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Agriculture · head to head

Arable vs Lely Horizon

Arable logo

Arable

Agriculture

In-field crop intelligence platform

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lely Horizon logo

Lely Horizon

Agriculture

Dairy herd management software billed per lactating cow that only runs a Lely robot barn

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Arable requires the Mark 3 field sensor, so it is a hardware deployment rather than a software subscription; Lely Horizon billing is per lactating cow, so the software cost grows with the herd indefinitely and a farm that expands from 120 to 200 cows takes a permanent software cost increase it did not budget when it bought the robots.
  • They diverge on capability: Arable covers Weather monitoring, Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Arable and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Arable and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeArableLely Horizon
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, HardwareWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Agriculture).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Arable

  • Weather monitoring
  • Evapotranspiration
  • Chlorophyll index
  • Disease risk models
  • Growth stage tracking
  • Climate FieldView
  • John Deere
  • Trimble

Only in Lely Horizon

  • Per-cow milking data
  • Health and fertility alerts
  • Work list generation
  • Feed management
  • Farm Management Support
  • Multi-site view
  • Mobile alerts
  • Reporting and benchmarking

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Arable

  • In-field weather and crop monitoring from a single sensornot Lely Horizon
  • Irrigation scheduling based on measured conditionsnot Lely Horizon
  • Water sustainability reporting for enterprise growersnot Lely Horizon
  • Weather risk management across dispersed fieldsnot Lely Horizon

Lely Horizon

  • A 180-cow dairy running four Astronaut robots that needs the attention list to replace walking the barn twice a daynot Arable
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Arable
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Arable
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Arable

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Arable

  • Requires the Mark 3 field sensor, so it is a hardware deployment rather than a software subscription
  • Pricing is not published and goes through a sales conversation
  • Aimed at enterprise growers and advisors rather than smallholders

Lely Horizon

  • Billing is per lactating cow, so the software cost grows with the herd indefinitely and a farm that expands from 120 to 200 cows takes a permanent software cost increase it did not budget when it bought the robots.
  • Horizon is not optional: the barn equipment depends on it, so the subscription cannot be cancelled in a difficult year the way a discretionary analytics tool can, which removes any negotiating position at renewal.
  • It manages Lely equipment and effectively nothing else, so a farm running a Lely robot alongside a conventional parlour or another manufacturer's feeder ends up with two systems and no combined cow record.
  • The migration from the older T4C system was compulsory and rebuilt the interface and reporting, and farms that had years of T4C reports and custom lists found the equivalents either missing or shaped differently, costing retraining time.
  • Everything is bought and supported through the local Lely Center, so pricing, response time and the quality of advice vary by dealer with no published rate card, and a farm with a weak local centre has no practical alternative supplier.

Pricing, plan by plan

Arable

$29/month
  • Standard$1200/device/year
    • Weather data
    • Crop stress
    • Basic analytics
  • Premium$2400/device/year
    • Full analytics
    • Disease models
    • API access

Lely Horizon

On request
  • Horizon Basic$undefined/month
    • Core robot operation and monitoring
    • Per lactating cow subscription
    • Invoiced digitally by the local Lely Center
  • Horizon Control$undefined/month
    • Adds herd management and fertility tooling
    • Per lactating cow subscription
  • Horizon Advance$undefined/month
    • Adds analysis, benchmarking and advisor tooling
    • Per lactating cow subscription

Which should you pick?

Choose Arable if

  • You need weather monitoring.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Hardware.
  • You also want evapotranspiration.
Arable review

Choose Lely Horizon if

  • You need per-cow milking data.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want health and fertility alerts.
Lely Horizon review

Questions people ask

Is Arable or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Arable starts at $29/month and Lely Horizon at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Arable or Lely Horizon?
Arable starts at $29/month and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does Arable or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Arable runs on Web, Ios, Android, Hardware. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
What is Arable best used for?
Arable is most often used for in-field weather and crop monitoring from a single sensor, irrigation scheduling based on measured conditions, water sustainability reporting for enterprise growers, weather risk management across dispersed fields. Of those, in-field weather and crop monitoring from a single sensor and irrigation scheduling based on measured conditions are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Arable do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Arable covers Weather monitoring, Evapotranspiration, Chlorophyll index, Disease risk models. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Arable: How do I get pricing for Arable?

Pricing is not published online. Customers can contact Arable directly at [email protected] or by phone at 510-992-4095, or visit their contact page at /contact to request pricing information.

Source
Lely Horizon: How is Lely Horizon priced?

As a subscription per lactating cow milked by the Astronaut robots, in Basic, Control and Advance tiers. Lely does not publish rates; the local Lely Center quotes them.

Arable: Is there a free trial available?

The website does not mention a free trial. Interested customers should contact the company directly to inquire about trial availability.

Source
Lely Horizon: Can I run Horizon without Lely robots?

No. It is the control and management layer for Lely equipment and has no meaningful function without it.

Arable: Can I get pricing without speaking to sales?

No. Pricing information is only available through direct contact with Arable via email, phone, or their contact form. There is no self-service pricing page.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

Horizon replaced it. Migration was required rather than optional, and reporting was rebuilt rather than ported.

Lely Horizon: Does the subscription end when the robot is paid off?

No. It continues for as long as the robots are milking, which is the cost most robot business cases understate.

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