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Agriculture · head to head

DroneDeploy vs Lely Horizon

DroneDeploy logo

DroneDeploy

Agriculture

Drone mapping and analytics for agriculture

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: DroneDeploy sold as annual subscriptions rather than monthly, at $1,908 a year for the agriculture plan; 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: DroneDeploy covers Automated flight planning, 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 DroneDeploy and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where DroneDeploy and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeDroneDeployLely Horizon
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded2013Unknown

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 DroneDeploy

  • Automated flight planning
  • Orthomosaic maps
  • NDVI analysis
  • 3D modeling
  • Progress tracking
  • DJI
  • John Deere
  • Climate FieldView

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.

DroneDeploy

  • Mapping fields with drone imagery for crop health analysisnot Lely Horizon
  • Producing stand counts and plant health indices from aerial surveysnot 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 DroneDeploy
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot DroneDeploy
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot DroneDeploy
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot DroneDeploy

Where each one falls short

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

DroneDeploy

  • Sold as annual subscriptions rather than monthly, at $1,908 a year for the agriculture plan
  • Images per map are capped by plan, at 1,000 on Ag Lite and 3,000 on the general individual plan
  • The Ag Lite plan is limited to the VARI index for RGB plant health rather than the full analysis set
  • Ground capture processing is excluded from every published individual plan
  • Team plans publish no price at all and require a custom quote

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

DroneDeploy

$29/month
  • Individual$299/month
    • Unlimited maps
    • 3D models
    • Basic analytics
  • Business$599/month
    • Team features
    • NDVI analysis
    • 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 DroneDeploy if

  • You need automated flight planning.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want orthomosaic maps.
DroneDeploy 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 DroneDeploy or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. DroneDeploy 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, DroneDeploy or Lely Horizon?
DroneDeploy starts at $29/month and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does DroneDeploy or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
DroneDeploy runs on Web, Ios, Android. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
What is DroneDeploy best used for?
DroneDeploy is most often used for mapping fields with drone imagery for crop health analysis, producing stand counts and plant health indices from aerial surveys. Of those, mapping fields with drone imagery for crop health analysis and producing stand counts and plant health indices from aerial surveys are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can DroneDeploy do that Lely Horizon cannot?
DroneDeploy covers Automated flight planning, Orthomosaic maps, NDVI analysis, 3D modeling. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

DroneDeploy: What is the cost of DroneDeploy's Flight & Analysis plan for individual pilots?

The Flight & Analysis Plan costs $4,188/year billed annually for a single user license, with support for up to 3,000 images per map and email/live chat support.

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.

DroneDeploy: Does DroneDeploy have a specialized agriculture plan?

Yes. The Ag Lite Plan costs $1,908/year and is designed for agriculture pilots with up to 1,000 images per map, stand count analysis, and plant health tools.

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.

DroneDeploy: How long is the DroneDeploy free trial?

DroneDeploy offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

DroneDeploy: Can I cancel my DroneDeploy subscription early?

Yes. DroneDeploy billing is flexible with monthly or annual payment options (annual offers savings). Cancellations take effect at your billing cycle end. After cancellation, you retain basic data access for 30 days.

Source
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.

DroneDeploy: What is the image upload limit on DroneDeploy's Advanced Flight & Analysis plan?

The Advanced Flight & Analysis Plan has a 10,000 image upload limit and includes cut/fill analysis, thermal imaging, and unlimited Google Cloud Print mapping. This plan requires a custom quote.

Source
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