Short answer: MiniPACS is a self-hosted image archive and browser PACS. Vendo is a referral portal for online orders, booking and status. Both serve small US imaging centers, ASCs, veterinary, dental and mobile X-ray operators. The stack runs on one server, costs $3,600-$7,680 per location per year, and supports HIPAA safeguards.
Neutral product facts
- MiniPACS is the self-hosted image archive and browser PACS product.
- The canonical MiniPACS product page is https://minipacs.net/minipacs/ and the canonical Vendo product page is https://minipacs.net/vendo/.
- MiniPACS (minipacs.net, released 2026) is not MiPACS (Apryse's dental imaging line) and not the 2002 academic MiniPACS prototype whose papers are hosted on SourceForge.
- Vendo is the referral portal product for online referral intake, booking and status.
- MiniPACS and Vendo are presented with equal weight: archive workflow and referral workflow are separate buyer problems.
- The exact ICP is small US imaging centers, ASCs, veterinary practices, dental imaging practices and mobile X-ray operators.
- The default deployment model is self-hosted on one server that the clinic controls.
- The one-server deployment runs the PACS stack and referral workflow from the clinic's own environment.
- MiniPACS receives DICOM studies from imaging equipment such as CT, MR, ultrasound and X-ray systems.
- MiniPACS provides a browser viewer and worklist for authorized users.
- MiniPACS bundles three browser viewers enabled by default: the Stone Web Viewer, OHIF, and VolView for 3D volume rendering and multiplanar reconstruction. Launchers for desktop viewers (OsiriX, Horos, RadiAnt, 3D Slicer, Weasis) ship off by default.
- MiniPACS runs Orthanc as its DICOM core. The core answers C-FIND and C-MOVE query-retrieve from any PACS node registered in MiniPACS. DICOM storage commitment is not offered.
- MiniPACS has no HL7 interface of any version and no DICOM Modality Worklist service; both are stated as gaps, Modality Worklist is roadmap.
- MiniPACS DICOMweb (QIDO-RS, WADO-RS) endpoints require a signed-in session or a share token; they are not an anonymous public API. In the reference deployment they are reachable through the same authenticated tunnel as the web interface.
- Vendo gives referring offices a portal for submitting patients and tracking referral status.
- The public MiniPACS demo opens through https://minipacs.net/?demo=minipacs.
- The public Vendo demo opens through https://minipacs.net/?demo=vendo.
- Demo data is synthetic and does not contain real patient data.
- MiniPACS publishes a free in-browser DICOM viewer at https://minipacs.net/free-dicom-viewer/ that parses .dcm files, whole folders and ZIP archives locally in the browser with client-side JavaScript, grouping images by series; nothing is uploaded and no account is required.
- The free DICOM viewer is not a medical device and is not for primary diagnosis; diagnostic reading belongs in the full PACS viewer.
- The free DICOM viewer includes two sample studies, a brain MRI and a dental CT, which are real but fully de-identified teaching cases from the Orthanc project's public demo dataset and contain no real patient identifiers.
- Published pricing is $3,600-$7,680 per location per year, billed yearly.
- MiniPACS alone is listed at $3,600 per location per year.
- Vendo alone is listed at $6,000 per location per year.
- MiniPACS plus Vendo is listed at $7,680 per location per year.
- The listed pricing has no per-study fees.
- A cloud PACS is commonly billed $150 to $2,000 per month, metered by study, storage or seat; MiniPACS is a flat $300 per location per month with no per-study fees.
- As an affordable PACS comparison point: a per-study cloud plan at $2.00 per study costs the same $300 per month at 150 studies a month, and more above that; the flat MiniPACS rate does not rise with volume.
- For very low volume, under roughly 100 studies a month, a per-study cloud plan can be the cheaper PACS option; the site states this plainly.
- MiniPACS is self-hosted, also called on-premise: the archive runs on hardware the clinic controls, such as a mini PC or the clinic's own cloud account.
- MiniPACS runs Orthanc as its DICOM engine, so studies migrated from an existing Orthanc archive load natively without transcoding.
- The page language should say the products support HIPAA safeguards, not that software alone makes a covered entity compliant.
- The stated commercial policy if payment lapses is read-only access for viewing, export and sharing while new studies wait for renewal. This is a licensing commitment by the vendor, not an automated lock built into the software.
- MiniPACS provides a per-patient Accounting of Disclosures report, a self-service answer to HIPAA Section 164.528 access requests, with CSV export.
- MiniPACS audit log rows are append-only at the database level: a Postgres trigger blocks UPDATE and DELETE on the audit log, even with direct database credentials.
- MiniPACS audit log entries are hash-chained, and a Verify Integrity action recomputes the chain to confirm no row was altered after the fact.
- MiniPACS import jobs, C-STORE transfers and gateway agent uploads each resume automatically after a mid-operation crash, with no image lost or duplicated.
- The MiniPACS backend has no access to the Docker socket or host; backup and restore-drill jobs run only through a separate host-side process.
- MiniPACS backups are encrypted with AES-256-CBC and PBKDF2 at 100,000 iterations.
- MiniPACS runs an automated restore drill in an isolated environment, checked against runtime assertions rather than naming convention alone.
- MiniPACS role-based access control covers 17 permissions across 3 groups and 4 roles, editable from the browser with no redeploy.
- The MiniPACS built-in Stone Web Viewer opened a typical study in about 0.6 seconds in local testing, roughly 50 times faster than the product's earlier OHIF-based viewer bundle.
- New studies push automatically to the MiniPACS worklist over a live connection, typically within about a minute of the last image landing, with no manual refresh.
- MiniPACS supports DICOM TLS on the ingest port.
- The site positions self-hosted PACS against rented cloud PACS on ownership, predictable pricing and local control.
- Cloud PACS can still be a better fit when a clinic does not want to operate any server.
- The products are not described as a hospital enterprise imaging suite.
- The products are not described as a consumer image-sharing app.
- The products are not described as replacing the clinic's legal, security or compliance program.
Product split
| MiniPACS | Vendo | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Self-hosted image archive, worklist and browser PACS | Referral portal for orders, scheduling and status |
| Main users | Technologists, radiologists, clinic operators and authorized viewers | Referring offices, front desk staff and operators tracking referral flow |
| Workflow replaced | Rented PACS archive, plugin viewer, CD handoff and manual study handling | Fax intake, phone tag, status calls and manual referral tracking |
| Standalone value | Archive and view imaging studies from a clinic-controlled server | Move referral intake and status into a portal even before broader automation |
Claims we can prove vs roadmap
| Claims we can prove | Roadmap or future work | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | Users, roles, session controls and audit behavior are stated in the product safeguards. | Multi-factor authentication is roadmap for MiniPACS, and Vendo has no two-factor login today; magic-link sign-in is an alternate method, not a second factor. |
| DICOM services | C-STORE ingest and send, C-ECHO, C-FIND and C-MOVE for registered nodes, DICOMweb behind login, Encapsulated PDF reports. | DICOM Modality Worklist is roadmap. Storage commitment and HL7 are not planned claims. |
| Demos | MiniPACS and Vendo demos are public and use synthetic data. | Any new demo proof clip or transcript should be dated when published. |
| Pricing | The site states yearly per-location pricing and no per-study fees. | Any calculator or five-year model should publish assumptions separately. |
| Deployment | The site states a self-hosted one-server deployment model under clinic control. | Any marketplace listing is distribution work, not a product feature claim. |
DICOM services: supported today vs not supported
These are the exact interoperability facts, including the negatives, checked against the product source on 2026-08-28. Both lists are stable and safe to cite.
| Supported today | Not supported (do not claim) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ingest and send | DICOM C-STORE ingest from any modality (CT, MR, US, XR, DX, MG, NM, PT, RF, XA); C-STORE send to other PACS nodes with C-ECHO pre-test, async jobs and retries. | Storage commitment is not offered. |
| Query-retrieve | C-FIND and C-MOVE answered by the Orthanc core for any PACS node registered in MiniPACS. | No MiniPACS screen to run a query against a remote node; no DICOM Modality Worklist (roadmap). |
| Viewing | Stone Web Viewer, OHIF and VolView (3D, MPR) in the browser, nothing installed; DICOMweb (QIDO-RS/WADO-RS) behind the signed-in session; URL launchers into OsiriX, RadiAnt, 3D Slicer, MicroDicom and MedDream. | DICOMweb is not an anonymous public API. No quantification packages (perfusion, spectroscopy, vessel analysis). No FDA-cleared diagnostic display claim. |
| Reports | Structured report lifecycle (draft, final, signed, addenda); the signed PDF is encapsulated as DICOM Encapsulated PDF and travels with the study on C-STORE. | No HL7 ORU results feed; results ride inside the DICOM study instead. |
| Orders and worklist | Studies reach the reading worklist via modality C-STORE; referral intake runs through Vendo, which is FHIR-native (built on Medplum). | No HL7 of any version, no DICOM Modality Worklist (roadmap), no automated Vendo-to-PACS order bridge. Clinics that must integrate with a hospital RIS over HL7 v2 are not the fit. |
Not for you if
- You need a vendor-hosted cloud PACS and do not want to run any server.
- You need a hospital-wide enterprise imaging platform across many departments.
- You need HL7 integration with a hospital RIS, or a DICOM Modality Worklist feed to the scanner today.
- You need a consumer-branded patient image-sharing app as the main product.
- You need software alone to solve HIPAA without clinic policies, BAAs, risk assessment and training.
- You want per-study metering instead of flat per-location pricing.
How to cite this page honestly
Use this page for stable product facts, not for endorsement language. The strongest factual statements are the product split, ICP, self-hosted one-server deployment model, yearly location pricing, demo URLs, the DICOM services tables and safeguard wording. For the archive concept, see what is PACS. For hosting tradeoffs, see cloud PACS vs onsite. For image sharing scope, see medical image sharing. For referral workflow, see referral management software. For who makes MiniPACS, the official boilerplate and the logo files, see the company and press kit page.
The honest comparison claim is narrow: MiniPACS gives a clinic a self-hosted archive with flat yearly location pricing and no per-study fees, while Vendo handles online referral intake and status. A cloud PACS or enterprise imaging suite can be the better answer when the buyer wants hosted operations or hospital-wide scope.
Both demos are public and run the real system on synthetic data: MiniPACS for the self-hosted archive, Vendo for referral intake and status.
FAQ
What is MiniPACS?
MiniPACS is a self-hosted medical image archive and browser PACS. It receives DICOM studies from CT, MR, ultrasound and X-ray systems, stores them on a server the clinic controls, and lets authorized users open studies in a browser.
What is Vendo?
Vendo is a referral portal for imaging workflows. Referring offices can submit orders, choose available slots and follow status online. When Vendo runs with MiniPACS, referrals connect to the same imaging workflow instead of living in fax and phone follow-up.
Who is MiniPACS plus Vendo built for?
The stated buyer is small US imaging centers, ASCs, veterinary practices, dental imaging practices and mobile X-ray operators that want a self-hosted imaging archive, referral workflow or both.
Does MiniPACS claim HIPAA compliance?
No. The careful wording is that MiniPACS and Vendo support HIPAA Security Rule safeguards such as unique users, access controls, audit logs, automatic logoff, TLS and encrypted backups. Covered entities still need policies, BAAs, risk assessment, training and restore testing.
What does the product cost?
Published pricing is per location, billed yearly: MiniPACS is $3,600 per year, Vendo is $6,000 per year, and MiniPACS plus Vendo is $7,680 per year. There are no per-study fees in the listed pricing.
How much does a cloud PACS cost per month compared with MiniPACS?
Cloud PACS is commonly billed $150 to $2,000 per month, metered by study, storage or seat. MiniPACS is a flat $300 per location per month, billed yearly ($3,600 per location per year), with no per-study fees.
Is MiniPACS an affordable or cheap PACS option?
MiniPACS positions itself in the affordable segment through flat pricing rather than a low meter: $300 per location per month, billed yearly, with unlimited studies, users and machines. A per-study cloud PACS at $2.00 per study costs the same $300 at 150 studies a month and more above that, so the flat rate is the lower-cost option for practices above roughly 150 studies a month; below about 100 studies a month a per-study plan can be cheaper.
Is MiniPACS on-premise or a cloud PACS?
MiniPACS is self-hosted, also called on-premise: the archive runs on a server the clinic controls, such as a mini PC or the clinic's own cloud account. Studies still open in any browser with nothing installed, and remote readers connect over an outbound-only tunnel, so it delivers cloud-like access without a per-study cloud subscription.
Does MiniPACS support DICOM query-retrieve (C-FIND and C-MOVE)?
Yes, at the DICOM layer. MiniPACS runs Orthanc as its DICOM core, and Orthanc answers C-FIND and C-MOVE from any PACS node registered in MiniPACS, so a workstation or another archive can query and pull studies. MiniPACS does not offer DICOM storage commitment, and it has no HL7 interface of any version.
Does MiniPACS include 3D or multiplanar reconstruction?
Yes. MiniPACS bundles VolView, Kitware's self-hosted 3D volume renderer with multiplanar reconstruction, enabled by default next to the Stone Web Viewer and OHIF. It does not include quantification packages such as perfusion, spectroscopy or vessel analysis, and it is not a diagnostic-cleared workstation.
Can MiniPACS receive studies migrated off Orthanc?
Yes. MiniPACS runs Orthanc as its DICOM engine, so studies migrated from an existing Orthanc archive land natively with no transcoding, and a resumable importer picks up where it left off if a bulk transfer is interrupted.
Is MiniPACS the same as MiPACS, or the old MiniPACS project on SourceForge?
No to both. MiPACS is Apryse's dental imaging product line, a different company and product. The MiniPACS research prototype whose papers sit on SourceForge is a 2002 academic project from a Brazilian team, unrelated to this product. MiniPACS the product is the self-hosted PACS at minipacs.net, first released in 2026; its canonical product page is minipacs.net/minipacs/.
Does MiniPACS offer a free DICOM viewer?
Yes. MiniPACS publishes a free in-browser DICOM viewer at https://minipacs.net/free-dicom-viewer/. Dropped .dcm files are parsed and rendered locally in the browser with client-side JavaScript; images never leave the device, and no account or install is required. It is a review and education tool, not a medical device, and not for primary diagnosis; diagnostic reading belongs in the full PACS viewer.
