Softwr

Agriculture · head to head

FarmWorks vs Soil Scout

FarmWorks logo

FarmWorks

Agriculture

Complete farm accounting and management

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

Attributes where FarmWorks and Soil Scout differ
AttributeFarmWorksSoil Scout
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, WindowsWeb
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 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.

FarmWorks

  • Retrofit precision agriculture equipment across any machinery brandnot Soil Scout
  • Field operation management and in-field platform planningnot Soil Scout
  • Agronomic data visualization with 20|20 analytics platformnot Soil Scout
  • Autonomous grain cart operations with OutRun technologynot Soil Scout

Soil Scout

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

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

FarmWorks

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

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 FarmWorks if

  • You need farm accounting.
  • You work on Web, Windows.
  • You also want field records.
FarmWorks 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 FarmWorks or Soil Scout better?
Neither clearly leads. FarmWorks 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, FarmWorks or Soil Scout?
FarmWorks starts at $29/month and Soil Scout at On request.
Does FarmWorks or Soil Scout run on more platforms?
FarmWorks runs on Web, Windows. Soil Scout runs on Web.
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 Soil Scout is typically brought in for.
What can FarmWorks do that Soil Scout cannot?
FarmWorks covers Farm accounting, Field records, Livestock management, Mapping. Soil Scout covers Fully buried sensors, Ten to twenty year battery, Underground radio, Dual depth sensing.

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
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.

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
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.

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
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.

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