Open Dental vs CareStack

by Gralio Apr 17, 2025

Open Dental and CareStack are both comprehensive dental practice management solutions catering to diverse practice sizes. Open Dental excels in affordability and customization, while CareStack prioritizes cloud-based accessibility and streamlined workflows. The best choice depends on individual practice needs and priorities, balancing cost-effectiveness against modern features and convenience.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 279 reviews and 60 websites, saving 2 hours, 3 minutes of reading.

Logo of Open Dental
Logo of CareStack

About

Open Dental is dental practice management software designed for practices of any size. It offers a wide range of features including appointment scheduling, billing, patient records, treatment planning, and imaging. Open Dental also integrates with other software and services, such as e-prescription services and insurance clearinghouses. It's known for its affordability and comprehensive feature set.
CareStack is a cloud-based dental practice management software designed for practices of all sizes. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including scheduling, billing, patient engagement, and reporting features. CareStack aims to simplify practice operations and boost efficiency through automation and centralized data management. Its features include online scheduling, integrated payments, treatment planning, electronic signatures, and automated reminders, all designed to improve patient care and streamline administrative tasks. CareStack is committed to providing excellent customer support and ongoing updates to meet evolving industry needs.

Summary

Main difference
Open Dental is a locally installed software known for its affordability and comprehensive features, best suited for practices prioritizing cost-effectiveness and customization. CareStack is a cloud-based solution offering greater accessibility and automation, ideal for practices valuing remote access and streamlined workflows.

Relative strengths of Open Dental (compared to CareStack)

  • Open Dental is significantly more affordable, especially for smaller practices, with transparent pricing plans.

  • Open Dental offers extensive customization options, allowing practices to tailor the software to their specific needs.

  • Open Dental's mature product boasts a wider range of integrations with third-party services and hardware.

Relative weaknesses of Open Dental (compared to CareStack)

  • Open Dental lacks the cloud-based accessibility of CareStack, limiting remote access and multi-location management.

  • Open Dental's user interface, while comprehensive, can be less intuitive and require a steeper learning curve compared to CareStack.

  • Open Dental's customer support, while generally responsive, may not match the proactive and readily available support offered by CareStack.

Who should use Open Dental VS. CareStack

Open Dental is an affordable, customizable dental practice management software suitable for practices of all sizes. Users praise its ease of use, comprehensive features, and excellent customer support. Some users mention slowness and glitches. It offers features like appointment scheduling, billing, patient records, and a patient portal.

CareStack is a cloud-based dental practice management solution ideal for practices of all sizes. Users praise its comprehensive features and responsive customer support, enabling streamlined operations and improved patient care. While some users note a steep initial learning curve and occasional glitches, the software's continuous improvements and all-in-one platform make it a valuable tool for modern dental practices.

  • Ideal for small, medium, and large dental practices (1-1000+ employees).

  • Best fit for healthcare, wellness, and pharmaceutical industries.

  • Ideal for dental practices of all sizes, from small startups to large DSOs.

  • Best fit for healthcare providers, especially dental practices seeking comprehensive solutions.

Open Dental and CareStack features

Supported
Partially supported
Not supported
Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

  • Patient Engagement
    Supported

    Open Dental supports online scheduling, automated reminders, and secure messaging.

    Partially supported

    CareStack supports online scheduling, automated reminders, and a secure patient portal. Telehealth support is implied but not explicitly stated.

  • Clinical Charting and Treatment Planning
    Supported

    Open Dental offers charting, treatment planning, and other clinical tools.

    Supported

    CareStack offers charting, treatment planning, and clinical tools, including digital imaging.

  • All-in-one platform
    Not supported

    Open Dental is not a fully integrated platform, as it requires third-party integrations for some features.

    Supported

    CareStack offers a comprehensive all-in-one platform for dental practices.

  • Clinical notes
    Supported

    Open Dental allows recording and viewing clinical notes directly within the software.

    Supported

    CareStack allows recording and viewing clinical notes, integrated with treatment plans and charting.

  • Financial reports
    Supported

    Open Dental offers built-in and customizable financial reports.

    Supported

    CareStack allows generating financial reports, including aging and credit balances reports.

  • Ledger readability
    Supported

    Patient ledger is easy to read with features like filtering and detailed breakdowns.

    Supported

    CareStack offers customizable ledger printing and streamlined management features for improved readability.

Qualities

  • Value and Pricing Transparency
    No data
    +0.5
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Customer Service
    No data
    +0.81
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Ease of Use
    +0
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.61
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Reliability and Performance
    No data
    +0.78
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Ease of Implementation
    No data
    +0.5
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Scalability
    No data
    +0.33
    Rather positive sentiment

Open Dental and CareStack Pricing

Open Dental offers tiered pricing based on location, number of providers, and additional services. Support is included in the monthly fee and covers software updates, phone, chat, and email support. Additional services such as data conversion, eServices, eRx, training, and custom queries are available at separate costs. Volume and pre-payment discounts are also offered.
Plans

User sentiment

Strongly negative
-1

See full Pricing page

No data

User sentiment

Rather positive
+0.5

See full Pricing page

Open Dental and CareStack review insights

279 reviews analysed from and

Users love

  • Open Dental is very user-friendly and easy to navigate.
  • It's customizable with many features and regular updates.
  • The customer support is excellent and responsive.
  • The software is affordable compared to competitors like Dentrix.
  • Open Dental allows for a completely digital and paperless office experience.
  • Excellent and responsive customer support, readily available via various channels.
  • Comprehensive features, minimizing the need for third-party integrations.
  • Cloud-based accessibility, enabling remote work and multi-location management.
  • User-friendly interface, facilitating easy navigation and task completion after the initial learning curve.
  • Continuous improvements and updates based on user feedback.

Users dislike

  • Some insurance details need to be added to the insurance section.
  • The software can be slow at times and glitchy.
  • Some functions require too many steps to reach the desired action.
  • X-rays are not transferable and the treatment planning needs updating.
  • The software is not cloud-based, making remote access difficult.
  • Difficult ledger adjustments and corrections.
  • Insurance billing complexities, especially with primary and secondary claims.
  • Limited mobile functionality and no mobile app.
  • Occasional software glitches and slowdowns, especially after updates.
  • Steep initial learning curve due to the software's robust nature.

Open Dental and CareStack Ratings

  • G2
    4.5/5
    (43)
  • Capterra
    4.6/5
    (77)
  • Glassdoor
    3.5/5
    (79)
  • G2
    4.6/5
    (89)
  • Capterra
    4.7/5
    (70)
  • Glassdoor
    3.4/5
    (225)

Company health

Employee growth

10% increase in the last year
20% increase in the last year

Web traffic

8% increase in the last quarter
44% increase in the last quarter

Financing

No data
January 2022 - $74M

How easy is Open Dental to use compared to CareStack?

Open Dental has a quantitative ease-of-use score of 0, while CareStack scores 0.61, suggesting CareStack is easier to use. However, user reviews for Open Dental frequently praise its user-friendliness and ease of navigation. CareStack users mention a steep initial learning curve, but ultimately find the interface easy to use. Therefore, while initial setup might be easier with Open Dental, long-term ease of use may be comparable after users acclimate to CareStack.

Which product offers better insurance claim management features?

While both Open Dental and CareStack offer features for managing insurance claims, Open Dental users specifically praise its comprehensive features and ability to create a paperless office, while some dislike difficulties with adding insurance details. CareStack users, however, report difficulties with insurance billing, particularly with primary and secondary claims, suggesting Open Dental may offer a slightly better experience in this specific area.

What are the advantages of Open Dental?

Open Dental's advantages include affordability, especially for international and developing countries, and comprehensive features like multiple practice support and a patient portal. Users praise its customizability, user-friendly interface, and excellent customer support. It's a good fit for practices prioritizing cost-effectiveness and a wide range of built-in functionalities.

What are the disadvantages of Open Dental?

Open Dental's disadvantages include occasional slowness and glitches, a non-cloud-based architecture hindering remote access, and some users finding certain functions require too many steps. Additionally, some users have reported issues with insurance details and the need for updates to x-ray transferability and treatment planning.

Alternatives to Open Dental and CareStack

Logo of Dentrix
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Dental practice management software streamlining workflows and boosting growth.
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Denticon
Cloud dental practice management software streamlining all operations.
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Logo of XLDent
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Dental practice management software simplifying admin and clinical tasks.
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Logo of Eaglesoft
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Dental practice management: scheduling, charting, billing, and insights.
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Logo of Practice by Numbers
open-dental vs Practice by Numbers
Automate dental practice tasks, boost patient engagement, and simplify admin.
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Logo of DentiMax
DentiMax
Affordable dental practice management software with digital x-ray integration.
Read more
Page co-authored by
MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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