Chikitsa

Chikitsa is a free, open-source patient management system for small clinics: it keeps patient contact details, books appointments for each doctor, records visits with diagnosis and treatment history, and prints bills and receipts. It is a self-hosted PHP web application from the Indian developer Sanskruti Technologies, published on SourceForge and GitHub under the GPL.

If you are looking for a Chikitsa software free download for a dental office, the key point is that Chikitsa is a general clinic tool. It handles the front desk and the money side of a practice well enough, but it has no tooth chart, periodontal chart or X-ray viewer. The name is the Sanskrit and Hindi word for medical treatment, which is why Google mixes it up with hospitals, TV series and government health schemes.

Chikitsa at a glance

What it does

• Patient register with contact details.
• Appointment book per doctor, with an appointment status that staff update during the day.
• Visit records with diagnosis and treatment history for each patient.
• Bill generation and printed fee receipts.
• Payment collection records, so outstanding balances can be tracked.
• Multiple user accounts, with doctors added as users.
• Clinic settings such as clinic details and working hours.
• Modular CodeIgniter 3 (HMVC) code base that a PHP developer can extend.

How dental teams use it

Front desk: booking and arrivals

1. Add each dentist or hygienist as a doctor user and set the clinic’s working hours.
2. Register new patients with their phone number so reception can confirm appointments.
3. Book appointments for the right doctor and update the appointment status as the day goes on.

Recording a treatment visit

1. Open the patient’s record and add a visit.
2. Type the diagnosis and the procedure, using tooth numbers in plain text (for example “36 MOD composite”) because there is no graphical chart.
3. Save the visit; it appears in the patient’s treatment history for the next appointment.

Billing and payments

1. Generate the bill for the visit, listing the procedures performed.
2. Print the receipt for the patient.
3. Record the payment against the bill so collections can be checked later.

Install and first run

Chikitsa runs in a web server, so one computer (or a small server) hosts it and the rest of the clinic uses a browser.

1. Windows PC: install XAMPP, which gives you Apache, PHP and MySQL in one package. This is the route the project itself recommends for PCs.
2. Linux server: install Apache, PHP and MySQL or MariaDB from your distribution.
3. Unzip the Chikitsa 2.0.7 package into the web root (for XAMPP, the htdocs folder).
4. Create an empty MySQL database and a database user.
5. Follow the installation steps in the user manual published on the SourceForge project page to connect Chikitsa to that database.
6. Log in as administrator, enter clinic details and working hours, then add doctor accounts.

Gotchas: SourceForge still marks the project as beta. The GitHub repository holds older code (0.9.8) than the 2.0.7 package on SourceForge, so take releases from SourceForge. If other PCs in the clinic will connect, open the web server to the local network only, set strong passwords and schedule MySQL backups. Do not expose it to the internet without HTTPS.

Limitations

• No dental charting, odontogram, periodontal chart or imaging; tooth details are free text.
• No release since February 2022, and the last project update on SourceForge was in February 2023.
• No official mobile app; staff use the web interface on a phone or tablet browser.
• Add-on extensions the developer used to offer (such as patient progress pictures, and departments and doctor management) were listed on the old project website; that domain now shows unrelated content, so their current availability could not be confirmed.
• No insurance claim handling for US, UK or Canadian payers.
• Support is limited to SourceForge discussions and GitHub issues.

Chikitsa vs alternatives

OpenEMR is also free, PHP-based and self-hosted, but far larger and actively maintained, with much broader clinical records. OpenMolar is open-source software built specifically for dental practices, so it covers dental charting that Chikitsa lacks. FreeMED is another open-source practice management system for medical offices. Choose Chikitsa when you want the simplest possible appointments-visits-billing loop and are happy to write tooth numbers as text.

FAQ

Is there a Chikitsa software free download?

Yes. Chikitsa is free and open source under the GPL. The release packages are published on its SourceForge project page, and the source code is on GitHub.

Is there a Chikitsa app to download for phones?

No official mobile app exists. Chikitsa is a web application, so staff open it in a phone or tablet browser on the clinic network.

What does “chikitsa” mean?

It is the Sanskrit and Hindi word for medical treatment. The software took the name; it is not related to hospitals or government schemes with the same word in their names.

Does Chikitsa work for a dental clinic?

For appointments, visit notes, bills and payments, yes. It has no dental chart or X-ray support, so tooth-level records are typed as text.

What are good alternatives to Chikitsa?

OpenEMR for a fuller free EHR, OpenMolar for dental-specific records, or FreeMED for a general medical office.

How do I install Chikitsa on Windows?

Install XAMPP, unzip Chikitsa into the htdocs folder, create a MySQL database, then follow the user manual on the SourceForge project page to finish the setup and open Chikitsa in your browser.

Is Chikitsa still being developed?

The latest release, 2.0.7, came out in February 2022, and no newer version has been published since.

Last checked against official sources: 26 September 2026 (developer website: sourceforge.net). Versions and licence terms change — confirm on the developer's site before deploying in a clinic.