Provet Cloud vs Shepherd: Which Vet Software Fits in 2027

Short answer: pick by pricing shape and site count

Provet Cloud and Shepherd are both cloud veterinary practice management systems, usually called PIMS, which run appointments, medical records, invoices and inventory in one application. Neither product was renamed, merged or discontinued in the sources we opened. Provet is the brand on provet.com, and a December 2024 US release from Nordhealth used the name Provet Cloud, so both names refer to the same product line.

The decision is less about feature checklists than about how the bill grows. Both vendors put core practice management into their base plans. The lines that move the monthly total are AI documentation, texting, payments, data migration, and how the price repeats per doctor or per site.

TL;DR: Choose Provet Cloud if you are planning several sites and can accept quote-based terms for the enterprise tier. Choose Shepherd if you run one site with a few doctors, want a per-doctor price with integrated payments, and can meter your texting. Neither should be signed until the AI, texting and migration lines are in writing.

Key Takeaways

• Provet Cloud publishes Core and Pro tiers priced per vet, and its Enterprise tier is quote-based.

• Shepherd publishes per-doctor tiers from one to six doctors and bills texting as a metered add-on.

• For three doctors at one site, Provet's Core base comes out lower on paper, but its AI Scribe add-on can reverse that.

• Shepherd's pricing page lists no separate AI charge, so confirm whether its AI tools are included before you compare totals.

• Shepherd publishes a one-time data migration fee, while the Provet pricing page we opened lists none.

• Shepherd's public API documents three request headers and a sandbox base URL, while Provet's developer pages name OAuth 2.0 and webhook triggers without field-level detail in what we opened.

How we evaluated these tools

This is an informed buyer's guide built from public pages. We did not run trial accounts or hands-on sessions. We opened each vendor's pricing page and developer documentation, then checked the rest against independent and third-party sources: a trade-press article reporting the AVMA's 2024 economic survey, a practice survey run by a software seller, a company press release, and a review aggregator.

The weights below are our judgment about which lines change a monthly bill or a go-live decision. They are not vendor data. We did not produce a total score, because too many inputs are quote-based or absent from public pages.

Buyer context matters here. Practice owners keeping up with technology: 69% according to dvm360 (2024), which cites the AVMA's 2024 report on the economic state of the profession. The same article reports that 20% of owners said they were falling behind.

The weights assume a single-site or small-group buyer. A group with an operations team would likely move the API and migration rows up.

One review aggregator shows scores without explaining its method. According to Softabase (undated page), Provet Cloud scores 7.9 and Shepherd 8.2 out of 10, but the same page's pros and cons carry no attribution, so we left its scores out of the weighting.

Who this is for

Choose Provet Cloud if you run two or more sites or expect to soon, want a published Pro tier priced per vet, and want an AI scribe you can add per user. It also fits a buyer who wants documented webhook triggers and OAuth-based API access for custom flows. Provet's parent company describes Nordic roots on its own site, but we did not evaluate European regulatory fit, so buyers outside the US should check that separately.

Choose Shepherd if you run one site with one to six doctors, want the price to stay flat for other team logins, and want integrated payments inside the monthly bill. It also fits a US practice that wants a documented public API with a sandbox base URL to build against.

Red flags: you need every price published before a sales call, since both vendors route larger groups to quote-based pricing; you expect texting to be unmetered at no added charge, since Shepherd meters it; or you cannot get a written migration quote, since the Provet pricing page we opened lists none.

Use this short list of written questions to settle the open items before you sign.

If you run a dental practice rather than a veterinary one, the closer comparison is Open Dental vs Curve Dental for cloud practices.

The three-doctor math on the vendor pricing pages

Provet's Core plan costs $99 per vet according to Provet (checked October 19, 2026). The Core platform fee is $249 a month, and the page says that fee includes one vet. The Pro tier for multi-site practices is $129 per vet with a $299 platform fee. The page's FAQ says Provet uses per-vet pricing and that other staff are included at no charge. The Enterprise tier is listed as "Custom," with "flexible billing."

Shepherd's one-doctor plan costs $299 a month with integrated payments according to Shepherd (checked October 19, 2026), or $349 without them. Two doctors are $398 a month with integrated payments, three are $497 and six are $644. Every other team member gets a login at no extra cost. Texting is a separate $99 add-on per 5,000 messages. Data migration is $2,475 paid in full, a 10% discount, or $230 a month for 12 months. The page says there are no onboarding or support fees, that single-location practices start billing 12 weeks after onboarding begins, and that new practices get 50% off the subscription for their first 12 months.

Third-party listings describe Shepherd's pricing with a different tier structure and a minimum license fee. One such page is CostBench's Shepherd profile. Treat aggregator figures as leads, and use the vendor page or a written quote as your baseline.

Sources for the table are the Provet pricing page and the Shepherd pricing page.

Pricing checked October 19, 2026. Quote-based lines are marked as such, and nothing in the table comes from memory or from third-party pages.

Worked example (illustrative, not a customer): Take a single-site practice with three veterinarians, all of whom want the AI scribe. On Provet's Core plan, the $249 platform fee covers the first vet, so the base is $249 + 2 × $99 = $447 a month, and the AI Scribe adds 3 × $40 = $120, for $567 a month. On Shepherd, three doctors with integrated payments are $497 a month, or $547 without, and the pricing page lists no separate AI charge, so the same practice pays $497 if Shepherd's AI tools are included in that price. Read the other way, if Provet bills the platform fee plus every vet, its base is $249 + 3 × $99 = $546, and Shepherd is $49 cheaper before add-ons. Before you sign, budget time for the data import as well. Shepherd's invoice search is a POST to open-api.shepherd.vet/pav2/open-api-invoices, and its appointment records carry an appointmentPatients array because one appointment can cover several pets, so a migration script has to map every appointment to the right patients, and a staff member should spot-check that mapping before cutover. The invoice doesn't show that review time, but it is the step most likely to slip.

Feature matrix: what differs beyond price

The rows marked "not listed" or "not confirmed" are the ones to put to each vendor in writing. They are not a verdict on product quality, because we reviewed public pricing and developer pages rather than running either product.

Vendor profiles

Provet Cloud

According to Provet (checked October 19, 2026), Provet is part of Nordhealth and lists more than 3,000 clinics and more than 55,000 veterinary professionals. The About page says the team is "Founded in Finland" and has more than 400 people.

Best fit: groups and multi-site practices that want per-vet pricing with a published Pro tier, an AI scribe that can be added per user, and a documented API for custom flows. Provet's enterprise tier suits a buyer who is prepared to negotiate.

Limitations: the US footprint is smaller than its global numbers suggest. Provet's US footprint: about 150 clinics according to MFN (December 2024), from a release that calls it Provet's first large corporate partnership in North America. The pricing page does not list texting, and it does not publish processing rates. The Enterprise tier is quote-based.

Implementation: Provet's developer documentation describes OAuth 2.0 authentication and webhooks, and it lists webhook trigger values such as "Invoice," "Invoice payment" and "Appointment." The pages we opened do not show the payload fields for each trigger, so plan a test account and a review of real payloads before you build. The Provet webhook trigger list is the starting point.

If you are moving from an older desktop system, our Provet Cloud vs Avimark comparison covers that pairing.

Shepherd

Shepherd's About page names Dr. Cindy Barnes as founder and describes a clinical background at a 24/7 emergency animal hospital in Northern Arizona. The footer names Shepherd Veterinary Solutions, LLC. The page states no founding year, headquarters or ownership structure, so this guide does not assign any.

Best fit: single-site US practices with a few doctors, practices that want payments and messaging inside one monthly bill, and teams that expect to build an integration against a documented API.

Limitations: texting is metered, so high-volume reminder programs need a volume estimate before you sign. The pricing page does not state an AI charge. Rate-limit figures are not published in the pages we opened. Lab connectivity with IDEXX or Antech is not confirmed on the vendor pages we opened, so ask for it in writing.

Implementation: according to Shepherd (checked October 19, 2026), the API reference lists a production base URL and a sandbox base URL, uses POST for reads and PUT for updates, and requires the headers X-Integration-Public-Key, X-Integration-Private-Key and X-Clinic-Id. The appointments resource and the invoices resource list the endpoints and field names a reminder or collections flow would use. The API reference says authoritative schemas are in its live Swagger UI, so check that before you write code.

Reminders and unpaid invoices: where the gap shows up

Both products hold the data that a reminder or collections flow needs. Neither vendor's pricing page promises that such a flow runs for you. The gap usually shows up as unpaid balances and no-show follow-up that depend on someone remembering to check. Practices already lean on these tools: according to Vetstoria (2025), 400 completed responses from 8,825 invited professionals across North America reported that 60%+ of practices use reminders, two-way texting, online booking and client portals. The page does not split that figure by tool, and Vetstoria sells practice management software, so weigh its framing with care.

A proposed, configurable workflow for a Provet Cloud practice would start from Provet's webhook trigger for "Invoice," which the trigger list includes, and check the invoice against the client record. The workflow would place any open balance in a review queue for the front desk, and it would send no client message until a staff member approves it. Prerequisites are API access set up under Provet's developer documentation, a webhook endpoint you control, and a written rule for which balances enter the queue. We did not verify the exact firing rules for each trigger, so the first step is a test account and a sample of real events.

A proposed Shepherd version would poll the /pav2/open-api-invoices endpoint on a schedule, using the dateCreatedFrom filter to pick up recent invoices and keeping those where isPaid is false. The output is a daily exception list for the front desk, which sends texts through the metered texting add-on only after a person approves each one. Because Shepherd uses POST for reads, your retry logic should not assume that a repeated search is harmless. Human review points in both designs are the same: client-facing messages, write-offs and refunds stay with staff.

Membership billing is a separate category. If you sell in-house wellness plans, our guide to membership platforms for in-house plans covers the category, though it is built around dental plans.

Build it yourself or buy a configured layer

The real alternative for many buyers is a stitched workflow in Zapier, Make or n8n, or a script the practice's IT contact maintains. Those tools can keep run histories, retries, error branches and audit evidence when they are configured that way. The buyer still designs and owns observability, idempotency (so a retried call does not send a second reminder), escalation paths, access controls and ongoing maintenance. Count those hours before you choose.

US Tech Automations would approach the same two flows as a configured service. For the Provet design, that means a trigger mapping, a match against the client record, a staff review queue before any client-facing action, and an exception log with a named owner. For the Shepherd design, it means a scheduled pull, a filter for unpaid invoices, and the same review gate. Prerequisites do not change: API credentials from each vendor, a named reviewer, and a data-handling policy. US Tech Automations would configure these steps; it would not replace the PIMS. We have no customer deployment to describe in this article.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: if you have one doctor and only need the PIMS's built-in reminders and invoices, the vendor's own features are simpler and cheaper to run than any added layer. If you need one or two exports a month, a spreadsheet and the vendor's reports are enough. If nobody on your team will own a workflow after launch, a configured layer adds a maintenance obligation you may not want.

Terms used in this comparison

• PIMS: practice information management system, the software that runs a clinic's schedule, records, invoices and inventory.

• Per-vet pricing: billing per veterinarian, sometimes with a platform fee that covers one vet.

• Per-doctor pricing: the same idea, with the vendor calling the licensed clinician a doctor.

• Integrated payments: card processing built into the PIMS, which can lower the subscription price in exchange for using it.

• Webhook: a message the PIMS sends to another system when an event occurs, such as an invoice change.

• Idempotency: a design property where repeating a request does not repeat its effect, such as sending the same reminder twice.

• Quote-based: no public price; the vendor sets the figure after a sales conversation.

Mistakes that change the bill

• Comparing one vendor's base price with the other vendor's all-in price. Add the AI, texting and migration lines to both before you compare.

• Assuming AI is included because a homepage names AI tools. Check the order form for the line item.

• Forgetting the texting meter. Shepherd bills per 5,000 messages, so a reminder program can add a line you did not budget.

• Assuming a platform fee repeats per site or per vet. Ask each vendor to write out the formula.

• Treating aggregator ratings as evidence. The pages we checked gave scores without explaining the method.

• Skipping the migration quote. Shepherd publishes its migration fee; Provet's pricing page does not.

Frequently asked questions

Is Provet Cloud or Shepherd cheaper for three doctors at one site?

On paper, Provet's Core base is lower, but adding its AI Scribe for three users can reverse that, so the answer depends on whether Shepherd's AI tools are included in its price. The worked example above shows the math, and the answer flips if Provet bills the platform fee plus every vet.

Does Shepherd include texting in its price?

No. Shepherd meters texting as a separate add-on, and the Provet pricing page we opened lists no texting charge, so confirm whether SMS is included before you compare totals.

Which system is better for multi-site groups?

Neither is better by default. Shepherd prices each location and each doctor, while Provet's Pro tier uses a platform fee plus per-vet fees, and Provet's page does not say whether that fee repeats for each site.

Can I connect either system to my own tools?

Yes, both publish developer documentation. The Shepherd API is more fully specified in the pages we opened, with endpoints, headers and field names, while the Provet pages we opened name OAuth 2.0 and webhook triggers without field-level detail.

Does Provet's price include data migration?

We could not confirm that it does. Shepherd publishes a one-time migration fee, while the Provet pricing page we opened lists none, so request a written quote before you compare.

Do I need a workflow tool at all?

Not if the built-in reminders and reports cover your collections and follow-up. Add a workflow layer when a step has to cross systems or leave an audit trail you control.

Decision: pick the pricing shape, then verify the add-ons

If you run one site with a few doctors, start with Shepherd's published per-doctor tiers and ask for the texting volume you expect. If you run several sites, start with Provet's Pro tier and ask for a written formula that shows whether the platform fee repeats per site. In either case, get the AI, texting, payments and migration lines in writing before you compare totals.

If you want to see how a reminder queue or unpaid-invoice review would be configured on either system, see how US Tech Automations configures this.