by Matt Rej
Vet practice management software has become an essential tool for modern veterinarians, animal hospitals, and it’s even spilled into the dog daycare and grooming space.
The majority of these tools offer similar features for appointments, client communication, and back-office operations.
Where they differ the most is how they handle credit card processing. Unlike the features that are fairly interchangeable between platforms, the integrated payment setup you choose has the biggest impact on your bottom line.
Do You Actually Need Integrated Payments for Your Vet Software?
Most practices assume that integrated payments are a “must-have” due to the convenience. The software providers and sales reps all pitch the feature heavily, often saying it’s “free” or included in every plan (because they’re incentivized for you to use it).
But if your current processor offers competitive interchange-plus pricing and you have a good rate, switching providers just for the sake of built-in payments can easily wipe out any perceived operational time savings.
So do you need integrated payment processing? Not necessarily. The better question to ask is if you can use your own processor. If yes, the integrated setup makes a lot more sense.
What to Look for in Vet Software Payment Processing
We’re assuming you’ve already narrowed down options based on features. This post and guidance strictly focus on how each handles payment processing because that’s where the long-term cost differences are.
Processor Flexibility
Ideally, you want to keep your existing payment processor. See if the software you’re using or considering has an API that supports an integration with your current provider.
If not, look for a software that supports multiple processors. This is huge because it naturally creates competition between each provider and leads to lower rates. Platforms that only support one processor integration often have the most expensive rates because the processor has no incentive to be competitive.
Pricing Model
Interchange-plus pricing is a hard requirement. Walk away if you can’t get this.
Flat-rate pricing or tiered setups are going to bleed you dry over time. I don’t care how convincing the sales rep is or how “simple” they claim it to be. You’re going to overpay by thousands of dollars every single month if you’re not on IC+.
Relationship With Processor
You want to have a direct relationship with the processor instead of going through the software as a vendor as a middleman.
This means having a signed merchant agreement with the processor that has nothing to do with the software itself. In this scenario, the only role of the vet/pet software is supporting the API that connects your payments to their platform.
Insisting on this setup also gives you more contract negotiation leverage. Additional entities in your payments stack will always inflate your rates because everyone involved needs a cut, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
What Happens When Something Goes Wrong
Here’s something most practices don’t consider until it actually happens, and it’s directly related to the point above regarding your processor relationship.
Who is responsible for downtime or chargebacks? Who do you contact when rates go up or when you spot new fees on your statement?
Vets using Rectangle Health recently experienced a month-long outage because a third-party gateway went down. Relying solely on the software provider to handle relationships with the providers responsible for processing your payments is a mistake. You need a direct line to them.
Vet Software Payment Processing Compared
I hand-picked the platforms below based on their market presence and range of payment processing setups that they offer.
We have no affiliate relationships or compensation deals with any of them. Our analysis comes strictly from the payments side, based on what we’ve seen in auditing statements and negotiating rates for clients in the pet space.
Vetspire
Vetspire has four different payment processing options for you to choose from. This is great because each of these solutions is independently owned, which creates pricing competition between them that you can use for leverage:
- Vetspire Pay
- Worldpay
- Stripe
- Square
Stripe is likely the best option of the four, as long as you can get an IC+ structure.
Square is a PayFac that’s more likely to force flat-rate pricing on you. While the setup is simple and the hardware is nice, it’s probably going to be more expensive over the long run.
You can get IC+ pricing from both Worldpay and Vetspire Pay, but these setups are less ideal than Stripe for two very different reasons.
Worldpay is unfortunately getting known for its expensive pricing and extra fees. And Vetspire Pay just has too many players involved (it’s powered by CardConnect, which is a super ISO of Fiserv). All of these companies, including Vetspire, will be taking a cut of your merchant fees.
This is all covered in greater detail in our Vetspire payment processing review.
VETport
The best part about VETport’s integrated payment setup is that all of the options give you direct access to the processor.
VETport doesn’t have its own in-house solution that they’re pushing on you (which is a good thing). All they do is support the integrated setups via API connections to:
- Elavon
- Fiserv
- OpenEdge
You can get IC+ pricing from all three, but Elavon and Fiserv are going to be the two best options here. Due to their massive market presence, there’s a chance you might already have an existing relationship with one of them. This would be ideal, as you won’t have to change anything to get the integration.
Both Elavon and Fiserv offer competitive pricing, and they’re open to negotiations. You just need to watch out for annual rate hikes with them.
Fiserv has Clover POS systems, which is appealing for vet/pet businesses accepting lots of in-person payments.
Only consider the OpenEdge integration if you’re already set up with them or Global Payments. Otherwise, their prices likely won’t beat Elavon of Fiserv.
It’s also worth mentioning that VETport integrates with Telr, though this integration isn’t supported in the US. Check out our VETport review for more payment insights.
Avimark
Avimark’s setup is a bit unique compared to the others.
You’re directed to Covetrus Payments (Covetrus is Avimark’s parent company), which sits on top of third-party processors. And Covetrus Payments supports different processor integrations, including:
- Worldpay
- Global Payments
- Stripe
The problem here is that Worldpay is owned by Global Payments.
It’s only a good thing if you’re already using either Worldpay or Global. But otherwise, having two processors owned by the same company creates a false sense of competition for new accounts.
You’ll likely be able to get the best rates from Stripe. But only if you’re on an IC+ contract.
Just make sure that whatever path you take, you’re able to get a direct merchant agreement from the processor. You don’t want Avimark/Covetrus to handle this on your behalf, as it will just end up inflating your rates.
Our Avimark review has a full breakdown of these options.
NaVetor
NaVetor integrates with two processors: Global Payments and Gravity Payments.
Only consider Global if you’re already using them. Otherwise, Gravity’s rates will most likely be cheaper.
It’s also worth noting that NaVetor offers its software for “free” if you use credit card processing from Patterson Veterinary (NaVetor’s parent company). Don’t go this route.
Patterson’s branded processing capabilities are all powered by Global Payments. Except the setup is worse than the direct NaVetor integration because you’re forced to use Patterson as a middleman.
You should gladly pay for the NaVetor software in full to avoid this, as the extra payment processing fees you’ll end up paying will easily exceed the software subscription savings (by thousands).
We have a NaVetor review and NaVetor integrated payments guide that you can reference for additional information.
ezyVet
At first glance, ezyVet appears to support multiple payment integrations. But when you dig deeper, you’re pretty much limited to a single provider.
Here are the payment providers currently supported by the ezyVet API:
- PayJunction: The only viable credit card processor on the list.
- CareCredit: Third-party option to offer financing on vet services.
- Windcave: Not supported in the United States.
So if you’re not looking at this information closely, it can give you a false sense of competition. When in reality, PayJunction has a stranglehold on this integrated setup.
What’s interesting about this is that Windcave does offer merchant services in the US, but ezyVet doesn’t support it for US-based businesses. I’d love to see this change moving forward because it will force PayJunction to offer more competitive pricing to merchants.
Just be aware that PayJunction does try to push accounts to flat-rate or tiered pricing structures. You don’t want either of these. Demand IC+ pricing, which they do offer.
See our full breakdown of ezyVet’s integrated credit card processing insights here.
Gingr
I almost excluded Gingr from my list because their payment processing options aren’t actually that flexible. But they’re widely considered a market leader in this space, and I figured a good amount of people landing on this post are either using Gingr or at least considering it.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Gingr Payments is the software’s in-house payment processing solution that’s actually powered by Stripe on the backend.
- Alternatively, Gingr can integrate with CardConnect (a Fiserv ISO, which means you have access to Clover devices if you want them).
The problem I have with this setup is I don’t know how long these two options will last. When Gingr’s parent company acquired PetExec, they added a 1% gateway fee on total volume, which could be avoided by switching to Gingr Payments.
So it’s clear they want to route as many payments as possible through their own branded platform. You can read more about this situation in my Gingr Payments review.
Other Vet Software Credit Card Processing Options
In addition to the most flexible payment solutions above, I wanted to include some other popular options. While the payment setups aren’t quite as flexible, they’re still worth mentioning so you can understand the differences when you’re comparing and evaluating tools for your business.
- Weave — Weave Payments is a PayFac setup that’s powered by Stripe. And while Weave isn’t exclusively for vet/pet, this is one of the software’s primary served industries. Read more.
- Cornerstone — Cornerstone Payment’s integration documentation is outdated, and Fiserv is the only processor that’s supported (via CardPointe/CardConnect). Read more.
- IDEXX Neo — Neo Payments has officially sunset and is now IDEXX Payments (powered by Fiserv). Read more.
- DaySmart Vet — Integrates with CardConnect via the CardPointe gateway. Read more.
- PetExec — No longer a reasonable option to consider now that a 1% gateway fee applies to all transactions not routed through Gingr Payments. Read more.
All of these platforms have the same problem. They either only support one integration or you’re forced to go through the software provider as a middleman (or a combination of both).
These setups are not ideal and always result in higher fees.
If you’re currently using these tools and your existing processor doesn’t integrate with them, you can potentially find some workarounds like using Zapier to push/pull payments data automatically. This won’t quite be the same as a truly integrated setup. But it can still eliminate some manual reconciliation.
Getting the Most Out of Your Vet Software’s Payment Setup
The software itself matters far less than the payment processing arrangement behind it.
Whether you’re evaluating a new platform or you’re already locked into one of the options mentioned above, the most important thing you can do is get your statements suited before you sign anything (or before you assume that your current rates are the best available).
MCC works with veterinary and pet businesses to negotiate directly with processors on their behalf, regardless of which software you’re using. Get a free audit today to find out how much you can save.