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Agriculture · head to head

Conservis vs METER Group ZENTRA

Conservis logo

Conservis

Agriculture

Comprehensive farm management for row crops

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
METER Group ZENTRA logo

METER Group ZENTRA

Agriculture

Research-grade soil, plant and atmosphere sensors with the ZENTRA Cloud data platform

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Conservis acquired by TELUS Agriculture and Rabobank in July 2021, so it is now part of a larger agriculture portfolio; METER Group ZENTRA hardware costs several times what commodity soil probes cost, so a farm that only needs a rough irrigation trigger is paying for calibration accuracy it will never use.
  • They diverge on capability: Conservis covers Field & crop planning, METER Group ZENTRA covers TEROS soil sensors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Conservis and METER Group ZENTRA actually diverge.

Attributes where Conservis and METER Group ZENTRA differ
AttributeConservisMETER Group ZENTRA
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer device subscription
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiWeb, iOS, Android
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), 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 Conservis

  • Field & crop planning
  • Input management
  • Activity tracking
  • Financial management
  • Inventory control
  • Equipment tracking
  • Harvest tracking
  • Custom reporting

Only in METER Group ZENTRA

  • TEROS soil sensors
  • Water potential measurement
  • ZL6 data loggers
  • ZENTRA Cloud
  • Threshold alerts
  • Open API
  • ATMOS weather stations

What people use each for

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

Conservis

  • Farm ERP covering the business rather than the agronomynot METER Group ZENTRA
  • Grain contract managementnot METER Group ZENTRA
  • Crop planning and budgeting against actualsnot METER Group ZENTRA
  • Work order management across an operationnot METER Group ZENTRA
  • Reporting plans versus actuals for lenders and partnersnot METER Group ZENTRA

METER Group ZENTRA

  • A university soil physics group that needs measurements defensible enough for peer reviewnot Conservis
  • An irrigation district accounting for water applied and lost across a schemenot Conservis
  • A vineyard managing deficit irrigation from water potential rather than volumetric moisture alonenot Conservis
  • An environmental consultancy monitoring a remediation or drainage site where the data may be contestednot Conservis

Where each one falls short

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

Conservis

  • Acquired by TELUS Agriculture and Rabobank in July 2021, so it is now part of a larger agriculture portfolio

METER Group ZENTRA

  • Hardware costs several times what commodity soil probes cost, so a farm that only needs a rough irrigation trigger is paying for calibration accuracy it will never use.
  • ZENTRA Cloud is a per-device subscription, so a large sensor network carries a recurring bill that grows linearly with every probe added and is easy to underestimate at design stage.
  • The three-year subscription bundled with the ZL6 Pro means the renewal decision arrives exactly when a typical research grant has ended, which is how long-running datasets get abandoned.
  • METER sells measurement rather than recommendations; there is no irrigation scheduling engine, so someone has to turn the numbers into decisions or buy a second platform that will.
  • Installation quality dominates results with soil sensors, and a badly installed TEROS probe produces confidently wrong data, so the accuracy you paid for depends on field technique the vendor cannot supply.

Pricing, plan by plan

Conservis

On request
  • Standard$undefined/year
    • Field management
    • Activity tracking
    • Basic reporting
  • Professional$undefined/year
    • Everything in Standard
    • Financial management
    • Inventory control
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Everything in Professional
    • Multi-entity management
    • API access

METER Group ZENTRA

On request
  • ZENTRA Cloud$undefined/year
    • Priced per activated device, pay for what you use
    • Three year subscription included with the ZL6 Pro logger
    • Cellular data included in the device subscription

Which should you pick?

Choose Conservis if

  • You need field & crop planning.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want input management.
Conservis review

Choose METER Group ZENTRA if

  • You need teros soil sensors.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want water potential measurement.
METER Group ZENTRA review

Questions people ask

Is Conservis or METER Group ZENTRA better?
Neither clearly leads. Conservis starts at On request and METER Group ZENTRA at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Conservis or METER Group ZENTRA?
Conservis starts at On request and METER Group ZENTRA at On request.
Does Conservis or METER Group ZENTRA run on more platforms?
Conservis runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. METER Group ZENTRA runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Conservis best used for?
Conservis is most often used for farm erp covering the business rather than the agronomy, grain contract management, crop planning and budgeting against actuals, work order management across an operation. Of those, farm erp covering the business rather than the agronomy and grain contract management are not what METER Group ZENTRA is typically brought in for.
What can Conservis do that METER Group ZENTRA cannot?
Conservis covers Field & crop planning, Input management, Activity tracking, Financial management. METER Group ZENTRA covers TEROS soil sensors, Water potential measurement, ZL6 data loggers, ZENTRA Cloud.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

METER Group ZENTRA: Is ZENTRA Cloud included with the loggers?

A three-year subscription is included with the ZL6 Pro. Other loggers require a separate per-device subscription.

METER Group ZENTRA: Do I need a separate cellular data plan?

No. Cellular data is covered within the device subscription rather than billed as a separate SIM contract.

METER Group ZENTRA: Will it tell me when to irrigate?

No. METER provides measurement, not scheduling recommendations. You either interpret the data yourself or feed it into a scheduling platform.

METER Group ZENTRA: Why is it more expensive than commodity soil probes?

Individual sensor calibration and documented measurement physics, which is what makes the data hold up in research, regulatory and legal contexts.

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