Open Dental: Pros, Cons & Best Alternatives [2025]
If you're running a dental practice in 2025, choosing the right software is critical to keeping your operations smooth and your revenue cycle healthy.
At CDT Professionals, we help dental practices across the country modernize their billing operations, streamline insurance workflows, and improve financial outcomes. One of the most common questions we get asked is: "Is Open Dental the right software for my practice?"
In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about Open Dental, from features, pricing, tutorials, to real user reviews and top alternatives.
What Is Open Dental Software?
Open Dental is a comprehensive, open-source dental practice management software first launched in 2003. Designed by Dr. Jordan Sparks, it was built to offer dentists an affordable, transparent, and fully customizable alternative to proprietary platforms.
With new updates every month, Open Dental continues to grow through community feedback and real-world dental needs. However, it's important to note that Open Dental is not plug-and-play. It comes with a learning curve and requires consistent updates, server maintenance, and team training to function at its best.
Our Experience With Open Dental (Review by CDT Professionals)
We’ve worked with practices using everything from Dentrix and Eaglesoft to Curve and CareStack, and Open Dental holds its own. Here’s our take:
Pros:
Affordable and transparent pricing: No hidden fees or vendor lock-ins.
Fully customizable: You can modify reports, templates, and workflows to match your practice.
Powerful billing features: Especially when integrated with RCM partners like CDT Professionals.
Excellent support: Their team is responsive and helpful.
Cons:
Steeper learning curve: Practices new to Open Dental often need hands-on training.
Interface isn’t modern: Functional but dated UI.
Requires on-prem server or dedicated hosting: Cloud options exist, but they’re extra.
Many of our clients using Open Dental come to us because they need help making the most of the platform. Whether it's insurance verification or claim follow-up, Open Dental becomes much more powerful when paired with a partner like CDT.
Open Dental Software Tutorials: Where To Start
Open Dental does a solid job of providing official tutorials and documentation. That said, most practices benefit from structured onboarding. Here are the top tutorial resources we recommend:
Open Dental Official Manual: The comprehensive online guide is searchable and regularly updated.
Open Dental YouTube Channel: Covers everything from daily scheduling to advanced features like custom queries.
CDT Professionals Training Sessions: We offer customized onboarding sessions for teams using Open Dental—especially around insurance billing, collections, and ledger cleanup.
Facebook Groups & Dental Forums: Communities like "Open Dental Users" offer real-time peer support, best practices, and coding tips.
Best Alternatives to Open Dental in 2025
If Open Dental isn’t the right fit for your practice, here are our top-rated alternatives:
Dentrix is widely used and feature-rich, but expensive and less flexible.
Curve Dental is 100% cloud-based. Simple UI, but limited customization.
CareStack is designed for multi-location DSOs. Robust but complex onboarding.
Tab32 is HIPAA-compliant and has AI-powered features. Good for tech-forward practices.
Eaglesoft is extremely reliable, but it has slower innovation and a more dated interface.
For DSOs or multi-location groups, we often recommend platforms like CareStack or Dentrix Enterprise. But for most independent practices, Open Dental offers the best bang for your buck when used right.
Final Thoughts: Should You Use Open Dental?
If you’re looking for a cost-effective, flexible dental software that plays well with outsourced RCM services like CDT, Open Dental is a strong contender.
Just keep in mind:
You’ll need training and support.
You may want to outsource billing, insurance verification, and claim management.
That’s where CDT Professionals come in. We don’t just clean up your ledgers or chase claims; we train your team, monitor your performance, and help you use Open Dental the way it was meant to be used.
Ready to get the most out of Open Dental? Book a free consultation with our team and see why more practices trust CDT to run a tighter, more profitable operation.
