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Agriculture · head to head

Davis Instruments WeatherLink vs Lely Horizon

Davis Instruments WeatherLink logo

Davis Instruments WeatherLink

Agriculture

Cloud service for Davis weather stations, priced per device per month with a genuinely usable free tier

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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Davis Instruments WeatherLink pricing is per device, so a grower with a dozen stations pays a dozen subscriptions, and at Pro+ that is over 1,200 US dollars a year in software on top of hardware that already cost several thousand.; 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: Davis Instruments WeatherLink covers Per-station cloud dashboards, 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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Davis Instruments WeatherLink and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeDavis Instruments WeatherLinkLely Horizon
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer device per monthquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android, Windows

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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink

  • Per-station cloud dashboards
  • Custom charting
  • Data export
  • Shareable public links
  • Third-party uploads
  • Mobilize agricultural views
  • Integrated pest management models
  • Network map

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.

Davis Instruments WeatherLink

  • An orchard running frost protection that needs one-minute temperature data to decide when to start wind machinesnot Lely Horizon
  • A vineyard driving disease models from on-site rather than airport weathernot Lely Horizon
  • A research station exporting long historical records from several instrumentsnot Lely Horizon
  • A grower sharing a public station page with neighbours and a spray contractornot 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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Davis Instruments WeatherLink
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Davis Instruments WeatherLink
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Davis Instruments WeatherLink

Where each one falls short

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

Davis Instruments WeatherLink

  • Pricing is per device, so a grower with a dozen stations pays a dozen subscriptions, and at Pro+ that is over 1,200 US dollars a year in software on top of hardware that already cost several thousand.
  • The free tier only uploads to third parties every 15 minutes, which is too coarse for frost protection and short-interval spray decisions, so the tier that exists is not the tier a commercial grower can use.
  • Davis directs bulk device management to a sales conversation rather than publishing a volume discount, so large networks cannot budget from the public rate card.
  • Three-year commitments are the only way to reach the lower per-device rate, which locks a grower into a platform for longer than a station deployment plan often survives.
  • The hardware is durable enough to outlive several software generations, and owners of older Vantage stations have repeatedly had to buy new data loggers or gateways to stay compatible with the current cloud, turning a maintenance-free instrument into a recurring purchase.

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

Davis Instruments WeatherLink

Free
  • BasicFree
    • Data viewing and export
    • Custom charting and network map
    • Mobile app access
  • Pro$3.95/month
    • Per device, billed annually
    • 3.35 USD per device per month on a 3 year plan
    • 6 shareable links
  • Pro+$8.95/month
    • Per device, billed annually
    • 7.65 USD per device per month on a 3 year plan
    • 10 shareable links

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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink if

  • You need per-station cloud dashboards.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want custom charting.
Davis Instruments WeatherLink 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 Davis Instruments WeatherLink or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Davis Instruments WeatherLink 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, Davis Instruments WeatherLink or Lely Horizon?
Davis Instruments WeatherLink has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Davis Instruments WeatherLink and On request for Lely Horizon.
Does Davis Instruments WeatherLink or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Davis Instruments WeatherLink runs on Web, iOS, Android. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
Can I use Davis Instruments WeatherLink for free?
Yes. Davis Instruments WeatherLink has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lely Horizon starts at On request.
What is Davis Instruments WeatherLink best used for?
Davis Instruments WeatherLink is most often used for an orchard running frost protection that needs one-minute temperature data to decide when to start wind machines, a vineyard driving disease models from on-site rather than airport weather, a research station exporting long historical records from several instruments, a grower sharing a public station page with neighbours and a spray contractor. Of those, an orchard running frost protection that needs one-minute temperature data to decide when to start wind machines and a vineyard driving disease models from on-site rather than airport weather are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Davis Instruments WeatherLink do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Davis Instruments WeatherLink covers Per-station cloud dashboards, Custom charting, Data export, Shareable public links. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Davis Instruments WeatherLink: Is WeatherLink free?

There is a permanently free Basic tier with charting and export, but third-party uploads run only every 15 minutes and there are no shareable links.

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.

Davis Instruments WeatherLink: What does the paid tier actually add?

Faster upload intervals, five minutes on Pro and one minute on Pro+, plus shareable public links. The faster cadence is what matters for frost and spray timing.

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.

Davis Instruments WeatherLink: Is pricing per account or per station?

Per device. Every station you own needs its own subscription.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Davis Instruments WeatherLink: Can I get the data out via an API?

Yes, Davis publishes a WeatherLink API, but practical use depends on your account tier and station model, so confirm before designing around it.

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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