Softwr

Research · head to head

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences vs REDCap

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
REDCap logo

REDCap

Research

Research data capture licensed free to non-profits, and not licensable at all to companies

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.; REDCap a for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.
  • They diverge on capability: OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences covers OMEGA, REDCap covers Form and survey designer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences and REDCap differ
AttributeOpenEye, Cadence Molecular SciencesREDCap
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, Web, APIWeb, Linux, Windows

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 REDCap

  • Form and survey designer
  • Longitudinal projects
  • Data quality rules
  • Randomisation
  • Audit trail and e-signature
  • API and exports

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 REDCap
  • A computational chemist embedding conformer generation into an internal pipeline through the Python toolkitsnot REDCap
  • A university group publishing openly that can accept the public domain licence terms in exchange for zero costnot REDCap
  • A biotech scaling virtual screening on cloud compute without building its own clusternot REDCap

REDCap

  • An academic research group at an institution that already runs REDCap, where a new study database costs nothing beyond the time to build itnot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • A hospital collecting patient reported outcomes where data must stay on institutional infrastructure rather than a vendor cloudnot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • An investigator initiated trial that needs randomisation, an audit trail and statistical export without a commercial EDC budgetnot OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences
  • A multi site academic collaboration where each site can be given scoped access to a single longitudinal projectnot 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.

REDCap

  • A for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.
  • Because each institution hosts its own instance, support, uptime, backup and version currency vary by university, and a researcher has no recourse to Vanderbilt when the local instance is two years out of date.
  • It is free of licence fee but not free of cost: the hosting institution carries server, security, patching and support staffing, which is why some institutions charge internal recharges per project.
  • Validation for regulated use is the deploying institution responsibility, so an instance is not Part 11 compliant simply because REDCap supports the features; someone locally has to produce and maintain the evidence.
  • The interface and reporting are dated compared with commercial survey and EDC tools, and complex logic is built through data dictionary spreadsheets rather than a modern visual builder, which slows non technical study teams.

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

REDCap

On request
  • REDCap non-profit licence$undefined/year
    • No licence fee to non-profit and government institutions that join the consortium
    • Institution must install and host it on its own infrastructure
    • For-profit organisations may not hold a licence or self-host

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 REDCap if

  • You need form and survey designer.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Windows.
  • You also want longitudinal projects.
REDCap review

Questions people ask

Is OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences or REDCap better?
Neither clearly leads. OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences starts at On request and REDCap 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 REDCap?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences starts at On request and REDCap at On request.
Does OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences or REDCap run on more platforms?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Web, API. REDCap runs on Web, Linux, Windows.
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 REDCap is typically brought in for.
What can OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences do that REDCap cannot?
OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences covers OMEGA, ROCS, ROCS X, Orion platform. REDCap covers Form and survey designer, Longitudinal projects, Data quality rules, Randomisation.

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.

REDCap: Is REDCap really free?

The licence is free to non-profit institutions and government organisations that join the consortium, but they must host and support it themselves, so there is real internal cost.

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.

REDCap: Can my company use REDCap?

Not by holding a licence or self-hosting. For-profit organisations must use a separately licensed commercial hosted route.

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.

REDCap: Is REDCap 21 CFR Part 11 compliant?

It has the features to support Part 11 use, but compliance depends on how the hosting institution configures, validates and documents its own instance.

OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences: Is commercial pricing published?

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

REDCap: Who supports it?

Your local institutional REDCap administrator, not Vanderbilt. Support quality varies by site.

Share

Related pages

More on OpenEye, Cadence Molecular Sciences

More on REDCap

Keep looking

Other head to heads