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Agriculture · head to head

FarmWorks vs Lely Horizon

FarmWorks logo

FarmWorks

Agriculture

Complete farm accounting and management

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: FarmWorks no pricing published on website - contact required; 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: FarmWorks covers Farm accounting, 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 FarmWorks and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where FarmWorks and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeFarmWorksLely Horizon
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, WindowsWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded1992Unknown

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 FarmWorks

  • Farm accounting
  • Field records
  • Livestock management
  • Mapping
  • Inventory tracking
  • Trimble
  • QuickBooks
  • Farm equipment

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.

FarmWorks

  • Retrofit precision agriculture equipment across any machinery brandnot Lely Horizon
  • Field operation management and in-field platform planningnot Lely Horizon
  • Agronomic data visualization with 20|20 analytics platformnot Lely Horizon
  • Autonomous grain cart operations with OutRun technologynot 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 FarmWorks
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot FarmWorks
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot FarmWorks
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot FarmWorks

Where each one falls short

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

FarmWorks

  • No pricing published on website - contact required
  • NEXT Farming solution only available in Europe
  • Retrofit technology requires local dealer support
  • Compatibility tied to specific equipment and dealer network

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

FarmWorks

$29/month
  • Accounting$499/year
    • Farm accounting
    • Reports
    • Inventory
  • Complete Suite$999/year
    • All modules
    • Mapping
    • Livestock

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 FarmWorks if

  • You need farm accounting.
  • You work on Web, Windows.
  • You also want field records.
FarmWorks 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 FarmWorks or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. FarmWorks 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, FarmWorks or Lely Horizon?
FarmWorks starts at $29/month and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does FarmWorks or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
FarmWorks runs on Web, Windows. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
What is FarmWorks best used for?
FarmWorks is most often used for retrofit precision agriculture equipment across any machinery brand, field operation management and in-field platform planning, agronomic data visualization with 20|20 analytics platform, autonomous grain cart operations with outrun technology. Of those, retrofit precision agriculture equipment across any machinery brand and field operation management and in-field platform planning are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can FarmWorks do that Lely Horizon cannot?
FarmWorks covers Farm accounting, Field records, Livestock management, Mapping. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

FarmWorks: How much do PTx precision agriculture solutions cost?

PTx does not publish pricing on their website. Contact information and dealer locators are available for pricing inquiries.

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.

FarmWorks: What equipment does PTx support?

PTx offers brand-agnostic retrofit solutions compatible with planters, seeders, drills, sprayers, fertilizer applicators, harvesters, and tillage equipment regardless of brand or model.

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.

FarmWorks: Is NEXT Farming available worldwide?

No, NEXT Farming is only available in Europe. Other PTx solutions like Precision-IQ, 20|20, and OutRun are available in other regions.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

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.

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