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What do you need?

Use this page to choose the account, subscription and desktop install your role needs before you start with Cympha dental lab case management software as a clinician, lab, designer or patient.

Audience: Anyone considering Cympha for the first time — clinicians, lab owners, designers, or patients — who wants to know exactly which account, subscription, or install they actually need before they start.

You'll come away knowing: which Cympha surfaces you have to sign up for given what you want to do, what's free, what's paid, and what you can skip.

Time required: Around three minutes to read; longer to actually do the sign-up the section recommends.

How Cympha is layered

Cympha is not a single subscription. It's a layered platform where most pieces are free to sign up for and only the heavy desktop design tools are paid. Picking the right starting point matters because signing up for things you don't need wastes time, and your role is set once at sign-up — there is no self-service way to change it later (e.g. picking Clinical when you're a lab).

The layers, from cheapest to most involved:

  • Cympha case lifecycle management at app.cympha.com — free signup. Browser-only. Required for every other Cympha workflow.
  • Cympha Studio at studio.cympha.com — free, included with your Cympha account. Browser-based 3D viewer.
  • Ortho Monitoring — built into Cympha for aligner cases.
  • ClearAligner.AI at app.cympha.com/caai — pay-per-case credits. No subscription. No desktop install.
  • GuideMia desktop products at gm.cympha.com (OrthoPlus, Implant Master, OrthoClic) — paid subscription. Windows-only.
  • Cympha Agent Manager — free download. Windows-only. Pairs GuideMia desktop products to Cympha cases.

Now match your goal to the right starting point.

"I just got a Cympha case-share email from a colleague"

You need: a free Cympha account. That's it.

Click the link in the email, sign up with the exact address the share was sent to, and the shared case appears on your dashboard. You can view the case and its files. You can't upload files, comment, or approve designs on a case someone else owns — shared access is read-only by design.

Do not: subscribe to anything on gm.cympha.com, install any desktop product, or sign up as anything other than Clinical (the clinician role).

→ See I just got a Cympha case-share email — what do I do?.

"I'm a clinician and I want to send aligner or implant cases to a lab"

You need: a free Cympha account with the Clinical role.

Sign up at app.cympha.com/sign-up, pick Clinical on the Select Your Role screen, and you can immediately submit cases. You'll find your lab in the search at /cases/new (there is no public lab directory — connect with your lab first, then search by lab name or the lab manager's name or email). Case pricing is set by the lab; when a case is billed through Cympha you pay in a secure checkout.

You do not need: any GuideMia desktop subscription. The lab designs the case; you submit and approve.

→ See Submit an AlignerBot case. Sending an implant case follows the same pattern — pick Implant as the service.

"I want AI to design my aligners — I don't want to wait for a lab"

You need: a free Cympha account + ClearAligner.AI credits (paid per case).

Sign up at app.cympha.com/sign-up, then go to app.cympha.com/caai and buy credits at /credits. Submit your case at /caai/cases/new. One credit covers one ClearAligner.AI case end-to-end: Phase-1 (the staged tooth plan) is free to review, and the credit is charged when you self-approve to dispatch the appliance design. No lab in the middle.

You do not need: a lab account, a GuideMia subscription, or any desktop install. ClearAligner.AI runs centrally — nothing to install on your end.

→ See Use ClearAligner.AI — direct, no lab in the middle.

"I want to share my treatment plan with my patient, or monitor them between visits"

You need: the same free Cympha account you already use to manage cases.

Ortho Monitoring is built into Cympha for aligner cases — there's no separate app to install. Open a case with a saved treatment plan, click Share to Patient, and the patient can view their plan in the browser. From there you can follow the patient between visits from the same account.

You do not need: a third-party app or anything new from gm.cympha.com.

→ See Share a treatment plan with a patient and Enroll a patient in Ortho Monitoring.

"I'm a patient and my doctor emailed me a link to my plan"

You need: nothing to install. You'll set a password on a tiny sign-up page, and you're in.

Open the email, click the link, set a password. The plan opens in your browser; there's no app to download. Your account only sees the plan(s) your doctor shared with you.

→ See I got an invite from my dentist — how do I open my plan?.

"I'm setting up a lab on Cympha to take cases from clinicians"

You need: a free Cympha lab account as Lab Manager.

Sign up at app.cympha.com/sign-up, pick Lab Manager on the Select Your Role screen — this is the role decision that turns the rest of Cympha's lab features on, and roles can't be changed later, so choose deliberately. Lab managers activate immediately — there is no approval wait. Walk through the onboarding wizard (4 steps: Lab Info, Introduction, Services, Payment); once onboarding is complete, clinicians can find you in search at /cases/new and submit cases.

You do not need (yet): a GuideMia subscription or any desktop install. You can take cases and assign them to human designers without ever installing OrthoPlus. Cympha bills per case; the lab account itself is free.

You'll need more later if you want AlignerBot (the AI designer) or you want your designers to use GuideMia desktop products. See the next two sections.

→ See Onboard your lab on Cympha.

"I want AlignerBot to auto-design aligners for my lab"

You need: Cympha lab account (free) + GuideMia OrthoPlus subscription (paid) + Cympha Agent Manager on a Windows workstation (free).

This is the heaviest setup on the platform because AlignerBot is the only workflow that needs a real desktop running. The OrthoPlus subscription on gm.cympha.com is the design engine; the Agent Manager bridges it to your Cympha cases. Budget one uninterrupted sitting — most of the time is installers.

You do not need: to subscribe to every GuideMia product. OrthoPlus alone is enough for aligners. You can add Implant Master later from the same /account page if you grow into implant guide work.

→ See Set up AlignerBot for your lab.

"I'm joining a lab as a designer"

You need: a free Cympha account as Designer. Your lab provides the GuideMia subscription.

Sign up at app.cympha.com/sign-up, pick Designer on the Select Your Role screen, enter the lab manager's email when prompted, and your request lands on their My Team page as Pending Designer. You initiate the join — labs don't send invitations. Once the manager approves, your role flips to Designer and assigned cases appear in My Assignments at /assignments.

For the desktop side, your lab manager typically provides an OrthoPlus activation code from their own gm.cympha.com/account. You install OrthoPlus, paste the code, and you're ready. You also install the Cympha Agent Manager on your own workstation so cases auto-download.

You do not need: to subscribe to OrthoPlus on your own card — the lab covers it. Don't pay twice.

→ See First day as a designer and Install and pair Cympha Agent Manager.

"I want to use Cympha Studio in the browser to plan a case myself"

You need: a free Cympha account.

Cympha Studio runs entirely in the browser at studio.cympha.com. Free with your Cympha account. No desktop install, no separate subscription. Open scans, drop measurements, build a virtual patient, save the project to a Cympha case — all browser-side. The desktop GuideMia products do more, but Studio covers a lot of clinical handoff and review.

You do not need: anything from gm.cympha.com.

What's free vs. what's paid

| Surface | Cost | |---|---| | Cympha case lifecycle management (app.cympha.com) | Free signup. Cases may be billed by the lab; the platform is free. | | Cympha Studio (studio.cympha.com) | Free, included with Cympha. | | Ortho Monitoring | Free, built into Cympha for aligner cases. | | Cympha Agent Manager | Free download. | | ClearAligner.AI | Pay-per-case credits (no subscription). | | OrthoPlus / Implant Master / OrthoClic | Subscription on gm.cympha.com. Tiered — Starter, Studio, Enterprise (Studio carries the Popular badge) — plus your billing interval. |

What about the patient role?

You don't pick the patient role on the sign-up screen. It's set automatically when a doctor clicks Share to Patient on an aligner case — the patient receives an invitation that creates a patient account on first sign-in. Patients can't choose to be patients; they have to be invited. This is intentional: the patient role has narrow, plan-specific access by design.

I picked the wrong role at sign-up

Roles are set once and there is no self-service way to change them — the gate is intentional so users can't switch themselves into a different shell. If you picked the wrong one, contact Cympha support for help.

Cross-reference

Last updated 2026-07-30.

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