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Healthcare · head to head

Gleamer vs GNU Health

Gleamer logo

Gleamer

Healthcare

CE marked and FDA cleared imaging AI suite for bone trauma and chest, now owned by RadNet

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
GNU Health logo

GNU Health

Healthcare

Free hospital and health information system from a small NGO, built on the Tryton framework

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only GNU Health has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Gleamer radNet, an imaging provider that competes with many independent Gleamer customers, now owns the company and also owns the competing DeepHealth AI portfolio, so roadmap and pricing priorities are an open question for non-RadNet buyers.; GNU Health development depends on GNU Solidario, a very small nonprofit funded by donations and training, so release cadence and long-term continuity are tied to a handful of people rather than to an engineering organisation.
  • They diverge on capability: Gleamer covers BoneView, GNU Health covers Electronic medical record.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Gleamer and GNU Health actually diverge.

Attributes where Gleamer and GNU Health differ
AttributeGleamerGNU Health
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, On-premiseLinux, Web, Self-hosted

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Healthcare).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Gleamer

  • BoneView
  • ChestView
  • BoneAge
  • BoneMetrics
  • LungCT and BoneCT
  • BreastView
  • Pixyl.Neuro
  • Gleamer Copilot

Only in GNU Health

  • Electronic medical record
  • Hospital management
  • Laboratory information system
  • Social medicine modules
  • Tryton business modules
  • Health federation
  • ICD and standards support
  • Modular installation

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Gleamer

  • An emergency department where junior doctors read plain films before radiology review and missed fractures are a recurring incident themenot GNU Health
  • An urgent care network standardising musculoskeletal reading quality across sites with variable radiology covernot GNU Health
  • A paediatric service automating bone age assessment to remove a slow manual atlas comparisonnot GNU Health
  • An orthopaedic service that needs automated limb alignment and measurement before surgical planning rather than manual measurement on the workstationnot GNU Health

GNU Health

  • A public hospital in a low-resource setting that cannot fund commercial EMR licensing and has in-house Linux capabilitynot Gleamer
  • A ministry building a national health network where source code inspection and data sovereignty are policy requirementsnot Gleamer
  • A university teaching health informatics that needs a complete, inspectable system rather than a vendor demonstrationnot Gleamer
  • A community health programme that needs socioeconomic determinants recorded alongside clinical datanot Gleamer

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Gleamer

  • RadNet, an imaging provider that competes with many independent Gleamer customers, now owns the company and also owns the competing DeepHealth AI portfolio, so roadmap and pricing priorities are an open question for non-RadNet buyers.
  • The measured benefit is largest for less experienced readers, so a specialist musculoskeletal service will see far less improvement than the published reader studies suggest.
  • Cleared indications differ per module and per market, and the FDA cleared set is narrower than the CE marked European set, so an American buyer cannot rely on European reference sites.
  • Each additional module adds alert volume into the same worklist, and departments running several Gleamer algorithms report needing local threshold tuning to keep radiologist trust.
  • Pricing is per exam and not published, which makes budgeting difficult for an emergency department whose plain film volume swings seasonally.

GNU Health

  • Development depends on GNU Solidario, a very small nonprofit funded by donations and training, so release cadence and long-term continuity are tied to a handful of people rather than to an engineering organisation.
  • It is built on Tryton, a framework few health IT staff know, so hiring or contracting people who can extend and maintain it is materially harder than for a mainstream stack.
  • Installation, upgrades and database administration assume Linux and Python competence, which puts the real cost on staffing rather than on licensing and defeats hospitals that lack that team.
  • The interface is functional rather than designed, and clinician acceptance is a genuine deployment risk compared with commercial systems that have invested heavily in usability.
  • Certification, regulatory conformance and interoperability testing that some jurisdictions demand of clinical systems are not provided by a vendor, so the adopting institution has to carry that work and that liability itself.

Pricing, plan by plan

Gleamer

On request
  • Gleamer Copilot$undefined/year
    • Priced per exam analysed or as an annual volume subscription
    • Modules licensed individually or bundled as Copilot
    • Cleared and CE marked indication differs per module and per market

GNU Health

Free
  • GNU HealthFree
    • GNU GPL licence
    • All modules included
    • No patient, bed or user limits
  • Support and training$undefined/year
    • Paid support and implementation from GNU Solidario
    • Training courses and certification
    • Quoted per institution

Which should you pick?

Choose Gleamer if

  • You need boneview.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want chestview.
Gleamer review

Choose GNU Health if

  • You need electronic medical record.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want hospital management.
GNU Health review

Questions people ask

Is Gleamer or GNU Health better?
Neither clearly leads. Gleamer starts at On request and GNU Health at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gleamer or GNU Health?
GNU Health has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Gleamer and Free for GNU Health.
Does Gleamer or GNU Health run on more platforms?
Gleamer runs on Web, Cloud, On-premise. GNU Health runs on Linux, Web, Self-hosted.
Can I use GNU Health for free?
Yes. GNU Health has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gleamer starts at On request.
What is Gleamer best used for?
Gleamer is most often used for an emergency department where junior doctors read plain films before radiology review and missed fractures are a recurring incident theme, an urgent care network standardising musculoskeletal reading quality across sites with variable radiology cover, a paediatric service automating bone age assessment to remove a slow manual atlas comparison, an orthopaedic service that needs automated limb alignment and measurement before surgical planning rather than manual measurement on the workstation. Of those, an emergency department where junior doctors read plain films before radiology review and missed fractures are a recurring incident theme and an urgent care network standardising musculoskeletal reading quality across sites with variable radiology cover are not what GNU Health is typically brought in for.
What can Gleamer do that GNU Health cannot?
Gleamer covers BoneView, ChestView, BoneAge, BoneMetrics. GNU Health covers Electronic medical record, Hospital management, Laboratory information system, Social medicine modules.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gleamer: Who owns Gleamer?

RadNet agreed to acquire Gleamer in February 2026 for around two hundred and fifteen million euros upfront. RadNet also owns DeepHealth, a competing AI portfolio.

GNU Health: Who develops GNU Health?

GNU Solidario, a Spanish nonprofit NGO, as an official GNU package under the GPL.

Gleamer: Is BoneView FDA cleared?

Yes, BoneView holds 510(k) clearance including for paediatric fracture detection, but the cleared finding set is narrower than the CE marked indication in Europe.

GNU Health: Is there commercial support?

Yes, in a limited form, from GNU Solidario itself and a small number of implementers. It is not a vendor support organisation.

Gleamer: What does the evidence actually show?

Multi-reader studies reported improved reader sensitivity for fracture detection and fewer false negatives, with the gain concentrated among less experienced readers in emergency settings.

GNU Health: What is it built on?

Tryton, a Python business application framework, which is where its accounting, stock and HR modules come from.

Gleamer: Can I buy just BoneView?

Yes, modules are licensed individually, though the commercial pitch is now the Copilot bundle across modalities.

GNU Health: Is it suitable for a large hospital?

It is deployed in hospitals, but the deciding factor is whether you have internal Linux, Python and Tryton capability rather than the size of the institution.

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