Veterinary · head to head
Talkatoo vs VIA Veterinary
Talkatoo
Veterinary
Veterinary dictation that types into any practice management system without needing an integration
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
VIA Veterinary
Veterinary
Medically oriented veterinary practice management, now owned by Antech and Mars Veterinary Health
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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.; 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: Talkatoo covers Veterinary vocabulary, VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Talkatoo and VIA Veterinary actually diverge.
| Attribute | Talkatoo | VIA Veterinary |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Windows, 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 Talkatoo
- Veterinary vocabulary
- Types anywhere
- Mobile dictation
- Custom shortcuts
- Ambient note drafting
- Multi-user accounts
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.
Talkatoo
- A clinician finishing records after hours because typing during consultations is too slownot VIA Veterinary
- A mixed or equine practice writing notes in a vehicle between farm visitsnot VIA Veterinary
- A practice on an older on-premise system that no modern tool will integrate withnot VIA Veterinary
- A group wanting faster record completion without replacing the practice management systemnot VIA Veterinary
VIA Veterinary
- An emergency and critical care hospital that runs on treatment flowsheets and a live whiteboard rather than an appointment calendarnot Talkatoo
- A multi-doctor specialty referral practice needing DICOM imaging and lab results inside the medical recordnot Talkatoo
- A practice already committed to Antech diagnostics that wants first-party laboratory and imaging integrationnot Talkatoo
- A multi-site hospital group consolidating separate practice management installations onto one systemnot Talkatoo
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
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
Talkatoo
On request- Talkatoo$undefined/year
- Per-user subscription
- Ambient note drafting priced separately
- Volume pricing for multi-site groups
VIA Veterinary
On request- VIA Veterinary$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 Talkatoo if
- You need veterinary vocabulary.
- You work on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
- You also want types anywhere.
Choose VIA Veterinary if
- You need clinical flowsheets.
- You work on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
- You also want integrated soap.
Questions people ask
- Is Talkatoo or VIA Veterinary better?
- Neither clearly leads. Talkatoo 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, Talkatoo or VIA Veterinary?
- Talkatoo starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request.
- Does Talkatoo or VIA Veterinary run on more platforms?
- Talkatoo runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. VIA Veterinary runs on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
- What is Talkatoo best used for?
- Talkatoo is most often used for a clinician finishing records after hours because typing during consultations is too slow, a mixed or equine practice writing notes in a vehicle between farm visits, a practice on an older on-premise system that no modern tool will integrate with, a group wanting faster record completion without replacing the practice management system. Of those, a clinician finishing records after hours because typing during consultations is too slow and a mixed or equine practice writing notes in a vehicle between farm visits are not what VIA Veterinary is typically brought in for.
- What can Talkatoo do that VIA Veterinary cannot?
- Talkatoo covers Veterinary vocabulary, Types anywhere, Mobile dictation, Custom shortcuts. VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets, Integrated SOAP, DICOM imaging, Laboratory results.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
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.
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.
VIA Veterinary: Is pricing published?
No. Licence, implementation, conversion and support costs come only through a sales process.
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.
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.
Related pages
More on VIA Veterinary
Other head to heads
- Talkatoo vs Shepherd
- Talkatoo vs Digitail
- Talkatoo vs Vetspire
- Talkatoo vs IDEXX Neo
- Talkatoo vs Animana
- Talkatoo vs PetDesk
- Talkatoo vs Instinct Science
- Talkatoo vs RxWorks
- Talkatoo vs ezyVet
- Talkatoo vs Provet Cloud
- Talkatoo vs Onward Vet
- Talkatoo vs VetBadger
- Talkatoo vs Vet Radar
- Talkatoo vs ImproMed
- Talkatoo vs Covetrus Pulse
- Talkatoo vs VisionVPM
- VIA Veterinary vs Shepherd
- VIA Veterinary vs Digitail
- VIA Veterinary vs Vetspire
- VIA Veterinary vs IDEXX Neo
- VIA Veterinary vs Animana
- VIA Veterinary vs PetDesk
- VIA Veterinary vs Instinct Science
- VIA Veterinary vs RxWorks
- VIA Veterinary vs ezyVet
- VIA Veterinary vs Provet Cloud
- VIA Veterinary vs Onward Vet
- VIA Veterinary vs VetBadger
- VIA Veterinary vs Vet Radar
- VIA Veterinary vs ImproMed
- VIA Veterinary vs Covetrus Pulse
- VIA Veterinary vs VisionVPM