solo practitioner watching costs starts at £29 a month on Cliniko with a 30-day self-serve trial. Semble's entry point is a quote, listed from £119 a month.
• A corporate or occupational health operation sits squarely in Semble's named market, alongside its enterprise tier.
• A multidisciplinary clinic mixing physio and medical work should decide by where prescribing happens. If doctors consult under the same roof, the medical record tends to win.
• A clinic running sites outside the UK gets in-region hosting from Cliniko across five regions; Semble names UK and EU data centres.

How to Choose Between Semble and Cliniko

Four steps keep the decision grounded.

1. List the clinical jobs. Prescribing, lab ordering, insurer billing and NHS record access each live natively in one system and not the other. This list usually decides the shortlist on its own.
2. Price the real roster. Take the practitioner count to Cliniko's pricing page and read the band it lands in. Then get a written Semble quote for the same roster, with modules and term stated.
3. Check the existing toolkit. Look up the clinic's current tools in Cliniko's connected apps directory and Semble's integrations page before assuming anything carries over.
4. Trial with real work. Cliniko's 30-day trial is self-serve with no card. Semble runs demos and lists a free trial on Capterra. Book a realistic week into each: diary, notes, invoices and, where relevant, a test claim.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Semble the same as Heydoc?

Yes. Semble is the platform previously called Heydoc, renamed in 2022. Reviews, help articles and directory listings under the Heydoc name describe the same product. The feature set has moved on considerably since the rename, with the EHR, the integrations network and the certifications all expanded.

Is Cliniko or Semble cheaper?

On published figures, Cliniko. Its flat bands start at £29 a month for one practitioner, with every feature included at every tier. Semble publishes no price list; plans are quoted after a demo, and Capterra lists a starting price of £119 a month. The comparison is not level, though. A Semble quote prices in prescribing, lab ordering and insurer billing. A Cliniko clinic buys those through connected apps with their own fees, if it needs them at all.

Which system handles private medical insurance billing better?

Semble sends insurer invoices through its built-in Healthcode integration, so private medical insurance billing runs inside the platform. Cliniko has no native Healthcode link. UK clinics typically bridge the gap with Effra, a connected app that submits Cliniko invoices through Healthcode and posts remittances back. A clinic with a heavy insured caseload tends to feel the native route daily, while a self-pay clinic may never notice the difference.

Can clinicians prescribe and order lab tests in Cliniko or Semble?

In Semble, yes. Prescribing with built-in guidance and lab ordering are part of the record, through its network of pharmacy and pathology partners. Cliniko does not build prescribing or lab ordering in. Its directory lists prescription apps, and clinics that need full e-prescribing and labs usually look at medical EHRs instead. This is the clearest single dividing line between the two systems.

Can an allied health clinic use Semble, or a private GP use Cliniko?

Both happen. Semble markets to allied health and mental health teams as well as doctors, and suits multidisciplinary clinics where prescribing happens under the same roof. A private GP could run a diary and notes on Cliniko, but prescribing, labs and insurer billing would all sit outside the system. As a rule, clinics built around hands-on treatment fit Cliniko's model, and clinics built around medical consultations fit Semble's.

Do Cliniko and Semble work with AI receptionists?

Both do. Cliniko's connected apps directory has a dedicated artificial intelligence category, and its open API lets booking tools write straight into the diary. Semble's GraphQL API supports the same, and its integrations map the wider care pathway. BookedSolid connects to both systems, answering calls and messages and booking into live availability, so the choice between Cliniko and Semble does not limit front-desk automation.

Sources: Cliniko pricing, security and connected apps; Semble platform, integrations and security; Capterra's Semble listing.