If you are comparing veterinary software, or PIMS (practice information management systems), in the UK right now, the elephant in the room is IDEXX. Veterinary practices are navigating a consolidating software landscape shaped by one dominant player. The 2021 purchase of ezyVet put the two most used cloud systems under one owner. ezyVet and Animana now share a parent company. That creates a closed-ecosystem risk, and you should weigh it before you buy. Outside IDEXX there are real alternatives. Provet Cloud, RxWorks from Covetrus, and newer entrants such as Digitail. Each one trades price, support quality and dispensing records differently.
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ezyVet is a cloud-based veterinary practice management system originally developed in New Zealand, now widely used in the UK. Published UK starting price is from £260.50 per month: actual costs scale with practice size, modules selected, and number of users. The platform covers clinical records, scheduling, inventory, dispensing, reminders, and a client-facing portal for online booking and communication.
ezyVet was acquired by IDEXX Laboratories in July 2021. IDEXX is the dominant veterinary diagnostics company globally, with about 80% of the cloud PIMS segment. The purchase tied ezyVet more closely to IDEXX diagnostic services. That suits a practice that already uses IDEXX labs. It creates a dependency for a practice that wants software with no lab preference. IDEXX has moved ezyVet toward a more closed ecosystem post-acquisition, with deeper bundling of IDEXX diagnostic services.
Animana is a cloud-based veterinary PMS with a significant UK and European user base. IDEXX acquired Animana in October 2014: meaning both of the most widely adopted cloud systems in the UK veterinary market are now IDEXX subsidiaries. Animana covers appointment scheduling, clinical notes, inventory, client communication, and financial reporting. IDEXX's cloud segment holds about 80.45% of the global market across its acquired platforms.
The practical implication of both ezyVet and Animana sitting under IDEXX is reduced competitive pressure on pricing and integration openness. Understand the ownership before you choose either platform. One parent company controls the long-term product plan, the pricing structure and the rules on third-party connections.
Provet Cloud is a cloud-based veterinary PMS developed in Finland, now used across the UK and internationally. Published pricing is about $99 for each vet each month, making it one of the few platforms in this market with public pricing. The platform covers clinical records, scheduling, inventory management, dispensing compliance, and client portal functionality.
Provet Cloud sits outside the IDEXX ecosystem, which is a meaningful differentiator for practices that want diagnostic-agnostic software. Integration with multiple diagnostic providers is supported. The platform is updated regularly and has an active development roadmap.
RxWorks is a desktop-based veterinary PMS marketed under the Covetrus brand. It is one of the longer-established systems in the UK market. Covetrus is itself a significant veterinary supply and pharmacy services business. RxWorks is part of a broader veterinary services portfolio that includes practice consumables, pharmaceuticals, and compliance tools.
Vets in forums rate RxWorks support highly. They describe quick telephone support from staff who know the product. Support quality among the cloud competitors varies more. The desktop architecture means it does not require internet connectivity for core functions, which matters for rural practices with unreliable broadband. The tradeoff is the maintenance overhead of a locally installed system.
VetSuite is a cloud-based alternative within the Covetrus portfolio, positioned as the modern complement to RxWorks. It offers the connectivity and multi-site access of a cloud system while drawing on the same Covetrus support infrastructure. Pricing is not publicly disclosed.
Digitail is a newer entrant in the veterinary PMS market, notable primarily for its AI-powered SOAP note dictation. Vets who use the Digitail AI note feature report a saving of about 70 minutes each day. It removes the pile of notes that most practices leave until the end of the day. The system also includes client communication, scheduling, and clinical record management.
Digitail is newer than the established platforms. It is worth a look where the time spent on clinical notes is a real problem. Time saved on SOAP notes translates directly to more patient capacity or earlier finish times.
| Product | Published pricing | Deployment | IDEXX-owned | Notable strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ezyVet | From £260.50/month (UK) | Cloud | Yes (2021) | Full-featured; IDEXX diagnostic integration |
| Animana | Not published | Cloud | Yes (2014) | Established European user base |
| Provet Cloud | ~$99/vet/month | Cloud | No | Diagnostic-agnostic; published pricing |
| RxWorks | Not published | Desktop | No (Covetrus) | Support quality; offline capability |
| VetSuite | Not published | Cloud | No (Covetrus) | Covetrus ecosystem; multi-site access |
| Digitail | Not published | Cloud | No | AI SOAP dictation (~70 min/vet/day saved) |
Start with your practice type and work backwards to the system that fits.
ezyVet and Animana are the two most used cloud veterinary systems in the UK. Both now belong to the world's largest veterinary diagnostics company. This is not inherently a problem. IDEXX's diagnostic quality is high and the integrations are well-built: but it does create structural conditions that should inform purchasing decisions.
Some practices already buy IDEXX diagnostics and plan to continue. For them the close link is genuinely useful. Results arrive straight in the clinical record, and billing is simpler. The product plan for ezyVet and Animana will tie the two more closely still. For these practices, the ecosystem is a feature.
Other practices use competing diagnostic services, such as Axiom, Finn Pathologists or their own analysers. Some want to keep their price bargaining power across several suppliers. Both should weigh the dependency carefully. Switching PIMS is expensive and disruptive; understanding the long-term direction of a platform before committing is worth the due diligence.
All of the platforms listed above include dispensing and medicines management as a core module. They differ in how strictly they enforce the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013. Those rules cover batch numbers, prescriber details and five-year retention. They also differ in how well they support the annual stock audit. This is covered in more detail in the dispensing compliance article below.
Our live veterinary demo opens without a login, and it covers the systems compared here. Sign in as vet and open the clinical record, or as owner and see the full practice dashboard with CMA fees. It is a working system, not a screenshot.
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Read the consolidation again. The two most used cloud systems now belong to the largest veterinary diagnostics company.
Your software choice therefore reaches further than your software. It shapes which lab you use, because results flow easily from one supplier and less easily from the rest.
That is how a market narrows. A buyer chooses once, and a second market closes behind the first.
Your protection is a system that holds no preference. We build veterinary systems on engage.re, with six interfaces that work over JSON from any language. A lab connection is a connection, and no supplier gets an easier route than another.
You own the code, the data and the instance. We also publish the platform behaviour at version 2.0.0, so another supplier can build a system that conforms.
We explain how a market changes when buyers keep that choice in what does an interoperable software market look like. We list the seven questions to ask before you sign in vendor lock-in, what can you prove.
The platforms above are built for typical small-animal general practice. Some practice types fit a general PIMS badly. Referral centres, equine practices, large-animal mixed practices, and zoo or wildlife facilities. They need multi-species prescription records, complex anaesthetic monitoring and RCVS specialist audits. They also have unusual client structures, such as insurance-led billing and research institution accounts.
A system built around your real clinical and compliance work suits those practices. It removes the daily effort of working around software built for a different kind of practice. You own the system outright, with no fee for each vet. It can also be ready for AI on the first day, for features such as automatic notes and diagnostic pattern recognition. See why practices choose bespoke for the full picture.
For independent small-animal practices, ezyVet offers the most complete cloud-based feature set with strong IDEXX diagnostic integration. Provet Cloud is the strongest open-ecosystem alternative if you want to avoid IDEXX lock-in. Animana (also IDEXX-owned) is popular with single-site practices. Digitail's AI SOAP dictation saves significant time but is newer to the UK market. The best choice depends on your practice type, diagnostic supplier, and whether you prioritise ecosystem integration or supplier independence.
Most vendors do not publish pricing. Industry estimates put cloud veterinary system costs at £150 to £500 a month for each practice. The figure depends on practice size, the number of vets and the modules you choose. ezyVet and Provet Cloud are at the higher end. Animana is mid-range. RxWorks pricing varies by configuration. Always request a quote based on your actual practice size and calculate the five-year total cost including setup, migration, and training.
All major UK veterinary PMS platforms are designed to support RCVS Practice Standards requirements, including clinical record-keeping, controlled drug registers, and audit trail maintenance. However, the level of built-in compliance automation varies. See our dispensing compliance guide and CMA pricing compliance article for detailed assessments of compliance features across platforms.
IDEXX now owns the two most widely used cloud veterinary PMS in the UK. For practices that are IDEXX diagnostic customers, the tight integration is genuinely useful. For practices using competing diagnostics (Axiom, Finn Pathologists, in-house analysers), the dependency risk is worth weighing. Switching PMS is expensive and disruptive, so understanding the long-term platform direction before committing is worth the due diligence.