Is Open Dental or CareStack cheaper?

Open Dental has the lower entry price — Open Dental starts at $0/mo and CareStack at $829/mo.

Does Open Dental or CareStack support HIPAA?

HIPAA support — Open Dental: Yes; CareStack: Yes. Confirm current scope with the vendor.

Open Dental vs CareStack

A sourced, side-by-side comparison for dental software. Open Dental has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.

Open Dental has the lower entry price — Open Dental starts at $0/mo, CareStack at $829/mo. Free tier: Open Dental Yes, CareStack No. HIPAA: Open Dental Yes, CareStack Yes.

As of 2026-09-02 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

Open Dental

$0/mo entry

Entry price$0/mo (Developing Countries / Dental Schools (Free))

Free tierYes

HIPAA (BAA)Yes

SOC 2—

GDPR—

Best forcost-conscious single-location practices

CareStack

$829/mo entry

Entry price$829/mo (Essentials)

Free tierNo

HIPAA (BAA)Yes

SOC 2—

GDPR—

Best forgrowing multi-location groups

Sources — Open Dental: opendental.com (verified 2026-09-02) · CareStack: carestack.com (verified 2026-09-02)

Key features

Open Dental: Open-source codebase with community-driven development; Self-hosted model giving practices full data control; 100+ imaging bridge integrations; Free for dental schools and developing-country practices

CareStack: Native integrations across imaging, clinical, RCM, and patient engagement; AI-powered clinical notes and X-ray analysis (Intelligence tier); No per-user licensing — priced per location; Published, transparent per-location pricing

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