CareStack
CareStack
Cloud all-in-one aimed at growing groups, with published tier pricing.
Best for: Multi-location groups that want one vendor for practice management, RCM and engagement.
Australia · deployment · updated 2026-08-01
Cloud-based dental practice management software
5 of the 8 systems we track in Australia are true cloud products, and 3 are offered either way. Only 0 of the cloud options publish a price.
“Cloud-hosted” is not the same as cloud
This distinction costs practices real money. A cloud-native product is built to run in a browser and the vendor operates it. An on-premise product that someone hosts for you is still Windows software on a server — you have simply moved whose server it is, and you are now paying a hosting bill on top of the licence.
The clearest example: Open Dental is not cloud-based. It is excellent, it is the cheapest credible option for many practices, and you can absolutely reach it remotely — but that means self-hosting, a third-party Open Dental host, or remote desktop. If you want nobody in your practice to think about a server again, that is a different product category.
Ask any vendor two questions: does it run in a browser with no local install, and who is responsible when the server needs patching. The answers separate these two groups completely.
True cloud
Browser-based, vendor-operated. No server, no backups, no patching on your side.
Core Practice
Core Practice
Newer Australian cloud platform aimed at growing practices and groups.
Best for: Growing Australian practices and small groups that want cloud and modern patient-facing tools.
Dentally
Henry Schein One
Henry Schein One’s cloud practice management system — and the only vendor here that publishes a price in the UK.
Best for: Canadian practices that want cloud from a large vendor and will negotiate a quote.
Praktika
Praktika
Australian-built cloud system, browser-based since long before that was fashionable here.
Best for: Practices that want Australian-built cloud with claiming handled properly.
Principle
Principle Dental
Sydney-built cloud system, and the most AI-forward product in Australian dentistry.
Best for: Practices that want AI in the workflow now, from a local vendor, and will negotiate a quote.
Cloud or on-premise
Sold both ways, so you can change deployment without changing vendor.
Dental4Windows
Centaur Software
The Australian incumbent — the system most practices here already run, now with a web sibling in Dental4Web.
Best for: Established Australian practices that value ecosystem breadth and easy hiring.
EXACT
Software of Excellence (Henry Schein One)
The long-standing UK incumbent — the system most British practices already run.
Best for: Established NHS and mixed practices that value ecosystem breadth and easy hiring over price transparency.
Oasis
Henry Schein One
Henry Schein One’s long-standing Australian practice management system.
Best for: Practices that want a large, established vendor and are already in the Henry Schein orbit.
What cloud actually costs you
Cloud looks more expensive per month and often is not, once you account for what the on-premise price excludes: the server itself, its replacement cycle, backup software, the IT contract, and the add-ons that cloud platforms bundle. Our worked cost breakdown runs the numbers using each vendor’s own published add-on rates. In Canada that exercise is impossible for most vendors, because the add-on rates are not published either.
The genuinely cloud-specific trade-off is not price, it is dependency. You need reliable internet, and you cannot see your data if the vendor has an outage. On-premise fails differently: it fails when your server does, and then it is your problem to fix.
Staying on-premise
are on-premise only. They dominate on published price, and they remain the right answer for practices with IT support and a preference for owning their own data.