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Veterinary · head to head

Animana vs VIA Veterinary

Animana logo

Animana

Veterinary

Browser-based practice management for European small-animal clinics, owned by IDEXX

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
VIA Veterinary logo

VIA Veterinary

Veterinary

Medically oriented veterinary practice management, now owned by Antech and Mars Veterinary Health

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Animana it runs only in a browser, so a broadband outage stops consulting, invoicing and dispensing at the same time, and there is no offline mode to fall back on.; VIA Veterinary the vendor is owned by Mars Veterinary Health through Antech, the same group that owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA, so a practice is buying its record system from its diagnostics supplier and its competitor in the consolidation market.
  • They diverge on capability: Animana covers Cloud clinical records, VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Animana and VIA Veterinary actually diverge.

Attributes where Animana and VIA Veterinary differ
AttributeAnimanaVIA Veterinary
PlatformsWebWindows, Web, iPadOS

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Veterinary).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Animana

  • Cloud clinical records
  • IDEXX diagnostics integration
  • Multi-country financials
  • Inventory and dispensing
  • Multi-location support
  • Reporting

Only in VIA Veterinary

  • Clinical flowsheets
  • Integrated SOAP
  • DICOM imaging
  • Laboratory results
  • VIA Cloud
  • VIA Touch
  • Multi-site
  • Open standards integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Animana

  • A Dutch or Belgian clinic replacing an ageing on-premise system without buying a new servernot VIA Veterinary
  • A multi-country European group that needs one system handling several VAT regimesnot VIA Veterinary
  • A practice already committed to IDEXX analysers and reference laboratory servicesnot VIA Veterinary
  • A clinic wanting staff to work from home or a second site without remote desktop softwarenot VIA Veterinary

VIA Veterinary

  • An emergency and critical care hospital that runs on treatment flowsheets and a live whiteboard rather than an appointment calendarnot Animana
  • A multi-doctor specialty referral practice needing DICOM imaging and lab results inside the medical recordnot Animana
  • A practice already committed to Antech diagnostics that wants first-party laboratory and imaging integrationnot Animana
  • A multi-site hospital group consolidating separate practice management installations onto one systemnot Animana

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Animana

  • It runs only in a browser, so a broadband outage stops consulting, invoicing and dispensing at the same time, and there is no offline mode to fall back on.
  • The diagnostics integration is deepest with IDEXX equipment, so a practice that later switches laboratory supplier keeps software built around the supplier it left and loses the smoothest part of the workflow.
  • It is not sold in North America, where IDEXX offers a different cloud product, so a group with clinics on both continents runs two systems and consolidates reporting manually.
  • Reporting is functional rather than deep, and practices wanting detailed business analysis typically export to a spreadsheet or a separate tool.
  • Imaging is handled through integrations rather than natively, so radiography and ultrasound workflows depend on which PACS the practice already owns and how well it connects.

VIA Veterinary

  • The vendor is owned by Mars Veterinary Health through Antech, the same group that owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA, so a practice is buying its record system from its diagnostics supplier and its competitor in the consolidation market.
  • No pricing is published at all, so licence, implementation, conversion, hardware and support costs all arrive through a sales process and cannot be compared against alternatives before you engage.
  • It remains substantially a Windows on-premises product with a cloud option layered on, so hardware, network and backup remain your operational problem in the traditional deployment.
  • Integration depth with IDEXX diagnostics is the obvious risk given the ownership, and a practice with in-house IDEXX analysers should test that path explicitly rather than assume parity with Antech.
  • The clinical emphasis means front-of-house and client engagement features, including online booking and marketing automation, tend to arrive through third-party integrations rather than natively.

Pricing, plan by plan

Animana

On request
  • Animana$undefined/year
    • Per-user subscription
    • Implementation and data migration quoted separately
    • Support included

VIA Veterinary

On request
  • VIA Veterinary$undefined/year
    • Pricing available only through a sales process
    • On-premises or VIA Cloud deployment
    • Implementation, data conversion and training quoted per hospital

Which should you pick?

Choose Animana if

  • You need cloud clinical records.
  • You also want idexx diagnostics integration.
Animana review

Choose VIA Veterinary if

  • You need clinical flowsheets.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
  • You also want integrated soap.
VIA Veterinary review

Questions people ask

Is Animana or VIA Veterinary better?
Neither clearly leads. Animana starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Animana or VIA Veterinary?
Animana starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request.
Does Animana or VIA Veterinary run on more platforms?
Animana runs on Web. VIA Veterinary runs on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
What is Animana best used for?
Animana is most often used for a dutch or belgian clinic replacing an ageing on-premise system without buying a new server, a multi-country european group that needs one system handling several vat regimes, a practice already committed to idexx analysers and reference laboratory services, a clinic wanting staff to work from home or a second site without remote desktop software. Of those, a dutch or belgian clinic replacing an ageing on-premise system without buying a new server and a multi-country european group that needs one system handling several vat regimes are not what VIA Veterinary is typically brought in for.
What can Animana do that VIA Veterinary cannot?
Animana covers Cloud clinical records, IDEXX diagnostics integration, Multi-country financials, Inventory and dispensing. VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets, Integrated SOAP, DICOM imaging, Laboratory results.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Animana: Can I use Animana with non-IDEXX laboratory equipment?

Yes, but the integration is shallower. IDEXX analysers and reference lab results flow in automatically; other suppliers usually need a separate integration and sometimes manual result entry.

VIA Veterinary: Who owns VIA?

VIA Information Systems is an Antech company and part of Mars Veterinary Health, the group that also owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA.

Animana: Is Animana available in the United States?

No. IDEXX sells a different cloud practice management system in North America, so Animana is a European purchase only.

VIA Veterinary: Is pricing published?

No. Licence, implementation, conversion and support costs come only through a sales process.

Animana: Do I need a server in the practice?

No. Everything runs in the browser. You need reliable internet and enough bandwidth for imaging, not local server hardware.

VIA Veterinary: Can it run in the cloud?

Yes, VIA Cloud is offered alongside traditional on-premises installation, with cloud backup included.

VIA Veterinary: What kind of practice is it built for?

Medically intensive practices: emergency, specialty, referral, equine and multi-doctor small animal hospitals where flowsheets and whiteboards drive the day.

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