Best gift card and prepaid platforms for clinics and salons in Australia (2026)

For most Australian clinics, the easiest starting point is the gift voucher feature built into their existing booking system. Fresha, Timely, and Phorest all include gift vouchers as a standard feature at no extra cost. Square is a practical option for clinics already using Square for payments. For clinics that want prepaid treatment credits that actively drive repeat visits rather than just a one-off purchase, Clinic App's treatment wallet is the stronger retention tool.

Gift cards are useful. They bring new clients through the door when recipients redeem them, and they collect cash upfront. But they are a one-time transaction. The client who receives a gift card visits once, redeems the credit, and may not return. Prepaid treatment packages and treatment wallets work differently: the client has already paid for future visits and has a real financial reason to come back.

The options below cover the most common platforms for Australian clinics, from booking-system vouchers to dedicated prepaid tools, with honest notes on what each one actually does.

In short: gift vouchers in your booking system handle the basics; a prepaid treatment wallet converts gift-card thinking into a genuine retention tool.

What is the difference between a clinic gift card and a prepaid treatment package?

A gift card is a fixed-dollar credit, usually purchased by one person for another as a gift. The recipient visits the clinic and redeems the credit against an appointment. The transaction ends there.

A prepaid treatment package is a bundle of treatments or a credit balance that a client purchases for themselves, often at a modest saving. The mechanics of retention are different: the client has already committed their own money to future visits, they know they have a balance to spend, and they have a concrete reason to book again. Clients who hold a treatment wallet or prepaid package rebook at materially higher rates than clients who do not.

Both have their place. Gift cards are a good acquisition tool -- they introduce new clients who might not otherwise book. Prepaid packages are a better retention tool. The best-performing clinics use both, treating the first visit from a gift card redemption as the starting point for a longer client relationship rather than a closed transaction.

How do gift card and prepaid platforms for clinics compare?

Here is how the main options compare on the features that matter for an Australian clinic or salon.

A gift card brings a client in once. A treatment wallet gives them a reason to keep coming back -- they can see their balance in the app and they know exactly what they have left to spend.

Do Fresha, Timely, and Phorest include gift cards?

Yes. All three major booking platforms used by Australian clinics and salons include built-in gift voucher features, and for most clinics this is the right place to start.

Fresha allows gift vouchers to be sold through the Fresha marketplace and redeemed at bookings. Clinics on the Fresha platform can set up and sell vouchers without any additional subscription. The voucher is handled entirely within Fresha.

Timely includes gift voucher functionality as part of its plan features. Vouchers can be sold online and redeemed at the point of booking or payment. Timely does not have a loyalty program or membership feature alongside the vouchers -- for that you would add a separate retention layer.

Phorest includes gift cards and also has its TreatCard points program. The combination gives Phorest-using clinics a voucher tool and a basic points system, though neither approaches a full branded membership model. Clinics on Phorest that want to go further have options for adding a loyalty and rewards layer on top of Phorest without leaving the platform.

The practical limitation of all three is the same: the voucher lives inside the booking system, is invisible to the client between visits, and does not create an ongoing relationship in the way a treatment wallet or membership does.

Is Square a good option for clinic gift cards?

Square includes digital and physical gift cards as part of its payments and POS offering. For clinics and salons that already use Square as their point-of-sale system, the Square gift card feature is a straightforward option that works within the same dashboard.

Square is not a clinic-specific platform. It does not include loyalty points tailored to the aesthetic or beauty industry, and it does not support membership billing or prepaid treatment packages. The gift card feature is general-purpose. If your clinic runs on a dedicated booking system for appointments, Square's gift cards may run separately from your booking records, which creates some admin overlap.

Square is a practical choice for clinics that primarily sell retail products alongside treatments and want a single POS solution. For appointment-heavy clinics, a booking-system voucher or a dedicated prepaid platform is usually a cleaner fit.

How does Clinic App's prepaid treatment wallet work?

Clinic App includes a treatment wallet -- a prepaid credit balance that clients can hold and see in their own branded app. Clients purchase credits (either directly or through a prepaid package), and those credits sit visibly in their app until they book an appointment and use them.

The visibility is what makes the difference. When a client can open an app with your clinic's name and logo and see that they have a $150 treatment credit, that balance is a direct reason to book. It is not a piece of paper at the bottom of a bag; it is live data on their phone that surfaces every time they open the app.

The treatment wallet works alongside whatever booking system the clinic uses. You do not need to switch from Fresha, Timely, Cliniko, or Phorest. Clinic App runs as a retention layer on top. For a deeper look at how prepaid packages are structured and what to charge, the guide to prepaid treatment packages for cosmetic clinics covers pricing and how to sell them without discounting.

Loyalty points can run alongside the prepaid wallet, so clients who hold a credit balance also accumulate points on treatments and retail purchases. The combination -- a wallet they can see, points they are building, and a membership tier if you run one -- is what turns a one-off buyer into a regular.

Which gift card or prepaid platform is right for your clinic?

If your clinic already uses Fresha, Timely, or Phorest and wants to start offering gift vouchers, the built-in voucher feature is the right place to start. It costs nothing extra, works within the system your team already uses, and is easy to set up. You can be selling gift vouchers within a day.

If you want to go beyond the one-off voucher transaction and build genuine repeat-visit behaviour, a prepaid treatment wallet is the next step. The difference is not just a feature; it is a different relationship with the client. A client who holds a balance in your branded app thinks about your clinic between visits in a way that a past voucher-redeemer does not.

For the broader revenue picture -- how prepaid packages, memberships, and loyalty points work together to build recurring revenue for a cosmetic clinic -- the maths behind each model is worth understanding before you choose a platform.

Setayish Abdi

Co-founder, Clinic App

Setayish co-founded Clinic App to help Australian cosmetic clinics turn one-off visits into recurring revenue, with retention tools built around the rules clinics actually operate under.