Softwr

Agriculture · head to head

DTN Agriculture vs Soil Scout

DTN Agriculture logo

DTN Agriculture

Agriculture

Weather, markets, and agronomic insights

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Soil Scout logo

Soil Scout

Agriculture

Buried wireless soil sensors with a ten to twenty year battery and no cables to the surface

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: DTN Agriculture pricing is not published for any product; Soil Scout sensors are unserviceable once buried, so a failed or drifting unit means excavation and the confidence you place in a single reading has no easy verification.
  • They diverge on capability: DTN Agriculture covers Hyper-local weather, Soil Scout covers Fully buried sensors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DTN Agriculture and Soil Scout actually diverge.

Attributes where DTN Agriculture and Soil Scout differ
AttributeDTN AgricultureSoil Scout
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
Founded1984Unknown

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 DTN Agriculture

  • Hyper-local weather
  • Market data
  • Spray conditions
  • GDD tracking
  • Alerts
  • Farm platforms
  • Equipment systems
  • SOC 2

Only in Soil Scout

  • Fully buried sensors
  • Ten to twenty year battery
  • Underground radio
  • Dual depth sensing
  • Moisture, temperature and salinity
  • Soil Scout Hub
  • Web service API
  • Long base station range

What people use each for

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

DTN Agriculture

  • Commodity market data and analysis for grain tradersnot Soil Scout
  • Weather and agronomic modelling through ClearAgnot Soil Scout
  • Grain origination and merchandisingnot Soil Scout
  • Market intelligence for ag retailers and input suppliersnot Soil Scout
  • Field-level decision support for growersnot Soil Scout

Soil Scout

  • A golf course monitoring greens moisture where a surface-mounted probe would be hit by mowers and playnot DTN Agriculture
  • A stadium pitch under a closed roof where hand-held probing is impractical during the seasonnot DTN Agriculture
  • A research plot needing consistent multi-year soil data below cultivation depthnot DTN Agriculture
  • An irrigated field where a surface logger would not survive tillage or a spray boomnot DTN Agriculture

Where each one falls short

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

DTN Agriculture

  • Pricing is not published for any product
  • A wide portfolio, including ProphetX, ClearAg, MyDTN and Instant Market, so the relevant product depends on whether you are a grower, a trader or a grain processor
  • Aimed mostly at the commercial agriculture chain rather than at individual farms

Soil Scout

  • Sensors are unserviceable once buried, so a failed or drifting unit means excavation and the confidence you place in a single reading has no easy verification.
  • No pricing is published at all, which makes it hard to justify against commodity probes that quote openly, and per-sensor cost is well above the alternatives.
  • It measures but does not control, so tying moisture readings to actual irrigation decisions requires either manual interpretation or a separate integration project with the control system.
  • Underground radio range depends on soil type and moisture; heavy wet clay attenuates the signal and can force more base stations than the headline kilometre figure suggests.
  • The company is small and Finland-based, so outside its established golf and sports turf distribution the support, spares and installation expertise depend entirely on whether a competent local distributor exists.

Pricing, plan by plan

DTN Agriculture

$29/month
  • Progressive Farmer$399/year
    • Weather
    • Markets
    • Basic tools
  • Premium$999/year
    • Advanced weather
    • Full markets
    • Agronomy tools

Soil Scout

On request
  • Soil Scout$undefined/year
    • Sensors and base station quoted per site
    • Hub subscription terms quoted with the hardware
    • No individual sensor data plans required

Which should you pick?

Choose DTN Agriculture if

  • You need hyper-local weather.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want market data.
DTN Agriculture review

Choose Soil Scout if

  • You need fully buried sensors.
  • You also want ten to twenty year battery.
Soil Scout review

Questions people ask

Is DTN Agriculture or Soil Scout better?
Neither clearly leads. DTN Agriculture starts at $29/month and Soil Scout at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DTN Agriculture or Soil Scout?
DTN Agriculture starts at $29/month and Soil Scout at On request.
Does DTN Agriculture or Soil Scout run on more platforms?
DTN Agriculture runs on Web, Ios, Android. Soil Scout runs on Web.
What is DTN Agriculture best used for?
DTN Agriculture is most often used for commodity market data and analysis for grain traders, weather and agronomic modelling through clearag, grain origination and merchandising, market intelligence for ag retailers and input suppliers. Of those, commodity market data and analysis for grain traders and weather and agronomic modelling through clearag are not what Soil Scout is typically brought in for.
What can DTN Agriculture do that Soil Scout cannot?
DTN Agriculture covers Hyper-local weather, Market data, Spray conditions, GDD tracking. Soil Scout covers Fully buried sensors, Ten to twenty year battery, Underground radio, Dual depth sensing.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

DTN Agriculture: How do I get DTN agriculture solution pricing?

DTN agriculture, weather, and refined fuels solutions do not display pricing on their main agriculture page. Contact DTN's sales team using the form on their website or visit specific product pages to request pricing information.

Source
Soil Scout: How long do the sensors last?

Up to ten years for the Happi100 and up to twenty for the Hydra100, buried, with no battery replacement.

Soil Scout: Do the sensors need mobile data plans?

No. Sensors transmit to a base station through the soil, and only the base station uses a cellular modem.

Soil Scout: Can it control irrigation directly?

No. It is a measurement and alerting system; controlling valves needs an integration with your irrigation controller through the API.

Soil Scout: What happens if a buried sensor fails?

You dig it up. There is no remote service option, which is the trade-off for having nothing above ground to damage.

Share

Related pages

More on DTN Agriculture

More on Soil Scout

Keep looking

Other head to heads