ezyVet Alternatives: The Honest Guide for Practices Doing the Per-User Math

First, the disclosure: we build OpenVPM, one of the alternatives on this list. We put it last, we label it clearly, and everything else here is judged on its merits with publicly reported pricing. Second, the honest starting point: ezyVet is a good product. It is a capable cloud system with one of the better documented public APIs among the big closed platforms, and it earned its place in multi-site and specialty hospitals.

So why do practices search for ezyVet alternatives? Three reasons come up over and over.

• The per-user math. ezyVet is publicly reported around $260 per user per month. A practice with four users on the system is paying roughly $1,000 a month, and the bill grows every time the team does.
• The ownership question. IDEXX acquired ezyVet in 2021. Your PIMS and your lab vendor being the same company is convenient until you want to negotiate with either one.
• The fit question. ezyVet is enterprise-grade. Smaller independent practices sometimes find they are paying for depth they do not use and training complexity they did not want.

If none of those bother you, staying put is a fine decision. If one of them does, here is the honest landscape as of July 2026.

Provet Cloud: the closest like-for-like

If you run a multi-site or referral operation and want another mature cloud system with a genuinely documented REST API and webhooks, Provet Cloud from Nordhealth is the closest peer to ezyVet on this list. It is especially strong in Europe and markets real data ownership, which is more than most closed vendors promise. The catch: pricing is quote-based, so you cannot check a price page before the sales call.

Shepherd: for the practices that never needed enterprise

If your team came to ezyVet for cloud and stayed despite the complexity, Shepherd is the opposite trade. It is built around SOAP-driven workflow, easy to learn, and clear about price: publicly reported at $299 per month for the first vet and $99 for each additional vet, with support staff free. That structure alone can cut the bill dramatically for a tech-heavy team, because technicians and front desk stop being billable users.

Digitail: the AI-forward option

Digitail publishes per-vet pricing, publicly reported between $149 and $300 per month per vet, and leads the category on built-in AI: dictated SOAP notes, automated discharge notes, history summaries, and a polished pet-parent app. It is still per-vet, closed SaaS, so the structural cost curve resembles ezyVet more than Shepherd. You are trading one per-seat bill for another with more automation attached.

Vetspire: for groups with developers

Vetspire is publicly reported around $349 per vet per month and offers the most developer-friendly API on the closed side: self-serve GraphQL. It is owned by Thrive Pet Healthcare, a corporate hospital group, which some independent practices consider a conflict. If the reason you liked ezyVet was the API, Vetspire is the closed system that takes that furthest.

OpenVPM: the open-source option (that is us)

OpenVPM is AGPLv3 open-source practice management with scheduling, staff-confirmed appointment requests, SOAP notes, estimates and invoices, inventory, communication history, and selected reports. Its targeted REST API covers selected client, patient, appointment, SOAP-note, and agent workflows. Self-hosting has no license fee, and managed OpenVPM Cloud is $79 per month per location with unlimited staff.

OpenVPM's API is much narrower than ezyVet's mature integration ecosystem. There are no supported general external lab, e-prescribing, accounting, or incumbent live-sync connections today. OpenVPM is available only as a controlled pilot for connected, single-location companion-animal general practice and connected house-call workflows; a specialty or multi-site hospital should not plan a production cutover.

Side by side

Before you sign anything

Whatever direction you go, get the exit terms in writing before the demo charm wears off: what format your data exports in, what a migration package costs, how much notice an export takes, and what happens to your contract if the vendor is acquired. Practices leaving closed systems have faced documented exit fees as high as $8,500. The time to know the number is before you sign.

You can explore OpenVPM's sample-data demo at demo.openvpm.com with instant email access, and the code is at github.com/evangauer/openvpm. Treat the demo as an evaluation environment, not evidence that every clinic workflow or integration is production-ready.