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Agriculture · head to head

Galcon vs Tend

Galcon logo

Galcon

Agriculture

Battery and mains irrigation, fertigation and climate controllers with cloud management

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Tend logo

Tend

Agriculture

Crop planning and record keeping for small diversified market farms, priced in flat tiers rather than by acre

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Tend has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Galcon distribution and support run through regional wholesalers, so in markets where Galcon has no strong distributor you get the hardware and very little else.; Tend the free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
  • They diverge on capability: Galcon covers Battery DC controllers, Tend covers Visual crop planning.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Galcon and Tend actually diverge.

Attributes where Galcon and Tend differ
AttributeGalconTend
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer month by user count
Free tierNoYes

Identical on both: platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Galcon

  • Battery DC controllers
  • GSI cloud
  • Galileo Cloud
  • Fertigation control
  • Greenhouse climate
  • Water budget reporting
  • Sensor inputs

Only in Tend

  • Visual crop planning
  • Growing templates
  • Crop library
  • Task management
  • Harvest and inventory tracking
  • CSA and sales storefront
  • Financial reporting
  • AI credits

What people use each for

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

Galcon

  • A parks department scheduling roadside and median planting beds where no valve has mains powernot Tend
  • An orchard automating block irrigation without trenching electricity to every valvenot Tend
  • A greenhouse dosing fertiliser to EC and pH targets alongside climate controlnot Tend
  • A landscape contractor managing irrigation across dozens of client sites from one cloud accountnot Tend

Tend

  • A three-acre market garden running weekly lettuce successions that needs the seeding calendar to generate itself from the harvest targetnot Galcon
  • A cut-flower farm planning bed space against wedding orders months aheadnot Galcon
  • A CSA operation managing 150 member shares alongside the planting plan that has to fill themnot Galcon
  • A two-person farm replacing a spreadsheet and a whiteboard without paying a per-acre platform's minimumnot Galcon

Where each one falls short

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

Galcon

  • Distribution and support run through regional wholesalers, so in markets where Galcon has no strong distributor you get the hardware and very little else.
  • The cloud software is functional rather than refined, and its third-party integration list is short compared with Hunter Centralus or Rain Bird IQ, which matters if you want irrigation data in a wider asset system.
  • Battery-powered controllers mean battery replacement schedules across a large estate, and a dead battery on a remote valve is a silent failure that shows up as a dead planting bed weeks later.
  • No pricing is published for hardware or cloud subscriptions, and pricing varies by country and wholesaler, so budgeting a municipal rollout requires several quotes.
  • The product range is broad and fragmented across GSI, GSI PRO, Galileo Cloud and legacy timers, which makes it genuinely hard to work out which product line a given site should be on.

Tend

  • The free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
  • Data retention is a paid feature at every level below Ultimate, which is an unusual thing to meter: a farm that downgrades from Pro to Free after a bad year risks losing records it may need for organic certification audits.
  • There is no machinery, telematics, soil sampling or variable-rate capability at all, so any operation that adds broadacre ground has to run a second platform rather than extend this one.
  • AI features are metered in credits rather than included, and the allowances are small at the lower tiers, so the assistant becomes something you ration rather than rely on.
  • The company is small and privately held with a narrow customer base, which means integrations outside payments and basic accounting are thin and a request for a connector to a regional distributor or certifier is unlikely to be built.

Pricing, plan by plan

Galcon

On request
  • Galcon GSI and Galileo Cloud$undefined/year
    • Controller hardware priced through irrigation wholesalers
    • Cloud subscription quoted by number of controllers and zones
    • Cellular connectivity charges vary by country

Tend

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1 user
    • 25 AI credits per month
    • 3 years data retention
  • Pro$30/month
    • 5 users
    • 500 AI credits per month
    • 7 years data retention
  • Ultimate$75/month
    • Unlimited users
    • 2,500 AI credits per month
    • Unlimited data retention
  • Enterprise$400/month
    • Unlimited users
    • 10,000+ AI credits per month
    • 250 GB storage and up

Which should you pick?

Choose Galcon if

  • You need battery dc controllers.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want gsi cloud.
Galcon review

Choose Tend if

  • You need visual crop planning.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want growing templates.
Tend review

Questions people ask

Is Galcon or Tend better?
Neither clearly leads. Galcon starts at On request and Tend at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Galcon or Tend?
Tend has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Galcon and Free for Tend.
Does Galcon or Tend run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Tend for free?
Yes. Tend has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Galcon starts at On request.
What is Galcon best used for?
Galcon is most often used for a parks department scheduling roadside and median planting beds where no valve has mains power, an orchard automating block irrigation without trenching electricity to every valve, a greenhouse dosing fertiliser to ec and ph targets alongside climate control, a landscape contractor managing irrigation across dozens of client sites from one cloud account. Of those, a parks department scheduling roadside and median planting beds where no valve has mains power and an orchard automating block irrigation without trenching electricity to every valve are not what Tend is typically brought in for.
What can Galcon do that Tend cannot?
Galcon covers Battery DC controllers, GSI cloud, Galileo Cloud, Fertigation control. Tend covers Visual crop planning, Growing templates, Crop library, Task management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Galcon: Do Galcon controllers need mains power?

The DC range does not. They run latching solenoids from internal batteries, which is the main reason they are specified where getting power to the valve is expensive.

Tend: Does Tend charge by the acre?

No. Pricing is flat by user count, and there are no acreage or crop limits on any tier including the free one. That is the main reason small growers pick it over broadacre platforms.

Galcon: Is there a cloud subscription?

Yes for the connected GSI and Galileo Cloud products. Terms are quoted by controller count and vary by country along with cellular charges.

Tend: Can Tend handle a CSA?

Yes, including member share management and a farm-stand storefront, though payment processing runs through a third party.

Galcon: Can it control fertigation?

Yes. Galcon makes dedicated fertigation and greenhouse climate controllers with EC and pH monitoring, sold as separate systems from the field controllers.

Tend: Is it suitable for a 500 acre grain farm?

No. There is no machinery data, no prescription writing and no as-applied reporting. It is built for high-crop-count, low-acreage operations.

Galcon: How does it compare with Hunter or Rain Bird?

It competes on battery operation and price rather than ecosystem breadth. The American brands have deeper central control software and broader integration.

Tend: What happens to my records if I cancel?

Export before you cancel. Retention limits apply per tier, and the free tier keeps three years, so downgrading is not a safe archive strategy.

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