Competitor facts on this page were verified against each vendor's own published pages on . Vendors change terms; if you spot something outdated, tell us and we'll re-verify.
Your data is portable by construction
SideClick keeps the clinical record on your machine, exports it completely, and documents the archive format publicly — so leaving is always possible, whatever happens to us.
- Portable set
- .cfbak archive + PDF + CSV
- Format
- Published specification
- Completeness
- Provable via manifest
- Licence state
- Export works in all of them
Structural access, not a vendor policy
Your SideClick records live on your own machine, in files you hold. Export produces a single passphrase-encrypted archive containing the complete clinical database, every attachment and document, and the key material a fresh machine needs — plus signed PDF and CSV exports per record. Reading it back needs no SideClick account, no active licence, no server, and no permission from us.
That distinction — structural versus granted — is the honest version of the claim. Some competitors do grant post-cancellation access: one keeps a cancelled account readable for at least a year; another sells a monthly read-only storage tier. Those are real, and better than lockout. They are also policies: revocable, sometimes billed, and dependent on the vendor still existing. A file on your own disk is neither.
Provable completeness — the portability manifest
Every backup archive carries a portability manifest: an inventory of exactly what it contains — how many patients, clinical notes, appointments, invoices, documents — counted from the same database snapshot the archive was built from. Completeness is provable to a regulator or a successor system, not asserted.
The archive format itself is published: container layout, key derivation, framing, manifest fields. A practice holding an archive and its passphrase can read it independently in any language with standard cryptography — the full format specification is public.
Export works in every licence state — enforced by tests
Licence expiry never locks clinical data. Local reads, writes, exports and restore work in every licence state, including unlicensed — that is written product law in SideClick, and it is enforced by automated tests that export a real archive under expired and absent licences on every build.
What lapsing does change: relay services and portal publishing pause, and creating certain new records asks for a current licence. Your existing records never participate in that conversation.
What departing customers get elsewhere — in the vendors' own words
Cliniko is the honest exception on export: self-service, in-app, attachments included — and a cancelled account stays readable for at least a year.
“Cliniko keeps your account data for at least one year after cancellation. Even though the account is cancelled, you can log in during this period to export your data as well as to reactivate the account.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
SimplePractice's exit export covers client information only — reports, receipts and payment information are excluded and must be retrieved separately before cancelling.
“The data export includes client information only. It doesn't include reports, subscription receipts, or payment information from clients or insurance. These can be exported separately before canceling.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
Jane's batch chart export runs through a support request — only the Account Owner receives the download link, and it expires after seven days.
“The download link sent to the account owner will expire seven days after the charts are exported, so just make sure to download the charts before then to avoid any delays.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
Jane's batch chart export excludes intake forms and consents — those need a separate request.
“Only practitioner-authored charts and files are included in this export, so intake forms and consents are not included.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
WriteUpp's bulk export tool covers four data classes; assessments, documents and attachments cannot be exported in bulk.
“Exporting data via this pathway will also ensure you have a copy of any information saved as assessments, documents or attachments, as these cannot be exported in bulk.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
After a WriteUpp subscription expires there is no read-only access, and data is deleted 45 days later — the export window closes at expiry.
“If you stop using WriteUpp for whatever reason you can export your data until the expiry date. Thereafter, your account will be closed. Your data will be held for 45 days from this expiry date and then it will be deleted from our servers and will not be recoverable from any backups.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
Zanda offers continued read-only access after a practice stops — as a paid monthly Storage Mode, with access ending if payment stops.
“For the nominal monthly Storage Mode fee, your account stays in secure, read-only mode, so you can keep and access your client records after you stop seeing clients, without an active practice subscription.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
Zanda's terms place the duty to retrieve data on the customer before termination; afterwards remaining data may be permanently deleted without further notice.
“After the Effective Date of Termination, Zanda may permanently and irreversibly delete any remaining Customer Data without further notice.”
Source: the vendor's own site · verified
Fair notes: Cliniko's export is genuinely the best of the systems we examined — self-service, with attachments included. Zanda's Storage Mode is a real option for a practice that has stopped trading. Halaxy and Splose were not examined on this question, so no claim is made about them. Vendors change their policies; every quote above is dated, and we re-verify on a fixed cadence.
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