# Dental Software Compare (dentalsoftwarecompare.com)

> Compare UK dental practice management software: which systems NHS Dental Services certifies for FP17 claims, which publish a price, and how each handles NHS work.

Updated 2026-08-15. Dental Software Compare is a 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.

# 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.

## Every dental system NHS Dental Services certifies, and what its listed website showed on 15 August 2026

Methodology: 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. (updated 2026-08-15)

| 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. |

### Key facts

- 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.

# What NHS-certified dental software actually means

NHS Dental Services certifies 36 dental systems to transmit claims. What certification covers, what it deliberately does not, and how to check a product yourself. (https://dentalsoftwarecompare.com/nhs-certified-dental-software/)

## The list is public, and it has 36 systems on it

NHS Dental Services publishes a contact list of certified dental practice management software systems as a PDF: Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026). It is linked from the NHSBSA dental activity processing page, but under the label 'View our list of software system suppliers', so searching that page for the word 'certified' finds nothing: the word only appears once you open the document. The version we read was updated 9 July 2026 and names 36 systems alphabetically, from Advanced Healthcare Computing to Systems for Dentists, each with the company behind it and a contact route.

## What certification means, in NHSBSA's own words

The list explains itself in five sentences, under the heading 'What does certification mean?' on its third page. NHS Dental Services check that a software system can transmit NHS dental claims to them. Certification is given when a software system has demonstrated that it can send satisfactory transmissions in both test and live environments. When a system is certified, a practice can use it to submit claims electronically. Then the two sentences that matter most: 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 'it is not certification of approval or the software system, or supplier, as a whole'.

## Three things certification does not tell you

- Nothing about the rest of the product. Charting, imaging, recalls, reporting and support are all outside the scope of the certificate. A certified system can be excellent or poor at every one of them.
- Nothing about price. A free tier and a system that quotes on locations, chairs and clinicians sit on the same list.
- Nothing about the supplier. NHSBSA says so explicitly. Certification attaches to a named system, not to the company, which is why one supplier can appear against several entries.

## The list has more names on it than the market has products

Read the company column of the certified list and the 36 systems collapse considerably. Software of Excellence is named as the supplier for seven of them: Advanced Healthcare Computing, Ascend, Dentally, EdiAPP, Exact, i-Claim and SOEL Health. Carestream, through PracticeWorks Ltd, is named for four: Arthur Kodak, Orthotrac, R4 and Sensei. Several other entries are transmission modules rather than practice management systems, which is exactly what the certification covers. If you are shopping for a practice management system, the list is a starting filter, not a shortlist.

> The list also shows its age in places. In the 9 July 2026 PDF, the Website field reads 'N/A' for 16 of the 36 systems. Of the 20 it does list, one domain is now parked and offered for sale, one resolves to a Dubai accountancy firm and one to a dental IT support company. All checked on 15 August 2026. The 36, the 16 and the 20 are our own counts from that document, so you can recount them. That is a comment on the contact list, not on the certification.

## How to check a product for yourself in two minutes

1. Open the NHSBSA dental activity processing page and follow the link labelled 'View our list of software system suppliers'. That is the certified list: the page itself never uses the word 'certified'.
2. Search the PDF for the system name, not the company's marketing name. The list is indexed by system.
3. Read the company line. If the supplier appears against several systems, ask which one you are actually buying and which one is certified.
4. Ask the supplier for the certified system name in writing, and check it matches what appears on your quote.
5. Remember what certification excludes, and evaluate everything else on its own merits.

# How much does dental practice management software cost?

Published UK dental software prices we read on supplier pages, from a free tier to £300 a month, the four systems that publish nothing, and what moves a quote. (https://dentalsoftwarecompare.com/dental-practice-management-software-cost/)

## The prices we could actually read

| System | Published price | What the price is charged per |
| --- | --- | --- |
| DentalPlus Claims+ | Free | Unlimited users and computers, NHS claims management included |
| DentalPlus Full+ | From £95 a month | Practice. Unlimited users, 100GB cloud storage per surgery |
| Cloud 4 Dentists | £80 to £280 a month | Practice, banded by chairs, users and storage, on a 12-month contract |
| Pearl Dental Software | £82 a month, plus £50 per extra surgery | Surgery, excluding VAT, with unlimited users |
| Chiral | £150, £225 or £300 a month | Practice, banded by user count |

> Every figure above was read on the supplier's own pricing page on 15 August 2026 and is reproduced, not estimated. Pearl states its prices exclude VAT; DentalPlus states prices are not final until the billing page, which applies VAT by product type. Check the supplier's page before you buy.

## The unit is the whole argument

These five published prices are charged in four different units. Cloud 4 Dentists bands by chairs, users and storage. Pearl charges per surgery with unlimited users. Chiral bands by user count, per practice. DentalPlus charges per practice with unlimited users and computers. A three-surgery practice with twelve staff will get a very different answer from each. Before you compare two numbers, write down your surgeries, chairs, clinicians and total logins, and ask every supplier to price the same four figures.

## Watch what is sold separately

- **NHS claims**: undefined
- **Data migration**: undefined
- **Storage**: undefined
- **Backup**: undefined
- **Messaging**: undefined
- **Add-on modules**: undefined

## The four that publish nothing

Dentally, Exact, Systems for Dentists and CareStack all route to a demo. CareStack is the most candid about why, stating that plans are flexible and based on a combination of factors including the number of locations, chairs and clinicians. That is a reasonable basis for a group practice quote, and it also means the figure is negotiable, which a published one is not. Ask for the monthly figure, the unit, the minimum term, the migration fee and the cost of leaving, in the first call.

# FP17 claims: what your dental software has to get right

What the FP17 carries, why claims fail validation, and the questions to ask a supplier about transmission, error codes and UDA tracking before you commit. (https://dentalsoftwarecompare.com/fp17-claims-software/)

## What the FP17 actually carries

NHS Dental Services states it plainly: providers submit forms (FP17) detailing dental activity data, and the data recorded on the FP17 shows the patient charge collected, the number of units of activity performed, and treatment banding information (NHSBSA, read 15 August 2026). Your software's job in the certified sense is narrow and specific: to format, validate and transmit that.

## Claims fail, and the failure has a code

NHSBSA checks all FP17s to make sure the information included is valid, and states that FP17s with missing or invalid information may not be accepted. Claims failing validation return an error code or a comment code explaining why, and NHSBSA says it is important to correct any FP17s that do not pass validation to make sure the activity is taken into account. NHSBSA publishes the dental activity error codes and comment codes, the Clinical Data Set items and treatment bands, and the 9000 dental activity codes as downloads from the same page.

> That is the single best question to take into a software demo: show me the screen where a rejected FP17 appears, with its error code, and show me how it gets corrected and resubmitted. A system that transmits well but surfaces rejections badly costs a practice real UDAs.

## What the eight systems here claim about NHS work

- Dentally states full integration 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, plus CHI and SIMD lookups, GP17 digital signing and prior approvals for Scotland.
- Systems for Dentists states automated transmissions, NHS number lookup, UDA tracking and integrated FP17 forms.
- CareStack states NHS claims, UDA tracking and contract reconciliation from one workflow, with claims tracked from submission to settlement.
- Exact is pitched at the contract rather than the form, with a Predictive UDA Manager giving predictions for the practice and for individual dentists against contract year targets.
- Pearl describes real-time UDA monitoring, income split by NHS, private, plan or capitation, and exports for NHS claims and audits.
- DentalPlus puts NHS claims management in every tier, including the free one.
- Cloud 4 Dentists sells NHS Claims as a £40 a month add-on and states its free tier has none.
- Chiral does not describe NHS claims on the pages we read.

## Compass is not your software

NHS Dental Services runs Compass, the system where contract data, claims and schedules live, and practices sign in to it directly. Compass has its own guidance for FP17 and FP17O in England and FP17W and FP17OW in Wales, published as separate documents. NHSBSA also describes WebEDI as providing a secure means of sending data between the dental practice management system and NHS Dental Services. Your software feeds that pipe; it is not a replacement for it, and a Compass login remains part of running an NHS contract.

> NHSBSA is currently moving practices towards a new NHS Dental Services Portal, and in July 2026 asked users to check that the email address held in Compass is up to date and unique to them. If your practice manager's Compass email is a shared inbox, that is worth checking against the current NHSBSA guidance.

# CQC and dental records: what the software has to make possible

CQC Regulation 17 requires secure, accurate, complete and contemporaneous records. What that means for a practice management system, paper or electronic. (https://dentalsoftwarecompare.com/cqc-dental-records-software/)

## What the regulation says

Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires systems or processes to be established and operated effectively to ensure compliance. Regulation 17(2)(c) is the records limb: a provider must 'maintain securely an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided' (CQC, read 15 August 2026).

## CQC's own guidance is specific about what fit for purpose means

- Records must be complete, legible, indelible, accurate and up to date, with no undue delays in adding and filing information as far as is reasonable. CQC's guidance names results of diagnostic tests, correspondence and changes to care plans following medical advice.
- They must include an accurate record of all decisions taken about care and treatment, with reference to discussions with the person using the service and those lawfully acting on their behalf. Consent records are named explicitly, including when consent changes, why it changed, and what alternatives were offered.
- They must be kept secure at all times and only accessed, amended or securely destroyed by authorised people.
- CQC states that both paper and electronic records can be held securely providing they meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.

> That last point settles a question suppliers sometimes blur: no CQC regulation requires an electronic record system. A well-run paper practice can meet Regulation 17. What a system buys you is the audit of who saw what and when, which is much harder to evidence on paper.

## Turning the regulation into demo questions

1. Write a clinical note, save it, then amend it. Ask to see who made the amendment, when, and what the record said before. Contemporaneous and accurate both imply you can show the history.
2. Record a consent, then change it, and ask where the reason for the change and the alternatives offered are stored.
3. Ask who in the practice can amend or delete a record, and how that permission is set and reviewed.
4. Ask what a subject access request looks like: which screens produce the record, in what format, and how long it takes.
5. Ask what happens on the day you stop being a customer: where the records go, in what format, and at what cost.

## Where your data physically lives still matters

Three of the eight systems compared on this site are cloud (Dentally, CareStack and Cloud 4 Dentists), two more describe themselves as cloud hosted (DentalPlus and Chiral), and two are installed on a practice Windows server (Pearl and Systems for Dentists), with Exact not stating on the pages we read. That is not a compliance verdict either way: CQC requires records to be held securely and to meet the Data Protection Act 2018, and both models can do that. It does change who is responsible for backups, who holds the encryption keys, and what happens to the records if the practice loses its internet connection on a Monday morning.

# Questions, answered directly

**Q: What does NHS-certified dental software mean?**

A: 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.

**Q: How much does dental practice management software cost in the UK?**

A: 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.

**Q: Is there free dental practice management software that can submit NHS claims?**

A: 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.

**Q: What is on an FP17 and why do claims get rejected?**

A: 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.

**Q: Does CQC require electronic dental records?**

A: 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.

**Q: Cloud or a practice server: which should a dental practice choose?**

A: 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.

**Q: Why are Carestream R4 and Sensei not in this comparison?**

A: 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.

**Q: How many dental software suppliers are there really?**

A: 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.

# Sources

- NHSBSA, Certified dental practice management software systems (updated 09 July 2026) (PDF): https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2026-07/DPMS%20Contact%20List%209%20July%202026.pdf
- NHSBSA, dental activity processing (where that list is linked, as 'software system suppliers'): https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/activity-and-payments/dental-activity-processing
- NHSBSA, Compass for NHS dental practices: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/compass
- CQC, Regulation 17: Good governance: https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations/regulation-17-good-governance
- CQC, dentists: information for providers: https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/dentists

Cite as: "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). Contact: hello@dentalsoftwarecompare.com