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Agriculture · head to head

Herdwatch vs Lely Horizon

Herdwatch logo

Herdwatch

Agriculture

Farm & herd management made simple

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 Herdwatch has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Herdwatch annual pricing amounts not displayed, calculated dynamically based on farm type and herd size; 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: Herdwatch covers Animal registry, 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 Herdwatch and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Herdwatch and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeHerdwatchLely Horizon
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsIos, Android, WebWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded2014Unknown

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 Herdwatch

  • Animal registry
  • Movement records
  • Breeding management
  • Medicine & treatment records
  • Compliance reports
  • Calving records
  • Weight tracking
  • EID tag reading

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.

Herdwatch

  • Livestock records for cattle and sheepnot Lely Horizon
  • Calving and breeding records on a phone in the fieldnot Lely Horizon
  • Medicine and treatment records for compliancenot Lely Horizon
  • Pasture and grassland managementnot 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 Herdwatch
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Herdwatch
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Herdwatch
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Herdwatch

Where each one falls short

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

Herdwatch

  • Annual pricing amounts not displayed, calculated dynamically based on farm type and herd size
  • Free trial available but actual subscription costs vary by farm size
  • Pricing shown excluding VAT

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

Herdwatch

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Basic herd records
    • Animal movements
    • Simple reports
  • Premium$12.5/month
    • Unlimited animals
    • Breeding management
    • Medicine records
  • Complete$20/month
    • Everything in Premium
    • Financial tracking
    • Farm mapping

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 Herdwatch if

  • You need animal registry.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Ios, Android, Web.
  • You also want movement records.
Herdwatch 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 Herdwatch or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Herdwatch 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, Herdwatch or Lely Horizon?
Herdwatch has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Herdwatch and On request for Lely Horizon.
Does Herdwatch or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Herdwatch runs on Ios, Android, Web. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
Can I use Herdwatch for free?
Yes. Herdwatch has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lely Horizon starts at On request.
What is Herdwatch best used for?
Herdwatch is most often used for livestock records for cattle and sheep, calving and breeding records on a phone in the field, medicine and treatment records for compliance, pasture and grassland management. Of those, livestock records for cattle and sheep and calving and breeding records on a phone in the field are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Herdwatch do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Herdwatch covers Animal registry, Movement records, Breeding management, Medicine & treatment records. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Herdwatch: What pricing options are available for Herdwatch?

Herdwatch offers a 6-month promotional plan at $49 with full access to all Complete features and no long-term commitment. Pricing is customized based on your farm type and herd size, with both annual and monthly options available.

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.

Herdwatch: Can I try Herdwatch before purchasing a subscription?

Yes. Herdwatch offers a free digital calving book to new registrants and allows users to try the app free before committing to a subscription, with full access to features during the trial period.

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.

Herdwatch: What free features does Herdwatch provide?

Herdwatch provides a free subscription tier that includes a free digital calving book for tracking calving events. This free option allows basic record-keeping without requiring immediate payment.

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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