✗
Docker Compose
The Postman for openEHR
How openEHR Explorer stacks up against every existing developer tool in the openEHR ecosystem. No dedicated developer GUI existed — until now.
✓ Full support
◑ Partial / limited
✗ Not supported
† Planned (Phase 2)
? Not yet evaluated
Feature
openEHR Explorer
Desktop app (Tauri)
macOS · Win · Linux
macOS · Win · Linux
openEHRTool v2
Web app (Docker)
CRS4 / open-source
CRS4 / open-source
Postman / curl
Generic REST client
No openEHR awareness
No openEHR awareness
Better Studio
Web app (proprietary)
Better Platform only
Better Platform only
ehr-ctrl
Desktop app (Windows)
Free, newly discovered
Free, newly discovered
Setup & Access
No Docker / backend required
✓
✓
✗
SaaS / hosted
SaaS / hosted
?
Installs in < 2 min
✓
dmg/exe/deb/AppImage, brew/scoop
dmg/exe/deb/AppImage, brew/scoop
◑
docker compose up
docker compose up
✓
✗
Account required
Account required
?
Works with local EHRBase
✓
✓
✓
✗
?
Multi-server profiles with version detection
✓
Auto version detect
Auto version detect
✗
◑
Env vars / manual
Env vars / manual
✗
?
Supports Better Platform
◑
Partial, CRUD in beta
Partial, CRUD in beta
◑
✓
✓
Native
Native
?
CDR-agnostic (generic REST)
✓
◑
✓
✗
?
EHR & Composition Browsing
Paginated EHR list
✓
✓
✗
✓
?
Server-side EHR search (subject, namespace, system, etc.)
✓
AQL-backed search
AQL-backed search
◑
✗
✓
?
Compositions grouped by template
✓
◑
✗
✓
?
Raw canonical JSON view
✓
✓
✓
✓
?
Template-aware "pretty" view ¹
✓
Unique differentiator
Unique differentiator
✗
✗
◑
?
FLAT format view
✓
✗
◑
Manual only
Manual only
◑
?
Composition version history
✓
◑
✗
✓
?
One-click ID copy
✓
Every ID / path
Every ID / path
◑
✗
◑
?
Template Tooling
Template list & metadata
✓
✓
✗
✓
?
Web Template tree inspector
✓
Visual node tree
Visual node tree
✗
✗
◑
?
OPT drag-and-drop upload
✓
✓
✗
✓
?
FLAT path copy panel ²
✓
Unique differentiator
Unique differentiator
✗
✗
✗
?
FLAT path validator
†
Phase 2 (oehrpy)
Phase 2 (oehrpy)
✗
✗
✗
?
OPT XML pretty-printed view
✓
Indented, syntax-highlighted
Indented, syntax-highlighted
?
✓
Native response formatting
Native response formatting
?
?
AQL Query Interface
AQL query editor
✓
Syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting
✓
◑
Raw body only
Raw body only
✓
?
Tabular result view
✓
Auto-columns
Auto-columns
✓
✗
Raw JSON
Raw JSON
✓
?
Saved query library
✓
◑
✓
Collections
Collections
◑
?
Export results to CSV
✓
◑
✗
◑
?
AQL path autocomplete
✓
3-layer CodeMirror
3-layer CodeMirror
✗
✗
◑
?
Developer Experience
Request Inspector (view all HTTP traffic)
✓
Bottom drawer panel
Bottom drawer panel
✗
✓
Native feature
Native feature
✗
?
Keyboard shortcuts (navigation + actions)
✓
Cmd+1-4, Cmd+Shift+I
Cmd+1-4, Cmd+Shift+I
✗
✓
◑
?
Open-source / self-hostable
✓
Apache 2.0
Apache 2.0
✓
Apache 2.0
Apache 2.0
◑
Freemium
Freemium
✗
Proprietary
Proprietary
?
Composition diff tool
†
Phase 2
Phase 2
✗
✗
✗
?
Synthetic data generation
†
Phase 2 (MapEHR)
Phase 2 (MapEHR)
✗
✗
✗
?
Secure credential storage (OS keychain)
✓
Keychain + encrypted-file fallback
Keychain + encrypted-file fallback
?
◑
Vault variables, not OS keychain
Vault variables, not OS keychain
?
?
Signed auto-update (in-place)
✓
Checks GitHub Releases
Checks GitHub Releases
✗
Manual docker pull
Manual docker pull
✓
Self-updates
Self-updates
✓
Hosted, always latest
Hosted, always latest
?
Advanced Resources & Dashboard
EHR_STATUS view & update
✓
Modifiable/queryable flags editable
Modifiable/queryable flags editable
?
◑
Manual REST call
Manual REST call
?
✓
Explicit handling
Explicit handling
DIRECTORY (folder hierarchy) operations ³
✗
Not yet supported
Not yet supported
?
◑
Manual REST call
Manual REST call
?
✓
CONTRIBUTION tracking / audit trail ³
✗
Not yet supported
Not yet supported
?
◑
Manual REST call
Manual REST call
?
✓
STORED_QUERY execution ³
✗
Ad-hoc AQL only
Ad-hoc AQL only
?
◑
Manual REST call
Manual REST call
?
✓
Landing dashboard (live EHR/composition/template counts)
✗
Not yet supported
Not yet supported
?
✗
?
✓
Feature score
29.5
of 37
12.5
of 37
15.5
of 37
15
of 37
N/A
insufficient data
Unique to openEHR Explorer
Template-aware composition rendering
at0006 becomes "Systolic". No other tool resolves node IDs to template labels.
FLAT path panel
Every Web Template path, one click to copy. Eliminates the most common source of EHRBase integration errors.
Zero-dependency install
No Docker, no Python, no Node runtime. A native binary that opens in < 2 seconds.
Multi-server profile switcher
Local dev, staging, colleague's EHRBase — switch without restarting or editing config.
¹ Resolves raw node IDs (at0006) to human-readable template labels ("Systolic"). No other tool does this.
² One-click copy of every FLAT path from the Web Template tree — eliminates the #1 developer pain point when building compositions.
³ openEHR Explorer does not yet have dedicated UI for the DIRECTORY, CONTRIBUTION, or STORED_QUERY resources — the underlying data is reachable via AQL and the Request Inspector, but there's no dedicated browsing/editing surface for them yet. Tracked as known gaps.
Legend: ✓ = 1 · ◑ = 0.5 · ✗ = 0 · ? = not yet evaluated, scored as 0 pending verification · openEHRTool v2: github.com/crs4/openEHRTool-v2 · Better Studio: proprietary, Better Platform only · ehr-ctrl: ehr-ctrl.info, free Windows desktop client, added to this comparison based on public information — most rows are marked "not yet evaluated" pending hands-on testing, so its overall score is withheld rather than computed from mostly-unknown data.
Last updated August 2026 · reflects openEHR Explorer v0.5.0.