Zanda vs Cliniko: the allied health toss-up
Australia's two allied-health favourites, compared without the fan-club energy: Zanda's per-practitioner communications machine versus Cliniko's flat-fee calm.
Where Zanda stands
Zanda (rebranded from Power Diary in late 2024) is a cloud practice management system for allied health, priced per practitioner, with strong communications features and built-in Medicare, DVA and NDIS billing.
Strong client communications — SMS, forms, sequences. Medicare, DVA and NDIS billing built in. On the other side of the ledger: Per-practitioner pricing scales linearly with headcount. Larger clinics should test reporting, role granularity and multi-location handling against their needs.
Where Cliniko stands
Cliniko is an Australian-founded cloud practice management system loved by allied health clinics worldwide — appointments, treatment notes, invoicing and telehealth with famously simple flat pricing per team size.
Genuinely pleasant, simple software with a loyal following. Transparent flat pricing with no per-feature surprises. Worth weighing: Simplicity is the product philosophy — larger or multi-disciplinary clinics can outgrow its task automation, reporting and role granularity. Billing beyond straightforward invoicing (complex claiming scenarios, family accounts, reconciliation rigour) is an area to check closely.
The third option
The honest tiebreakers: solo and small clinics often love Zanda's entry price and communication sequences; teams that hate metering love Cliniko's flat fee and its every-feature-included promise. Where both get tested is the next size up - multi-disciplinary, multi-location, governance-conscious clinics needing record-level permissions, claiming breadth, immutable histories and automation that scales without adding admin. That next size is precisely where Intellicore starts, which is why growing clinics increasingly demo it alongside both.
Zanda & Cliniko vs Intellicore, at a glance
| Aspect | Zanda & Cliniko | Intellicore |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Zanda: Cloud (browser-based) · Cliniko: Cloud (browser-based) | Cloud-native — any device, no servers, continuous updates |
| Pricing model | Zanda: monthly subscription per practitioner · Cliniko: flat monthly fee per team-size band, every feature included | Quoted per practice; onboarding includes migration and training |
| Automation & AI | Varies — largely pre-AI architectures; confirm current capability with each vendor | Audited task engine + AI agents with human approval on every send |
| Audit posture | Conventional edit-in-place records; confirm audit depth with each vendor | Append-only history, notes lock at 24h, soft-delete only, full audit trail |
Competitor details reflect publicly available information as at August 2026 and may change — confirm specifics with the vendor. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Common questions
Should I choose Zanda or Cliniko?
It depends on what you optimise for. Zanda's strengths: strong client communications — sms, forms, sequences. Cliniko's: genuinely pleasant, simple software with a loyal following. Our honest suggestion is to demo both against your own hardest workflows — and to include a current-generation platform in the same exercise so you can see what the newest architecture changes.
Is Intellicore built for Australian practices?
Entirely. Australian company (Intellisys Core Pty Ltd, Queensland), data hosted in AWS Sydney with one isolated database schema per practice, Privacy Act-aligned compliance posture, GST-compliant invoicing, and Medicare, DVA and health-fund claiming modelled end to end.
How does Intellicore pricing work?
Pricing is quoted per practice after a demo, and onboarding is done for you — our team installs, configures, migrates your data and trains your staff. There is no self-serve signup: every practice goes live with its data and workflows in place rather than an empty account.
How do I see it working?
Book a demo — we'll walk through Intellicore configured for your kind of practice, with your workflows. Use the form on this page and we'll reply to arrange a time that suits your team.
See it working with your kind of data
Register your interest and we'll arrange a walkthrough of Intellicore configured for your practice — your workflows, your questions, no obligation.