By VetsComparedHow Vets Compared checks pet health plans
Last catalogue check: 28 Aug 2026. We currently track 46 published plans across 28 marketed plan families. 42 of those published plans currently have complete comparison data. Those products are linked to 2453 clinics.
Vets Compared maintains a structured catalogue of UK pet health plans so that products described differently by individual veterinary businesses can be compared on the same basis. We collect information from public provider and practice websites, plan brochures, terms and conditions, checkout pages, plan administrators and, where available, information confirmed by veterinary practices themselves.
We do not assume that two plans with similar names or prices contain the same benefits. Each plan is represented as a product with its own pricing rules, coverage, contract terms, availability and supporting evidence.
Exact and indicative prices
A price is treated as exact when we can match the published price to the relevant product, offer, species and any required age or weight criteria. Where the provider publishes several possible prices but the information supplied by the user is not sufficient to determine one of them, we show an indicative range instead.
Product-level or historic prices can also be retained as indicative information when they are useful but cannot be treated as a current clinic-specific price. We do not convert an unknown price into zero, and we distinguish “not publicly listed” from information we have simply not verified.
Offers and clinic differences
A plan product and the offer through which it is sold are separate records. This matters because a national brand can have different prices or benefits at different veterinary groups or individual practices.
When resolving a comparison we prefer the most specific current information available. A clinic-specific offer takes precedence over a group-level offer, which in turn takes precedence over a product-level indicative fallback. Local differences therefore do not overwrite the canonical description of the wider product.
Species, age and weight
Species, age and weight are matched against the actual pricing rules published by the provider. We do not use a universal dog-size band as the underlying pricing truth because providers use materially different boundaries.
If the owner supplies an exact weight, the comparison can match the relevant price range directly. Where only an approximate band is available, more than one provider price may remain possible and the result stays indicative. Age is normalised internally so that puppy, kitten, adult and senior eligibility rules can be handled without relying on crude whole-year assumptions.
Coverage and unknown information
Coverage is stored as structured facts covering consultations, vaccinations, parasite treatment, diagnostics, dental benefits and other services. Where the provider has not published enough information to determine whether something is included, the field remains unknown. Unknown does not mean excluded.
We also preserve important free-text contractual facts where reducing them to a simple yes or no would lose meaning, such as unusual fair-use restrictions, missed-appointment rules or cancellation consequences.
Versioning and freshness
Prices and material terms change over time. Current comparison pages use the version whose effective dates apply at the time of the request. When a price or term changes, the previous version can be closed rather than overwritten, allowing the catalogue to retain its provenance.
Pages show last-checked information where it is available. A price which is known to come from an older source is labelled indicative rather than silently presented as current. How often we recheck is driven by the last retrieved evidence date for that product: a new check opens a new version and closes the previous open row.
Conflicting sources
Where sources conflict, we prefer evidence that is both more specific and more authoritative for the fact being resolved. Current practice-specific terms normally take precedence over a generic marketing page for that practice's offer. A provider's current terms normally carry more weight than an older brochure.
We retain source links and retrieval dates so that material facts can be traced back to the evidence used.
Commercial independence
Veterinary practices or plan administrators may in future pay Vets Compared for introductions, enrolments or other services. Commercial participation does not change the factual coverage, terms or pricing information recorded for a plan and does not determine whether a plan receives a more favourable comparison result.
Where Vets Compared later introduces a formal rating or value methodology, the methodology and the factors used will be published separately.