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Agriculture · head to head

Farmbrite vs Halter

Farmbrite logo

Farmbrite

Agriculture

Farm record keeping, livestock and crop management for small and mid-sized operations

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Halter logo

Halter

Agriculture

Solar collar virtual fencing and cow monitoring for dairy and beef grazing

From
9.9/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Farmbrite tiers are capped on active animal counts, so herd growth rather than headcount growth forces an upgrade, and a good calving season can push a farm into the next price band mid-year.; Halter the subscription is permanent and per head, so a 500 cow dairy carries a five-figure annual bill indefinitely and the collars become inert if it lapses; there is no owned-outright end state.
  • They diverge on capability: Farmbrite covers Livestock records, Halter covers Virtual fencing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Farmbrite and Halter actually diverge.

Attributes where Farmbrite and Halter differ
AttributeFarmbriteHalter
Starting price$29/month9.9/month
Pricing modelPer month by farm and animal countPer cow per month plus one-time install
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidiOS, Android, Web

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 Farmbrite

  • Livestock records
  • Grazing management
  • Crop and field planning
  • Farm accounting
  • Traceability
  • Team scheduling and timesheets
  • Inventory
  • Direct sales storefront

Only in Halter

  • Virtual fencing
  • Remote shifting
  • Heat detection
  • Health alerts
  • Pasture management
  • Solar collars
  • Exclusion zones

What people use each for

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

Farmbrite

  • A family farm keeping treatment and withdrawal records that an organic or grass-fed certifier will inspectnot Halter
  • A grazing operation planning pasture rotation and stocking rates without building another spreadsheetnot Halter
  • A diversified market garden that sells direct and wants planning, harvest records and a small storefront in one placenot Halter
  • A small ranch that needs individual animal history and genealogy but cannot justify an enterprise herd platformnot Halter

Halter

  • A 600 cow grazing dairy that shifts breaks twice daily and cannot recruit enough staff to do itnot Farmbrite
  • A beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fencenot Farmbrite
  • A dairy replacing a separate heat detection collar system with one collar that also does fencingnot Farmbrite
  • An operation running cell grazing on country where the cost of internal fencing exceeds the collar subscriptionnot Farmbrite

Where each one falls short

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

Farmbrite

  • Tiers are capped on active animal counts, so herd growth rather than headcount growth forces an upgrade, and a good calving season can push a farm into the next price band mid-year.
  • The plans are split into separate Livestock, Crop and Complete product lines, so an operation that starts on a crop plan and later adds stock pays the combined rate rather than a small increment.
  • The accounting module is built around United States Schedule F tax reporting, so farms elsewhere get bookkeeping with a tax output they cannot file.
  • There is no precision agriculture layer at all, meaning no machine telemetry, no variable-rate prescriptions and no yield-map import, so anyone running guidance hardware maintains a second platform alongside it.
  • Offline capability in the mobile app is limited, and record keeping in paddocks or sheds without signal ends up being written down and re-entered later, which is exactly the workflow the software is meant to remove.

Halter

  • The subscription is permanent and per head, so a 500 cow dairy carries a five-figure annual bill indefinitely and the collars become inert if it lapses; there is no owned-outright end state.
  • On-farm tower infrastructure is a separate up-front install cost that is not in the headline per-cow price, and terrain with hills or bush can require more towers than the initial quote assumed.
  • Coverage is concentrated in New Zealand, Australia and parts of the United States; buyers elsewhere face no local support, no local install crew and uncertain regulatory acceptance of virtual fencing.
  • Virtual fencing is not universally legal or accepted: some jurisdictions and some organic or welfare certification schemes restrict aversive stimulus devices, which can decide eligibility before price is even discussed.
  • Total vendor lock-in on collar, towers, app and animal data means there is no second source for a replacement collar and no way to keep the fencing working if the commercial relationship ends.

Pricing, plan by plan

Farmbrite

$29/month
  • Livestock Essentials$29/month
    • Up to 300 active animals
    • Health, treatment and growth records
    • Genealogy and breeding
  • Complete Essentials$59/month
    • Crops and livestock together
    • Up to 300 active animals
    • Grazing management
  • Complete Performance$79/month
    • Up to 2,000 animals
    • Unlimited team members
    • Feed tracking and breeding performance
  • Complete Premium$109/month
    • 5,000 or more animals
    • Unlimited inventory and custom fields
    • Timesheets and audit tracking

Halter

9.9/month
  • Core$9.9/month
    • Virtual fencing and remote shifting
    • Per cow per month
    • On-farm tower infrastructure charged separately
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Everything in Core
    • Heat detection and reproduction tools
    • Health and behaviour alerts
  • Unlimited$undefined/month
    • Everything in Pro
    • Full feature set for larger operations
    • Pasture and residual management

Which should you pick?

Choose Farmbrite if

  • You need livestock records.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want grazing management.
Farmbrite review

Choose Halter if

  • You need virtual fencing.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want remote shifting.
Halter review

Questions people ask

Is Farmbrite or Halter better?
Neither clearly leads. Farmbrite starts at $29/month and Halter at 9.9/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Farmbrite or Halter?
Farmbrite starts at $29/month and Halter at 9.9/month.
Does Farmbrite or Halter run on more platforms?
Farmbrite runs on Web, iOS, Android. Halter runs on iOS, Android, Web.
What is Farmbrite best used for?
Farmbrite is most often used for a family farm keeping treatment and withdrawal records that an organic or grass-fed certifier will inspect, a grazing operation planning pasture rotation and stocking rates without building another spreadsheet, a diversified market garden that sells direct and wants planning, harvest records and a small storefront in one place, a small ranch that needs individual animal history and genealogy but cannot justify an enterprise herd platform. Of those, a family farm keeping treatment and withdrawal records that an organic or grass-fed certifier will inspect and a grazing operation planning pasture rotation and stocking rates without building another spreadsheet are not what Halter is typically brought in for.
What can Farmbrite do that Halter cannot?
Farmbrite covers Livestock records, Grazing management, Crop and field planning, Farm accounting. Halter covers Virtual fencing, Remote shifting, Heat detection, Health alerts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Farmbrite: Does Farmbrite charge per user?

Not on most tiers. Essentials caps team members at five or ten depending on the plan, and Performance and Premium allow unlimited team members. Cost is driven by animal count instead.

Halter: Do I buy the collars or rent them?

In practice you are buying into a per-cow monthly subscription plus a one-time install for the towers. The collars are not useful without an active subscription.

Farmbrite: Can it replace a precision agriculture platform?

No. There is no equipment telemetry, prescription writing or yield-map import, so it sits alongside those tools rather than replacing them.

Halter: What does it actually cost for 500 cows?

Starting from around NZ$9.90 per cow per month, that is roughly NZ$59,000 a year before the one-time tower infrastructure cost, and it recurs every year.

Farmbrite: Is there a discount for new farmers?

Yes. Farmbrite publishes discounts of up to 50 percent for three years for new farmers and up to 65 percent for non-profits.

Halter: Can I finance it?

New Zealand dairy farmers can finance the install through ANZ, ASB, BNZ or Westpac over two years, and paying the subscription up front attracts a discount.

Farmbrite: Can I run both crops and livestock?

Yes, on the Complete plans. The separate Livestock and Crop plans only cover their own side.

Halter: Does it replace heat detection collars?

Yes on the higher tiers. That is the main reason dairies justify the cost, because it removes a second per-cow system.

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