FarrierIQ vs EQUINET by Mustad: Business App vs Hardware Channel Software
TL;DR
EQUINET by Mustad is free. FarrierIQ is $39/month. If the only thing you're weighing is price, EQUINET wins on paper. But EQUINET was built for Mustad - a horseshoe hardware manufacturer - to manage its distribution channel and help farriers order supplies. It's not a farrier business management tool. It doesn't invoice, it doesn't optimize routes, it doesn't connect to QuickBooks. For running a farrier business, it's the wrong tool for the job.
What EQUINET Is (and Isn't)
EQUINET is a platform Mustad built to support farriers who buy Mustad products. Its primary purpose is to organize hoof care data in a way that supports product selection and hardware ordering. The basic record-keeping functionality - horse profiles, hoof condition notes - supports that mission.
What EQUINET is not: a scheduling app, an invoicing tool, a route optimizer, an accounting integration, or a client communication platform.
EQUINET users consistently report missing core business features. You can log hoof data, but you can't send that data to an invoice. You can track horse visits, but you can't get automated reminders out to clients. You can note that a horse needs a different shoe, but you can't optimize the route to get there.
| Feature | FarrierIQ ($39/mo) | EQUINET (Free) |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling & reminders | Yes | No |
| One-tap invoicing | Yes | No |
| Route optimization | Yes | No |
| AI hoof health flagging | Yes | Limited |
| Horse owner portal | Yes | No |
| QuickBooks sync | Yes | No |
| Offline-first | Yes | No |
| Hardware ordering | No | Yes |
| Price | $39/mo | Free |
The Real Cost of "Free"
"Free" is compelling when you're starting out or watching expenses. But the question isn't just what the software costs - it's what the gaps in the software cost you.
No invoicing: If you're using EQUINET and a separate invoicing tool, you're paying for the second tool and doing double data entry between them. Every horse you visit generates work in two systems.
No route optimization: FarrierIQ's routing saves $80-150/month in fuel for the average farrier. Over a year, that's $960-1,800. EQUINET's $0/month starts looking expensive when you factor in the fuel you're burning on unoptimized routes.
No QuickBooks sync: Six hours per month of manual bookkeeping at $50/hour is $300/month in implicit cost. FarrierIQ eliminates that. EQUINET doesn't.
No client communication: Managing all client communication manually - reminders, status calls, appointment confirmations - costs time. FarrierIQ's automated reminders and horse owner portal eliminate most of it. EQUINET has no client communication tools.
Where EQUINET Makes Sense
EQUINET is a reasonable choice if:
- You're primarily interested in hoof condition tracking for a small book and don't need business management tools
- You're already organized with invoicing via another system and don't want to consolidate
- You're a Mustad customer who wants the product recommendation features
- You're just starting out and need something free while you decide if farriery is your long-term path
For any established farrier running a business - issuing invoices, managing schedules, optimizing routes, tracking income - EQUINET is not the right tool.
FarrierIQ as a Purpose-Built Business App
FarrierIQ was built to solve the specific operational problems that cost farriers time and money. Invoicing at the truck. Routing a 10-stop day. Flagging the horse whose hoof condition has been declining. Syncing income to QuickBooks in real time.
These are business problems. EQUINET is a product support tool. They're solving different problems for different purposes. The overlap in hoof record-keeping creates surface-level comparability, but in actual use the two apps don't compete for the same jobs.
FAQ
Does EQUINET have invoicing features?
No. EQUINET by Mustad does not have invoicing functionality. It's designed for hoof condition tracking and hardware ordering, not business management. Farriers using EQUINET who need to invoice clients must use a separate tool - which creates double entry and disconnected records. FarrierIQ handles invoicing natively, tied directly to each horse's service record.
Is EQUINET good for farrier business management?
EQUINET is not a farrier business management tool. It's a product built by Mustad to support its hardware distribution channel. It has basic hoof condition tracking but no scheduling, invoicing, route optimization, QuickBooks integration, or client communication features. For farriers who need to manage the business side of their operation - not just track hoof data - FarrierIQ is designed for that purpose.
What is the difference between EQUINET and FarrierIQ?
EQUINET is a free hoof-care data platform built by horseshoe manufacturer Mustad to support hardware ordering and product recommendations. It has basic horse record capabilities. FarrierIQ is a complete farrier business management app with scheduling, invoicing, route optimization, AI hoof health flagging, a horse owner portal, and QuickBooks sync. EQUINET is a product support tool. FarrierIQ is a business operations tool. Most farriers who need to run a professional operation need the latter.
Can a farrier use both EQUINET and FarrierIQ at the same time?
Some farriers use EQUINET for product selection and hardware reference while running their business operations through FarrierIQ. These are genuinely different use cases -- EQUINET's product catalog and Mustad hardware ordering can be useful for a Mustad-focused purchasing workflow, while FarrierIQ handles scheduling, invoicing, records, and routing. There's no integration between them, so hoof condition data would need to be entered separately in each system if you want records in both. In practice, most farriers who try FarrierIQ's hoof health records find that they don't need EQUINET's record functions separately -- the FarrierIQ records are more detailed and tied directly to visit history and invoicing.
What should a farrier who currently uses only EQUINET expect when switching to FarrierIQ?
The core transition is adding business management functionality you didn't have before: invoicing, scheduling with interval tracking, automated client reminders, and route optimization. EQUINET's hoof record data isn't directly importable into FarrierIQ, so the cleanest approach is to start fresh in FarrierIQ and reference your EQUINET records historically. For most farriers, this means setting up client profiles, adding horses with their current intervals, and beginning invoice records from the transition date forward. The previous EQUINET records can be exported or printed as a historical archive. Most farriers with 40-60 horses can set up FarrierIQ in an afternoon -- and the farrier scheduling software begins generating value on the first route day.
Sources
- American Farrier's Association (AFA), farrier business technology and software resources
- Mustad Hoofcare, EQUINET product documentation and feature descriptions
- Small Business Administration (SBA), total cost of ownership analysis for service business software
Get Started with FarrierIQ
EQUINET's "free" price doesn't account for the $80-150/month in fuel that unoptimized routes cost, the time spent on manual invoicing, or the 6 hours/month of bookkeeping that QuickBooks integration eliminates. FarrierIQ's farrier scheduling app and complete business management features are $39/month -- try FarrierIQ free and calculate what the gaps in a free tool are actually costing you.