Dentrix Ascend vs Open Dental

Side-by-side from the Top 11 rankings of tab32 vs Archy vs Practice-Web: 11 Best Dental Practice Management Software for Independent Practices 2026 and Open Dental vs CareStack vs Denticon: 11 Best Dental Practice Management Software 2026. Last verified October 12, 2026.

The short answer

Open Dental ranks higher on Top 11 (#1 vs #7) for Owners of independent dental practices choosing practice management software / Dentists and practice managers. Solo GPs, multi-location groups and DSOs, and specialty practices. the most powerful operatory scheduler in dental, at the lowest price. If you can run your own server.

At a glance

Dentrix AscendOpen Dental
Top 11 rank#7 / tab32 vs Archy vs Practice-Web: 11 Best Dental Practice Management Software for Independent Practices 2026#1 / Open Dental vs CareStack vs Denticon: 11 Best Dental Practice Management Software 2026
Score (out of 9.4)6.79
Best for100% cloud with managed ITComplex multi-operatory scheduling
PricingQuote only, price not published on the page we could open$ ($149 to $199/mo per location + $20/provider over 3)
HQ—United States
Founded——

Methodology and scoring weights live at /methodology. No vendor pays for placement — see about.