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The Modern, All-in-One Alternative to CareStack.
Switching from CareStack? Gnathos adds an AI morning brief written from your own numbers, Retention Radar risk scores with a call script, insurance card photos that fill in the plan, a payer portal link on every claim row and much more.
Lakeside Dental StudioTuesday · production through yesterday
Live✦
Morning huddle"12 patients expected today. 9% of slots booked over the next 3 days. $18,183 in open balances across 37 accounts. 288 patients are 6+ months overdue."
Total recoverable
$128,617
$116,241Unscheduled treatment
$1,860Lapsed recall
$10,516Open balances
Compare Gnathos with
Every Gnathos Feature, Side by Side with CareStack.
Gnathos's 85 features across ten areas, and how CareStack handles each.
Gnathos84 of 85 Included1 through partners
CareStackIncludes 50 of Gnathos's 85 Features18 partial · 3 paid add-on or third party · 14 not found
| Feature | Gnathos | CareStack |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule & Front Desk | ||
| Day, week and month schedule by operatory and provider | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| ASAP list: cancellations refilled automatically | ✓ | ◐Waitlist; matching is manual |
| Smart waitlist ranked by pending treatment value | ✓ | ◐Opportunity Miner filters unscheduled treatment by production value to fill openings; short-call list not ranked |
| Online booking with live availability | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Self-reschedule link for patients | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Check-in board: arrived, seated, done, live for the team | ✓ | ✓Check-in and kiosk |
| One-click counters: treatment due, x-rays due, recall overdue, insurance unverified | ✓ | ◐Lists and dashboards |
| Production goals shown on the schedule | ✓ | ◐Goals in dashboards |
| Patient search with PHI hidden until hovered | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Clinical | ||
| Tooth chart with conditions, planned work and history | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| Perio charting | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| Voice perio charting | ✓ | ✓Intelligence plan (native Voice Perio); not in Essentials |
| Dictated note becomes a structured clinical note (AI) | ✓ | ✓Intelligence plan (CareStack AI Scribe) |
| Note templates, typed or dictated from any page | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Sign and lock restricted to providers | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Treatment plans with versions and acceptance tracking | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Patient-facing estimates with e-signature | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Treatment plan sender: plan, notes and quote by text, email or print | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Plan and estimate sent to the portal by text or email, or printed |
| Plan Optimizer: sequencing across insurance years and benefits | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Treatment acceptance prediction per plan | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Imaging viewer opens from the chart | ✓Efficiency plan; cloud DICOM viewer built in | ✓Imaging built in |
| AI findings on x-rays | ◐Efficiency plan; Pearl and Overjet findings open in the chart; AI reads billed by the partner | ✓Intelligence plan (Overjet AI in CareStack's AEKA imaging) |
| E-prescribing with controlled substances (EPCS) | ✓Efficiency plan, through an e-prescribing partner | $EPCS through DoseSpot, paid separately |
| Lab case tracking with a schedule alert when a case is not back | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Lab case tracking; overdue cases show red on the appointment |
| Medical alerts and allergies on every patient | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Patient Records & Portal | ||
| Full profile: demographics, insurance, plans, recall, history, activity log | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| Ledger with charges, payments, adjustments and statements | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| Documents and forms stored per patient | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Pre-visit intake forms by link | ✓ | ✓Online forms |
| Patient portal: book, pay, sign, message, view records | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Insurance card scanned from a photo | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Family linking with an unscheduled-family view | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Insurance & Claims | ||
| Real-time insurance eligibility | ✓Through a clearinghouse | ✓Built in |
| Week-ahead verification page | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Eligibility list for upcoming appointments, with scheduled automatic checks |
| Claims built from completed procedures, reviewed before submission | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| AI claim scrubber: likely rejections and missing attachments flagged | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐Basic claim validation |
| Electronic claims with attachments | ✓Through a clearinghouse; attachments on the Efficiency plan | ✓Included |
| ERAs post automatically | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Included |
| Automatic claim status checks | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐Claim status tracking |
| Denied-claim alerts with the reason | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Rejected and denied claims land in their own tabs with the payer's reason |
| Payer portal link on every claim row | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Money | ||
| Card payments at the desk and online | ✓Through Payzli | ✓CS Pay |
| Text-to-pay links | ✓ | ✓Pay-by-text |
| Membership plans with auto-billing | ✓ | $CS Membership, $99/mo for up to 60 members; requires CS Pay |
| Payment plans with consent and auto-charge | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Included |
| Financing partners recorded on the patient | ✓ | ✓Sunbit two-way integration; financing payments post to the patient record |
| Loyalty points and rewards | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Daily financial check: collected, patient portion, insurance portion, deposit line | ✓ | ◐Daily financial reports |
| Card processing on the same bill as the software | ✓Payzli processing, on the Gnathos bill | ◐CareStack's own CS Pay; fees deducted from deposits |
| Communication & Reputation | ||
| Two-way texting on your practice number | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Reminders, confirmations and recall campaigns | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Review requests sent the same way to every patient | ✓ | ✓Reputation management |
| One inbox: text, email, chat and voicemail per patient | ✓ | ◐Patient inbox with email, text and call log; voicemail and live chat through the VoiceStack add-on |
| AI-drafted replies waiting for a person | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐AI answers recall and reactivation texts |
| Incoming call opens the patient (call pop, click-to-call) | ✓Efficiency plan; works with your existing phone line | ✓Phone integrations |
| Consent built in: STOP handling and frequency caps per patient | ✓ | ◐STOP handling standard; per-patient caps not found |
| Morning Huddle, Reports & AI | ||
| Morning huddle screen: yesterday, today, tomorrow | ✓ | ✓Daily Huddle dashboard (previous, current and next day) |
| AI morning brief written from your own numbers | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Post the huddle to team chat in one click | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Standard reports: production, collections, AR aging, payer mix, utilization | ✓ | ✓Core feature |
| Ask Gnathos: plain-English questions answered from your data | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Daily AI insights | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Practice Health: benchmarks and overhead so owners see take-home | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐Practice Analytics dashboards |
| Revenue Recovery | ||
| Dead-revenue ledger: dollars by category, ranked recovery queue | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐Opportunity Miner totals production and collection opportunities in dollars; no single ranked recovery ledger found |
| Automated recovery campaigns tracked in dollars | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐Campaigns; not tracked against a ledger |
| Anna: AI treatment coordinator drafting follow-ups from the chart | ✓Efficiency plan | ◐AI replies to texts; does not work the treatment ledger |
| Recall Outreach with one-click batches | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Included |
| Retention Radar: risk score per patient with reasons and a call script | ✓Efficiency plan | —Not found in published features |
| Payment recall on open balances with text-to-pay | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Payment reminders and pay-by-text |
| Inactive patient reactivation | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓AI reactivation texts |
| Unscheduled treatment follow-ups | ✓Efficiency plan | ✓Treatment Plan Board and Opportunity Miner outreach |
| Recovery mode: see your number on live data before you switch | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Team & Operations | ||
| Clock-in and timesheets; payroll export coming soon | ✓ | ✓Time Clock with clock-in/out report and gross pay |
| Tasks with due dates, self-added and assigned | ✓ | ✓Task Manager |
| Team chat with patient tagging that opens the profile | ✓ | ✓Office Chat with # patient mentions (release 5.46) |
| HR documents with expiry reminders | ✓ | —Not found in published features |
| Predictive inventory | ✓Efficiency plan | $Inventory through the Zimbis integration |
| Roles and permissions; controls hidden, not greyed out | ✓ | ✓Role-based permission profiles |
| Audit log on every record access and change | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Migration, Security & Support | ||
| Live sync with your current system within minutes | ✓ | ◐Syncs legacy data off-hours during onboarding; not within minutes |
| Migration and onboarding included, no setup fees | ✓ | ◐Onboarding included; implementation fee in some cases |
| Line-by-line reconciliation against your old system before go-live | ✓ | ◐Sandbox validation against your old system with sign-off; not line-by-line |
| Cloud-based, works from any device | ✓ | ✓Cloud-native |
| Encryption in transit and at rest | ✓ | ✓Included |
| Signed BAA available | ✓ | ✓Included |
✓ Included◐ Partial or basic$ Paid add-on or third party— Not found in published features
Competitor information comes from each vendor's public website, help center and documentation, checked September 25, 2026, with updates from October 27, 2026, and every cell says why it's marked the way it is. Add-ons and inclusions vary by plan and change often; if something here is out of date, email matt@carifyone.com and we'll correct it. Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, CareStack, Curve Dental and Archy are trademarks of their owners; Gnathos is not affiliated with them.
Switching from CareStack, Plainly.
What You Keep
Every patient, appointment, procedure, plan, claim, ledger balance, note, perio chart and document. Reconciled line by line before go-live, so nothing is left behind.
What Changes
The whole practice runs in Gnathos, and your team learns one system.
How Long
Live sync within minutes of connecting, recovery mode from the first week, and a cutover that is scheduled and staffed once your numbers reconcile.
Ready to Make the Move?
Book a 15-minute demo and we'll map your migration from CareStack on the call.