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Riley vs DeepSeek

An open model, or a coworker built around one?

audit the outcome · verify activation · prove it every Friday

DeepSeek is a high-quality, low-cost AI model you can chat with or call via API. Riley is a system built around frontier models, with GBP, PMS, AEO, an approval queue, and a Practice-tier BAA.

R

Riley

Free $0 · Starter $99 · Growth $249 · Studio $499/mo

AI coworker for dental practices. Drafts review replies, runs recall, recovers missed calls, and ships a weekly digest in Slack.

D

DeepSeek

Free chat · ~$0.27 / 1M tokens API

Open-source frontier AI model out of China. Strong reasoning at low cost; not a product, not built for healthcare, no BAA.

Short version

Four bullets, the whole comparison.

  • DeepSeek is a model and a chat app. Riley is a product built on top of models, tuned for dental front-office work.
  • DeepSeek has no Google Business Profile integration, no PMS, no approval queue, no AEO scoring.
  • DeepSeek has no BAA, so it's not suitable for PHI handling. Riley's Scale tier has a BAA.
  • Data residency note: DeepSeek's primary chat lives in China. Many U.S. dental practices treat that as a hard no for any patient-adjacent workflow.

Feature by feature

What's actually different.

Feature
Riley
DeepSeek

Slack delivery

Yes
No

Proactive workflows

DeepSeek is reactive: you have to ask. Riley runs daily.

Yes
No

Google Business Profile integration

Yes
No

Dental PMS integration

PMS bridge: Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Denticon (setup required)
No

PHI scanner + approval queue

Yes
No

HIPAA BAA available

Scale tier
No

U.S. data residency

Yes (Anthropic / US-hosted providers)
No, primary infra hosted in China

AEO signal tracking

Yes
No

Outcome ledger (ROI proof)

Yes
No

Dental vertical knowledge pack

Yes
General training

Pricing model

From $99/$249/$499/mo
Per-token API

Why practices switch

The difference that shows up in your week.

Models are commodities, products are not

DeepSeek is brilliant at math and reasoning at a fraction of frontier-model cost. That makes it a useful primitive. To run a dental practice's reputation engine, you'd still have to build the OAuth, the PMS connector, the approval queue, the outcome ledger, the AEO scoring. Riley already built them.

Data residency matters for healthcare

DeepSeek's primary chat surface hosts data in China. Many U.S. dental practices (especially DSOs and PE-backed groups) won't touch a workflow that routes patient-adjacent data outside U.S. borders. Riley defaults to U.S.-hosted, BAA-covered providers.

Riley's AI routing already supports cheap models

Riley's multi-provider AI router routes the right model for each task: frontier where it matters, cheaper providers where it doesn't. Including a cheap reasoning model in that mix is an internal optimization, not a customer choice.

BAA is not optional in U.S. healthcare

DeepSeek does not offer a BAA. The moment a recall list, a patient name in a review, or an insurance question enters the pipeline, you have a HIPAA exposure with no contractual protection. Riley's Scale tier has a signed BAA.

When to choose which

Not a fit for everyone. Honest take.

Choose Riley if

You run a U.S. dental practice. Patient data must stay in U.S. infrastructure under a BAA, and you want a coworker that runs reputation + recall + AEO daily.

Choose DeepSeek if

You're a developer or researcher who wants the cheapest credible reasoning model available via API for non-patient workloads. DeepSeek is excellent at that.

See it in your own practice.

Start with an outcome audit, activation checks, and a proof path before anything goes out live.

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