Vivetra vs. Ardex, VisionVPM & ezyVet in Australia & New Zealand
The Australia and New Zealand equine market has real homegrown depth — Ardex for in-the-field ambulatory capture, VisionVPM’s stud and syndicate records inside the Covetrus suite, and ezyVet, a New-Zealand-founded platform now owned by IDEXX. They tend to bill the way small-animal software does — per vet, per site, or on a quoted licence — which adds up for a multi-vet ambulatory practice. A single flat monthly rate covering unlimited doctors and staff, managed hosting included, is genuinely uncommon here. Below is the ANZ equine field side by side, with every competitor fact pulled from a sourced, dated record you can check yourself.
Vivetra’s Equine service is $200/mo — the same number for one vet or eight, unlimited staff and fully managed hosting included in that price, not bolted on as a later line item.
The ANZ field with sourced facts, side by side
Each competitor’s facts are shown exactly as our sourced dataset records them — follow the “source” link on any row to the vendor’s own page or the record we relied on.
| Platform | Published claims & facts | How it’s licensed / notable |
|---|---|---|
| Vivetra (Equine service) | $200/mo, flat — unlimited doctors and staff, never a per-vet, site-licence, or implementation-fee stack | Fully managed for you: managed hosting included in the price, no server for you to run. One flat monthly rate, the same as the practice grows. |
| Ardex (Ardex Equine) source (opens in new tab) |
Ardex Equine Vet Software lets ambulatory vets enter procedures in the field on mobiles or tablets, which feed through to admin staff to approve for billing, and supports scanning horses for history and procedure entry |
Field-first for ambulatory equine work: vets enter procedures on a mobile or tablet out on the job, scan horses for history and procedure entry, and the entries feed through to admin staff to approve for billing. A dedicated in-the-field capture flow, where Vivetra runs in the browser. |
| VisionVPM (Covetrus) source (opens in new tab) |
VisionVPM (Covetrus) provides equine-specific customised fields and reports for dam and sire information, pregnancy tracking, and syndicate ownerships, aimed at practices in Australia, New Zealand and Asia |
A Covetrus platform aimed at Australia, New Zealand and Asia, with equine-specific custom fields and reports for dam and sire information, pregnancy tracking and syndicate ownerships. Broodstock/stud-record depth built into a large incumbent suite. |
| ezyVet (IDEXX) source (opens in new tab) |
a New Zealand-founded veterinary practice-management company (founded 2006 by Hadleigh Bognuda, "humble beginnings in New Zealand"), still with an Auckland office; now owned by IDEXX |
The local incumbent, now IDEXX-owned: founded in Auckland, New Zealand in 2006 (by Hadleigh Bognuda), still with an Auckland office, and acquired by IDEXX. A homegrown ANZ platform now inside a large diagnostics company. |
About this comparison. This is Vivetra’s own comparison of competing products — we chose the vendors and wrote the framing, so read it as our argument, checked against sourced facts, not a neutral third party’s. Every competitor fact above is shown as published by that vendor or the cited record and was verified as of 2026-08-02. Features and positioning move; if a fact here is out of date or wrong, tell us at [email protected] and we correct or remove it within 5 business days. Vivetra’s own price is identical in every supported currency — no conversion, ever — so switching the currency selector only changes the symbol and tax note beside it, never the digits.
On ezyVet, the local incumbent
ezyVet is the homegrown story in this market, so it’s worth being exact about it. As verified on 2026-08-02, ezyVet was founded in Auckland, New Zealand in 2006 by Hadleigh Bognuda, still runs an Auckland office, and is now owned by IDEXX. That’s a genuine local track record and the backing of a large diagnostics company — a real point in its favour for an ANZ practice that wants a platform born in the region.
What we deliberately do not say: we don’t claim ezyVet is worse, or dying, or losing the region — being IDEXX-owned is a fact, not a knock. Where Vivetra makes its case is the flat, vet-count-independent price and managed hosting, not by talking a long-running local incumbent down. We’d rather state the boring truth than spin a competitor into a caricature.
Where Vivetra genuinely falls short today
Hiding a real limitation is worse than not having it. Here are the honest gaps for the Equine service in the Australia/New Zealand market, stated directly.
- No dedicated native field-capture app — Ardex is built for this. Ardex lets ambulatory vets enter procedures out in the field on a mobile or tablet, scan horses for history, and feed those entries through to admin for billing approval. Vivetra runs in the browser as a progressive web app: it works on a phone or tablet, but we don’t ship a dedicated native field-capture app today. If your workflow depends on rapid in-the-paddock procedure entry, that’s a real difference — a known, deferred limitation on our side, not an oversight.
- No built-in payment processing. No Vivetra service processes the payments your clients make to your practice — Vivetra builds the estimate and the invoice, but you keep whatever processor you already use to take a card or bank payment. (That’s unrelated to the checkout you’d use to pay your own Vivetra subscription.)
- We’re newer than the local incumbents. ezyVet has run since 2006 and the Covetrus platforms have served ANZ practices for years. Vivetra is a newer vendor with less of a track record in the region — a real consideration we’d rather name than let you find out later.
Questions about this comparison
Why is the price the same whether I have one vet or eight?
Because Vivetra doesn't count vets. Vivetra’s Equine service is one flat monthly rate with unlimited doctors and staff and managed hosting included — so the number you see is the number you pay as the practice grows, whether you’re a solo ambulatory vet working studs in the Hunter Valley or an eight-vet equine hospital in the Waikato. No per-vet rate, no site licence, no implementation fee stacked on top.
Do I have to run my own server at the practice?
No. Vivetra is fully managed for you — the software runs on infrastructure we operate on your behalf. You never touch a server, never patch an OS, never restore a backup yourself. Managed hosting is included, so nobody at the practice ever has to actually operate a box in the office.
What does Vivetra genuinely NOT do that these competitors do?
The honest ones for Australia/New Zealand equine: Ardex is built for entering procedures out in the field on a mobile or tablet, which feed through to admin for billing approval — a dedicated in-the-paddock capture flow. Vivetra runs in the browser as a progressive web app; it works on a phone or tablet, but we don’t ship a dedicated native field-capture app today. VisionVPM carries equine-specific dam/sire, pregnancy-tracking and syndicate fields baked into a big incumbent suite; if your practice lives on deep stud/broodstock records, ask us where that sits on our roadmap before you commit. And there is no built-in payment processing in any Vivetra service — we build the estimate and the invoice, you keep your own processor to take the payment. We’re also a newer vendor than a homegrown incumbent like ezyVet (running since 2006). We’d rather say all of that up front than let you find it after signing.
See it against your own vet count
Pick the Equine service alone or bundle it with the others your practice needs, and see the exact flat monthly number — in your own currency — before you talk to anyone.