The two best-engineered systems in the category, and the choice most therapists eventually narrow down to. One is priced in dollars and shaped like a clinic; the other is priced in pounds, lovely to use, and won't let you try it. Here's how they actually differ for a UK practice.
The gap between these two is about £85 a year after tax relief — which is either nothing or a real decision depending on what your practice leaves you. Work out that number first; it makes the rest of this page much easier to read.
Three questions. About a minute.
Free · No sign-up · No personal data · 2025/26 UK tax rates
We have no commercial relationship with either company and earn nothing whichever you choose. There are no affiliate links to Cliniko or Jane anywhere on this site. Both were scored against the same published rule from each vendor's own pricing, security and export documentation in August 2026 — desk research, not a month of hands-on use. Published by the team behind Practik, a free take-home pay calculator that competes with neither.
Cliniko scored 12 out of 16 in our ranking of practice management tools and Jane scored 10 — but that two-point gap hides the more useful truth, which is that they lose marks for completely different reasons. Cliniko is the better-behaved purchase. Jane is the nicer product. Which of those matters more depends on facts about your practice that no ranking can know.
Pick Cliniko if you want UK-hosted data, a proper 30-day trial and a company with an unusually good record on not changing the deal — and you can live with a bill in US dollars.
Pick Jane if you work online or hybrid, you'll be in the software every day and want that to be pleasant, and you're comfortable committing about £44 a month without trying it first.
Jane publishes sterling prices. Cliniko doesn't, and for a UK sole trader that's a genuine difference rather than a technicality — your monthly cost moves with the exchange rate, and so does the figure you put in your accounts.
| Plan | Published | ≈ per month | ≈ per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cliniko, one practitioner | US$45 | £35 | £415 |
| Jane Balance | £29 | £29 | £348 |
| Jane Practice | £44 | £44 | £528 |
| Jane Thrive | £55 | £55 | £660 |
Jane's cheapest plan is not the one you'll be on. Balance is capped at 20 appointments a month — combining one-to-one sessions, groups and classes — which is part-time at best. A full caseload means Practice at £44, and unlimited free SMS reminders only appear at that tier too. So the honest comparison is Cliniko at roughly £35 against Jane at £44, and on price alone Cliniko wins by about £113 a year at that exchange rate.
Both meter some things. Cliniko charges about 10¢ per SMS on top of the subscription; Jane includes unlimited SMS reminders from the Practice tier upward, where available in your region. If you send two reminders per appointment on a busy diary, that difference is worth checking against your own numbers.
Cliniko gives you 30 days free. Jane gives you no trial at all: a demo account and a scheduled call with their team, which is a different thing. A demo shows you the software working the way someone who knows it uses it. A trial shows you what happens on a Tuesday when a client reschedules twice and you're trying to find last week's note.
This is the criterion where the two diverge most, and it's why Jane sits at 10 despite being — by some distance — the nicest software in the category. Committing your client records to a system you haven't used is a real cost when it's your own money, and it falls hardest on exactly the person this site is written for: someone deciding carefully, alone, without an IT budget.
Cliniko takes full marks here. UK accounts are hosted in the UK and EU accounts in Ireland, there's a named Data Protection Officer and a published data processing agreement. For a UK data controller putting session notes into someone else's system, that's about as clean as this category gets.
Jane states UK GDPR compliance and runs regional data centres rather than routing everything to North America, which is much better than the American tools — but it's a Canadian company and the position is regional rather than UK-specific, so it scores one rather than two. Confirm which region your account is provisioned in at sign-up rather than assuming, and ask for the DPA either way. You are the data controller; that duty doesn't transfer to the vendor.
Ask this before you migrate, not after. Cliniko publishes a self-service export covering clients, notes and invoices — you can run it yourself, on a Sunday, without asking anyone. With Jane, the patient list exports itself but a batch export of chart notes is requested from support.
That is not a scandal and support will do it. But a system you can leave without asking permission is worth more than one you can't, and it's the quiet criterion that separates a tool from a dependency.
Neither is built for talking therapy specifically. Cliniko is allied-health software — physio, multi-room clinics, treatment plans — and it's shaped that way throughout; a solo counsellor will meet a lot of features they'll never touch, which is why it scores zero on that criterion. Jane is friendlier to therapy: the charting is flexible, intake forms are good, and 1:1 telehealth is in every plan including the cheapest, which matters if you work online.
If neither shape appeals, that's an argument for looking at WriteUpp or bacpac instead — both British, both cheaper, and bacpac is the only tool in our ranking designed for counselling specifically.
✓ meets it · ~ partly, with caveats · · doesn't
| Criterion | Cliniko | Jane |
|---|---|---|
| Built for talking therapy | · | ~ |
| UK data, UK rules | ✓ | ~ |
| Priced for one person | ~ | ~ |
| Gets you paid | ✓ | ✓ |
| Honest total cost | ~ | ✓ |
| Try before you buy | ✓ | · |
| Get your data out | ✓ | ~ |
| Calm to use | ✓ | ✓ |
| Total / 16 | 12 | 10 |
Both are allowable business expenses, so the sticker price isn't the real price. For a sole trader on basic rate, every £1 of allowable cost saves about 26p once income tax and Class 4 National Insurance are counted. That puts Cliniko at roughly £307 a year after relief and Jane Practice at about £391 — five and six and a half sessions respectively at a £60 fee.
An £84 annual difference is about a session and a half. Whether that's worth choosing the less pleasant software over depends entirely on what your practice leaves you — here's every tool costed in sessions after tax, and what happens when the subscriptions start stacking up.
Cliniko, on a full caseload. It's US$45 a month for one practitioner — around £35 at $1.30 to the pound — against £44 for Jane's Practice plan, which is the cheapest Jane tier without an appointment cap. Jane's £29 Balance plan is cheaper still but limited to 20 appointments a month. Cliniko's advantage moves with the exchange rate; Jane's price doesn't move at all.
No. Jane offers demo accounts and scheduled demonstrations with its team, but not a free trial you can run your own practice through. Cliniko offers 30 days free. This is the single biggest practical difference between them for someone choosing carefully with their own money.
No. Balance is capped at 20 appointments a month across one-to-one sessions, groups and classes, which suits a part-time practice at most. A full caseload needs the £44 Practice plan, which is also where unlimited free SMS reminders start.
Cliniko hosts UK accounts in the UK and EU accounts in Ireland, with a named Data Protection Officer and a published data processing agreement. Jane states UK GDPR compliance and uses regional data centres rather than routing everything to North America, but it's a Canadian company and the position is regional rather than UK-specific — confirm which region your account sits in at sign-up. Either way you remain the data controller for your client records.
Partly on your own. Jane's patient list can be exported by you, but a batch export of chart notes is requested from support rather than run self-service. Cliniko documents a self-service export covering clients, notes and invoices. Ask any vendor this question before you migrate, not after.
Yes — and this is where both beat WriteUpp for an online practice. Jane includes 1:1 telehealth in every plan including Balance; Cliniko includes telehealth in its single subscription. WriteUpp charges for video as an add-on on every plan.
Work out what your practice actually leaves you, and what £35 or £44 a month really costs once tax relief is counted. Free, no sign-up, no personal data — about a minute.
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