This page is for dentists, practice managers and clinic IT staff who searched for free or open-source dental practice management software and want an honest picture before spending a weekend on an install. The short answer: none of the open-source EHR and hospital systems we have verified has a dental charting module. There is no odontogram, perio chart or tooth-by-tooth treatment plan in any of them, and most are dormant. The one real dental records package in the public sector, VistA Dentistry, only works inside the U.S. VA. For a private practice, the realistic route is a commercial dental system that you evaluate for free first: Open Dental (trial with a demo database) or, in Canada, ClearDent (free demo). The open-source systems still fit a hospital where dentistry is one department, or a developer studying clinical software.
The short list
| Program | Best for | Licence | Platforms | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Dental | Full dental practice management; trial with demo data | Shareware (conditionally free); proprietary since 24.4 | Windows client; Windows or Linux server | Active; 26.1 (August 2026) |
| ClearDent | Canadian practices, CDAnet claims | Shareware (conditionally free) | Windows (On-Premise, Link); browser (Cloud) | Active; no public version numbers |
| OpenClinic GA | Hospital with a dental department | Free, open source (LGPL v2 / GPL-2.0) | Windows or Linux server; browser | Low activity; 5.247.01 (2023) |
| Care2x | Studying a PHP hospital system | Free, open source (GPL) | Self-hosted PHP and MySQL | Last stable 2.6.27 (2012) |
| FreeMedForms EMR | Configurable medical forms on a desktop | Free, open source (GPL v3) | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD | Dormant; 1.0.0 (2017) |
| GaiaEHR | Code reference only | Free, open source (GPL v3) | Self-hosted Apache, PHP, MySQL | Dormant since 2016; 0.0.7.1 Beta |
| Medkey HIS | Code reference only | Free, open source (GPL v3) | Self-hosted PHP, Docker | Dormant since 2020; 1.0.0 beta |
| VistA Dentistry (VA) | VA dental services, VistA developers | Public-domain M code; DRM Plus client is licensed commercial software | VistA server; Windows client | Patched; DENT*1.2*93 (2026) |
| OneTouch EMR | US medical practices, not dental | Shareware (conditionally free) | Cloud; iPad and Apple-silicon Mac app | Active; app 3.0.7 |
Open Dental
Open Dental is complete dental practice management software: appointment book with online scheduling, graphical and 3D tooth chart, perio charting, treatment plans, insurance claims, billing, e-prescriptions, texting and a patient portal. It was open source under the GPL for years, but from version 24.4 the licence is proprietary, so it is no longer an open-source answer. What it does offer is a free Trial Version that installs the real program with a demo database of fictional patients. The trial is limited to 30 patients, uses temporary codes instead of CDT and has no API or eServices. The client runs on Windows 11 only; Mac users need Parallels or Boot Camp. For US and Canadian practices it is the most practical system to test hands-on.
ClearDent
ClearDent is all-in-one practice management built for Canadian dental offices: scheduling, charting, treatment planning, billing, CDAnet-certified claims, 2D imaging integration and patient texting and forms through ClearConnect. It comes as Cloud (the vendor states data is hosted in Canada), On-Premise on Windows Server with Microsoft SQL Server, or the hybrid Link. There is no Lite or free edition and no public installer; you evaluate it through a free demo and the vendor sets it up. On a Mac it works only in Chrome, and Cloud on macOS is marked beta. Pick it if you practise in Canada and want Canadian hosting; outside Canada it is not aimed at you.
OpenClinic GA
OpenClinic GA is the most complete free system here: admissions, billing with insurers, ICD-10 and ICPC-2 coding, laboratory, X-ray results, a DCM4CHE/Weasis PACS link, pharmacy stock with interaction checks and an HL7/FHIR API. It runs on a Windows or Linux server and staff use a browser. It has no dental module, and its insurance billing is built around the African and Peruvian schemes the developer lists, not US, UK or Canadian dental claims. The newest Windows installers are 5.247.01 from May 2023, with an Ubuntu 24 package in October 2024. Choose it for a hospital or NGO clinic where the dental department shares one patient record and tooth charting lives elsewhere.
Care2x
Care2x is a GPL hospital information system written in PHP, covering admissions, wards, outpatients, laboratory, pharmacy and surgery. The last stable release is 2.6.27 from January 2012; a 2.7 alpha followed in 2015, and work on PHP 8 compatibility continues on GitHub without tagged releases. There is no dental fork and no dental module. It suits a developer who wants to study or extend a PHP hospital system. Running it in production means you take responsibility for securing code whose last stable release is more than a decade old.
FreeMedForms EMR
FreeMedForms EMR is a GPL v3 desktop medical record for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, with editable XML forms, a shared agenda and FreeDiams drug-interaction checking; network mode needs MySQL 5.5. There is no dental edition and no tooth chart. The last stable release is 1.0.0 from March 2017, and the project has been dormant since. A dental team would have to build and maintain its own forms on unsupported software, so it is not a realistic dental practice system today.
GaiaEHR
GaiaEHR (originally MitosEHR) is a GPL v3 web-based EHR and practice management system for Apache, PHP and MySQL. Its dental support is a patient dental-history list with CDT codes, dates and outcomes; there is no odontogram and no dental templates. The last release is 0.0.7.1 Beta from April 2014, the last commit was in June 2016 and the project website does not respond. A fork called MD Timeline had commits until 2024 but no releases. Treat GaiaEHR as a code reference, not something to put patient records into.
Medkey HIS
Medkey HIS is a GPL v3 hospital and clinic information system in PHP with a Docker setup: patient registry, appointments, orders and price lists. The repository carries a “dental” topic tag, but its modules contain no dental code. The only build is 1.0.0 beta from December 2019, the last commit was in April 2020, the project site did not respond when we checked, and patient fields are Russian-oriented. Useful only for studying the code; do not store real patient records in it.
VistA Dentistry (VA)
VistA Dentistry is real, current dental records software: the VA’s Dentistry package (version 1.2, patch DENT*1.2*93 from February 2026, which updated the ADA procedure codes), used by VA clinicians through the DRM Plus Windows client opened from CPRS. The M code is public domain through FOIA, but DRM Plus is a commercial product from Document Storage Systems that the VA licenses. There is no installer for a private office, it needs a full VistA and CPRS environment, and VA sites on Oracle Health use eDRM instead. It matters to VistA developers and researchers, not to private practices.
OneTouch EMR
OneTouch EMR is a cloud EHR and practice management system for US medical practices, with an app for iPad and Apple-silicon Macs (version 3.0.7). The app is a free download, but using it needs a paid plan, and the official site lists no free plan. Dentistry is not among its named specialties, and it has no tooth chart, dental codes or dental claims. The vendor describes it as ONC certified and HIPAA compliant. Consider it only for a medical practice that wants iPad-first charting.
Data security basics
- Self-hosting makes you the vendor. You patch the operating system, web server, PHP or Java runtime and database. Dormant projects get no security fixes, so never expose them directly to the internet; use a VPN for remote access.
- Named accounts only. Give every user their own login with the least access they need, and remove shared or default accounts after installation.
- Encrypt and back up. Encrypt server disks and backups, keep one copy off-site and test a restore regularly. ClearDent’s own server specification, for example, requires TPM 2.0 with encryption enabled and an encrypted backup drive.
- Know where the data lives. For a cloud system, ask where records are hosted and how you export all of them if you leave.
- Check the rules that apply to you. Health-record privacy law differs by country (HIPAA in the US, GDPR in the EU and UK, PIPEDA and provincial laws in Canada); confirm the system and your setup meet it before entering real patients.
How to choose
- Decide whether you need dental charting. Any stand-alone dental practice does. That rules out every open-source system on this page and OneTouch EMR.
- Match the country. Check that the system handles your claim formats and procedure codes. ClearDent is built for Canada and CDAnet; Open Dental provides Canada-specific setup instructions alongside its US use.
- Test real tasks with fake data. In the Open Dental trial or a ClearDent demo, book and move appointments, chart existing work, build a treatment plan, prepare a claim, attach an X-ray and run end-of-day reports.
- Ask about migration early. Find out how your current records and images move across, and how you would get them out again.
- For a hospital, split the job. Use OpenClinic GA for the shared patient record, billing and pharmacy, and keep tooth charting in a separate dental system.
- For developers, set expectations. Care2x, GaiaEHR, Medkey HIS and FreeMedForms EMR are for study and experiments on test data, not for live patients.
FAQ
Is there free dental practice management software?
Among the systems we have verified, none is both free and equipped with dental charting. The free, open-source EHRs have no tooth chart. Open Dental offers a free Trial Version and ClearDent a free demo, but both are commercial, so we list them as shareware (conditionally free).
Is Open Dental open source?
Not any more. Open Dental states that from version 24.4 its licence changed from GPL to proprietary.
What is the best open-source EHR for a dental clinic?
None of them is a dental system. For a hospital with a dental department, OpenClinic GA is the most complete and has the newest installable release (an Ubuntu package from 2024), but tooth charting has to be done elsewhere.
Which dental charting software can I try for free?
The Open Dental Trial Version includes the graphical and 3D tooth chart and perio charting, with a demo database of fictional patients. ClearDent shows its charting in a free demo.
Can a dental office use OneTouch EMR?
Not as a dental practice system. It is a medical EHR without tooth charting, dental codes or dental claims.
Can I download VistA dental software?
The VistA M code is public domain, but the DRM Plus interface clinicians use is licensed commercial software, and the system needs a full VistA and CPRS setup. It is not usable in a private practice.
Last updated: 28 September 2026 · DentSoftPro editorial team. Licence, version and platform details are checked against each developer's official documentation; none of the tools listed here should be treated as a certified medical device unless its vendor says so.
