Feature lists don't help you decide. Seven questions that do — including the three no app answers on its home page. And yes, we're one of them.
Nearly every pet app looks good on its home page. They all list the same things: card, reminders, profile, photos.
The problem is that features aren't what makes the difference three years in. What makes the difference is a set of things almost nobody puts on the landing page.
Before we start, worth saying plainly: Maskotis is one of these apps. So you won't find a conclusion here that we're the best — you'll find the questions, which are the same for everyone, and which you can put to us too.
1. Can I get my data out?
The most important question and the worst documented. If you put four years of history in and there's no way to export it, that history isn't yours: it's theirs, and you have a licence to look at it.
Look for the words export, download, CSV, PDF. If they appear nowhere, assume the answer is no.
2. What happens if I stop paying?
There are two very different behaviours advertised identically:
The difference is enormous and it's almost never on the pricing page. It's in the terms, or you find out the day your card expires.
3. Can I print it?
A counter will eventually ask for paper: boarding, a trip, a new clinic, a dog park that asks for the card at the gate. An app that only exists on screen leaves you solving that with screenshots.
4. Does it store dates as dates, or as photos?
A folder of photos of the card isn't a history: it can't be sorted, searched, or used to remind anyone of anything. If the app only lets you upload images, it's an album with a different name.
5. Is it written by someone who speaks your language?
You can tell on the first screen, and you can tell more in the reminders. Machine translation in a message arriving at eight in the morning feels exactly like what it is.
6. Does it work on the phone you already have?
Not the next one. Check the minimum OS version before you enter anything.
7. What does it promise that doesn't exist yet?
The most honest of the seven, and the most uncomfortable for us. Plenty of apps — ours included, at times — describe in the present tense things that are "coming soon".
How to find out: look for the feature inside the app, not on the marketing page. If you can't find it in three minutes, it isn't there yet.
So we're not hiding behind our own questions:
Today in Maskotis you can register your pet, keep their care events and store documents, with dates. Reminders — telling you when the date your vet gave you is approaching — aren't open yet, and we're not going to put a date on that here.
And what we won't do, even once they are: tell you what to give your pet. That's decided by the person who can examine them.
Whatever survives those four tests is an app worth putting four years of history into.
And if you want to see these questions applied to specific apps in the Mexican market, that's here.
Because the seven questions above have uncomfortable answers across much of the market, and we think a pet's history should belong to their owner without conditions.
Before choosing any app: run the export test. It tells you the most, fastest.
Maskotis does not give medical recommendations and this article is not a substitute for a veterinary consultation. Take them to the vet you trust, or to the nearest clinic — they'll help you there.
It sounds like a step backwards and it isn't. There are four specific moments where paper wins, which is why printing is part of the product rather than an accessory.
You're going to post the photo anyway. These five take exactly as long, and in three years they'll be worth far more than the photo.
The card is your summary. The file is the full document, it lives at the clinic, and most people don't know it exists. When it's worth asking for, and how to ask well.