Is Shepherd or Talkatoo better?

Neither clearly leads. Shepherd starts at On request and Talkatoo at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Shepherd or Talkatoo?

Shepherd starts at On request and Talkatoo at On request.

Does Shepherd or Talkatoo run on more platforms?

Shepherd runs on Web, Cloud. Talkatoo runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.

What is Shepherd best used for?

Shepherd is most often used for practices losing revenue to treatment delivered but never billed, clinics replacing on-premise legacy systems, independent practices wanting something designed around clinical work rather than administration. Of those, practices losing revenue to treatment delivered but never billed and clinics replacing on-premise legacy systems are not what Talkatoo is typically brought in for.

What can Shepherd do that Talkatoo cannot?

Shepherd covers Consultation-first records, Charges from treatment, Inventory, Cloud-based. Talkatoo covers Veterinary vocabulary, Types anywhere, Mobile dictation, Custom shortcuts.

Veterinary · head to head

Shepherd vs Talkatoo

Shepherd

Veterinary

Cloud veterinary practice management built by a practising vet

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Talkatoo

Veterinary

Veterinary dictation that types into any practice management system without needing an integration

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Shepherd quote-only pricing with no published rates; Talkatoo because it types into whatever field has focus, a stray click sends a paragraph of clinical notes into the wrong patient record or the wrong field entirely.
They diverge on capability: Shepherd covers Consultation-first records, Talkatoo covers Veterinary vocabulary.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Shepherd and Talkatoo actually diverge.

Attributes where Shepherd and Talkatoo differ
Attribute	Shepherd	Talkatoo
Platforms	Web, Cloud	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

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 Shepherd

Consultation-first records
Charges from treatment
Inventory
Cloud-based

Only in Talkatoo

Veterinary vocabulary
Types anywhere
Mobile dictation
Custom shortcuts
Ambient note drafting
Multi-user accounts

What people use each for

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

Shepherd

Practices losing revenue to treatment delivered but never billednot Talkatoo
Clinics replacing on-premise legacy systemsnot Talkatoo
Independent practices wanting something designed around clinical work rather than administrationnot Talkatoo

Talkatoo

A clinician finishing records after hours because typing during consultations is too slownot Shepherd
A mixed or equine practice writing notes in a vehicle between farm visitsnot Shepherd
A practice on an older on-premise system that no modern tool will integrate withnot Shepherd
A group wanting faster record completion without replacing the practice management systemnot Shepherd

Where each one falls short

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

Shepherd

Quote-only pricing with no published rates
A smaller vendor than the established systems, with a correspondingly shorter track record
Cloud-only, so consultations depend on clinic connectivity

Talkatoo

Because it types into whatever field has focus, a stray click sends a paragraph of clinical notes into the wrong patient record or the wrong field entirely.
Recognition accuracy varies with accent, background noise and ward acoustics, and a busy consulting room is the worst case rather than the exception.
It is priced per user, so a practice with locums and part-time clinicians pays for seats that dictate a handful of times a month.
Everything it produces is free text, so nothing is captured in a discrete field and the notes do not feed reporting, recall lists or any future structured data project.
Ambient drafting produces a record that reads as complete but may contain errors of omission, and the clinician remains responsible for a document they did not write and may not read carefully.

Pricing, plan by plan

Shepherd

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Shepherd review.

Talkatoo

On request

Talkatoo$undefined/year
- Per-user subscription
- Ambient note drafting priced separately
- Volume pricing for multi-site groups

Which should you pick?

Choose Shepherd if

You need consultation-first records.
You work on Web, Cloud.
You also want charges from treatment.

Shepherd review

Choose Talkatoo if

You need veterinary vocabulary.
You work on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
You also want types anywhere.

Talkatoo review

Questions people ask

Is Shepherd or Talkatoo better?: Neither clearly leads. Shepherd starts at On request and Talkatoo at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Shepherd or Talkatoo?: Shepherd starts at On request and Talkatoo at On request.
Does Shepherd or Talkatoo run on more platforms?: Shepherd runs on Web, Cloud. Talkatoo runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
What is Shepherd best used for?: Shepherd is most often used for practices losing revenue to treatment delivered but never billed, clinics replacing on-premise legacy systems, independent practices wanting something designed around clinical work rather than administration. Of those, practices losing revenue to treatment delivered but never billed and clinics replacing on-premise legacy systems are not what Talkatoo is typically brought in for.
What can Shepherd do that Talkatoo cannot?: Shepherd covers Consultation-first records, Charges from treatment, Inventory, Cloud-based. Talkatoo covers Veterinary vocabulary, Types anywhere, Mobile dictation, Custom shortcuts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Shepherd: What does Shepherd cost?

Pricing is quoted per practice and not published.

Talkatoo: Does Talkatoo integrate with my practice management system?

It does not need to. It sends text to whatever field your cursor is in, which is why it works with systems that have no integration programme at all.

Shepherd: What makes it different from other veterinary systems?

It was designed by a practising vet around the consultation workflow, so charges accrue from recorded treatment rather than being entered as a separate billing step.

Talkatoo: Is the dictated audio stored?

Recognition is processed in the cloud. Ask specifically how long audio and transcripts are retained and where, because consultation recordings can contain client personal information.

Shepherd: Is it cloud-only?

Yes, which removes server maintenance and makes connectivity a dependency.

Talkatoo: Will it fill in structured fields in my records?

No. It produces free text. If you need discrete, searchable clinical data, dictation is the wrong tool for that part of the record.

Shepherd vs Talkatoo

Shepherd

Talkatoo

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Shepherd

Only in Talkatoo

What people use each for

Shepherd

Talkatoo

Where each one falls short

Shepherd

Talkatoo

Pricing, plan by plan

Shepherd

Talkatoo

Which should you pick?

Choose Shepherd if

Choose Talkatoo if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Shepherd

More on Talkatoo

Keep looking

Other head to heads