Vivetra vs. RoboVet, Covetrus Ascend, Merlin & the UK & Ireland vet-practice field
Across the UK & Ireland, most of the practice-management field is either distributor-owned — Covetrus (RoboVet, Ascend), MWI Animal Health (Merlin), the NVS Group (VetIT) — or a long-running independent like Teleos or Verifac. A flat monthly rate that covers unlimited doctors and staff, with managed hosting included, is genuinely rare here. Below is the field for the Vet Practice service, side by side, with every competitor claim pulled from a sourced, dated record you can check yourself.
Vivetra’s Vet Practice service is $200/mo — the same number at three people or thirty, unlimited staff and fully managed hosting included in that price, not bolted on as a later line item.
The UK & Ireland field, side by side
Competitor ownership, deployment, and any notable claim 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 pricing & claims | How it’s licensed / notable |
|---|---|---|
| Vivetra (Vet Practice service) | $200/mo, flat — unlimited doctors and staff, never a per-seat or quote-only figure | Fully managed for you: managed hosting included in the price, no server for you to run. One flat monthly rate, the same as your team grows. |
| RoboVet source (opens in new tab) |
Covetrus practice-management system offered on-premises, hosted, or hybrid; Covetrus positions its separate Ascend product as the cloud-based option |
Covetrus-owned. Offered on-premises, hosted, or hybrid — Covetrus steers practices wanting cloud toward its separate Ascend product instead. |
| Merlin source (opens in new tab) |
cloud-based veterinary software owned and operated by MWI Animal Health in the UK (not a Covetrus product) |
Cloud-based, owned and operated by MWI Animal Health in the UK — a distributor-owned platform, not a Covetrus product. |
| Covetrus Ascend source (opens in new tab) |
Covetrus's cloud-based PMS for the UK/EMEA, described as designed for simplicity with an intuitive interface and streamlined workflows |
Covetrus-owned. The cloud PMS Covetrus positions for the UK/EMEA, pitched on simplicity and streamlined workflows. |
| Teleos Systems source (opens in new tab) |
self-described "largest independent supplier of Veterinary Practice Management Systems in the UK and Ireland"; founded 1997, Birmingham-based; runs cloud or local-server |
Independent, Birmingham-based since 1997 — self-described as the largest independent PMS supplier in the UK and Ireland. Runs cloud or local-server. |
| VetIT source (opens in new tab) |
cloud-based UK veterinary PMS; part of the NVS Group (alongside NationWide Laboratories and National Veterinary Services) |
Cloud-based, part of the NVS Group — sits alongside NationWide Laboratories and National Veterinary Services under the same distributor parent. |
| Verifac source (opens in new tab) |
Gloucester, UK-based vendor developing veterinary software since 1978; flagship product Evolution |
Independent, Gloucester-based, building veterinary software since 1978 — flagship product Evolution. One of the longest-running vendors in this list. |
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 claim above is shown as published by that vendor or the cited record, and was verified as of 2026-08-02 for the UK & Ireland market. Ownership, deployment, and features move; if a detail 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.
Where Vivetra genuinely falls short today
Hiding a real limitation is worse than not having it. Here are the honest gaps for the Vet Practice service, stated directly.
- No native mobile app — PWA only. The service installs as a Progressive Web App straight from the browser and works like an app icon on a phone or tablet, but it is not an App Store or Play Store listing. If a native app is a hard requirement for your front desk or floor team, know that before you sign up.
- 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 incumbents. Several products in the table above have run for years or decades — Verifac since 1978, Teleos since 1997. Vivetra is a newer vendor with less of a track record — 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 3 people or 30?
Because Vivetra doesn't count seats. The UK & Ireland field here is a mix of distributor-owned platforms (Covetrus's RoboVet and Ascend, MWI's Merlin, the NVS Group's VetIT) and long-running independents (Teleos, Verifac) — and most quote per practice or per vet rather than one flat number. Vivetra is a single flat monthly rate for the service with unlimited doctors and staff and managed hosting included, so the number you see is the number you pay as your team grows.
Do I have to run my own server?
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. Vivetra also keeps you independent: several options in this table are owned by veterinary distributors or diagnostics groups, so choosing one can route your practice through a single supplier by default. With Vivetra your PMS choice and your lab or wholesaler choice stay separate decisions.
What does Vivetra genuinely NOT do that some of these competitors do?
Two things worth knowing before you sign up, not after. There is no native iPhone or Android app — the Vet Practice service runs as an installable PWA, not an App Store or Play Store listing. And there is no built-in payment processing in any Vivetra service, so your practice keeps its own processor to actually take a client's payment. We're also a newer vendor than incumbents like Verifac and Teleos that have run for decades — we'd rather say all of that plainly than let you discover it later.
See it against your own headcount
Pick the Vet Practice service alone or bundle it with the others your group needs, and see the exact flat monthly number before you talk to anyone.