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Smart Home · head to head

Homey vs Lely Horizon

Homey logo

Homey

Smart Home

Connect all your smart home devices in one app

From
On request
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: Homey homey Cloud without a subscription connects at most 5 devices; 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: Homey covers Multi-protocol support, 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 Homey and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Homey and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeHomeyLely Horizon
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsIOS, Android, WebWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
CategorySmart HomeAgriculture
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Homey

  • Multi-protocol support
  • Advanced flows
  • Voice control
  • Energy insights
  • Timeline
  • Zones
  • Google Assistant
  • Amazon Alexa

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.

Homey

  • Bringing Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices from different brands into one appnot Lely Horizon
  • Building home automations visually with Flownot Lely Horizon
  • Charting device and sensor history through Insightsnot 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 Homey
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Homey
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Homey
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Homey

Where each one falls short

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

Homey

  • Homey Cloud without a subscription connects at most 5 devices
  • Unlimited devices require the Homey Premium subscription at $2.99 per month
  • Advanced Flow, Insights, and Logic and Variables are locked behind Homey Premium
  • The free month of Premium is only offered to new subscribers signing up through iOS or Android

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

Homey

On request
  • Homey Pro$399/month
    • Local processing
    • 1000+ apps
    • Advanced flows
  • Homey Bridge$69/month
    • Cloud processing
    • 500+ apps
    • Basic flows

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 Homey if

  • You need multi-protocol support.
  • You work on IOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want advanced flows.
Homey 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 Homey or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Homey starts at On request and Lely Horizon at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Homey or Lely Horizon?
Homey starts at On request and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does Homey or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Homey runs on IOS, Android, Web. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
What is Homey best used for?
Homey is most often used for bringing zigbee, z-wave, wi-fi and bluetooth devices from different brands into one app, building home automations visually with flow, charting device and sensor history through insights. Of those, bringing zigbee, z-wave, wi-fi and bluetooth devices from different brands into one app and building home automations visually with flow are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Homey do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Homey covers Multi-protocol support, Advanced flows, Voice control, Energy insights. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Homey: Is there a monthly subscription for Homey Pro or just a one-time payment?

Homey Pro costs 449 euros as a one-time purchase with no recurring monthly fees. The only optional recurring cost is 10 euros per year for cloud backups.

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.

Homey: What are the limits for Homey Cloud's free tier?

The free tier of Homey Cloud supports up to 5 connected devices. To add more devices, you need to upgrade to the paid subscription at 2.99 euros per month.

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.

Homey: What's the cost difference between Homey Cloud and Homey Pro over a year?

Homey Cloud costs 35.88 euros per year (2.99 euros per month). Homey Pro costs 449 euros upfront with no monthly fees, but includes all features and is a one-time purchase.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Homey: How long will Homey Pro receive software updates?

Homey Pro will receive software updates until at least June 2031, ensuring continued improvements and security patches.

Source
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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