What would you want to know about a clinic management software product in India if the salesperson weren't in the room? That is the list below. Vendor-written checklists tend to be lists of things that vendor happens to do. This one is meant to be used live, on a screen-share, while someone else drives the product and you watch what they click.
Keep it open on a second screen. Tick nothing on a verbal "yes".
Part 1: Money, before anything else
Pricing is the first thing to pin down because it changes how you read every other answer.
Is the quoted price before or after GST? Software subscriptions are taxed at 18% in India, and vendors don't present this consistently. Eka Care's pricing page says its plans are "exclusive of 18% GST". HealthPlix lists its Pro plan at ₹12,000 a year and Elite at ₹18,000, both excluding 18% GST. DrPage shows ₹299 and ₹499 a month "+ 18% GST". DoctorsApp goes the other way and labels its ₹10,999 and ₹16,999 annual plans "Inc. all taxes". None of these is wrong, but if you compare an inclusive price to an exclusive one, you're comparing numbers that differ by almost a fifth before any features come into it.
Don't mix this up with GST on your own fees. Your consultations are exempt under serial number 74 of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate). The software you buy is not.
What does each payment and each message cost? Ask for the per-transaction fee on payment collection and whether SMS or WhatsApp messages come from a capped quota.
What's the commitment? Some headline monthly prices apply only to multi-year terms. Ask what the monthly figure is on a one-year term and whether monthly billing exists at all.
Is there a real trial? Clinicea advertises 14 days and Practo's Ray page advertises 7. A trial long enough to include one full, busy OPD day is the minimum to accept.
Part 2: India-specific checks
Check | Ask them to show you | What a weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
ABDM / ABHA | Registering a patient with an ABHA number and linking a record, live | "We can export that for you" or "it's on the roadmap" |
A reminder or prescription arriving on your own phone, during the call | "Yes, we support WhatsApp," followed by an SMS | |
UPI collection | A UPI payment being marked paid on the bill without manual entry | Payment status typed in by hand afterwards |
Language | A patient message in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or whatever your patients read | Only the doctor-side interface is translated |
Data protection | Where data is hosted, how breaches are reported, and how consent is recorded | A generic "bank-grade security" line |
Two notes on this table. ABDM has become large enough that native support is a fair expectation: a PIB release from September 2024 reported over 67 crore ABHA accounts and more than 42 crore health records linked since the mission launched in September 2021. For the current rules and any new notifications, go to abdm.gov.in, not a vendor's slide.
On data protection, the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 were notified on 14 November 2025 with an 18-month phased compliance period, according to PIB. A clinic is a data fiduciary for its patients' records, and the Act allows penalties of up to ₹250 crore for failing to keep reasonable security safeguards. Find out how the product helps you meet consent and breach-notification duties, not only whether the servers are secure.
For two of these rows, ExaHealth's answers are specific. It is an ABDM-certified PHR and Health Locker, so once a patient's ABHA is linked, the clinic can fetch and share their records with consent. Data is encrypted and hosted in India on AWS Mumbai, and every access to a record is logged with the user and the time. Hold those claims to the same standard as any other vendor's.
Part 3: The everyday workflow
Ask for the following to be done in front of you, in sequence, as if it were a real morning. A patient books online and a walk-in arrives, and both should appear in the same queue. The doctor opens the patient and sees the last three visits and current medicines without switching screens, then writes a prescription by searching for each medicine and filling in dose and frequency fields, not by typing freely or uploading a photo.
Next comes the bill, with a consultation and one procedure, and the patient pays part of it now. To finish, someone exports a revenue and patient-count report to a spreadsheet. Time the whole sequence. If it takes the presenter, who knows the product, more than a few minutes, it will take your receptionist longer.
Part 4: The questions demos avoid
"Can we load a few hundred records and search?" Demo databases are small. Search and load times with real volume are what your staff live with.
"What happens if the internet drops mid-consultation?" Some products cache and sync; some simply stop. Know which before your broadband has a bad day.
"How do I take all my data out if I leave, and in what format?" Get the answer in writing. A clean export of patients, visits, prescriptions and bills is the difference between switching and starting over.
"Who sets it up?" If onboarding requires a paid consultant, factor that in.
When to walk away
Walk away if the all-in price, including GST, gateway fees and message costs, can't be put in one email. Walk away if "ABDM support" turns out to mean a file export, if the data-export question gets a vague answer, or if specific "what happens when" questions keep getting redirected to a feature slide.
Using this list
Don't email the list to vendors to fill in, because everyone will write "yes" beside every row. Book the demo, share this page with whoever is joining from your side, and ask the presenter to demonstrate each item. What they can show in two minutes tells you more than any brochure.
Run this checklist against ExaHealth too: get in touch with the team and have every item demonstrated on screen.
If you're still comparing options, read Clinic Management Software: The Complete Guide for Indian Clinics (2026) next, then Best Clinic Software for Solo Practitioners in 2026.
Where the figures come from
Frequently Asked Questions
Which items on this checklist matter most for a clinic in India specifically?
ABHA registration and record linking under ABDM, clarity on whether the price includes 18% GST, WhatsApp messages that genuinely arrive as WhatsApp, UPI payments reflected on the bill automatically, and patient messages in the languages your patients read. Generic booking, prescription and billing features matter everywhere; these are the local ones.
Do clinic software prices in India include GST?
It depends on the vendor, so check the small print. Eka Care, HealthPlix and DrPage state prices before 18% GST on their own pricing pages, while DoctorsApp labels its plans as inclusive of all taxes. Convert every quote to the same basis before comparing.
How long a trial should I insist on?
Long enough to cover at least one heavy clinic day with your own staff using it. Published trials vary; Clinicea lists 14 days and Practo's Ray page lists 7. If a vendor offers no trial at all, ask for a paid first month with no lock-in.