Agriculture · head to head
Baseline Irrigation vs Tend
Baseline Irrigation
Agriculture
Two-wire commercial irrigation control where the cloud subscription tier applies to every controller you own at once
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Tend
Agriculture
Crop planning and record keeping for small diversified market farms, priced in flat tiers rather than by acre
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Tend has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Baseline Irrigation all controllers belonging to a company are set to the same BaseManager subscription level, so one complex site needing the higher tier raises the cost across every controller in the portfolio rather than just that site.; Tend the free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
- They diverge on capability: Baseline Irrigation covers BaseStation 3200, Tend covers Visual crop planning.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Baseline Irrigation and Tend actually diverge.
| Attribute | Baseline Irrigation | Tend |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | quote | Per month by user count |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
Identical on both: platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Baseline Irrigation
- BaseStation 3200
- BaseStation 1000
- biSensor soil moisture
- WeatherAccess scheduling
- BaseManager
- AppManager
- Two-wire diagnostics
- Flow management
Only in Tend
- Visual crop planning
- Growing templates
- Crop library
- Task management
- Harvest and inventory tracking
- CSA and sales storefront
- Financial reporting
- AI credits
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Baseline Irrigation
- A university grounds department running two-wire loops across a campus that needs fault location without diggingnot Tend
- A city parks department under a water ordinance that must run WaterSense-compliant weather-based schedulingnot Tend
- A property manager with 40 sites who needs one login rather than a controller key per locationnot Tend
- A site with a history of mainline breaks where flow shutdown prevents a five-figure water bill overnightnot Tend
Tend
- A three-acre market garden running weekly lettuce successions that needs the seeding calendar to generate itself from the harvest targetnot Baseline Irrigation
- A cut-flower farm planning bed space against wedding orders months aheadnot Baseline Irrigation
- A CSA operation managing 150 member shares alongside the planting plan that has to fill themnot Baseline Irrigation
- A two-person farm replacing a spreadsheet and a whiteboard without paying a per-acre platform's minimumnot Baseline Irrigation
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Baseline Irrigation
- All controllers belonging to a company are set to the same BaseManager subscription level, so one complex site needing the higher tier raises the cost across every controller in the portfolio rather than just that site.
- WaterSense-compliant WeatherAccess operation on the 3200 requires an active BaseManager Plus subscription, which means a rebate or ordinance obligation depends on a recurring payment rather than the hardware you installed.
- Baseline has been part of HydroPoint since 2016 and sits alongside the WeatherTRAK line, so buyers should ask directly which of the two product families gets new development, because they overlap.
- No pricing is published for controllers or subscriptions, so estates cannot budget a multi-site rollout without a distributor quote per site.
- Remote access needs Ethernet, Wi-Fi or a cellular modem at each controller, and cellular adds a data cost per site that is easy to leave out of a rollout budget for forty locations.
Tend
- The free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
- Data retention is a paid feature at every level below Ultimate, which is an unusual thing to meter: a farm that downgrades from Pro to Free after a bad year risks losing records it may need for organic certification audits.
- There is no machinery, telematics, soil sampling or variable-rate capability at all, so any operation that adds broadacre ground has to run a second platform rather than extend this one.
- AI features are metered in credits rather than included, and the allowances are small at the lower tiers, so the assistant becomes something you ration rather than rely on.
- The company is small and privately held with a narrow customer base, which means integrations outside payments and basic accounting are thin and a request for a connector to a regional distributor or certifier is unlikely to be built.
Pricing, plan by plan
Baseline Irrigation
On request- BaseManager$undefined/year
- Subscription tier determines available remote features
- All controllers in a company are set to the same subscription level
- BaseManager Plus required for WaterSense-compliant WeatherAccess operation
Tend
Free- FreeFree
- 1 user
- 25 AI credits per month
- 3 years data retention
- Pro$30/month
- 5 users
- 500 AI credits per month
- 7 years data retention
- Ultimate$75/month
- Unlimited users
- 2,500 AI credits per month
- Unlimited data retention
- Enterprise$400/month
- Unlimited users
- 10,000+ AI credits per month
- 250 GB storage and up
Which should you pick?
Choose Baseline Irrigation if
- You need basestation 3200.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want basestation 1000.
Choose Tend if
- You need visual crop planning.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want growing templates.
Questions people ask
- Is Baseline Irrigation or Tend better?
- Neither clearly leads. Baseline Irrigation starts at On request and Tend at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Baseline Irrigation or Tend?
- Tend has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Baseline Irrigation and Free for Tend.
- Does Baseline Irrigation or Tend run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Tend for free?
- Yes. Tend has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Baseline Irrigation starts at On request.
- What is Baseline Irrigation best used for?
- Baseline Irrigation is most often used for a university grounds department running two-wire loops across a campus that needs fault location without digging, a city parks department under a water ordinance that must run watersense-compliant weather-based scheduling, a property manager with 40 sites who needs one login rather than a controller key per location, a site with a history of mainline breaks where flow shutdown prevents a five-figure water bill overnight. Of those, a university grounds department running two-wire loops across a campus that needs fault location without digging and a city parks department under a water ordinance that must run watersense-compliant weather-based scheduling are not what Tend is typically brought in for.
- What can Baseline Irrigation do that Tend cannot?
- Baseline Irrigation covers BaseStation 3200, BaseStation 1000, biSensor soil moisture, WeatherAccess scheduling. Tend covers Visual crop planning, Growing templates, Crop library, Task management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Baseline Irrigation: Can different sites have different BaseManager tiers?
No. All controllers belonging to a company are set to the same subscription level, which is the main pricing surprise in a multi-site rollout.
Tend: Does Tend charge by the acre?
No. Pricing is flat by user count, and there are no acreage or crop limits on any tier including the free one. That is the main reason small growers pick it over broadacre platforms.
Baseline Irrigation: Who owns Baseline now?
HydroPoint Data Systems acquired it in 2016. It is a product line inside HydroPoint rather than an independent Boise company.
Tend: Can Tend handle a CSA?
Yes, including member share management and a farm-stand storefront, though payment processing runs through a third party.
Baseline Irrigation: Do I need a subscription for WaterSense compliance?
On the BaseStation 3200 operating in WeatherAccess mode, yes, an active BaseManager Plus subscription is part of meeting the criteria.
Tend: Is it suitable for a 500 acre grain farm?
No. There is no machinery data, no prescription writing and no as-applied reporting. It is built for high-crop-count, low-acreage operations.
Baseline Irrigation: How does the controller reach the cloud?
Ethernet, Wi-Fi or a cellular modem at each site, with the cellular data cost separate from the subscription.
Tend: What happens to my records if I cancel?
Export before you cancel. Retention limits apply per tier, and the free tier keeps three years, so downgrading is not a safe archive strategy.
Related pages
More on Baseline Irrigation
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- Tend vs AgriWater
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- Tend vs Reinke ReinCloud
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- Tend vs METER Group ZENTRA
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- Tend vs FieldView Plus
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- Tend vs GAMAYA
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- Tend vs Agrivi
- Tend vs CropTracker Pro
- Tend vs Agworld
- Tend vs John Deere Operations Center
- Tend vs Conservis
- Tend vs FarmERP
- Tend vs 365FarmNet
- Tend vs Bushel Farm
- Tend vs Case IH AFS Connect
- Tend vs Granular
- Tend vs OneSoil
- Tend vs Pix4Dfields
- Tend vs PrecisionHawk
- Tend vs Proagrica
- Tend vs Produce Pro
- Tend vs Raven Slingshot