Eaglesoft vs Open Dental

PickMyPMS Editorial · Last reviewed Sep 28, 2026

Quick verdict

Open Dental suits a practice that wants to see real prices before talking to a salesperson, keep its data in an open database, and avoid committing to more than a year at a time. Eaglesoft suits a practice that wants everything, license, upgrades and support, bundled into one plan with a built-in imaging module and a large list of third-party integrations, and that is fine with a 24-month commitment and a physical on-site server.

Both are Windows-only, on-premise systems with no macOS option in our data. What splits them is pricing transparency and contract length.

Quote-only vs. published pricing

Eaglesoft, from Patterson Dental, is sold through five Service Club tiers, each a discount off the base rate, and Patterson does not publish what any tier costs. You find out only through a sales quote, and the Service Club requires a 24-month enrollment.

Open Dental, from Salem, Oregon-based Open Dental Software, posts its fees on its own site. Support runs $199 a month per location for your first 12 months, then $149 a month, with a 12-month initial term that becomes month-to-month afterward.

That gap shapes the rest of this comparison: you can plan a five-year Open Dental budget from public numbers, but an Eaglesoft budget needs a quote first.

What each costs

Patterson’s five Service Club tiers, Base, Starter, Foundations, Professional and Growth, each include the software license, free upgrades and unlimited phone, chat and email support, with the license folded into the fee instead of billed separately. Starter is 10% off the base rate and adds insurance or e-prescriptions, payments and statements, team chat and secure email. Foundations is 25% off and adds automated reminders, online forms and two-way text.

Professional is 30% off and adds automated recall, online scheduling, online reviews and marketing campaigns. Growth is 50% off and adds missed-call texting and phone service. None of the tiers has a published dollar amount. A third-party estimate, with no source cited, puts the support plan at $300 to $500 a month.

Open Dental’s support fee is $199 a month per location for the first 12 months, covering up to three dentists, then drops to $149 monthly after that. Each additional dentist beyond three costs $20 monthly.

Its optional eServices bundle for patient communication is $165 a month per location, with texting priced separately at $5 monthly for an assigned number or $20 monthly to text from your landline, plus 4 cents per message. If you want to skip the office server entirely, Open Dental also offers a hosted Cloud version. It is in limited release, and it costs $430 a month per location for one provider, $150 monthly for each additional provider, plus a one-time $400 migration fee.

Get a written five-year quote for Eaglesoft before you compare it to Open Dental’s published numbers. Our cost calculator totals five-year costs side by side once you have real figures for both.

Contracts and cancelling

Open Dental starts with a 12-month initial term, then moves to month-to-month, backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee on support fees.

Eaglesoft’s Service Club requires a 24-month enrollment. We could not find a published renewal or cancellation-notice policy for what happens once that term ends.

Open Dental’s terms give you more room to change your mind after the first year. An Eaglesoft commitment runs twice as long before you have that same flexibility.

Getting your data out

Open Dental’s data lives in an open MySQL database the practice controls, so you’re not dependent on the vendor to get it out.

We could not find a published data export policy for Eaglesoft, so ask directly in writing what it costs and how long it takes.

Switching to Open Dental

Open Dental publishes a conversion fee: $1,450 per database, plus $900 for x-rays and $850 for documents, and $400 for each additional clinic. The page doesn’t say which source systems that rate assumes, so confirm in writing that it covers an Eaglesoft conversion before you budget around it.

Before you sign, get these in writing:

• Whether the $1,450 conversion rate applies to your specific Eaglesoft version and database size.
• Which records convert: patient history, ledger, insurance plans, clinical notes and images.
• How long your remaining Eaglesoft Service Club enrollment runs, so you aren’t paying for both systems.
• Training included for the front desk and clinical team, since Open Dental reviewers describe a learning curve.

Imaging and features

Eaglesoft’s Advanced Imaging acquires and edits x-rays and video inside the program at no added fee, and integrates with Dentsply Sirona Sidexis, DEXIS, Planmeca, Air Techniques, Instrumentarium, Soredex, Progeny and Schick. Patterson also lists more than 55 authorized third-party integrations through its Innovation Connection program. We could not find published imaging details for Open Dental in our data; Open Dental sells patient communication features like texting through its separate eServices bundle rather than bundling them into the base support fee.

On Capterra, Eaglesoft holds 4.1 out of 5 from 157 reviews and Open Dental holds 4.6 out of 5 from 89. Eaglesoft reviewers cite ease of use, quick staff training and its color-coded schedule, and complain about hard-to-find and inflexible reports, occasional freezes that need a restart, and only one user at a time in a patient chart. Open Dental reviewers cite published pricing and no long-term contract after year one, and describe a learning curve, a dated interface, and paying for live support as drawbacks.

Who should pick which

Pick Open Dental if you:

• Want to see real prices before you talk to a salesperson.
• Want your data in an open database you control, not a proprietary format.
• Prefer a shorter commitment, with month-to-month flexibility after the first year.

Pick Eaglesoft if you:

• Want the license, upgrades and support bundled into one plan with a discount that grows as you add features.
• Value Eaglesoft’s named imaging integrations and Patterson’s Innovation Connection partners.
• Can commit to 24 months and run a physical on-site server without virtualization.

If neither fits cleanly, the Find my PMS quiz scores both products, and other options, against your specialty, size and budget.