Comparison

Fire Arrow vs Smile CDR

Smile CDR is the commercial distribution of HAPI FHIR with enterprise tooling, master patient index, terminology services, and CDA support. Fire Arrow centers on the application backend layer: rule-based authorization, GraphQL with search narrowing, and CarePlan scheduling.

Review Fire Arrow editions Book an architecture comparison

Who this is for

Architects, CTOs, staff engineers, and product leaders evaluating FHIR infrastructure options.

Clinical applicability

An enterprise integrating multiple legacy systems with a productised MPI stewardship workflow, content-packaged terminology services, and CDA-to-FHIR transformation will find Smile CDR's surface comprehensive. A digital-health product team focused on a clean FHIR backend with strong access control, and willing to configure HAPI's MDM operations directly when patient matching is needed, may find Fire Arrow's surface more direct.

Capability comparison

Capability Fire Arrow Smile CDR

Underlying FHIR engine HAPI FHIR JPA on Postgres HAPI FHIR JPA with enterprise extensions

Master patient index HAPI's MDM module is part of the underlying engine: Patient $match, golden-resource model, and link management operations. Fire Arrow Server inherits it without modification and does not add product-specific MPI tooling on top. Productised, supported MPI built on the same HAPI MDM foundation, with a stewardship UI and enterprise extensions

Terminology services Standard FHIR terminology operations Built-in terminology server with content packages

CDA support Out of scope; bring your own transformation Built-in CDA-to-FHIR

Authorization model Rule-based with compartment validators and identity/property filters Smile authorization with consent integration

GraphQL Built-in with separate graphql-read/graphql-search operations Add-on

Operational footprint Single backend container plus database Module-based deployment with multiple services

When to choose Smile CDR

You need a productised MPI stewardship workflow, content-packaged terminology services, and CDA-to-FHIR conversion alongside the FHIR backend, in a single supported distribution.

When to choose Fire Arrow

Your scope is a digital-health product backend rather than an enterprise integration platform, and you want a smaller deployment surface and a more opinionated authorization model.

Related docs

FAQ

Both are based on HAPI; is the data portable?

Yes. Storage is HAPI JPA on Postgres in both cases, so the FHIR data layer is portable. HAPI's MDM module is also part of both engines. Configuration (authorization rules, MDM matching rules, terminology content, Smile CDR's stewardship UI configuration) is product-specific.

When does the MPI matter?

If you are reconciling patients across multiple source systems with different identifiers, MPI capability is essential. Both Fire Arrow Server and Smile CDR sit on HAPI's MDM module, so the underlying operations (Patient $match, golden-resource creation and merging, link queries and history) are available in both. Smile CDR adds a stewardship UI, supported configuration tooling, and enterprise extensions on top. If you need that level of product around MPI, Smile CDR is the closer fit; if a HAPI-MDM-level surface configured by your team is enough, Fire Arrow Server is workable. For a single-tenant patient app where each patient has one identity, MPI is not in scope at all.

Can Fire Arrow integrate with an external terminology service?

Yes. Standard FHIR terminology operations and external lookups work with terminology servers operated separately.