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Healthcare · head to head

SimplePractice vs VIA Veterinary

SimplePractice logo

SimplePractice

Healthcare

Practice management and EHR for mental health and therapy

From
$49/month
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: SimplePractice no API or webhook support for integrations, preventing connections to Zapier or custom automation tools; 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: SimplePractice covers Scheduling, VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where SimplePractice and VIA Veterinary differ
AttributeSimplePracticeVIA Veterinary
Starting price$49/monthOn request
Pricing modelUnknownquote
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, Web, iPadOS
CategoryHealthcareVeterinary
Founded2011Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 SimplePractice

  • Scheduling
  • Client Portal
  • Notes
  • Billing
  • Telehealth
  • Documents
  • Stripe
  • PayPal

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.

SimplePractice

  • Patient Carenot VIA Veterinary
  • Medical Recordsnot VIA Veterinary
  • Practice Managementnot VIA Veterinary
  • Telehealthnot VIA Veterinary

VIA Veterinary

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

Where each one falls short

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

SimplePractice

  • No API or webhook support for integrations, preventing connections to Zapier or custom automation tools
  • Lacks AI clinical documentation in base plan, requiring manual note typing which takes 15-30 minutes per session
  • Reporting and customization features are limited compared to competitors, with weak insurance workflow support
  • Hidden costs beyond base pricing, with real cost often 3x higher after add-ons and annual increases
  • Telehealth component reported as unstable and frequently unreliable by some users

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

SimplePractice

$49/month
  • Starter$49/month
    • Scheduling
    • Documentation
    • Client portal
  • Essential$79/month
    • Billing and payments
    • Insurance claim filing
    • Telehealth
  • Plus$99/month
    • Website builder
    • Advanced reporting
    • ePrescribe integration

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 SimplePractice if

  • You need scheduling.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want client portal.
SimplePractice 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 SimplePractice or VIA Veterinary better?
Neither clearly leads. SimplePractice starts at $49/month and VIA Veterinary at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, SimplePractice or VIA Veterinary?
SimplePractice starts at $49/month and VIA Veterinary at On request.
Does SimplePractice or VIA Veterinary run on more platforms?
SimplePractice runs on Web, iOS, Android. VIA Veterinary runs on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
What is SimplePractice best used for?
SimplePractice is most often used for patient care, medical records, practice management, telehealth. Of those, patient care and medical records are not what VIA Veterinary is typically brought in for.
What can SimplePractice do that VIA Veterinary cannot?
SimplePractice covers Scheduling, Client Portal, Notes, Billing. VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets, Integrated SOAP, DICOM imaging, Laboratory results.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

SimplePractice: What does SimplePractice pricing include?

SimplePractice tiers start at $49 (Starter), $79 (Essential), and $99 (Plus) per clinician per month. Add-ons cost extra, including AI Note Taker at $35/month and ePrescribe at $49/month plus $89 setup.

Source
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.

SimplePractice: Does SimplePractice include telehealth?

Yes, all SimplePractice tiers include HIPAA-compliant integrated telehealth, allowing therapists to conduct secure video sessions directly from the platform.

Source
VIA Veterinary: Is pricing published?

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

SimplePractice: Is AI documentation included in SimplePractice?

No, AI clinical notes are not included in base pricing. SimplePractice offers an optional AI Note Taker add-on for $35/month that provides basic transcription, though it lacks advanced note generation features of competitors.

Source
VIA Veterinary: Can it run in the cloud?

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

SimplePractice: Does SimplePractice support international or non-US workflows?

No, SimplePractice is designed for US practices only and does not support non-US workflows, insurance structures, or currencies, limiting its use for international practitioners.

Source
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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