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Research · head to head

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences vs TetraScience

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences logo

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

Research

Computational chemistry toolkits and the Orion cloud platform, now inside Cadence

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TetraScience logo

TetraScience

Research

Scientific data cloud that harmonises instrument output across the lab estate

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences the free Public Domain Research Licence requires surrendering intellectual property rights and publishing results into the public domain, which rules it out for any academic group with a technology transfer office or patent ambitions.; TetraScience pricing is scoped on connected instruments and data engineering effort rather than a published unit, so the cost of adding a new laboratory or an acquired site is impossible to forecast without going back to the vendor.
  • They diverge on capability: OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences covers OMEGA, TetraScience covers Instrument connectors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences and TetraScience actually diverge.

Attributes where OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences and TetraScience differ
AttributeOpenEye, Cadence Molecular SciencesTetraScience
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, Web, APIWeb, Cloud, API

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Research).

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 OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

  • OMEGA
  • ROCS
  • ROCS X
  • Orion platform
  • Programmatic toolkits
  • Academic routes
  • Structure preparation
  • Docking and scoring

Only in TetraScience

  • Instrument connectors
  • Tetra Data harmonisation
  • Cloud-native data platform
  • GxP package
  • Scientific applications
  • Data provenance
  • Open access
  • AWS Marketplace availability

What people use each for

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

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

  • A pharmaceutical discovery team screening a multi-billion compound library by three-dimensional shape rather than by two-dimensional similaritynot TetraScience
  • A computational chemist embedding conformer generation into an internal pipeline through the Python toolkitsnot TetraScience
  • A university group publishing openly that can accept the public domain licence terms in exchange for zero costnot TetraScience
  • A biotech scaling virtual screening on cloud compute without building its own clusternot TetraScience

TetraScience

  • A pharmaceutical company trying to make twenty years of chromatography data usable for modelling rather than trapped on instrument workstationsnot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • A biotech building machine learning models on assay data that currently requires manual export from every instrumentnot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • A quality control laboratory needing instrument data captured with provenance and audit trail for regulated usenot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • A company consolidating data from acquired sites where each site runs a different instrument vendor and informatics stacknot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

Where each one falls short

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

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

  • The free Public Domain Research Licence requires surrendering intellectual property rights and publishing results into the public domain, which rules it out for any academic group with a technology transfer office or patent ambitions.
  • Free academic licences are renewable but re-evaluated annually with no guarantee of continuation, so a multi-year research programme has no assured software entitlement beyond the current year.
  • OpenEye now sits inside Cadence Design Systems, whose core business is chip design, so the roadmap and licensing culture are set by a company for which molecular sciences is one growth line among several.
  • Commercial pricing is entirely unpublished and structured as annual subscriptions with separate Orion compute, making total cost of a screening programme hard to forecast before contracting.
  • The toolkits assume real computational chemistry expertise; they are libraries and applications for specialists, not an interface a medicinal chemist can drive without training.

TetraScience

  • Pricing is scoped on connected instruments and data engineering effort rather than a published unit, so the cost of adding a new laboratory or an acquired site is impossible to forecast without going back to the vendor.
  • Value depends entirely on connector coverage for your actual instrument estate; an instrument type without an existing productised connector becomes a services engagement with its own timeline and cost.
  • The GxP package is a separate annual subscription rather than an included capability, so a company that starts in research and later needs regulated use faces an additional commercial line and a validation exercise.
  • It is infrastructure with no end-user application of its own, so the business case rests on downstream analytics and AI work that has to be resourced and delivered separately before anyone sees a benefit.
  • Deployment is a multi-year programme touching instruments, networks, validated systems and site IT, and organisations consistently underestimate the internal effort required from people who also have day jobs running the laboratory.

Pricing, plan by plan

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

On request
  • Commercial licence$undefined/year
    • Annual subscription priced through Cadence sales
    • Toolkits and applications licensed separately from the Orion platform
    • Orion compute billed on top of software entitlements
  • Academic Package$undefined/year
    • Paid annual subscription for university groups under ten members
    • Includes support
    • Researchers retain intellectual property rights
  • Public Domain Research LicenceFree
    • No cost
    • No support of any kind
    • No intellectual property rights retained

TetraScience

On request
  • Tetra Scientific Data Cloud$undefined/year
    • Priced on number of instruments connected and scope of data engineering
    • Contract entitles a specified quantity of use for its duration
    • Multi-year enterprise agreements are the norm
  • Tetra GxP package$undefined/year
    • Separate annual subscription executed within the licence agreement
    • Audit trail, data provenance, control matrices and software hazard analysis
    • Disaster recovery provisions

Which should you pick?

Choose OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences if

  • You need omega.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Web, API.
  • You also want rocs.
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences review

Choose TetraScience if

  • You need instrument connectors.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, API.
  • You also want tetra data harmonisation.
TetraScience review

Questions people ask

Is OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences or TetraScience better?
Neither clearly leads. OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences starts at On request and TetraScience at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences or TetraScience?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences starts at On request and TetraScience at On request.
Does OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences or TetraScience run on more platforms?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Web, API. TetraScience runs on Web, Cloud, API.
What is OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences best used for?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences is most often used for a pharmaceutical discovery team screening a multi-billion compound library by three-dimensional shape rather than by two-dimensional similarity, a computational chemist embedding conformer generation into an internal pipeline through the python toolkits, a university group publishing openly that can accept the public domain licence terms in exchange for zero cost, a biotech scaling virtual screening on cloud compute without building its own cluster. Of those, a pharmaceutical discovery team screening a multi-billion compound library by three-dimensional shape rather than by two-dimensional similarity and a computational chemist embedding conformer generation into an internal pipeline through the python toolkits are not what TetraScience is typically brought in for.
What can OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences do that TetraScience cannot?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences covers OMEGA, ROCS, ROCS X, Orion platform. TetraScience covers Instrument connectors, Tetra Data harmonisation, Cloud-native data platform, GxP package.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences: Is OpenEye still OpenEye?

It trades as OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences, and is part of Cadence Design Systems following acquisition. The product names OMEGA, ROCS and Orion continue.

TetraScience: What is the pricing unit?

Connected instruments and the scope of data engineering, over a fixed contract term. There is no published per-seat or per-gigabyte rate.

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences: Can academics use it for free?

Yes, through the Public Domain Research Licence or a Teaching Licence, but both come with no support and no intellectual property rights. Keeping IP rights and support requires the paid Academic Package.

TetraScience: Does it replace my ELN or LIMS?

No. It sits underneath them, harmonising instrument data and making it available to whatever applications you already run.

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences: What is ROCS X?

A machine learning enabled extension of ROCS shape search, built on the Orion platform, aimed at screening chemical spaces in the trillions of molecules.

TetraScience: Is it usable in a GxP environment?

Yes, with the separately subscribed Tetra GxP package. It reduces validation effort substantially but does not eliminate your validation obligation.

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences: Is commercial pricing published?

No. Commercial licences are annual subscriptions quoted through Cadence sales, with Orion compute charged separately.

TetraScience: Can I get the harmonised data out?

Yes. Tetra Data is designed to be accessible to your own analytics tools rather than confined to the platform.

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