UK. Built from NHSBSA's certified list, 9 July 2026
Compare dental practice management software for UK practices
NHS Dental Services publishes a document called 'Certified dental practice management software systems', updated 9 July 2026, and it names 36 systems certified to transmit NHS dental claims. We link that PDF directly below the table and in Sources, because every count on this page comes from it. Four of the eight systems compared here publish a price on their own website, from a free tier to £300 a month; four will not tell you until you book a demo. This table records what each supplier states on its own page, with the date we read it.
| Option | supplier's own page, checked 15 Aug 2026 | NHSBSA certified list PDF, updated 9 July 2026 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DentalPlus A free tier that still submits NHS claims | The only genuinely free working tier here. Claims+ is free, Full+ is from £95 a month, and All inclusive is call for pricing. The page notes prices are not final until the billing page, which applies VAT by product type | Certified as DentalPlus, company Admor DentalPlus Software | NHS claims management is listed in every tier, including the free one, alongside patient records, appointment book, and reminders and recalls. NHS data transfer is listed for the paid tiers | Cloud. The site describes itself as UK developed, browser accessible and cloud hosted since day one | Unlimited users and unlimited computers on every tier, with 100GB cloud storage per surgery on the paid tiers. Email communications free, SMS paid by credits, one-day training and full support |
| Cloud 4 Dentists Practices that want the price broken down by chair and user | The most itemised price list in this market: a free tier marked for evaluation only, then £80, £120, £200 and £280 a month per practice. Data transfer is from £1,000 plus VAT, stated to include data migration and training | Certified as Cloud 4 Dentists, company LPYSoft Ltd | NHS Claims is a paid add-on at £40 a month on every paid tier rather than part of the base price. The free tier states No NHS Claims outright | Cloud, with no installation fee stated and a patient portal included | Priced by chairs, users and storage. The £80 tier is one chair for a maximum of two days a week, one user and 2Gb; the £280 tier is three chairs, 15 users and 60Gb. All paid tiers are 12-month contracts, extra storage £2 a month per 10Gb. CRM, Full Compliance and Imaging AI are separately priced add-ons |
| Pearl Dental Software Unlimited users on a per-surgery price | £82 a month for the first surgery and £50 a month per additional surgery, both excluding VAT. Optional encrypted online backup is a separate line, from £0 to £33 a month by storage tier | Certified as Pearl, company Baker Heath | The NHS practices page describes real-time UDA monitoring, income broken down by NHS, private, plan or capitation, and exporting reports for NHS claims and audits | Installed. The site publishes Windows PC specifications and server specifications running Windows 11 or Windows Server 2016 or newer, and sells daily encrypted online backup as an add-on | Unlimited users on the first-surgery price, plus set-up tailored to the practice. Additional surgeries buy extra support as well as the licence |
| Chiral Practice Management Suite One flat licence fee banded by user count | £150 a month up to 5 users, £225 up to 10 users and £300 for more than 10. Prices are stated as per practice | Certified as Chiral Practice Management Suite, company Chiral Systems | Not described on the pricing or home pages we read | Cloud. States a single licence fee covering both the software on practice computers and the secure cloud server that holds the data | No upfront cost, free imaging integration, and a stated set-up in hours rather than weeks or months. Bands are by user count rather than by chair or surgery |
| Dentally Practices working across more than one UK NHS system | Not published. The pricing page routes to a demo booking or a call with sales | Certified as Dentally, company Software of Excellence (SOE) | The broadest claim on this page: stated as fully integrated with NHS in England, Wales and Scotland and HSC in Northern Ireland, with real-time contract reporting, automatic fee updates and claim submission with exemptions handled. For Scotland it names CHI and SIMD lookups, GP17 digital signing and prior approvals | Cloud. Described as cloud enabled dental practice management software | Not published |
| Exact by Software of Excellence Contract forecasting on a large NHS commitment | Not published. Every route on the page is a demo booking or a contact form | Certified as Exact, company Software of Excellence (SOE). SOE is named as the supplier for seven of the 36 systems in the 9 July 2026 NHSBSA certified list PDF, linked in the basis and the sources | Aimed at contract performance rather than the claim form: a Predictive UDA Manager for tracking NHS contracts, with predictions for the practice and for individual dentists, and capacity planning against contract year targets | Not stated on the pages we read. MyPractice Cloud is offered alongside it for real-time business insights | Not published |
| Systems for Dentists FP17 forms handled inside a practice-server system | Not published. The site routes to a demo booking | Certified as Systems for Dentists, company Systems for Dentists (SfD) | States automated transmissions, NHS number lookup, UDA tracking and integrated FP17 forms | Installed. The product page publishes minimum and recommended Windows server specifications and describes installing Winflector and applying licences | Not published. Onboarding and technical requirements have their own pages |
| CareStack Claims tracked from submission through to settlement | Not published, but the basis is stated: flexible plans based on a combination of factors including the number of locations, chairs and clinicians, priced through a demo | Certified as Carestack, registered name Good Methods UK Limited | States NHS claims, UDA tracking and contract reconciliation running from one centralised workflow built into the system, with claims tracked from submission to settlement | Cloud. Describes itself as all-in-one cloud-based dental software, with practice data on its own cloud servers and maintenance, security and backups handled for you | Not published |
How we chose and ordered these
Every system here appears on NHS Dental Services' contact list of certified dental practice management software systems, updated 9 July 2026 and published as a PDF: Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026), which NHSBSA links from its dental activity processing page under the label 'View our list of software system suppliers'. Every count and quotation we attribute to NHSBSA on this site comes from that PDF, so you can open it and check us. Its own supplier website could also be fetched and read on 15 August 2026. Nothing comes from a directory, a review aggregator or a competitor's comparison blog.
The order is by what the supplier will tell you before you book a demo: systems with a published price first, then systems that quote only. Within the published group, the one with a genuinely free working tier comes first, then the paid entry prices from lowest to highest. That is a ranking of pricing transparency, not of clinical or NHS capability, and the four quote-only systems include the two names most commonly found in UK practices.
Left out, and why. Carestream (R4, Sensei, Orthotrac and Arthur Kodak, all certified) returned 403 to every request we made, at its UK path and at its root, so we could read nothing about any of them. Bridge-IT from Fusion Software answered with a captcha challenge and no content. Systems for Dentists' older domain and iSmile both reset our connections, though Systems for Dentists is included because its current site at sfd.co did answer. Two more certified suppliers, Megabite and Star Status, list websites that did not answer at all. Absence here means we could not read the site on the day, not that the product is unsuitable.
What this table does not tell you. It is not a rating, a test or a review: we have not run any of these systems in a working practice. NHSBSA's certification is narrower than it sounds and covers only the claim transmission, not the product. Nothing here reflects support quality, migration risk, or what a supplier will charge you after a negotiation. Your CQC and NHS contract duties sit with the practice, never with the software. We take no commission from any supplier on this page and carry no paid placements.
- DentalPlus admor.co.uk, DentalPlus pricing
- Cloud 4 Dentists cloud4dentists.com pricing
- Pearl Dental Software pearldentalsoftware.com pricing
- Chiral Practice Management Suite chiralsystems.com pricing
- Dentally dentally.com, NHS and HSC solutions
- Exact by Software of Excellence softwareofexcellence.com, EXACT for NHS practices
- Systems for Dentists sfd.co
- CareStack carestack.com UK pricing
Dental Software Compare is an independent site operated by Ellul Solutions Ltd. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the NHS Business Services Authority, NHS Dental Services, the Care Quality Commission, the General Dental Council or any software supplier named here, and nothing on it is clinical, legal or regulatory advice. We take no commission from any supplier in this comparison and carry no paid placements. Supplier prices and features change without notice and the NHSBSA certified list is updated on its own cycle: every figure carries the date we read it at source, and you should confirm the current position before relying on it.
Every dental system NHS Dental Services certifies, and what its listed website showed on 15 August 2026
Last updated
NHSBSA publishes a PDF called 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', with a supplier website against each entry. It names 36 systems. It does not say what any of them is, and for 16 of them the Website field reads N/A. This table follows the 20 websites it does list. The PDF is linked in full in the Sources block below, and from the basis above the comparison.
The system and company columns are copied from the NHSBSA PDF titled 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', linked in the Sources block below. NHSBSA links it from its dental activity processing page under the label 'View our list of software system suppliers', so the hub page never uses the word 'certified' and searching it for that word will not find this document: go to the link instead. The counts on this page (36 systems, 16 with no website, 20 with one) are our own counts from that PDF and can be recounted from it. The third column records only what we could read at the website NHSBSA lists for that supplier, fetched with a normal browser user agent on 15 August 2026. Where a site did not answer, served a challenge page, or turned out to belong to a different business, the row says exactly that rather than filling the gap from a directory. NHSBSA states that certification applies only to the named system and only to the part of it that formats, validates and transmits claims, and that it is not certification of approval of the software system or supplier as a whole: nothing in this table is a rating, and neither is NHSBSA's list.
| Certified system | Company, in NHSBSA's wording | What the website NHSBSA lists showed on 15 August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Aerona | Aerona Software | Live. Cloud dental practice management for the UK and Ireland, browser based, stating no server needed and no upfront licensing cost. |
| Bridge-IT | Fusion Software | Answered with a captcha challenge page and no readable content. |
| Carestack | Carestack, registered name Good Methods UK Limited | Live. All-in-one cloud dental software with NHS claims, UDA tracking and contract reconciliation. Pricing is quoted on locations, chairs and clinicians. |
| Chiral Practice Management Suite | Chiral Systems | Live. Cloud based, single licence fee, published at £150, £225 and £300 a month by user band, per practice. |
| Cloud 4 Dentists | LPYSoft Ltd | Live. Cloud, with published tiers from a free evaluation plan to £280 a month per practice. NHS Claims is a £40 a month add-on. |
| DentalPlus | Admor DentalPlus Software | Live. UK developed and cloud hosted. Claims+ tier free, Full+ from £95 a month, All inclusive quote only. |
| Dentally | Software of Excellence (SOE) | Live. Cloud. States full integration with NHS in England, Wales and Scotland and HSC in Northern Ireland. No published price. |
| Dentsys XML | Dentsys | Live. The product is branded EDGE, described as UK developed, with EdgeAnywhere modules for practices and for patients. |
| Guided Records | Guided Records | Live. Cloud dental software and patient portal in one, badged NHS certified on its own home page. |
| Intellect Dental System | Intellect Computer Systems | The listed domain now resolves to a Dubai accountancy and corporate services firm, not a dental software company. |
| Megabite XML | Bespoke Data Systems | The listed website did not answer. |
| Orthobridge | Orthobridge | Live. Orthodontic practice management, cloud, with an explicit line about not storing patient data on a single practice server. |
| Orthotrac | Orthotrac UK (PracticeWorks Ltd) | Live. Orthodontic practice management, imaging, patient communications and equipment, in the Carestream family. |
| Pearl | Baker Heath | Live. Published price of £82 a month for the first surgery and £50 a month per additional surgery excluding VAT, unlimited users. Windows PC and server specifications published. |
| R4 - PracticeWorks | Carestream | carestreamdental.com returned 403 to every request, at its UK path and at its root, so we could read nothing. |
| Sensei | Carestream | Same website, same 403. Nothing readable. |
| Shire Dental System | System Design Systems | The listed domain is a parked page offering the domain name for sale. |
| Spinnaker | Dental IT Ltd | Live, but as a Sheffield dental IT support company established in 2006. The site we read is about IT services rather than the Spinnaker system. |
| Star Status | Status Point | The listed website did not answer. |
| Systems for Dentists | Systems for Dentists (SfD) | Live. UK practice management with automated transmissions, NHS number lookup, UDA tracking and integrated FP17 forms. Windows server specifications published. No published price. |
- NHS Dental Services certifies 36 dental practice management software systems. Certification is given when a system has demonstrated it can send satisfactory transmissions of NHS dental claims in both test and live environments (NHSBSA, 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', PDF, linked in this page's sources).
- That same NHSBSA document states that certification 'only applies to the specific named software system and only to that part of the software system that formats, validates, and transmits claims to NHSDS' and that 'it is not certification of approval or the software system, or supplier, as a whole'.
- One company, Software of Excellence, is named as the supplier of seven of the 36 certified systems. Carestream, through PracticeWorks Ltd, is named for four. Both counts are ours, taken from the company column of the 9 July 2026 PDF.
- The Website field reads N/A for 16 of the 36 certified systems in the 9 July 2026 PDF, Exact among them.
- Of the 20 certified systems NHSBSA does list a website for, 15 answered us on 15 August 2026. Of those 15, one domain is parked and offered for sale, one now resolves to a Dubai accountancy firm and one to a dental IT support company, leaving 12 that showed an actual dental software product.
- Four of the eight systems compared on this site publish a price on their own website, running from a free tier to £300 a month (checked 15 August 2026).
- Providers submit form FP17 to NHS Dental Services detailing dental activity, and the data recorded on it shows the patient charge collected, the number of units of activity performed, and treatment banding information (NHSBSA).
- CQC Regulation 17 requires a provider to maintain securely an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record for each service user, and states that both paper and electronic records can be held securely provided they meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Cite this page
“Every dental system NHS Dental Services certifies, and what its listed website showed on 15 August 2026”, Dental Software Compare, https://dentalsoftwarecompare.com/ (updated 2026-08-15). The system and company columns are copied from the NHSBSA PDF titled 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', linked in the Sources block below. NHSBSA links it from its dental activity processing page under the label 'View our list of software system suppliers', so the hub page never uses the word 'certified' and searching it for that word will not find this document: go to the link instead. The counts on this page (36 systems, 16 with no website, 20 with one) are our own counts from that PDF and can be recounted from it. The third column records only what we could read at the website NHSBSA lists for that supplier, fetched with a normal browser user agent on 15 August 2026. Where a site did not answer, served a challenge page, or turned out to belong to a different business, the row says exactly that rather than filling the gap from a directory. NHSBSA states that certification applies only to the named system and only to the part of it that formats, validates and transmits claims, and that it is not certification of approval of the software system or supplier as a whole: nothing in this table is a rating, and neither is NHSBSA's list.
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Common questions
What does NHS-certified dental software mean?
NHS Dental Services checks that a software system can transmit NHS dental claims to them, and certifies it when it has demonstrated satisfactory transmissions in both test and live environments. NHSBSA states that certification only applies to the specific named software system, and only to the part of it that formats, validates and transmits claims, and that it is not certification of approval of the software system or supplier as a whole. All of that is in a PDF called 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', which names 36 systems. NHSBSA links it from its dental activity processing page as 'View our list of software system suppliers', and we link it directly in this page's sources.
How much does dental practice management software cost in the UK?
Of the eight systems compared here, four publish a price. DentalPlus offers a free Claims+ tier and a Full+ tier from £95 a month. Cloud 4 Dentists publishes £80, £120, £200 and £280 a month per practice, banded by chairs, users and storage, on 12-month contracts. Pearl Dental Software publishes £82 a month for the first surgery and £50 a month per additional surgery, excluding VAT, with unlimited users. Chiral publishes £150, £225 or £300 a month per practice by user count. Dentally, Exact, Systems for Dentists and CareStack publish no figure. All read on 15 August 2026.
Is there free dental practice management software that can submit NHS claims?
DentalPlus publishes a Claims+ tier at no cost that lists NHS claims management, patient records, an appointment book, and reminders and recalls, with unlimited users and unlimited computers. DentalPlus appears on NHS Dental Services' certified list as DentalPlus, company Admor DentalPlus Software. Cloud 4 Dentists also has a free tier, but it is marked for evaluation only, limited to 30 days, and states No NHS Claims. Check the supplier's current page before relying on either.
What is on an FP17 and why do claims get rejected?
NHS Dental Services states that providers submit FP17 forms detailing dental activity, and that the data recorded shows the patient charge collected, the number of units of activity performed, and treatment banding information. NHSBSA checks all FP17s and says those with missing or invalid information may not be accepted. Failed claims return an error code or comment code explaining why, and NHSBSA publishes those code lists. Correcting rejected FP17s is what makes the activity count, so how a system surfaces rejections matters as much as how it transmits.
Does CQC require electronic dental records?
No. CQC Regulation 17 requires a provider to maintain securely an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record for each service user, including care and treatment provided and decisions taken. CQC's guidance states that both paper and electronic records can be held securely providing they meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018. The regulation is about the quality and security of the record, not the medium.
Cloud or a practice server: which should a dental practice choose?
Both are in use among certified systems. Dentally, CareStack, Cloud 4 Dentists, DentalPlus and Chiral all describe themselves as cloud based or cloud hosted. Pearl and Systems for Dentists publish Windows server specifications, which means the system runs on hardware in the practice. Neither model is more compliant: CQC requires records to be held securely and to meet the Data Protection Act 2018. The practical differences are who runs the backups, what happens when the connection drops, and whether backup is inside the subscription or a separate line, as it is on Pearl.
Why are Carestream R4 and Sensei not in this comparison?
Both are on NHS Dental Services' certified list, under Carestream through PracticeWorks Ltd. The website NHSBSA lists for them returned 403 to every request we made, at its UK path and at its root, so we could read nothing from the source and we do not publish a row we cannot verify. Bridge-IT from Fusion Software served a captcha challenge instead of content, and the sites listed for Megabite and Star Status did not answer. That is a limitation of this comparison, not a judgement on those products.
How many dental software suppliers are there really?
Fewer than the 36 certified systems suggest. Software of Excellence is named as the supplier of seven of them: Advanced Healthcare Computing, Ascend, Dentally, EdiAPP, Exact, i-Claim and SOEL Health. Carestream is named for four. Several other entries are claim transmission modules rather than full practice management systems, which is exactly what certification covers. Those counts are ours, taken from the company column of the NHSBSA PDF 'Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026)', which we link in this page's sources so you can recount them. Read that column before you treat the list as a shortlist.
Start from the certified list, not the ads
36 systems certified by NHS Dental Services, eight compared here, four published prices, each traceable to the page it came from and the date we read it.