Dental Membership Plan Software: Kleer, Membersy & DentalHQ

Dental membership plan software lets a practice sell its own in-house payment plan to patients who skip dental insurance altogether. Getting this piece of your practice growth strategy right matters as much as any campaign you run. Three names come up most often in that search: Kleer, Membersy, and DentalHQ.

A large share of U.S. adults report putting off a dental visit because of cost, according to the CDC's oral health data. A membership plan is one of the few tools that turns that group into paying patients without touching your fee schedule. Picking between these three platforms is not only a software decision. It changes how your front desk enrolls patients, how monthly billing gets collected, and how the plan fits into your broader growth plan. This guide walks through what each platform does, where they diverge, and what to check before you sign a contract.

What Is Dental Membership Plan Software?

What the Software Actually Does

Dental membership plan software is a platform that helps a practice design, sell, and manage an in-house plan for patients without insurance. Patients pay a recurring fee directly to the practice for preventive visits plus a discount on other treatment, and the software automates billing, renewals, and reporting.

These plans are not insurance. There is no claims process, no waiting period, and no annual maximum set by a third party. A typical structure charges a monthly or yearly fee that covers two cleanings, an exam, and X-rays, then applies a set discount, often 15 to 20 percent, to anything beyond that. The practice keeps the full fee it sets, and the patient gets predictable pricing instead of a surprise bill.

Why a Software Layer Is Necessary

The software layer exists because running this by hand gets messy fast. Someone has to track who is current on payments, who lapsed, when a plan renews, and how much discount revenue the practice gave away that quarter. Kleer, Membersy, and DentalHQ each automate a version of that job. They differ in how much of the work stays in-house versus how much gets handed to an outside team. Cost stays the core reason these plans exist at all. Per the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, cost remains one of the most cited barriers to routine dental care among adults without insurance. U.S. dental care spending already runs past $124 billion a year, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute.

Before comparing vendors, it helps to know how membership plans intersect with the rest of your practice finance strategy. Billing cadence and discount design affect cash flow the same way payment plans and financing options do.

How Does Kleer Handle Membership Plan Management?

The Self-Serve Enrollment Model

Kleer is built around self-serve enrollment. Patients sign up directly through a link, QR code, or kiosk with no staff member involved. The platform then handles recurring billing and plan tracking automatically.

That self-serve design shapes everything downstream. A patient can join from the waiting room on their phone, from a checkout email, or from your website, and Kleer processes the monthly charge automatically from that point forward. For a front desk already stretched across scheduling and insurance verification, that removes a manual step: nobody has to run a separate card transaction every month for every member.

The Trade-Off of Self-Serve Design

The trade-off is that a self-serve model puts more weight on how well your team introduces the plan in the first place. If the front desk never mentions it, the enrollment link sits unused. That matters most for new patients: 98 percent of people read local reviews before choosing a business, per BrightLocal's consumer review survey, which means many first-time patients already arrive curious about the practice and open to an offer at checkout, not just existing patients on a recall visit.

Kleer merged with Membersy in 2024. The combined company now operates under the name Clerri. Many searches and practices still use the two original names. This guide covers them as the separate products they were built as.

What Does Membersy Offer for Practices Running Membership Plans?

The Full-Service Enrollment Model

Membersy takes a more full-service approach. The platform pairs its software with outside staff who help design the plan and market it to your existing patient list. That team often fields enrollment calls on the practice's behalf too.

This matters most for practices without spare front-desk capacity to push a new plan. Rather than training your team on a new script, a Membersy-style setup outsources the sales conversation to people whose only job is enrolling members. That can produce faster initial sign-up numbers, particularly in the first few months after launch, because the outreach is proactive rather than dependent on staff remembering to mention it during checkout.

The Trade-Off of Outsourced Enrollment

It also means less direct control. Your team is not the one having the enrollment conversation. Tone, pricing objections, and follow-up all run through a third party rather than someone who already knows the patient. Practices weighing this option should ask exactly how enrollment calls are scripted. Confirm patients can reach a real staff member at the practice for a billing question, not just the plan administrator.

The same applies here. Membersy is now part of Clerri, following its 2024 merger with Kleer. The enrollment-support model described above is largely unchanged under the combined brand.

How Is DentalHQ Different From Kleer and Membersy?

Membership as Part of a Bigger Platform

DentalHQ treats the membership plan as one module inside a broader operations platform rather than a standalone add-on. That makes it a closer fit for multi-location groups and DSOs that want plan data tied directly into scheduling and patient records instead of a separate login.

Where Kleer and Membersy are purpose-built around the plan itself, DentalHQ's approach means membership status, billing history, and treatment records live in the same system a provider already checks between patients. For a single office, that consolidation may not matter much. For a group running the same plan across six or ten locations, it can remove a lot of the reconciliation work. Membership data no longer lives in one tool while clinical data lives in another.

The Trade-Off of an All-In-One Platform

The flip side is scope. A platform built for multi-location operations tends to carry more setup and administrative overhead than a single-purpose enrollment tool. Weigh that against how many locations actually need the plan synced in one place.

Are Kleer and Membersy Still Separate Companies?

The Merger Timeline

No. Kleer and Membersy announced their merger in May 2024. The combined company rebranded as Clerri in July 2025. Existing Kleer and Membersy customers were not required to switch platforms right away. That transition period is why both product names still show up in searches and in practice conversations today.

For a practice comparing options now, the practical effect is straightforward. "Kleer vs. Membersy" is no longer a comparison between two competitors. It describes two product lines now owned by the same company. The differences in enrollment style and support model described above still apply day to day. What changes is who ultimately owns the contract, the roadmap, and the support relationship behind either name.

What This Means for Your Contract

Practices already using either platform should confirm with their account rep how the merger affects their specific contract terms and pricing. That conversation matters more for a multi-year commitment than for a short pilot, since contract language written before 2024 may not reflect the current company structure.

How Do Kleer, Membersy, and DentalHQ Compare Side by Side?

The three dental membership plan software options split mainly on enrollment style and integration depth. Kleer centers on self-serve online enrollment, Membersy pairs software with outside enrollment support, and DentalHQ folds the plan into a broader multi-location operations platform.

Side-by-Side Comparison Table

What the Table Does Not Show: Pricing

None of these three publishes public pricing that stays consistent across every contract, so get a quote in writing before comparing cost. Ask specifically about setup fees, the percentage the vendor takes per transaction, and what happens to enrolled members if you cancel the contract.

How Do Kleer and DentalHQ Compare to Illumitrac and BoomCloud?

Illumitrac and BoomCloud at a Glance

Illumitrac and BoomCloud are two other names practices run into while shopping for membership plan software. Illumitrac has been active since 2013. It positions itself around full practice ownership of the plan. It also charges a one-time setup fee rather than a percentage-based recurring charge, which appeals to practices wary of ongoing revenue share. BoomCloud markets heavily toward practices that want more control over plan customization. It also emphasizes employer-group outreach tools that go beyond a standardized template.

Neither platform publishes pricing that stays consistent across every deal. That is the same caveat that applies to Kleer, Membersy, and DentalHQ above. If a name comes up in a sales conversation that is not covered here, the same due-diligence approach still applies.

Applying the Same Vendor Checklist

The checklist later in this guide covers transaction fees, contract exit terms, data export, and practice management sync. Those four questions apply just as well to Illumitrac or BoomCloud as they do to the three platforms compared in detail above. Asking them before signing protects a practice regardless of which vendor is under discussion.

How Does Kleer's Pricing Compare to Illumitrac and BoomCloud?

The pricing comparison usually comes down to one question: does the vendor take a percentage of what you collect, or charge a flat fee regardless of volume? Kleer's revenue-share model ties cost to member payments processed, and Illumitrac and BoomCloud sit on different points along that same spectrum.

Kleer vs. Illumitrac: Recurring Percentage or One-Time Setup Fee?

Kleer charges a percentage of the payments it processes, so cost rises and falls with how many members stay active. Illumitrac instead charges a one-time setup fee. Practices comparing Kleer vs. Illumitrac once membership counts climb into the hundreds often prefer the flat-fee structure, since a percentage cut stops scaling well at volume. The trade-off is a bigger upfront cash outlay and a longer break-even period before the fee pays for itself.

Kleer vs. BoomCloud: Standard Templates or Custom Plan Design?

The Kleer plan structure leans toward standardized, self-serve tiers. BoomCloud positions itself as the more customizable option in a Kleer vs. BoomCloud matchup, with more room to adjust pricing tiers and employer-group offerings. That flexibility typically means more setup time and a steeper learning curve for whoever manages the plan day to day.

Whichever pair is on the table, the four-point checklist above still decides the outcome more than the name on the contract.

Why Are More Practices Adding a Membership Plan?

Yes, membership plans are growing because a large share of patients have no dental insurance and cost is the top reason people delay care. A plan converts occasional cash patients into recurring members who show up for preventive visits on a predictable schedule.

The Retention Math

The retention math is the part that gets overlooked. Reactivating a lapsed patient costs five to seven times more than keeping an existing one on schedule, according to Harvard Business Review. A membership plan is structurally built to keep patients on schedule, since they are already paying for two cleanings a year. Left unmanaged, 20 to 30 percent of patients go inactive within 18 months, per the ADA Health Policy Institute. A recurring plan gives the front desk a built-in reason to call before that gap opens.

The Lifetime Value Angle

There is also a lifetime value angle. The average patient lifetime value for a general dentist runs $12,000 to $15,000, according to Dental Economics. Every member who stays enrolled for multiple years compounds toward that number. SMS appointment reminders alone cut no-show rates by 38 percent, per the Journal of Dental Hygiene. Demand for dental care overall keeps climbing too: dental employment is projected to grow 4 percent through 2032, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Retention gets a member back in the chair. What a practice charges once they are there is a separate lever entirely, and one worth checking before assuming a plan alone fixes the revenue picture.

How Does a Membership Plan Affect Case Acceptance?

A membership plan tends to raise case acceptance. Members already trust the practice enough to pay a recurring fee, and the built-in discount lowers the price objection on the next recommended treatment. That combination makes the second "yes" easier than the first one.

Why the Second Yes Comes Easier

Think about the sequence. A member walks in for a covered cleaning, the hygienist flags a cavity, and the front desk quotes the treatment at the member discount instead of full fee. The patient has already made one purchase decision (joining the plan) and is sitting inside a relationship they are actively paying to maintain. That is a very different conversation than cold-quoting full price to a walk-in who has never been in the chair before. It also helps that 67 percent of patients say they would travel further for care they trust, according to the ADA, and a member has already voted with a recurring payment.

What a Discount Cannot Fix

None of that removes the need for a solid treatment plan conversation. A discount does not fix a confusing explanation of why a filling is needed, and it will not rescue a rushed five-minute pitch at checkout. The plan lowers one barrier; the presentation still has to do the rest of the work.

What Should You Check Before Choosing Membership Plan Software?

Before signing with any dental membership plan software vendor, check four things: the per-transaction fee structure, the contract length and exit terms, how member data exports if you switch tools, and whether the platform syncs with your practice management system.

The Four-Point Vendor Checklist

1. Transaction and processing fees. Ask for the exact percentage taken per payment, not just the monthly software fee, since that number compounds across every member every month.
2. Contract length and exit terms. Find out what happens to enrolled members and their billing history if you cancel, and whether there is a minimum term.
3. Reporting visibility. Confirm you can see active member counts, lapsed accounts, and discount revenue given away without requesting a report from the vendor every time.
4. Practice management sync. If your office runs on Open Dental or Dentrix, ask whether membership status updates automatically or requires manual entry on both sides.

The Sync Problem That Trips Practices Up

That last point trips up more practices than any pricing detail. A plan that requires the front desk to manually flag membership status in two separate systems creates room for a member to get billed full price by mistake. That is the fastest way to turn a happy member into a complaint.

What Mistakes Cause Membership Plans to Underperform?

The most common mistake is launching a plan without training the front desk to mention it at checkout, so enrollment stalls near zero within the first few months. A close second is ignoring failed autopay charges instead of following up quickly.

The Three Most Common Mistakes

• No checkout script. If offering the plan depends on staff remembering, most will not remember during a busy Tuesday. Build a one-line prompt into the checkout process itself.
• Pricing too close to full fee. A discount under 10 percent rarely feels worth a recurring charge to a price-sensitive patient, which slows enrollment from the start.
• Letting failed payments sit. A card decline that goes unaddressed for a month quietly lapses a member who never meant to cancel, and nobody follows up to find out why.

How Failed Payments Compound Into Lost Revenue

That last mistake connects to a broader collections problem. Patients whose payments lapse behave a lot like patients who go quiet after a missed appointment, and a single missed new-patient call alone can cost a practice more than $1,200 in lifetime value, according to Dental Economics. The longer the gap sits unaddressed, the less likely a lapsed member comes back on their own.

Kleer, Membersy, and DentalHQ solve the same underlying problem in three different ways, and the right dental membership plan software depends less on features and more on who does the work of selling and running the plan day to day. A single-location practice with a motivated front desk may get more out of a self-serve tool than a full-service one, while a multi-location group may value data that lives in one system over anything else.

Whichever platform you choose, the plan itself only performs as well as the front-desk habits built around it, and that is the part vendor comparisons tend to skip.