GoHighLevel vs Cliniko: Practice CRM & True Cost (2026)

By Dr Priya Jaganathan, GoHighLevel Certified Admin · HL Growth Partner, Australia · Updated 9 September 2026 · 10 min read

Some links below are affiliate links — if you sign up through them, HL Growth Partner may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend. Full disclosure.

GoHighLevel vs Cliniko is a question I get from physios, chiros and psychologists most weeks, and it is the wrong question in a useful way. Cliniko runs the clinical side of an Australian practice. GoHighLevel runs the marketing and patient-communication side.

This guide covers what each platform actually does, what the pair really costs in Australian dollars at three practice sizes, how data moves between them, and where the Privacy Act draws its lines. The short version: keep Cliniko as your practice-management system and put HighLevel in front of it.

GoHighLevel vs Cliniko: two different jobs, not two rivals

Side by side, the overlap is thin. They share a calendar, a contact list and a reminder feature, and almost nothing else.

What Cliniko is built for

Cliniko is a practice-management system written in Australia for allied health. It handles the appointment book across practitioners and rooms, clinical notes with treatment templates and body charts, invoices and receipts, letters and referrals, and the patient file underneath.

Claiming is not native, but it is close: integrated terminals and third-party services handle HICAPS-style private health claims and Medicare rebates, with invoice data flowing back to the patient record. If you need to write a SOAP note or issue a compliant health receipt, Cliniko is the tool.

What GoHighLevel is built for

GoHighLevel is a marketing CRM. It captures leads from your website, Google Business Profile and ads, answers missed calls with a text, books new patients through calendars and funnels, runs reminder and recall Workflows, requests reviews, and reactivates lapsed patients.

It has no clinical notes, no room scheduling and no health claiming. It does have a unified inbox, pipelines, custom fields and tags, and Conversation AI for after-hours booking. Our GoHighLevel for physiotherapists and allied health snapshot shows what that looks like as a working build.

HighLevel vs Cliniko feature by feature

Where a column says "no" below, that is not a criticism; it is simply not the job that product was built for.

Everything GoHighLevel wins on happens before the patient walks in or after they walk out. Everything Cliniko wins on happens in the treatment room and at the front desk.

True monthly cost in AUD at three practice sizes

Cliniko is priced in Australian dollars by practitioner count. GoHighLevel is priced in US dollars with usage on top, so the AUD figures below assume a rate of roughly 1.5 and are estimates. Check the current numbers on the Cliniko pricing page and the GoHighLevel pricing page before you budget.

What drives the usage line

• SMS. LeadConnector/Twilio SMS to Australian mobiles costs several cents per segment; a four-practitioner clinic typically spends A$40–90 a month.
• Phone numbers and email. A local number is a few dollars a month, one per location. Mailgun email is fractions of a cent per send.
• Connectors and add-ons. Zapier or Make only if Cliniko events must trigger Workflows; Conversation AI, Reviews AI and premium Workflow actions are metered separately.

Starter caps you at three sub-accounts, fine for a single site or small group. Unlimited unlocks API access and unlimited sub-accounts, which is why the three-location group lands on US$297. SaaS Pro at US$497 is for agencies reselling HighLevel, not for practices.

Not on HighLevel yet? Start with a free 30-day trial here — long enough to build everything in this guide before you pay a cent.

How data flows between Cliniko and GoHighLevel

The rule is one-directional. Cliniko is the source of truth; HighLevel receives the minimum it needs to communicate and market, and never writes clinical data back.

Option 1: Cliniko Zapier app

Cliniko's official Zapier app exposes triggers such as new patient, new appointment and cancelled appointment. Each maps to a GoHighLevel action: update contact, add a tag, move a pipeline stage. It polls, so expect a lag of a few minutes.

Option 2: Make with the Cliniko API

Make is cheaper at volume and handles branching better. Authenticate with a Cliniko API key, poll the appointments endpoint, and send a JSON payload to an Inbound Webhook trigger in a HighLevel Workflow.

Option 3: direct API with webhooks

For groups, a small middleware service reads the Cliniko REST API and posts to GoHighLevel's Inbound Webhook or v2 contacts API. GoHighLevel's outbound Webhook action sends booking data back, and the middleware creates the appointment in Cliniko. This is the only path where a HighLevel booking lands in the Cliniko diary automatically.

Whichever route you choose, the tags do the work. cliniko-active keeps reactivation Workflows away from current patients, while cliniko-no-show hands the contact to your no-show and reschedule automation without a human touching it.

Privacy, health records and the Australian Privacy Act

Health information is "sensitive information" under the Australian Privacy Principles, and every allied-health practice is covered by the Privacy Act regardless of turnover. That decides what belongs where.

• Cliniko hosts data in Australia and is built for health records, so clinical notes, diagnoses, referrals and claiming data stay there.
• GoHighLevel is hosted overseas by default, which brings APP 8 (cross-border disclosure) into play. Keep it to name, mobile, email, appointment status, practitioner and service category.
• Never put a diagnosis or treatment note in a HighLevel custom field, tag or SMS. "Your physio appointment is confirmed" is fine; "Your ACL rehab session" is not.
• Consent. Reminders are transactional; recall, review and reactivation messages are marketing under the Spam Act and need consent, sender identification and an unsubscribe.
• SMS compliance. A2P 10DLC is a US requirement. In Australia you answer to ACMA rules on sender IDs and opt-outs, and alphanumeric sender IDs cannot receive replies.
• Breach planning. Both platforms fall under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme; document which system holds what and restrict HighLevel user roles.

Name HighLevel as an overseas processor in your privacy policy. It takes twenty minutes and closes the most common compliance gap I see in audits.

Who should choose which

Cliniko only

A solo practitioner with a full book from GP referrals, no marketing budget and no interest in reviews or reactivation. Cliniko's reminders are enough, and HighLevel would be paying for a diary you are not trying to fill.

GoHighLevel only

Practices that do not write clinical notes or claim health rebates: wellness studios, some NDIS support coordinators and corporate wellbeing providers. HighLevel's calendars, Stripe invoicing and pipelines cover the operational side.

Both, which is most clinics

Any allied-health clinic that wants more new patients, fewer no-shows and better Google reviews while keeping clinical records where they belong. A database reactivation campaign alone usually pays for the HighLevel subscription in its first month.

How to run both without double handling

Give each system a lane and the front desk stops copying details between tabs.

• New enquiries land in HighLevel. Website forms, missed-call text back and ad leads create a contact and a pipeline opportunity. Build your intake forms and surveys in GoHighLevel so consent is captured at first contact.
• Bookings are created in Cliniko. Reception books after the speed-to-lead call, or middleware pushes the HighLevel booking into the Cliniko diary.
• Cliniko events tag the HighLevel contact. Booked, attended, cancelled, no-show and last-visit-date drive every Workflow.
• HighLevel sends the communication. Confirmations, reminders, review requests through Reviews AI and reputation management, six-week recalls and twelve-month reactivations.
• Turn Cliniko reminders off once HighLevel is live. Duplicate reminders annoy patients and confuse replies.
• Save it as a snapshot. Groups build one sub-account properly, then deploy the snapshot to each location.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Replacing Cliniko with HighLevel calendars. You lose rooms, clinical notes and claiming, and practitioners lose the diary they trust.
• Syncing the whole patient file. Push only contact and appointment metadata; clinical content stays in Cliniko.
• Running reminders from both systems. Pick one sender for each message type and switch the other off.
• Sending recall SMS from an alphanumeric sender ID. Patients cannot reply, and replies are where the rebookings happen.
• Skipping the privacy policy update. Naming HighLevel as an overseas processor is a small job that prevents a large problem.

If you want a GoHighLevel build that sits cleanly in front of Cliniko — bookings, recalls, reviews and reactivation without touching your clinical records — book a strategy call with the HL Growth Partner team.

Book Your Strategy Call →

Or if you just need the software first: grab the 30-day HighLevel trial and book us when you're ready to scale it.

Frequently asked questions

Is GoHighLevel a replacement for Cliniko?

No. GoHighLevel has no clinical notes, room scheduling or health claiming, so it cannot run the clinical side of an allied-health practice. It replaces the marketing, reminder and recall tools around Cliniko, not Cliniko itself.

Can GoHighLevel connect directly to Cliniko?

There is no native integration, but the two connect through Cliniko's Zapier app, Make using the Cliniko API, or a small middleware service that talks to both REST APIs. Cliniko events become tags and custom fields on the HighLevel contact, which then trigger Workflows.

Does Cliniko have a CRM built in?

Cliniko has a patient database, recall lists and basic reminders, but not a CRM in the marketing sense. It has no pipelines, two-way SMS inbox, review requests or automated reactivation, which is the gap GoHighLevel fills.

Which is cheaper, GoHighLevel or Cliniko?

Cliniko is cheaper on subscription, from about A$45 a month for a solo practitioner. GoHighLevel starts at US$97 a month, roughly A$150, plus SMS and phone usage. Because they do different jobs, the fair comparison is the combined cost of about A$215 to A$245 a month for a solo clinic.

Is it safe to store patient information in GoHighLevel under Australian privacy law?

It is manageable if you limit HighLevel to contact details and appointment metadata and keep clinical content in Cliniko. Because HighLevel is hosted overseas, APP 8 applies, so disclose it as an overseas processor in your privacy policy and restrict user roles.

Can I use GoHighLevel's calendar instead of Cliniko's appointment book?

Only for practices that do not need rooms, clinical notes or claiming. For most allied-health clinics the HighLevel calendar is a front door for new-patient bookings that are then created in Cliniko, by reception or through an API connection.

Do I need Zapier to run Cliniko and GoHighLevel together?

Not necessarily. Zapier is the quickest start, Make is cheaper at volume, and a direct Cliniko API to GoHighLevel webhook connection removes the middle layer entirely. Many solo clinics run both with a manual tag from reception and no connector at all.

Related Articles on HL Growth Partner

Allied-health builds

• GoHighLevel for chiropractors: the allied-health snapshot
• GoHighLevel for psychologists: practice setup guide
• GoHighLevel for NDIS providers

Booking and payments

• GoHighLevel calendars and booking setup
• GoHighLevel payments: Stripe, invoices and subscriptions

More comparisons

• GoHighLevel vs Capsule CRM: features and true cost
• GoHighLevel vs Podium: features and true cost