What makes pet booking different
A pet booking needs the pet as well as the owner: name, breed, size, coat, temperament, vaccinations, vet, and consent. Prices vary by size and coat. Daycare and boarding are date ranges with capacity, not slots. Grooming appointments depend on the dog. Generic booking tools do none of this. Pet-specific platforms do, and the website's job is to put them one tap from every page with the pet's details captured before arrival. Here is how the common ones compare.
Gingr (US, CA, UK, AU)
For: daycare, boarding, grooming, training; single and multi-location.
Website: an online booking portal for owners (hosted, with your branding) and embeddable request and booking widgets; deep links to services. Owners create pet profiles with vaccination uploads.
Pet features: vaccination tracking with expiry, feeding and medication notes, report cards, webcams, packages and memberships.
Pricing: by size, breed or custom attributes; add-ons.
Strengths: the most complete daycare and boarding system; strong owner portal. Watch: setup effort; price for small groomers.
MoeGo (US, CA, UK, AU)
For: grooming salons and mobile groomers.
Website: online booking widget and hosted page with pet profiles; intake forms; deep links per service.
Pet features: grooming notes, coat and behaviour records, vaccination reminders, two-way SMS, route optimisation for mobile.
Pricing: by breed, size and coat with a pricing matrix; add-ons.
Strengths: built for groomers, excellent SMS and mobile support, fast to set up. Watch: grooming-focused; less for boarding.
PetExec (US, CA)
For: daycare, boarding, grooming, training.
Website: owner portal for booking and account management; embeddable links.
Pet features: vaccination tracking, feeding schedules, report cards, packages.
Pricing: flexible by service and pet attributes.
Strengths: long-established, comprehensive, good for facilities. Watch: interface is dated; embed styling is limited.
Pawfinity (US)
For: grooming and small facilities.
Website: online booking with pet profiles; hosted page.
Strengths: affordable, straightforward. Watch: smaller ecosystem.
Time To Pet (US, CA, UK)
For: dog walkers and pet sitters.
Website: client portal for scheduling walks and visits; a request form for new clients.
Pet features: visit reports with photos, GPS check-in, key and access notes, invoicing.
Strengths: the standard for walkers and sitters. Watch: not for grooming or boarding.
Others
Pet Sitter Plus, Precise Petcare (walkers and sitters); Kennel Connection, ProPet, Revelation Pets (boarding and daycare); Savvy Pet Spa, Groomer.io (grooming); veterinary practice management systems (ezyVet, Provet, IDEXX, Covetrus) with client portals for vets. Check each for online booking with pet profiles, vaccination capture and deep links.
What the website needs from any of them
- A Book button on every page, one tap to the platform's booking with the service pre-selected.
- Pet profile and vaccination capture in the platform's flow, so the site's own forms stay minimal and no health documents pass through email.
- Prices by size and coat stated on the website, matching the platform's matrix, so "how much for my cockapoo" is answered before the call.
- Deposits or card capture for grooming and boarding, with the cancellation policy stated.
- Reminders by SMS, including vaccination expiry.
- A "what to bring and what we need" page covering vaccinations, consent, feeding notes, so owners arrive ready.
- Tested on a phone including Instagram's in-app browser, where a lot of pet traffic arrives from.
- Tracking of booking clicks, calls and enquiries by page.
Choosing
- Daycare or boarding facility: Gingr; PetExec as an alternative.
- Grooming salon or mobile groomer: MoeGo.
- Walker or sitter: Time To Pet.
- Small groomer on a budget: Pawfinity or MoeGo's entry tier.
- Vet: your practice management system's portal, with the website deep-linking to it.
Already on one that works? Stay; the website can make any of them book well.
Where this sits
Integrating whichever platform a pet business runs, with size-based prices on the site matching the platform, vaccination and consent handled before arrival, and every Book button tracked, is the core of what we build into pet business websites. The platform holds the pet's record; the website gets the owner into it in one tap.