United Kingdom · head to head · updated 2026-08-01

Dentally vs R4

Published pricing against Carestream’s incumbent. Dentally is cloud and R4 is cloud or on-premise — usually the single biggest difference between them.

Dentally

Henry Schein One

Henry Schein One’s cloud practice management system — and the only vendor here that publishes a price in the UK.

Deployment
Cloud
Entry price
£125/month per site, unlimited users
Built for
Solo, 2–4 locations, Group
Visit Dentally(opens in a new tab)

Read the full Dentally review

R4

PracticeWorks Ltd (Carestream Dental)

Carestream’s long-running UK practice management system, tightly paired with its imaging.

Deployment
Cloud or on-premise
Entry price
Not published
Built for
Solo, 2–4 locations, Group
Visit R4(opens in a new tab)

Read the full R4 review

The short answer

Dentally publishes a price (£125/month); R4 does not, so a like-for-like cost comparison is not possible without a quote.

Choose Dentally if…

Canadian practices that want cloud from a large vendor and will negotiate a quote.

It is ahead on payments, patient messaging, online booking, digital forms .

Choose R4 if…

Practices already committed to Carestream imaging.

It is ahead on orthodontics .

Where they actually differ

Of 19 modules we track, these 5 differ. The rest match, so they are not what should decide it.

ModuleDentallyR4
Payments Built in Via integration
Patient messaging Built in Paid add-on
Online booking Built in Paid add-on
Digital forms Built in Paid add-on
Orthodontics Not stated Built in
Show all 19 modules, including where they match
ModuleDentallyR4
Scheduling Built in Built in
Clinical charting Built in Built in
Perio charting Built in Built in
Native imaging Built in Built in
Billing Built in Built in
Claims Built in Built in
Insurance eligibility Built in Built in
Payments Built in Via integration
Patient messaging Built in Paid add-on
Online booking Built in Paid add-on
Digital forms Built in Paid add-on
Recall / reactivation Built in Built in
Analytics & KPIs Built in Built in
ePrescribing Not stated Not stated
Teledentistry Not stated Not stated
AI features Not stated Not stated
Open API Via integration Via integration
Multi-location Built in Built in
Orthodontics Not stated Built in

Pricing, side by side

Dentally

Publishes pricingchecked2026-08-01
PlanPriceBasis
Starter — 1 surgery
excluding VAT		£125/monthper site, unlimited users
Essentials — 1 surgery
excluding VAT		£220/monthper site, unlimited users
Pro — 1 surgery
excluding VAT		£320/monthper site, unlimited users
Starter — 3 surgeries
Essentials £380, Pro £510		£265/monthper site
Starter — 5 surgeries
Essentials £525, Pro £690		£395/monthper site
Starter — 8 surgeries
Essentials £720, Pro £945		£575/monthper site
9+ surgeriesContact usper site

Priced by number of surgeries per site on a slider, across three tiers, all excluding VAT. NHS integration is included on every tier. AI clinical notes are limited on Starter and are not available in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

Source: dentally.co, read 2026-08-01.

R4

No published pricingchecked2026-08-01

R4 does not publish a price. You have to request a quote, which means you cannot budget or compare before speaking to a salesperson. No figure published.

We do not repeat third-party price estimates for quote-only vendors. Several widely republished figures in this category turned out to belong to a different product — see how we compare.

Strengths and trade-offs

Dentally

Strengths

  • True cloud with CDAnet claims and predeterminations handled natively.
  • Backed by Henry Schein One, so it is not going away and the integration marketplace is large.
  • Sold across several countries, which usually means the platform gets sustained investment.

Trade-offs

  • Publishes a pricing page with three named tiers and no prices on it — you cannot compare it on cost without a sales call.
  • Tier boundaries are described by feature list, so which tier you actually need is decided in the sales conversation.
  • Newer in Canada than the entrenched local systems, so fewer peers to ask.

R4

Strengths

  • Tight integration with Carestream imaging hardware, which a great many UK practices already own.
  • Mature NHS claiming, and a large enough installed base that peer knowledge is easy to find.
  • Available cloud or on-premise.

Trade-offs

  • No published pricing.
  • Closely tied to the Carestream ecosystem, which narrows hardware choice.
  • Slower feature cadence than the cloud-native UK entrants.

Other comparisons