Jane and Cliniko are both clinic management systems with online booking built in. This post compares only that side: what a new patient meets between finding your clinic and being booked. It does not cover charting, billing, insurance or price, and it does not pick a winner. Which one suits you depends on how your clinic works.
Everything below comes from each vendor’s own help pages, read in November 2026. Software changes, so check the current pages before you decide. We link the pages at the end. Where a vendor’s page did not say something, we say so rather than guess.
If you already use one of them, these guides cover setup: online booking in Jane and Cliniko online booking on your website.
1. The booking page
Jane. Jane calls it the Online Booking Site. You choose what it offers: locations, disciplines, treatments, staff and shifts. Jane’s guides describe grouping treatments into disciplines, so patients choose a category before an appointment type, and copying the link for a single treatment so a patient lands straight on that treatment’s schedule.
Cliniko. Cliniko’s overview says patients can book at any hour, for individual, group and telehealth appointments, from a phone, tablet or computer, without creating an account or logging in. You choose which locations, practitioners and appointment types appear. Cliniko shows a patient the first open slot in the morning, afternoon and evening, and says that a patient who needs a time that is not listed must contact the clinic.
What to compare. Book a first visit as a patient on both demo or live pages, if you can. Count the taps. Check the visit-type names. Ask whether showing the first slot in each part of the day suits how your clinic fills its schedule.
2. Links and embeds
You want the booking page in three places: your website, your Google profile and anywhere you send patients, such as social pages and email.
Jane. The Branding settings include a “Book Online Buttons” section. Jane provides HTML embed codes that add a “Book Online” button, with codes for the main booking page, for each practitioner and, if you have more than one, for each location. Jane notes that some website builders, naming Wix and Squarespace, do not support HTML. For those, you use the plain booking link as the target of a button you create in the builder. Separately, Jane’s guide on finding your booking link describes an embed code that adds a “Book Now” button, and links by location or by staff member. You need Full Access in Jane to see these settings.
Cliniko. Cliniko generates a unique bookings page link. You can also copy an embed code from the Online bookings settings and paste it into your site, or give it to your web designer. The embed option is available to administrators. Cliniko has separate help pages for embedding in Squarespace, Wix and the GoDaddy website builder. Cliniko also lets you create custom booking pages that show only the business, practitioner or appointment types you choose, and says you can create as many as you like.
What to compare. Which website platform do you use, and does the vendor have a guide for it? Does the page open on your own site or on the vendor’s? Can you send a patient to one practitioner, one location or one visit type with a single link?
3. Intake and patient details
Jane. Jane’s intake form reminder page says Jane emails a reminder 24 hours before the appointment to clients whose intake form is not started or is still in progress, with one link to all incomplete forms. The page does not say how the first request for the form is sent when a patient books online, so ask Jane or read its intake form guides. Jane’s guides also mention options for restricting online booking to returning patients and for reducing the fields new patients complete at sign-up. We did not verify how those work.
Cliniko. Cliniko says automated patient forms can be sent at the time of booking, to collect information before the appointment. For the booking page itself, it describes matching a booking to an existing record only when the email and mobile number both agree. If a possible match differs on either, it creates a new record with a possible-duplicate banner, which the clinic can merge. Cliniko also has settings to require a patient’s address and to let patients consent to your privacy policy when booking.
What to compare. What does a new patient have to type before they see a time? When do forms arrive, and where do they open? Who in your clinic deals with duplicate records?
This is also a privacy question. Forms carry health information, and the rules depend on where you practise, such as PHIPA in Ontario or HIPAA in the United States. Check how the vendor handles it, and talk to your regulator or adviser. We do not handle patient records for clinics.
4. Reminders and confirmations
Jane. Email reminders are available on all plans, according to Jane’s reminders guide. Text reminders are listed as available only on certain plans and only in select regions. Jane’s guide says Canadian patients receive texts from a 1-8XX number. Patients without an email address, or who opt in to phone reminders, go on a Phone Reminders list for staff to call. Jane also shows a pop-up during online booking where patients choose which reminders they want. The guide does not describe replying to a reminder to confirm. It says staff can resend an email reminder but cannot resend a text.
Cliniko. Cliniko sends confirmations by email only, a couple of minutes after booking. Reminders go by email or SMS, using templates you link to each appointment type. Cliniko says SMS reminders need purchased SMS credits. Nothing is sent if the patient has no email or mobile on file, or if their communication preferences do not allow it. Its overview does not cover patient replies to confirm, and its page on reminder timing is internally unclear, so check the settings screen itself.
What to compare. Do you need text reminders, and what do they cost in your region on each system? Can a patient confirm or cancel from the message? If reminders matter for your no-show rate, see how to reduce patient no-shows.
5. Booking from Google
Jane. Jane’s Reserve with Google guide says it connects your Google Business Profile to your Jane booking site, so patients who find you on Google Search or Maps see a “Book Now” button, and your online-bookable treatments appear as a list on mobile. Appointments booked this way are tagged in your schedule. The guide lists it as available in Canada and the United States only, needing Full Access, with no add-on, on all plans except Jane’s Balance plan. Check your plan. Plans change, so check which applies to you.
Cliniko. We searched Cliniko’s help centre and did not find an article about booking directly from Google Search or Maps, so we cannot state that as a feature. A booking link can still go on your Google profile as an ordinary website link. If Google booking is important, ask Cliniko directly and get the answer in writing.
For how the booking link works on a profile either way, see adding a booking button to your Google profile.
6. Other places patients meet your booking page
Cliniko’s Facebook guide says you can add a call-to-action button that links to your bookings page, and says “Book Now” is not available because Cliniko does not partner with Meta’s appointments tools. Jane has a guide on linking online booking to Instagram. We did not read it in detail.
What to check for your clinic
Software demos are polished. Your clinic is not a demo. Before you commit, or before you switch:
- Book as a patient. Use a phone, on mobile data, and go as far as the last step. Note every extra tap.
- Check your website platform. Make sure the vendor has a guide for it, or that your web designer has done it before.
- Ask about forms. When is the first form sent, and what does the patient see?
- Price the reminders. Ask what text reminders cost for your region and volume.
- Check Google. If you want a booking button on your Google profile, get the vendor’s current answer in writing.
- Check your locations. If you have more than one, make sure you can link patients to the right one.
- Ask what happens if you leave. What can you export, and in what format?
- Read the current pricing and plan pages. Prices and plan tiers change, and we have not stated any here.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on the path from Google to a booked appointment, we do an audit. It looks at your public profile, website and booking page as a patient sees them. It does not touch patient data.