Last updated: June 11, 2026
Search “open-source hospital management system” and you get two very different things back. Some results are mature electronic health record platforms running in real hospitals. Others are GitHub demos that look the part and then stall the moment you try to deploy them. This roundup sorts the two apart. For each of six projects worth your time, you get what it’s actually built for, the stack, the license, and a straight verdict on who should pick it.
One note on terms first. “Hospital management system” (HMS) and “electronic health record” (EHR) get used interchangeably online, and the projects below blur the line too. Most cover patient records, appointments, billing, pharmacy, and lab modules. Where a project leans hard one way, the verdict says so.
How to choose an open-source hospital management system
Three things decide whether one of these fits your project.
The first is the license, and it matters more than people think. A permissive license like MIT lets you reuse and modify the code freely, including in closed commercial work. A copyleft license like GPL or AGPL is still free, but it requires you to release your own source if you distribute (and AGPL extends that to code you run as a network service). For a school capstone none of this bites; for a clinic you plan to sell software to, it absolutely does. Every project below has its license noted.
The second is the stack. Match it to what you already know. PHP/MySQL projects host fine on cheap shared hosting. Java platforms are heavier but built for scale. JavaScript front-ends want a Node toolchain.
The third is whether anyone still maintains it. An archived repo can be a great read and a fine demo, but you’re on your own for security patches. One entry below is archived — it’s here because the codebase is clean and worth learning from, not because you should run it in production.
1. OpenMRS — the modular platform behind many others
OpenMRS is less a finished app and more a foundation you build on. It’s a Java-based medical record platform designed for low-resource settings, with a module system that lets implementers add only the features a given site needs. It has the largest community of the bunch, a long track record in clinics across Africa and Asia, and it’s the engine that several other distributions are built on top of.
Stack: Java, with a modern front-end (openmrs-esm-core) in React.
License: Mozilla Public License 2.0 with a Healthcare Disclaimer.
Repo: github.com/openmrs/openmrs-core
Verdict: The right pick if you want a serious, extensible platform and you’re comfortable with Java. Overkill for a quick capstone demo, but unmatched if you’re building something real and want a community behind it.
2. OpenEMR — the most widely deployed open-source EHR
OpenEMR is the heavyweight for actual practice management. It’s a full EHR and medical practice system — scheduling, billing, electronic prescriptions, patient portal, reporting — and it’s ONC-certified, which is a real bar that most projects on this list don’t clear. It runs on the LAMP stack most students and shared hosts already have.
Stack: PHP, MySQL/MariaDB (LAMP).
License: GNU GPL v3.
Repo: github.com/openemr/openemr
Verdict: The best choice if you want a complete, deployable system on familiar PHP. The GPL means any distributed modifications must stay open — fine for internal use or learning, something to plan around if you intend to sell a closed fork.
3. Bahmni — a ready-to-run distribution for hospitals
Bahmni is what you reach for when you don’t want to assemble the pieces yourself. It bundles OpenMRS (records), Odoo (billing and inventory), and OpenELIS (lab) into one integrated system aimed at hospitals and clinics in low-resource environments. It’s used in real facilities and ships with a usable clinical front-end out of the box.
Stack: OpenMRS (Java) + Odoo (Python) + OpenELIS, integrated.
License: GNU AGPL v3.
Repo: github.com/bahmni
Verdict: Pick Bahmni if you want hospital-grade features working together without integrating them yourself. Note the AGPL: if you run a modified Bahmni as a service for others, you’re obligated to share your changes.
4. Open Hospital — lightweight EHR for small facilities
Open Hospital (OH), built by the volunteer group Informatici Senza Frontiere, was designed for small hospitals and health centers in places with limited infrastructure — it can run offline and on modest hardware. It covers OPD, wards, pharmacy, lab, and billing, and there’s both a desktop GUI and a newer web UI.
Stack: Java (desktop GUI and a web UI/REST API).
License: GNU GPL v3.
Repo: github.com/informatici/openhospital
Verdict: A strong, genuinely maintained option for a small clinic or a capstone that wants a real EHR without Bahmni’s footprint. Java experience helps.
5. HMIS by CareCode — battle-tested in 40+ institutions
This one is the quiet workhorse. Started in 2004 by Dr. M H B Ariyaratne and open-sourced in 2012, the hmislk HMIS is a Java EE hospital information system used across 40-plus healthcare institutions in Sri Lanka. It’s not the flashiest, but “in production for two decades” is a stronger signal than star count.
Stack: Java EE (JSF/PrimeFaces), MySQL.
License: MIT.
Repo: github.com/hmislk/hmis
Verdict: Worth a look if you want a real-world, MIT-licensed Java EE codebase — the permissive license gives you the most freedom of anything on this list. The Java EE stack is heavier to stand up than LAMP.
6. HospitalRun — a clean codebase to learn from (archived)
HospitalRun set out to be modern, offline-first hospital software for the developing world, and its frontend is a well-organized JavaScript/Ember codebase. The catch: the project was archived in January 2023 and is no longer maintained. The repos are read-only.
Stack: JavaScript (Ember frontend, Node/CouchDB backend).
License: MIT.
Repo: github.com/HospitalRun/hospitalrun-frontend
Verdict: Don’t deploy this — it’s unmaintained, so no security patches. But as MIT-licensed reference code for a JavaScript developer studying how a hospital app is structured, it’s still a clean read.
Which one should you pick?
For a capstone or thesis on PHP/MySQL, start with OpenEMR — it’s complete, deployable, and runs on hosting you already have.
For a real platform you’ll extend, OpenMRS (build-it-yourself) or Bahmni (ready-made) are the serious answers, both Java.
For a small clinic that needs something working soon, Open Hospital is the lightest real EHR here.
If license freedom matters most — say you want to build a closed commercial product on top — the MIT-licensed HMIS gives you the most room, with HospitalRun’s archived code as a learning reference.
Whatever you choose, clone the repo, read its LICENSE file yourself before you build on it, and check the last commit date so you know what you’re signing up to maintain.
Want a guided, downloadable project instead of standing up one of these? Browse our hospital and clinic project source code and PHP project collections — built to study, run, and submit.