Best dental lab management software for Canadian labs in 2026
No single lab management system suits every Canadian dental lab. Here is what to check, and what four established products say about themselves.
By the Tusko team
Published
On this page
No single lab management system is best for every Canadian lab.
The right one depends on your size, how digital your work is, and what your practices will agree to use.
This guide lists what to check, then describes four established products from their own published material, in alphabetical order.
One disclosure first. We make Tusko, which is not lab management software, and a section near the end explains where it sits.
What lab management software does
Lab management software runs the inside of a lab. Products in this category cover the same five jobs.
- Case entry. Each case gets a record, a due date and a route through the lab.
- Production tracking. Staff scan or click a case from one step to the next. This is case tracking inside the lab.
- Invoicing. Cases become invoices and monthly statements.
- A portal for practices. Dentists log in to a doctor portal to send cases or see their status.
- Reports. Volume, turnaround and revenue, by practice and by product.
Products differ in depth on each job, and in what they cost to set up. They differ less in the list itself.
What a Canadian lab should check
The products below are sold in many countries, and their public pages are not written for Canada. Six questions are worth asking before a demo goes any further.
- Tax. Can an invoice carry GST, HST and provincial sales tax correctly for each practice’s province?
- Currency. Is the software billed in Canadian dollars, and can your invoices be issued in them?
- Tooth numbering. Can cases, labels and invoices show FDI notation throughout?
- Data location. Where is the data stored, and who can reach it? PIPEDA and dental software lists what to ask.
- Invoices fit for the federal plan. Can each case be itemized? CDCP and lab fees explains why that matters.
- Support hours. Is someone available during your working day, in your time zone?
We read the public product pages of three of the vendors below for this guide. None mentions Canada, Canadian dollars or where data is hosted.
The answers will have to come from a sales call, so bring the list.
Four established products
The descriptions below come from each vendor’s own site, read in October 2026. Features and prices change, so confirm them.
EviSmart LMS, from Evident
Evident’s page lists case tracking, case invoicing, an integrated payment system and an “online doctor portal”.
It also lists barcode tracking, driver route planning, inventory tracking and KPI reporting, with an open API and QuickBooks syncing.
Evident publishes three plans, at $199, $499 and $999 a month, each with a setup fee. The page does not state the currency.
LabStar
LabStar is cloud-based lab management software. 3Shape acquired it in January 2023.
3Shape’s announcement describes it as software “to help run a dental lab from case entry to invoice”. It says close to 600 labs used LabStar at the time.
If you are considering LabStar, ask how it relates to 3Shape’s own LMS, which is described below.
Magic Touch
Magic Touch sells three editions, named Signature, Lite and Cloud. Desktop and cloud versions are both offered.
Its site lists case tracking, billing, CRM, technician scheduling, reporting and workflow management. It names a Customer Portal and a LabConnex Portal.
The integrations it lists include scanners from Medit, iTero, 3Shape and Shining 3D, QuickBooks, and shipping carriers including Purolator. Prices are not published.
3Shape LMS
3Shape Lab Management Software is cloud-based. Its page lists case management for digital and analog cases, with a direct connection to 3Shape Dental System.
It also lists multi-step production lines with barcoding, one-click invoicing and payments through Stripe. Chat with the practice runs through 3Shape’s Unite app.
The page gives a price from €79 a month, based on 100 cases.
The four at a glance
| Product | How it runs | Practice-facing portal | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| EviSmart LMS | Not stated on the page we read | Online doctor portal | From $199 a month plus setup |
| LabStar | Cloud | Ask the vendor | Not in the source we read |
| Magic Touch | Desktop or cloud | Customer Portal, LabConnex Portal | Not published |
| 3Shape LMS | Cloud | Chat and case overview in Unite | From €79 a month for 100 cases |
Other products exist, and a smaller vendor may suit a smaller lab. Use the same questions with any of them.
Match the software to your lab
The same product can be right for one lab and heavy for another. Start from how your lab works.
- A small lab with one person at intake. Case entry and invoicing matter most. Barcode stations and route planning can wait.
- A lab with several departments. Production tracking earns its keep, because a case changes hands many times.
- A lab with its own drivers. Look for delivery planning, and ask how the practice is told a case is on its way.
- A mostly digital lab. Ask how designs and scan files attach to a case, and which CAD software connects directly.
- A lab whose practices phone often. The practice-facing side matters more than the reports.
Write your own list of the three jobs that hurt most today. Judge each product on those before anything else.
What it costs beyond the subscription
The monthly price is one line. Ask about the rest before you compare totals.
- Setup. One vendor above lists a setup fee, and others may charge for it too.
- Moving your data. Practices, price lists and open cases have to get in somehow.
- Hardware. Barcode tracking needs printers and scanners at each station.
- How the price scales. By user, by case or by plan. One product above prices by case count.
- Currency. A price in US dollars or euros moves with the exchange rate.
- Your team’s time. Training and the first slow month are a real cost.
Ask each vendor for a quote covering a full first year. That is the number to compare.
How to run a fair trial
A demo shows the software at its best. A trial with your own cases shows how it fits.
A fair trial, in six steps
A flow of six steps for a fair software trial: pick two products, enter the same twenty real cases in each, have the people who will use it do the entering, produce a month-end statement, ask one practice to try the portal, and phone support with a real question.
Pick two products
More than two and nobody on your team will finish either trial.
Enter the same twenty real cases in each
Include a remake, a rush and a multi-stage case.
Have the people who will use it do the entering
The owner’s opinion matters less than the front desk’s.
Produce a month-end statement
Check the tax lines and the tooth numbers.
Ask one practice to try the portal
Watch what they do without help.
Phone support with a real question
Note how long an answer takes.
Write down the time each step took. The slower product on paper is sometimes the faster one at the bench.
Where a shared case platform sits
Lab management software runs the lab. The portal it offers is one more login for a practice that already has several.
A shared case platform starts from the other end. It gives the practice and the lab one case to work from, with the Rx, the files and the messages on it.
That is the part Tusko does. It runs the case between a lab and its practices.
If you already use lab management software, we will walk through how the two fit together on a demo.
See how it works for labs, or put your own numbers into the lab calculator.
More comparisons
What is the best dental lab software for a small Canadian lab?
The one your team will keep current. Start from your case volume and the number of people who enter cases, then trial two products with real work before you decide.
Does lab management software handle GST and HST?
Ask each vendor to show you an invoice with your province’s taxes on it. None of the public pages we read for this guide says how Canadian taxes are handled.
Do I need lab management software if I already use a scanner portal?
They do different jobs. A scanner portal receives scans from one brand of scanner. Lab management software schedules production and sends invoices for every case, however it arrived.
Will my practices use a doctor portal?
Some will. A practice that works with several labs has a separate portal for each, so ask your busiest practices before you count on it.
Sources
Related guides
Moving a dental lab’s practices onto one platform takes about a month of small steps. Here is a week-by-week plan, and what changes for each role.
Many dental labs run on a spreadsheet, an inbox and a phone. Here is what that setup does well, where it breaks, and how to move off it safely.
A doctor portal belongs to one lab’s software. A shared case is opened by the lab and the practice alike. Here is how the two models differ for a lab.