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Agriculture · head to head

GrainBridge vs Lely Horizon

GrainBridge logo

GrainBridge

Agriculture

Grain marketing and contract management

From
Free
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

  • Only GrainBridge has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: GrainBridge primarily available through grain company partnerships rather than direct independent access; 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: GrainBridge covers Contract management, 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 GrainBridge and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where GrainBridge and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeGrainBridgeLely Horizon
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded2018Unknown

Identical on both: 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 GrainBridge

  • Contract management
  • Market prices
  • P&L tracking
  • Basis analysis
  • Risk management
  • Commodity exchanges
  • Elevators
  • Farm accounting

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.

GrainBridge

  • Contract trackingnot Lely Horizon
  • Market analysisnot Lely Horizon
  • P&L managementnot Lely Horizon
  • Risk mitigationnot 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 GrainBridge
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot GrainBridge
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot GrainBridge
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot GrainBridge

Where each one falls short

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

GrainBridge

  • Primarily available through grain company partnerships rather than direct independent access
  • Limited public documentation on independent deployment options

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

GrainBridge

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Market prices
    • Basic contracts
    • Mobile app
  • Pro$29/month
    • Unlimited contracts
    • P&L analysis
    • Market alerts
  • Business$79/month
    • Multi-farm support
    • Risk analysis
    • Export tools

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 GrainBridge if

  • You need contract management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want market prices.
GrainBridge 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 GrainBridge or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. GrainBridge starts at Free and Lely Horizon at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, GrainBridge or Lely Horizon?
GrainBridge has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for GrainBridge and On request for Lely Horizon.
Does GrainBridge or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
GrainBridge runs on Web, Ios, Android. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
Can I use GrainBridge for free?
Yes. GrainBridge has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lely Horizon starts at On request.
What is GrainBridge best used for?
GrainBridge is most often used for contract tracking, market analysis, p&l management, risk mitigation. Of those, contract tracking and market analysis are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can GrainBridge do that Lely Horizon cannot?
GrainBridge covers Contract management, Market prices, P&L tracking, Basis analysis. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

GrainBridge: What is GrainBridge?

GrainBridge is a grain marketing and risk management platform that consolidates cash, futures, options, and crop insurance in one place to help farmers monitor profitability and yield.

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.

GrainBridge: Can I manage contracts with GrainBridge?

Yes. The platform enables farmers to enter into and manage grain contracts directly and access buyer location information and payment details.

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.

GrainBridge: Which grain companies support GrainBridge?

GrainBridge is available to ADM and Cargill customers and is open to other grain companies for integration.

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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