Doctors who saw the 2022 booking packages called them "more than 80% of the fee", "about 60 percent", and in some fee tiers "more than 90 percent". Those are not three facts; they are one per-visit price divided by three consultation fees. This post does the division in the open: the press-reported package prices, the cost per booked and per attended visit under a stated no-show assumption, the same arithmetic for a booking page you own, and every assumption in a table so you can replace it with your own number. It ends with what the marketplaces are right about: they sell discovery, and an owned page has to earn it.
Where the figures come from
The figures are Egyptian, because that is where the dispute was reported in enough detail to work with, and they are in Egyptian pounds throughout.
- The packages, June 2022. Doctor News reported on 21 June 2022 three prepaid packages: Blue at 2,199 pounds for 15 clinic visits and 60 phone consultations, then 162 pounds per extra visit; White at 1,749 pounds for 10 visits, then 197; Basic at 900 pounds for 5 visits, then 219. The report described "a state of anger among doctors" and boycott calls.
- The commission before the packages. An internist quoted by Manassa on 23 June 2022 said the platform had taken "about 30 percent per consultation plus 14 percent tax". A gynaecologist in the same report said the new system "turns the doctor from a partner into an employee".
- The subscription before that. A 2016 explainer on Hsoub Academy recorded a flat subscription of "initially about 300 pounds a month".
Two caveats. These are 2022 prices, and the marketplace has changed its terms since, including online prepayment from July 2026; they are a documented anchor, not a current price list. And whether the 14 percent applies to the commission or to the whole fee is not spelled out; our reading is below.
The marketplace: cost per booked and per attended visit
Divide each package by the visits it includes and set the extra-visit price beside it. Then move from booked to attended, because a package charges per visit sent and a visit sent is not a visit that happened. The only published no-show figure we can point to is 18 percent at a tertiary hospital in 2019 (the deposit gate post has the caveats). We assume a booking counts against the package when made unless the doctor marks it as a no-show in time; the press reports do not say, and the reviews describe daily marking. If the marketplace credits no-shows back, read the booked column only.
| Package | Price | Included visits | Per booked visit, included / extra | Per attended visit at 18% no-show, included / extra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 2,199 | 15, plus 60 phone consultations | 146.60 / 162 | 178.78 / 197.56 |
| White | 1,749 | 10 | 174.90 / 197 | 213.29 / 240.24 |
| Basic | 900 | 5 | 180.00 / 219 | 219.51 / 267.07 |
| Commission model, 250-pound fee | 30% plus 14% tax | per consultation | 85.50 | 85.50 |
All figures in Egyptian pounds. Blue's phone consultations are left out because the doctors quoted said phone consultations do not happen in their practice. The commission row reads the 14 percent as tax on the commission, 34.2 percent of the fee; on the whole fee it would be 44 percent, or 110 pounds, and we use the lower reading. That row does not move between the columns because a commission is charged on a consultation that took place: under that model a no-show cost the slot, not a fee, the one respect in which the older model was kinder. The 2016 flat subscription is not in the table; 300 pounds divided by a month's visits is the arithmetic, and it is why doctors remember it.
Now the doctors' percentages make sense. At a 200-pound consultation, an extra visit at 162 pounds is 81 percent of the fee, the "more than 80 percent" in the reviews, and an extra visit at 219 pounds costs more than the consultation itself. At 270 pounds, 162 is 60 percent. At 243 pounds, 219 is 90 percent.
Your own booking page: the same arithmetic
An owned page is a fixed cost, so its cost per visit depends on how many visits go through it. We use our own package because its prices are on the page: the clinic booking site from $3,900, with a maintenance plan from $250 a month. Over 24 months that is $9,900, or $412.50 a month, then $250 a month from month 25.
To compare with pound figures we need an exchange rate, and we will not pretend to know today's. We use 50 pounds to the dollar as a round working assumption; substitute your bank's rate and the arithmetic does not change. At that rate the page costs 20,625 pounds a month for 24 months and 12,500 afterwards. At 100 booked visits a month through the page, that is 206.25 pounds per booked visit, or 251.52 per attended visit at the same 18 percent; at 200 visits, 103.13 and 125.76. From month 25, 125 and 62.50 per booked visit.
The break-even is the monthly volume at which page and package cost the same. Against Blue, where n visits cost 2,199 plus 162 for each beyond 15, the page costs less from about 129 booked visits a month; against White from about 106; against Basic from about 95. Once the build is paid off, those fall to about 79, 65 and 58; against the commission model at a 250-pound fee, the page wins from about 241 attended visits a month, and 146 after month 24.
In working days, 95 to 130 visits a month is four to six bookings a day over 22 days. A solo doctor booking two a day through the marketplace pays less there, in cash, and should know it. A two-doctor clinic with a full diary pays more per visit than the page costs, every month, and the gap grows because the page's price does not move.
What the marketplace sells that a page must earn
The arithmetic does not show this part. A per-visit price buys discovery: the marketplace puts you in front of patients who have never heard of you, and that is what the 162 pounds pays for. An owned page starts with no discovery and earns it three ways, none instant. First, the search patients already make: they type a doctor's name and clinic into Google, and a fast, indexed page on your own domain is what answers. Second, Google Business Profile: hours and address you change yourself, photos, and a review request after each visit, so the profile fills with reviews you can answer, which doctors on the marketplace complained they could not. Third, one landing page per service, what a dental clinic's brief on a freelance marketplace asked for in March 2026: "a landing page for one service, such as implants, choose the doctor, show the free slots automatically". Rankings are measured at 120 days against a baseline signed before launch, not promised on day one.
So the honest plan is not to leave the marketplace. Keep any listing that sends you patients, open the second door, and move through it first the visits that were never the marketplace's to charge for: repeat patients, referrals, and anyone who searched your name. Each of those costs the page's per-visit price, which falls every month, rather than 162 to 219 pounds.
The rented-site model is the same trade in dollars. On a physician forum in the United States, one doctor put a practice-marketing subscription at "like 9k per year", about $750 a month, and another warned that with such vendors "you don't own your own website ... they are going to go across the street and do the same thing with your competitors". Against that, $412.50 amortised and $250 after, on your own domain.
Every assumption in one table
| Assumption | Value used | Source or reason |
|---|---|---|
| Package and extra-visit prices | Blue 2,199 for 15 then 162; White 1,749 for 10 then 197; Basic 900 for 5 then 219 | Doctor News, 21 June 2022 |
| Commission model | 30% plus 14% tax, read as 34.2% of the fee | Manassa, 23 June 2022; the tax reading is ours |
| Consultation fee for the commission row | 250 pounds | Assumed; the doctors' 60 to 90 percent quotes imply fees of 180 to 270 |
| No-show rate | 18% | 2019 tertiary-hospital figure, hospital setting, see caveats |
| How a package treats a no-show | Counts as a visit unless marked in time | Press reports do not say; reviews describe daily marking |
| Owned page price | $3,900 once, $250 a month | The clinic booking site package, lowest maintenance tier |
| Amortisation | 24 months, then maintenance only | Our choice; a longer period lowers the monthly figure |
| Exchange rate | 50 pounds to the dollar | Working assumption; replace with today's rate |
| Not included on either side | Marketplace activation fees and any tax on packages; gateway fees on deposits, the domain, ad spend, staff time | Not reported, or clinic-specific |
What this does not tell you
How many patients an owned page will bring. We have measured no traffic, ranking or revenue result for any clinic and will not quote one until a 120-day report exists. What decides the arithmetic is two numbers you already have: how many visits a month you book through the marketplace, and how many of those patients would have found you anyway. Send the name of your clinic and how patients book today, and you get a written map of where bookings are lost and a fixed price within two working days.
Sources
- Doctor News, 21 and 24 June 2022, for the packages and the doctors' reaction; our log records the site's front page, not the article URL.
- Doctors versus the booking application: the new packages, Manassa, 23 June 2022, for the commission and the doctors' quotes.
- Hsoub Academy, 6 September 2016, for the earlier flat subscription of about 300 pounds a month; no link is recorded in our research log.
- Reviews of a booking marketplace's doctor-side app, Google Play, September 2022 reviews on the packages, and the reply of 15 July 2026 on prepayment.
- Non-attendance at outpatient appointments, a 2019 tertiary-hospital paper reported by a health-quality journal; figure taken from the search result snippet, the page returned an access error when checked.
- A dental clinic's brief for a site with advanced booking, Mostaql, March 2026.
- Marketing and SEO recommendations, Student Doctor Network, 2020.
- The clinic booking site package, Alnitak Health.
