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Agriculture · head to head

Farmers Edge vs SMARTBOW

Farmers Edge logo

Farmers Edge

Agriculture

Global leader in digital agriculture

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: Farmers Edge farmers Edge priced its FarmCommand platform per acre rather than per seat, with tiers from $1.50 CAD per acre for basic imagery-only monitoring up to $6.00 CAD per acre for variable rate fertility prescriptions, meaning cost scales directly with farm size rather than user count (archived pricing page, 5 April 2020); 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: Farmers Edge covers Satellite imagery, SMARTBOW covers Real-time location.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Farmers Edge and SMARTBOW actually diverge.

Attributes where Farmers Edge and SMARTBOW differ
AttributeFarmers EdgeSMARTBOW
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWindows, Web, iOS, Android
Founded2005Unknown

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 Farmers Edge

  • Satellite imagery
  • Weather stations
  • Variable rate
  • Carbon credits
  • Soil sampling
  • John Deere
  • CLAAS
  • Major equipment brands

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.

Farmers Edge

  • Precision agriculturenot SMARTBOW
  • Carbon programsnot SMARTBOW
  • Data analyticsnot SMARTBOW

SMARTBOW

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

Where each one falls short

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

Farmers Edge

  • Farmers Edge priced its FarmCommand platform per acre rather than per seat, with tiers from $1.50 CAD per acre for basic imagery-only monitoring up to $6.00 CAD per acre for variable rate fertility prescriptions, meaning cost scales directly with farm size rather than user count (archived pricing page, 5 April 2020)

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

Farmers Edge

$29/month
  • FarmCommandFree
    • Custom pricing
    • Satellite imagery
    • Variable rate
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Custom pricing
    • Carbon programs
    • Full suite

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 Farmers Edge if

  • You need satellite imagery.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want weather stations.
Farmers Edge 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 Farmers Edge or SMARTBOW better?
Neither clearly leads. Farmers Edge 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, Farmers Edge or SMARTBOW?
Farmers Edge starts at $29/month and SMARTBOW at On request.
Does Farmers Edge or SMARTBOW run on more platforms?
Farmers Edge runs on Web, Ios, Android. SMARTBOW runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
What is Farmers Edge best used for?
Farmers Edge is most often used for precision agriculture, carbon programs, data analytics. Of those, precision agriculture and carbon programs are not what SMARTBOW is typically brought in for.
What can Farmers Edge do that SMARTBOW cannot?
Farmers Edge covers Satellite imagery, Weather stations, Variable rate, Carbon credits. SMARTBOW covers Real-time location, Heat detection, Rumination monitoring, Health alerts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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.

SMARTBOW: Who owns it?

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

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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