Methodology
How Rightvet works
Where the data comes from, how we score practices, and what we can’t tell you.
Where the data comes from
Practice websites
Pricing, opening hours, services offered
We collect published pricing from practice and chain websites. If a practice publishes a consultation fee of £54, that’s the number you see. We never estimate, round, or adjust prices.
Around 2,500 of the 5,749 practices we track publish at least some pricing on their website. That number is growing as more practices respond to CMA requirements.
RCVS register
Practice existence, addresses, accreditation levels, practice types
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons maintains the official register of every veterinary practice in the UK. We use this as our foundation, refreshing regularly to catch new practices, closures, and accreditation changes.
5,749 practices. Every practice on Rightvet has been verified against the RCVS register.
Google reviews
Ratings, review counts, review text for AI analysis
We analyse Google review data for every practice we track. Reviews are analysed to identify consistent themes, both positive and negative. The summaries you see on practice pages are generated from this analysis, written in plain language.
Review data for over 5,700 practices. Around 98% have at least one Google review.
We also use chain group websites to identify ownership (who actually owns your vet) and the Google Places API for location data.
The Rightvet Score
Every practice gets a score from 1 to 5. It combines three dimensions that reflect what matters most to UK pet owners choosing a vet. The exact calculation is proprietary to mitigate manipulation, but the dimensions are listed below in order of influence.
Reviews
The single biggest factor because it’s the closest thing we have to care quality. We use the Google rating, adjusted for volume. A 4.8 from 300 reviews carries more weight than a 5.0 from 6 reviews, because small sample sizes can be misleading. Practices with fewer than 20 reviews are pulled toward the average until they have enough feedback to be statistically meaningful.
We also analyse the text of reviews to identify themes. A practice might have a 4.5 star rating but consistent complaints about reception staff. The themes show up as pills on the practice page.
Pricing fairness
Not just whether prices are published, but whether they’re honest. We compare each practice’s prices to the local median for each service.
The important part: we check for ‘bait pricing’. This is when a practice sets their consultation fee artificially low to appear competitive in comparison tools, while charging well above average for neutering, vaccinations, and treatment. A consultation might be £35 (looks great), but a dog spay might be £450 (well above average). We catch this and the score reflects it.
Practices that don’t publish any pricing receive a floor score of 2.0 for this component. Publishing prices is a basic act of consumer transparency that the CMA’s upcoming regulations will require.
Transparency
A checklist of verifiable facts. Does the practice:
- Publish pricing on their website
- Have a working website
- Show their opening hours
- Hold RCVS accreditation
Each item contributes to the score. Publishing pricing is weighted double because it’s the single most impactful transparency signal for pet owners. None of this is subjective. Either the information is publicly available or it isn’t.
The three dimensions are combined into a single score. How they’re weighted is proprietary, but reviews carry the most influence because they’re the closest proxy we have for care quality.
What the scores mean
Excellent·4.5 to 5.0
Excellent across reviews, pricing and transparency
Great·4.0 to 4.4
Great overall with good transparency
Good·3.5 to 3.9
Good but with some gaps in data or pricing
Strong·3.0 to 3.4
Strong, with room for improvement on transparency
Fair·2.5 to 2.9
Fair - limited data available for this practice
Developing·2.0 to 2.4
Developing - major gaps in published information
Unrated·Below 2.0
Insufficient data to assess
A low score doesn’t mean a bad vet. It usually means a vet that doesn’t share enough information for us to assess them properly. The floor is 2.0, not 0.
Why ownership matters
Around 60% of UK vet practices are now part of larger groups. The six largest chains (IVC Evidensia, CVS, VetPartners, Pets at Home, Medivet, and Linnaeus) own thousands of practices between them. Most trade under local names that give no indication of group membership.
Group ownership affects pricing, clinical independence, and where your money goes. Pet owners have a right to know who they are paying.
Rightvet identifies the ownership group for every practice. If your local ‘Acme Vets’ is part of a chain owned by a private equity firm, that information is on their profile.
What we can’t tell you
Being honest about our limitations matters more than pretending we’re comprehensive.
We can’t measure care quality directly
Reviews are a proxy, not proof. A practice with a 4.9 rating might have excellent bedside manner but mediocre surgical outcomes. We don’t have access to clinical data and probably never will. The review score tells you what other owners experienced, not what will happen to your pet.
Pricing data has gaps
Around 55% of practices don’t publish any pricing online. Our data covers what’s publicly available. For practices without published pricing, we can’t tell you whether they’re good value or not, only that they haven’t chosen to be transparent about it.
The CMA investigation
The Competition and Markets Authority completed a market investigation into UK veterinary services in March 2026. Their final report confirmed what pet owners already knew: it is too hard to compare vets, and that costs people money.
The CMA’s final remedies include mandatory price list publication for 36 standard services, ownership disclosure on all practice websites, and a cap on prescription fees. An Order is expected by September 2026, with the largest groups required to comply within three months.
Rightvet was built because this information should already be available. Every practice tracked on Rightvet can be measured against the standards the CMA is now making mandatory.
Found something wrong?
Our data comes from public sources and automated collection. Sometimes things are wrong. If you spot an error on a practice page, whether it’s a wrong price, incorrect ownership, or outdated information, let us know.
If you’re a practice owner and want to update your information, we’d welcome that too. We’re not trying to catch anyone out. We want the data to be right.