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: scheduling, SOAP notes, invoicing, inventory, communications, compliance logging, and reporting, with 150+ documented REST endpoints, webhooks, and a built-in AI agent. The pricing structure is the part ezyVet practices notice first. Self-hosting is free, and managed OpenVPM Cloud is $79 per month per location with unlimited staff. There is no per-user meter at all.

The API story matters here too. If you chose ezyVet partly for the API, OpenVPM is the only option on this list where the API has no partner gate and the code behind it is public. The honest caveat: OpenVPM is young. A large specialty hospital that needs a decade of enterprise references should weigh that seriously. An independent practice that wants modern software it owns should take the demo for a spin.

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 run the full OpenVPM system at demo.openvpm.com with sample data, no account needed, and the code is at github.com/evangauer/openvpm. Hold it to the same standard you hold everyone else on this list.