Is PetExec Worth It in 2026? Pricing, the Gingr Takeover, and Better Options for Small Groomers

You booked a PetExec demo because three boarding-and-grooming shops in a Facebook group swear by it, and you wanted a straight number before giving up a Saturday to a sales call. The pricing page would not give you one. It asks you to request a demo. So you fill in the form and start to wonder why a tool you might pay for every month for five years will not just tell you what it costs.

Here is the short answer. PetExec does not publish a public price, and the figure most review sites report is a starting rate of about $105 a month per facility, with a demo required for a real quote. That already makes it a hard sell for a solo mobile groomer or a small salon. The bigger thing nobody mentions on the demo: in November 2024 PetExec was acquired by Togetherwork, which also owns Gingr, and new pet businesses are now steered toward Gingr instead. So the honest 2026 question is not just “is PetExec worth it,” it is “am I buying into a platform quietly being wound down into another one.” Below is the real math, the acquisition story, and the tools a small shop should price first.

Key Takeaways

• You cannot get a PetExec price without a demo. It does not publish pricing, so the widely reported $105-a-month starting figure is a third-party estimate, not a quote.
• PetExec is now part of Gingr. Togetherwork bought it in November 2024 and placed it alongside Gingr in its Pet Care Product Group. New inquiries are reported to be redirected to Gingr.
• It is built for kennels, not vans. Two thirds of PetExec reviewers run boarding and daycare facilities. For a solo groomer the feature set is mostly overhead you pay for and never touch.
• The real cost hides in add-ons and processing. Reported extras include texting and mobile-app fees, onboarding charges, and a 1% payment gateway fee on unmigrated accounts.
• A2P 10DLC is the fee no grooming tool quotes you. Reminder, pickup, and promo texts each need separate carrier registration, whichever software you land on.

What This Teardown Covers

• The thing the demo will not lead with: PetExec is now part of Gingr
• What PetExec actually costs in 2026
• Who PetExec is really built for
• What each type of shop should actually do
• How a PetExec decision goes wrong
• PetExec vs the rest of the field
• The texting fee nobody quotes you (A2P 10DLC)
• Steal this: the questions to ask on the demo
• Common objections
• FAQ

The Thing the Demo Will Not Lead With: PetExec Is Now Part of Gingr

Start here, because it changes everything. On November 4, 2024, Togetherwork announced it had acquired PetExec and placed it in the same Pet Care Product Group as Gingr. PetExec’s own site now carries the banner “PetExec is now part of the Gingr family.” The note says the team “will continue to operate and support PetExec customers,” and points readers to Gingr for more.

That is the part a demo rep is unlikely to open with. Multiple software directories report that PetExec now routes new pet-business inquiries to Gingr, and Gingr runs a dedicated PetExec-to-Gingr migration webinar walking existing customers through what moves across. PetExec’s site still shows a demo link, so it is not switched off, but the direction of travel is not subtle.

This matters for one reason: software you sign up for in 2026 is software you want to grow into, not out of. Buying onto a platform its own parent is steering people away from means you may be the one in a migration webinar in a year. If you like what PetExec does, the cleaner move is often to look straight at Gingr, which we compared head to head in MoeGo vs Gingr vs PetExec.

What PetExec Actually Costs in 2026

Now the numbers, and the caveat that PetExec will not confirm them. With no public pricing page, every figure below is reported by third-party review sites, not quoted by the vendor.

The most consistent figure across the directories is a starting price of about $105 a month, listed on Software Advice and Capterra, billed per facility rather than per user. One listing cites closer to $129 for a boarding facility that also grooms, and flags that PetExec does not confirm it. So the honest range is about $105 to $130 a month to start, confirmed by nobody official, with texting, the mobile app, and onboarding reported as extras on top. There is also a payment layer: several sources report that after the Togetherwork deal a gateway fee of around 1% hit transaction volume for unmigrated accounts. That one is vendor-marketing content, so treat it as a question to ask, not a fact to bank on.

For context, PetExec’s reviews are genuinely good: Capterra shows it at 4.6 from 662 reviews, with 4.7 on customer service. The complaints that do show up, per GetApp, cluster around price being high for smaller businesses and training adding cost. That is the tell: happy PetExec customers are mostly bigger facilities that grew into it. A one-van groomer is not that customer.

Who PetExec Is Really Built For

PetExec is not grooming-first software. It is kennel, daycare, and boarding software that also does grooming, and GetApp reports that kennel management is the top use case, at 67% of reviewers. Its strengths are the things a boarding facility needs: run cards, feeding and medication schedules, boarding waitlists, daycare fee calculations by hours or days, and an owner portal for drop-off and pickup.

If you board and daycare and groom under one roof, that depth is the point, and PetExec earns its reviews. If you are a solo mobile groomer or a one-to-three-chair salon, most of it is weight you carry and pay for without ever using. You do not need run cards. You need a clean calendar, deposits that stick, reminder texts that cut no-shows, and a rebooking nudge so the chair does not sit empty. A facility platform is the wrong shape for that job, and usually the wrong price. A small shop is not repelled by software because it is software. It is repelled when a tool built for a 40-run boarding kennel asks it to learn a whole world just to text that the dog is done.

What Each Type of Shop Should Actually Do

The right call depends on your business.

The solo mobile groomer. One van, you text everything, you take cards at the stop. PetExec is almost certainly overbuilt and overpriced for you, and you would be buying onto a platform being folded into Gingr. Price flat-rate, grooming-first tools first: Groomer.io is a flat $99 a month with unlimited texting, Pawfinity starts around $50, and MoeGo starts near $49 a van. Each does the core job for less than PetExec’s reported floor, with a price you can read without a call. Our MoeGo alternatives guide runs the mobile numbers.

The three-chair salon with a small team. You want a shared calendar, two-way texting, deposits, and rebooking. PetExec can do this, but its sweet spot is boarding, so you are paying for a facility engine to run a salon. Compare its quote against MoeGo’s salon tier near $79 and against DaySmart Pet, which bundles two-way texting from its $149 tier, torn down in what a grooming shop pays for DaySmart Pet. For a pure salon, a grooming-first tool usually wins on both fit and price.

The boarding, daycare, and grooming facility. This is the one case where PetExec genuinely fits, because the boarding features are the job. Even here, the acquisition changes the math: if the parent is steering new business to Gingr, price Gingr directly as the likely destination and get a straight answer on PetExec’s roadmap first. At this scale many operators also stop renting per-facility software and move booking, deposits, reminders, and rebooking onto one platform they own, the model behind our rebooking system for groomers.

How a PetExec Decision Goes Wrong

These are the predictable ways a small shop ends up unhappy, and each has a fix.

You inherit a migration you did not plan. You join PetExec in 2026, and within a year Togetherwork’s consolidation reaches your account and you are moving to Gingr anyway. The fix: ask in writing what PetExec’s support and roadmap look like for the next 24 months, and whether new grooming-only accounts are still being onboarded.

The processing bill creeps. The monthly fee is only half the cost. The reported post-acquisition gateway fee, plus whatever card rate you are quoted, can quietly outweigh the subscription. A point of a percent on $15,000 a month in grooms is $150, every month. The fix: get the full card rate and any gateway fee in writing before you compare.

You get stuck because your data is trapped. What keeps groomers on software they have outgrown is fear of losing years of client and pet history. The fix: never sign until you know exactly how you would get your data out, in CSV, if you left. Here is the playbook on switching grooming software without losing your client history.

PetExec vs the Rest of the Field

Here is how PetExec lines up against the tools a shop usually shortlists. Its figures are reported starting prices, not quotes.

Prices are 2026 published starting rates from each vendor’s own page or a review directory, cross-checked against Capterra. PetExec does not publish pricing, so its figure is reported, not quoted. Verify before you sign.

Now the number that matters: the all-in monthly for a three-groomer salon that texts reminders. The chart below models each tool’s real tier plus the add-ons a shop that size switches on, card processing excluded.

Illustrative all-in monthly cost for a 3-groomer salon that texts (subscription plus texting plus typical add-ons; card processing excluded). PetExec and Gingr are modeled from reported starting prices. Modeled estimates, not vendor quotes.

The pattern is the one you would expect. The facility platforms, PetExec and Gingr, sit at the boarding-shaped end, while grooming-first tools come in lower for the exact job a salon needs. PetExec is not badly priced for what it is. It is priced for a bigger business than a van or a small salon.

The Texting Fee Nobody Quotes You (A2P 10DLC)

Whatever you pick, there is a cost on no grooming-software pricing page that hits groomers harder than almost any other trade: A2P 10DLC registration.

If you text clients from a regular 10-digit US number, carriers require you to register your business and your message campaigns, separated by purpose: an appointment reminder is one campaign, a “your dog is ready for pickup” text is another, a “we have Saturday openings” promo is a third. Plenty of operators assume reminder and pickup texts are exempt because they feel like plain service messages. They are not automatically exempt, and treating them that way is how deliverability quietly dies.

You will see frightening per-violation fine figures online. A repeated “$10,000 per violation” number circulates in vendor blogs, but it is unverified, so ignore it. The real damage is quieter: unregistered traffic gets filtered, your reminders silently stop landing, and you have a no-show problem that is really a texting problem. So on any demo, ask how the tool handles 10DLC registration and keeps reminder, transactional, and marketing campaigns separate. We cover the mechanics in the guide to A2P 10DLC and consent for groomers and the SMS automation overview.

Steal This: The Questions to Ask on the Demo

Do not walk into a PetExec or Gingr demo unarmed. Copy the two scripts below. The first flushes out the real price and roadmap. The second gets your data out if you leave.

The demo interrogation (paste into your notes before the call):

1. What is the total monthly price for my setup, with two-way texting, the mobile app, and any onboarding fee, in writing?
2. Is that price per facility, per user, or flat, and how many staff logins are included?
3. What is the card processing rate, and is there any added gateway fee on top?
4. Are new grooming-only accounts still being onboarded, and what is the roadmap for the next 24 months?
5. If customers are being migrated to Gingr, should I just start on Gingr, and what would that cost?
6. Is importing my client and pet history included or a separate fee, and is it month-to-month or annual?

The data-export request (send to any vendor before you switch):

Hi, we are moving our grooming business to a new system. Please send a complete CSV export: all client contact records, pet profiles and grooming notes, full appointment history, and any outstanding package or deposit balances. Please confirm the file format and a delivery date so nothing is lost.

Those two scripts are worth more than any feature chart. The first stops the surprise bill and surfaces the Gingr question the rep would rather skip. The second makes sure you are never held hostage by your client list.

Common Objections

“My boarding friends love PetExec, so it must be good.” It is good, for them. They run boarding and daycare, exactly what PetExec is built for. You run a van or a grooming salon, a different job. “Good software” and “the right software for your business” are not the same thing. Judge it against what you actually do.

“The reviews are 4.6, better than the cheap tools.” The rating is real and the service scores are strong. But a high average from boarding facilities does not tell you how it fits a one-van groomer, and the complaints that exist are specifically about cost for small shops. A great tool at the wrong size is still the wrong tool.

“If it is being absorbed into Gingr, would I not just get Gingr anyway?” Fair read. If Gingr is where you want to be, start there. The risk is signing onto PetExec, learning its quirks, moving your data in, and doing it all again when migration reaches you. Buy the destination, not the layover.

“Is GoHighLevel not enterprise software too? I run one van.” It sounds bigger than it is. Under the hood it is a booking, texting, and automation engine, and the parts a groomer touches are a calendar, reminder texts, deposits, and a rebooking nudge. The difference is you own it instead of renting per facility, so adding a groomer or a van does not raise your automation bill. See the math on our GoHighLevel pricing page.

FAQ

Related Reading

• MoeGo vs Gingr vs PetExec: What Grooming Software Really Costs in 2026
• MoeGo Alternatives for Mobile Groomers: 6 Tools Compared for 2026
• DaySmart Pet (123Pet) Pricing in 2026: What a Grooming Shop Actually Pays
• How to Switch Grooming Software Without Losing Your Client History
• Texting Grooming Clients in 2026: A2P 10DLC, Consent, and Waivers