Open Dental [Software] is well suited to a practice that is willing to put time into customizing it to their needs. Since it is open-source software, it's not completely ready to use right out of the box, but comes with flexibility that other dental software lack. As such, you can make it work for whatever you need for your individual practice. If you're not super tech-savvy, they have a team that will help you with these customizations at a reasonable cost.
VixWin Platinum is suitable in a general/pediatric dental setting; it seems to be used in many offices I have been in--not sure if that's because of the price or maybe because it is so easy to use. I believe if you are a speciality practice where you need higher quality x-rays or more options in regards to x-ray editing, VixWin Platinum may not be the best. In my opinion, VixWin Platinum is basic. Be aware of the need for storage (depending on how large your practice is).
There needs to be an easy way to "move" x-rays from one patient's chart to another. For example, it happens when you take x-rays under the wrong chart and need to move them. Sometimes in the process of moving them, they get lost.
Our practice functions well using Open Dental [Software] and it's a very affordable option. So long as the customer service remains excellent and the price stays competitive, we have no reason to go through the hassle of changing software.
Open Dental [Software] works great....until you try to open multiple windows. This is the one feature that needs serious improvement with the product. I've had to force quit/terminate the software more times than I can count because it froze when I tried to open up a second window to complete a task. Other than this one issue, it's a very usable product.
Very easy to use and train on (extremely user friendly). It is pretty straightforward and easy to follow, especially if you are new to the dental field or not comfortable using computers and/or programs. (I was in an office that was using charts then went paperless; many of the staff members found VixWin Platinum easy to transition into).
Open Dental's customer support team has gone above and beyond for us. There was a 2-3 month period where we couldn't go more than 5 minutes without the software crashing - which was an issue with our server and not with their product. Despite it being our issue, the customer service team remained in constant contact with us and with our IT support company until the issue was resolved.
I have never personally reached out to VixWin, but from watching other members of my offices/dental field reach out, I have noticed that they were on the phone for a decent amount of time when it came to resolving issues with VixWin Platinum. The issue was always resolved but it did take a decent amount of time (a few hours at a time).
Open Dental is faster than the alternatives, and the support is much better with very low hold times. It's more customizable with lots of plug-ins available, although they aren't really needed. A strong user community group is available as well, where you can see different use cases and read up on experiences of other users of the software.
VixWin Platinum is basic but I still find it better than EagleSoft's dental x-ray system. VixWin Platinum has more options to edit and play with the contrast then EagleSoft's x-rays. I also feels as though the quality of x-rays is much better in VixWin Platinum than in EagleSoft (I get a lot of overexposed images in EagleSoft, even after adjusting the exposure).
