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Agriculture · head to head

Farmbrite vs SMARTBOW

Farmbrite logo

Farmbrite

Agriculture

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

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
SMARTBOW logo

SMARTBOW

Agriculture

Ear tag cow monitoring with real-time indoor location, from Zoetis

From
On request
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.; SMARTBOW real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.
  • They diverge on capability: Farmbrite covers Livestock records, SMARTBOW covers Real-time location.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Farmbrite and SMARTBOW actually diverge.

Attributes where Farmbrite and SMARTBOW differ
AttributeFarmbriteSMARTBOW
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by farm and animal countquote
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, Web, iOS, Android

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 SMARTBOW

  • Real-time location
  • Heat detection
  • Rumination monitoring
  • Health alerts
  • On-farm server
  • Individual baselines
  • Herd software integration

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 SMARTBOW
  • A grazing operation planning pasture rotation and stocking rates without building another spreadsheetnot SMARTBOW
  • A diversified market garden that sells direct and wants planning, harvest records and a small storefront in one placenot SMARTBOW
  • A small ranch that needs individual animal history and genealogy but cannot justify an enterprise herd platformnot SMARTBOW

SMARTBOW

  • A 1,500 cow freestall barn where finding a flagged animal by eye takes twenty minutesnot Farmbrite
  • A dairy replacing visual heat detection with per-animal oestrus alerts to tighten calving intervalsnot Farmbrite
  • A herd manager wanting rumination-based early warning of displaced abomasum or metritisnot Farmbrite
  • A vet practice using behavioural data to audit transition cow management across client herdsnot 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.

SMARTBOW

  • Real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.
  • It is an indoor system; a grazing or partly grazed herd loses the location capability that is the main reason to choose it over cheaper monitoring.
  • Ear tags are consumable and go missing with the tag, so the running cost includes replacements at a rate that depends on how rough your handling facilities are.
  • Zoetis ownership means a pharmaceutical company holds continuous behavioural data on every animal alongside your treatment records, and the integration roadmap favours other Zoetis products.
  • Nothing is published on price, and sales run through veterinary and dealer channels, so comparing it against DeLaval, Nedap or CowManager requires several quotes and there is no reference list price.

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

SMARTBOW

On request
  • SMARTBOW$undefined/year
    • Ear tags priced per animal
    • Barn receiver infrastructure and on-farm server quoted per building
    • Installation and commissioning quoted separately

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 SMARTBOW if

  • You need real-time location.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want heat detection.
SMARTBOW review

Questions people ask

Is Farmbrite or SMARTBOW better?
Neither clearly leads. Farmbrite starts at $29/month and SMARTBOW at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Farmbrite or SMARTBOW?
Farmbrite starts at $29/month and SMARTBOW at On request.
Does Farmbrite or SMARTBOW run on more platforms?
Farmbrite runs on Web, iOS, Android. SMARTBOW runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
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 SMARTBOW is typically brought in for.
What can Farmbrite do that SMARTBOW cannot?
Farmbrite covers Livestock records, Grazing management, Crop and field planning, Farm accounting. SMARTBOW covers Real-time location, Heat detection, Rumination monitoring, 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.

SMARTBOW: What does SMARTBOW do that other activity monitors do not?

Real-time indoor location. It tells you where the flagged cow physically is, not just that she is behaving abnormally.

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.

SMARTBOW: Does it work on grazing herds?

Poorly. Location depends on barn-mounted receivers, so animals out at pasture fall outside the system's coverage.

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.

SMARTBOW: Who owns it?

Zoetis, which also owns Valley Agricultural Software and DairyComp. The technology came from Smartbow GmbH in Austria.

Farmbrite: Can I run both crops and livestock?

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

SMARTBOW: Is it cloud based?

Analysis runs on an on-farm server rather than in the cloud, which keeps it working during an internet outage but makes the server your responsibility.

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