How to choose aesthetic clinic software (2026 UK guide)

For clinic owners in the UK and Ireland. Prices checked 26 September 2026.

This guide is written by AesthetiClinic, so weigh it with that in mind. We’ve tried to make it useful whichever system you end up on. Every question in it is one you should ask us as well, and where another product suits a clinic better, we say so. If you want our short take on each system first, that’s on the best aesthetic clinic software page. This page is the longer one: how to decide.

Start with one appointment

Before you look at a single product, take one ordinary appointment in your clinic and write down everything that happens around it. Pick something common, like an anti-wrinkle top-up or a first lip filler.

Go from the moment the patient finds you to the moment they rebook:

• How do they book? Website, Instagram DM, a phone call, a message to your personal mobile?
• Do you take a deposit, and how? Bank transfer, a payment link, a card over the phone, nothing?
• When do they fill in their medical history and consent? On paper in the chair, a PDF emailed the night before, a form link?
• Who checks the answers, and when? Is there anything that would stop you treating?
• What do you write down during the treatment? Product, batch number, dose, areas, photos?
• If a prescription is needed, who prescribes, and how does that get recorded?
• What goes out afterwards? Aftercare, a review check, a reminder to come back in three or four months?
• What stock came off the shelf?

Some of this probably works well already, even if it’s paper and WhatsApp. That’s fine. The point is to know which jobs the software has to take on and which you’re happy to leave. With that list in front of you in a demo, you’re comparing each product against your own clinic.

The five questions

These are the five things worth settling before you choose, whether it’s your first system or your third. For each one there’s what to ask every vendor (us included) and what a good answer sounds like.

1. What work does it need to do?

Take your appointment map and turn it into a list of jobs. For most aesthetics clinics that’s some mix of:

• Booking: online booking on your own link, a diary per practitioner, the right treatments bookable with the right people.
• Deposits and payments: taking money at the point of booking, balances on the day, refunds, and your cancellation rules applied the same way every time.
• Consent and medical history: treatment-specific forms, signed before the appointment, stored against the patient.
• Records: what was done, with what product and batch, how much, where, with photos.
• Aftercare and recalls: the right aftercare sent after the right treatment, and a nudge when they’re due back.
• Stock: what you have, what you used, and which patients had which batch.

Ask every vendor: “Here’s one appointment from our clinic. Can you show me each of these steps in the product, live, in the order they happen?”

A good answer sounds like: they open the product and do it. If a step happens outside the system (a separate payment app, a PDF form, a spreadsheet for stock), they tell you so plainly. Watch out for “we can set that up for you” without being shown where it lives.

2. What information do you need to bring with you?

If you’re on paper or spreadsheets, this is mostly your patient list and any consents you want on file. If you’re on another system, it’s patients, upcoming appointments, past treatment notes, signed consent forms, photos and sometimes stock and vouchers.

Ask every vendor: “What exactly will come across from my current system, what won’t, and how will we handle what won’t?”

A good answer sounds like: a specific list for your specific system, including the awkward bits. Consent PDFs and photos are often the hardest things to get out of an old system, so if nobody mentions them, ask. Be wary of anyone who says “everything” before they know what you’re on.

3. Who uses it?

A solo nurse prescriber working two evenings a week needs something different from a three-injector clinic with a receptionist and a visiting prescriber. Write down every person who’ll log in, and what each one should and shouldn’t see.

Ask every vendor: “Who counts as a paid user, and can I control what reception can see in a medical record?”

A good answer sounds like: a clear definition. Some systems charge for every login including reception, some only for bookable practitioners, some price by team size bands or by booking volume. None of these is wrong, but it changes the bill a lot as you grow (see the cost section below).

4. Who helps you set it up?

Most of the first month’s effort is setup: services and prices, shifts, consent templates, policy wording, the booking link on your website and Instagram.

Ask every vendor: “Who actually does the setup, me or you? Is there a charge? And who do I talk to in week one when something doesn’t look right?”

A good answer sounds like: a named process with a person behind it, and a straight answer on cost. Some systems are self-serve and cheap, which suits plenty of people. Just know which one you’re buying.

5. What’s the full price?

The monthly subscription is one line. The real bill also includes VAT (a cost you can’t claim back if you’re not VAT registered), text message reminders, card processing on deposits and payments, any commission on bookings, and any paid add-ons. We go through this properly in the cost section.

Ask every vendor: “For a clinic of my size, with my number of appointments, what will I pay in a normal month, including VAT, SMS and card fees?”

A good answer sounds like: a number, with the parts separated out. If the only way to get a number is a sales call, that’s worth knowing too.

What actually differs between systems for aesthetics

Most clinic software books appointments and stores patient details. The differences that matter for aesthetics are further down the list, and these are the ones to test in a demo.

Consent on the patient’s own phone, and versioning

Paper consent and emailed PDFs both work, but they make it hard to show later exactly which form a patient signed and when. Things to check:

• Can the patient complete their medical history and consent on their own phone before they arrive, without downloading an app or creating an account?
• When you edit a consent form, does the system keep the old version, and can you see which version each patient signed?
• Do the answers land on the patient’s record, where you’ll see a flagged allergy or medication before you treat?
• Can a practitioner countersign?

In AesthetiClinic, patients sign on their own phone with no app or account, each signature is timestamped and locked to the version signed, and answers write back to the record. Our consent forms software page and the guide to chair-side consent signing go into more detail. If you’re still on paper, our free medical history form is a reasonable starting point wherever you land.

Treatment records with batch, dose and photos

A good aesthetics record lets you answer, months later, exactly what went into which patient. Ask to see a completed record with product, batch or lot number, dose or volume, injection sites, and before and after photos attached to that visit.

Then ask the harder question: “If a supplier recalls a batch, how do I find every patient who had it?” Some systems can search by lot number, and some would leave you going through records one at a time. It’s also worth asking whether using a product on a treatment takes it off your stock count.

Our licensing-ready records checklist and treatment record template set out what we think a complete record looks like. They’re free to use with any system.

Deposits and no-show rules

This is where software changes day-to-day life the most for many owners. Things to test:

• Can you require a deposit to confirm a booking, per treatment?
• Does the money go to your own payment account, or through the software company’s?
• Does the patient agree to your cancellation and late-change rules when they book?
• Do no-show and cancellation follow-ups include a link to rebook?

Dr Victoria Ellison of Dr Victoria Clinic NI in Saintfield put this better than we could:

“Patients sign off they have read booking T&Cs, deposit links are sent to confirm all appointments - no payment, no appointment. As a medic, I really struggled with saying no and enforcing booking policies. AC does the heavy lifting on this front.”

That’s her experience of her clinic, and your numbers will be your own. Before you set any deposit or cancellation rule, read our guide to deposit and refund law in the UK. There’s also a cancellation policy template and a page on reducing no-shows.

Prescription-only medicines and prescriber workflows

Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine, so for many clinics the prescribing step is part of every anti-wrinkle appointment. The question is whether the software supports how your prescribing actually works:

• Is your prescriber in-house, or external and remote?
• Can a prescription be requested, approved and sent inside the system, with the prescriber’s registration number and signature on file?
• Does the workflow record that the prescriber assessed the patient face to face, as their professional regulator expects?
• Is there a per-prescription fee?

Your prescriber’s own professional body sets the standard here, and the software can only support it. Ask your prescriber what they need to see before they’ll approve, and check the system shows exactly that.

In AesthetiClinic, prescription requests, approval and sending sit inside the platform for internal or external prescribers, with a face-to-face attestation before approval and no per-prescription fee.

Multi-practitioner diaries

If there’s more than one of you, or there might be, check:

• Is each practitioner’s availability driven by their own shifts?
• Can you stop a treatment being booked with someone who doesn’t do it?
• What happens to the price when you add a practitioner, and when you add a receptionist?

Data export, and who owns your data

This is the question people forget until they want to leave. Ask for it in writing:

• Can I export my patients, appointments, consent forms and photos myself, at any time?
• In what format? A spreadsheet of names is a very different thing from signed PDFs and photos attached to the right patient.
• Is there a fee to export, or a notice period?
• Where is the data hosted, and will you sign a data processing agreement?

We’ve made our full export a term of the subscription, with no exit fee, and our switch guarantee sets out what that covers. Whatever you choose, get the same answer in writing from them.

Regulation by nation

Aesthetics regulation is different in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and parts of it are changing. England has a licensing scheme on the way, Scotland is moving to licensing, and whether you need CQC registration in England depends on what you do and who does it. Software on its own won’t make a clinic compliant. It can hold the records your regulator or local authority is likely to ask for, in a shape you can find again.

Our UK aesthetics regulation hub brings the nations together, and each has its own detailed guide: England’s 2026 licensing scheme, Scotland’s licensing plans, Wales’s special procedures licence, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. There are also guides to CQC registration for aesthetics and the JCCP register.

When another system may suit you better

Being straight about this saves everyone time. From the public information each company publishes:

• Large clinics, med spas and multi-site groups that want marketing automation and campaigns built into the same tool often look at Pabau, which covers a wide range under one roof. More on that on our Pabau comparison.
• Beauty-led businesses that want marketplace discovery may prefer Fresha, which charges a one-off commission on new clients its marketplace brings you. See our Fresha comparison.
• Practitioners starting out who want no monthly fee often begin on Faces, which describes itself as free to use. See our Faces comparison.
• Multi-disciplinary or allied-health practices may be better served by a general practice-management system such as Cliniko.
• Salon-led businesses adding aesthetics often look at Phorest or Timely, both of which have aesthetics features built on salon software.
• Solo aesthetic nurses have long used Aesthetic Nurse Software, and AesthetiDocs is a focused UK aesthetics booking and documentation tool. See our ANS and AesthetiDocs comparisons.

AesthetiClinic is built for aesthetics clinics from solo to small teams who want booking, consent, records and stock done properly. It doesn’t run in-app marketing campaigns; one-off campaigns go out through your own Mailchimp, which we keep in step with your patient list and their marketing consent.

The real total cost

Software pricing in this market comes in a few shapes, and it’s worth knowing which one you’re looking at:

• A flat subscription that doesn’t change with how busy you are.
• Per practitioner or per user. Check who counts: bookable practitioners only, or every login including reception.
• Priced by booking volume, where the bill moves with the number of appointments.
• Free to use, where the company earns from payments, products or other services instead.
• Marketplace commission: a percentage of bookings the platform’s own marketplace sends you.

Then on top of whichever one it is:

• VAT. Most UK software prices are quoted before VAT. If your clinic isn’t VAT registered, the VAT is a real cost to you.
• SMS. Email reminders are often free. Text messages usually cost a few pence each, or come as an allowance.
• Card processing. Every deposit and payment taken by card costs a percentage plus a few pence, whether that goes through the software company or your own payment provider.

What each vendor publishes (checked 26 September 2026)

Only figures published on each vendor’s own pricing page. Where something isn’t published, the table says so. Prices change, so check the linked page before deciding.

System	1 practitioner, per month	3 practitioners, per month	SMS	Card processing on the pricing page	Source
AesthetiClinic	£25 + VAT	£75 + VAT (reception seats free)	7p + VAT per SMS, in 1,000-message bundles (£70 + VAT); email free	Your own Stripe account; 0% commission to AesthetiClinic	aestheticlinic.io/pricing
Aesthetic Nurse Software	Foundation £25 + VAT (150 patients); Advanced £50 + VAT (unlimited patients)	Foundation £55 + VAT; Advanced £65 + VAT	Not published on the price page	Not published on the price page	aestheticnursesoftware.com/price-plans
AesthetiDocs	Startup £25 + VAT (up to 200 treatments/consultations); Solo £50 + VAT	Team £100 + VAT (£75 for 2 practitioners, £25 each additional); admin staff free	Not published on the price page	Not published on the price page	aesthetidocs.com/pricing
Cliniko	£29	£59 (2 to 5 practitioners); unlimited admin and reception users	5p per SMS, prepaid	Not published on the price page	cliniko.com/pricing
Faces	Described as “free to use”	Described as “free to use”	Not published	Not published on a page we could find	facesconsent.com
Fresha	Independent £14.95	Team £9.95 per bookable team member (£29.85)	20 free per team member a month, then 6p per text	Online 1.40% + 25p; in person 1.19% + 20p. 20% one-off commission (minimum £4) on new clients from the Fresha marketplace	fresha.com/pricing (rates exclusive of 20% tax)
Pabau	Not published (book a demo)	Not published (book a demo)	Uses Pabau credits; rates not published	Not published on the price page	pabau.com/pricing
Phorest	Not published (book a demo)	Not published (book a demo)	9.5p (Starter), 8.2p (Grow), 7p (Ultimate), 500 free a month (Elite)	Not published on the price page	phorest.com/gb/pricing
Timely	From £4 a week (Run), £7 (Boost), £9 (Thrive); price adjusts with bookings	Same; unlimited team members	Included in every plan, based on bookings; extra SMS 8p / 5p / 4p by plan	Online 1.85% + 30p; in person 1.59% + 5p	gettimely.com/pricing

All figures checked 26 September 2026. Where a page doesn’t say whether VAT is included, we’ve shown the figure as published. Cliniko sets the currency on its page by where you view it from; the figures here are its published British pound prices. Timely’s digital consultation forms are listed from the Boost plan upwards, which matters for an aesthetics clinic.

At three practitioners, several systems cost less than we do on subscription alone, Fresha, Cliniko and ANS Foundation among them. For Pabau and Phorest you’ll need a conversation to get a number, which is common for systems that price by configuration.

A worked example

To make this concrete, here’s an illustration. The clinic figures are made up for the example and aren’t averages or survey data:

• Clinic A: 1 practitioner, 100 appointments a month, one SMS reminder per appointment, a £30 deposit taken online for each appointment (£3,000 a month).
• Clinic B: 3 practitioners, 300 appointments a month, one SMS each, a £30 deposit on each (£9,000 a month).

We’ve only calculated systems where the vendor publishes every figure the sum needs. For card fees on AesthetiClinic we’ve used Stripe’s published rate for standard UK cards, 1.5% + 20p (stripe.com/gb/pricing, checked 26 September 2026). Premium, business and non-UK cards cost more on every platform.

Clinic A (1 practitioner)

	Subscription	SMS (100)	Card fees on £3,000 of deposits (100 payments)	Monthly total
AesthetiClinic	£25.00 + VAT	£7.00 + VAT	£65.00 (Stripe, standard UK cards)	£97.00, of which £32.00 is + VAT
Fresha (Independent)	£14.95	£4.80 (80 beyond the 20 free)	£67.00 (1.40% + 25p online)	£86.75, rates exclusive of 20% tax

Clinic B (3 practitioners)

	Subscription	SMS (300)	Card fees on £9,000 of deposits (300 payments)	Monthly total
AesthetiClinic	£75.00 + VAT	£21.00 + VAT	£195.00 (Stripe, standard UK cards)	£291.00, of which £96.00 is + VAT
Fresha (Team)	£29.85	£14.40 (240 beyond the 60 free)	£201.00 (1.40% + 25p online)	£245.25, rates exclusive of 20% tax

Fresha’s figures above assume no new clients come through its marketplace. Any that do add a 20% one-off commission on that first booking, with a £4 minimum.

For the other systems we can only give part of the sum from their public pages:

• Cliniko: £29 + £5 SMS = £34 (Clinic A); £59 + £15 SMS = £74 (Clinic B), plus card processing through whichever provider you connect.
• Aesthetic Nurse Software and AesthetiDocs: subscription as in the table above, plus SMS and card processing that aren’t on their price pages. Ask them for both.
• Timely: from £4, £7 or £9 a week depending on plan, moving with booking volume, with SMS included in the plan. Card fees on Clinic A’s deposits at their published online rate would be £85.50 a month; use their calculator for the subscription.
• Phorest and Pabau: ask for a quote using your own appointment numbers.
• Faces: free to use for the software itself. Ask how they charge on deposits, payments and prescriptions for your clinic, and get it in writing.

What the example does show is that the card fees on your deposits can be bigger than the subscription, and that per-message SMS, VAT and commission change the picture. Run your own numbers through the same four lines.

For clinics in the Republic of Ireland

The prices above are the UK prices in pounds sterling. Some vendors show a different price depending on where you view their page from, so if you’re in Ireland, ask each vendor (us included) for a euro price, how VAT will be charged, and which card processing rates apply to an Irish payment account. We haven’t assumed any of those here.

Switching: what to settle before you move

If you already have a system, choosing a new one is only half of it. The move itself is where the risk sits, and the answers depend on what you’re moving from. Settle these before you sign anything:

What exports from your current system? Most systems will give you patients and appointments as a spreadsheet. Consent forms and photos vary a lot. Some let you download signed forms one at a time, some have no bulk export at all. Our switching page sets out what we know about each of the common systems, with the date we checked.

What needs a separate plan? Anything that won’t come out in a bulk export needs its own route. That might be an assisted migration using your login with your permission, downloading a priority set by hand, or keeping read-only access to the old system for a while. Agree which, in writing.

Who checks the imported records before go-live? Somebody who knows your patients should look at a sample of imported records, alongside the old system, before you switch your booking link. Agree who does that and when. Nothing should go live until you’ve looked.

What happens to bookings already in the diary? Ask whether future appointments come across, and how deposits already paid are handled.

When does the old system stop? Check your notice period so you’re not paying twice for longer than you need to.

One clinic’s move

Dr Victoria Ellison is an NHS doctor and part-time aesthetic practitioner who runs Dr Victoria Clinic NI in Saintfield. She moved to AesthetiClinic from AesthetiDocs in August and September 2026.

When we last checked (June 2026), AesthetiDocs had no bulk export for photos, so hers came across through an assisted migration, using her login with her permission. On 23 September, 6,103 photos across 233 patients came over from AesthetiDocs, each one on the right patient and dated to the visit.

That’s the scope of one clinic’s move from one system. Your move will depend on what you’re on and what’s in it, and we’ll agree the scope with you before anything starts.

In her own words, a few weeks in:

“Any suggestions I have mentioned have been actioned and implemented in hours, or days max. Things I would have asked my previous provider for, for years!”

Bring this to any demo (us included)

Print it, or keep it open on your phone. Ask every vendor the same things so you can compare like with like.

• Walk through one of our real appointments, start to finish, live in the product.
• Show a patient completing medical history and consent on their own phone.
• Show a finished treatment record with batch, dose, sites and photos.
• Find every patient who had a given batch number.
• Take a deposit at booking. Whose payment account does it land in, and what’s the card fee?
• Show the prescribing workflow for our in-house or remote prescriber. Is there a per-prescription fee?
• Who counts as a paid user? Is reception charged?
• What’s our full monthly cost for [number] practitioners and [number] appointments, including VAT, SMS and card fees?
• What exactly will come across from our current system, and what won’t?
• Who checks the imported records with us before we go live?
• How do I export everything myself, in what format, and is there a fee or notice period?
• (Ireland) What’s the price in euro, and how is VAT charged?

If you’d like to put AesthetiClinic through that list, book a demo and bring your appointment map with you. We’ll work through it using your clinic. You can see the full feature list and pricing beforehand, and if you’re moving from another system, tell us what you’re on and we’ll tell you what’s recoverable before you commit to anything. And if you’re still working out the bigger picture, our guide to opening an aesthetics clinic covers the rest.

Any questions at all, just shout: hello@aestheticlinic.io.