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Veterinary · head to head

Instinct Science vs VIA Veterinary

Instinct Science logo

Instinct Science

Veterinary

Veterinary EMR built for emergency and specialty hospitals, plus Plumbs drug reference

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: Instinct Science no pricing is published at all, so a practice cannot compare it against published competitors without a demo and a sales conversation.; 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: Instinct Science covers Instinct Treatment Plan, VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Instinct Science and VIA Veterinary actually diverge.

Attributes where Instinct Science and VIA Veterinary differ
AttributeInstinct ScienceVIA Veterinary
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, 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 Instinct Science

  • Instinct Treatment Plan
  • Charge capture from treatments
  • Instinct EMR
  • Primary care edition
  • Plumbs drug reference
  • ScribbleVet
  • Standards

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.

Instinct Science

  • A twenty four hour emergency hospital where treatments are ordered on a sheet and currently reconciled to invoices by hand at dischargenot VIA Veterinary
  • A specialty referral centre running multiple services on one hospitalised patient that needs a shared, current treatment plan across shiftsnot VIA Veterinary
  • A hospital losing measurable revenue to missed charge capture on inpatient treatments and fluidsnot VIA Veterinary
  • A practice that already relies on Plumbs for dosing and wants drug reference and interaction checking inside the record rather than in a separate tabnot VIA Veterinary

VIA Veterinary

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

Where each one falls short

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

Instinct Science

  • No pricing is published at all, so a practice cannot compare it against published competitors without a demo and a sales conversation.
  • The design centres on inpatient treatment sheets, so an appointment driven general practice pays for strength in a workflow it barely uses and should evaluate the primary care edition on its own merits rather than the hospital reputation.
  • Retail, inventory and reminder marketing workflows are thinner than in long established general practice systems, so a practice with a significant shop or food business may need workarounds.
  • Plumbs and ScribbleVet are separately licensed even though the same company owns them, so the tidy single vendor story still arrives as more than one line on the invoice.
  • It is a smaller vendor than the corporate owned incumbents, which is an advantage on responsiveness and a risk on acquisition, and veterinary software has consolidated heavily in recent years.

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

Instinct Science

On request
  • Instinct EMR$undefined/year
    • Quoted through a demo and sales process, nothing published
    • Priced by practice size and modules taken
    • Plumbs and ScribbleVet are separately licensed products from the same company

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 Instinct Science if

  • You need instinct treatment plan.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want charge capture from treatments.
Instinct Science 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 Instinct Science or VIA Veterinary better?
Neither clearly leads. Instinct Science 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, Instinct Science or VIA Veterinary?
Instinct Science starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request.
Does Instinct Science or VIA Veterinary run on more platforms?
Instinct Science runs on Web, iOS, Android. VIA Veterinary runs on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
What is Instinct Science best used for?
Instinct Science is most often used for a twenty four hour emergency hospital where treatments are ordered on a sheet and currently reconciled to invoices by hand at discharge, a specialty referral centre running multiple services on one hospitalised patient that needs a shared, current treatment plan across shifts, a hospital losing measurable revenue to missed charge capture on inpatient treatments and fluids, a practice that already relies on plumbs for dosing and wants drug reference and interaction checking inside the record rather than in a separate tab. Of those, a twenty four hour emergency hospital where treatments are ordered on a sheet and currently reconciled to invoices by hand at discharge and a specialty referral centre running multiple services on one hospitalised patient that needs a shared, current treatment plan across shifts are not what VIA Veterinary is typically brought in for.
What can Instinct Science do that VIA Veterinary cannot?
Instinct Science covers Instinct Treatment Plan, Charge capture from treatments, Instinct EMR, Primary care edition. VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets, Integrated SOAP, DICOM imaging, Laboratory results.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Instinct Science: Is Instinct only for emergency hospitals?

No, there is a primary care edition, but the product design and its main advantage come from inpatient treatment sheets and hospital workflows.

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.

Instinct Science: Is pricing published?

No. Everything runs through a demo and a quote.

VIA Veterinary: Is pricing published?

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

Instinct Science: Does it include Plumbs?

Instinct Science owns Plumbs, but it is licensed separately rather than bundled into the EMR by default.

VIA Veterinary: Can it run in the cloud?

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

Instinct Science: What is the main reason practices switch to it?

Charge capture. Treatments recorded on the digital treatment sheet become charges automatically, which recovers revenue that paper sheets lose.

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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