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Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Node-RED

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
Node-RED logo

Node-RED

Smart Home

Flow-based programming tool for IoT and home automation

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Node-RED has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Node-RED the Node-RED editor ships unsecured: anyone who can reach its IP address can open the editor and deploy changes until adminAuth is configured
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Node-RED covers Visual Editor.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lely Horizon and Node-RED actually diverge.

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Node-RED differ
AttributeLely HorizonNode-RED
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteopen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsNode.js, Docker, Cloud, Edge devices
CategoryAgricultureSmart Home
FoundedUnknown2013

Identical on both: 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 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

Only in Node-RED

  • Visual Editor
  • Flow-Based Programming
  • Extensible
  • HTTP Integration
  • MQTT
  • REST API
  • WebSocket
  • Database

What people use each for

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

Lely Horizon

  • A 180-cow dairy running four Astronaut robots that needs the attention list to replace walking the barn twice a daynot Node-RED
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Node-RED
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Node-RED
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Node-RED

Node-RED

  • Low-code event-driven application developmentnot Lely Horizon
  • IoT and device integration workflowsnot Lely Horizon
  • Visual programming for server-side integrationsnot Lely Horizon

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Node-RED

  • The Node-RED editor ships unsecured: anyone who can reach its IP address can open the editor and deploy changes until adminAuth is configured
  • HTTPS is off by default and must be enabled through the https setting
  • HTTP endpoints and dashboards exposed by flows are unauthenticated unless httpNodeAuth is configured separately
  • All three security layers are optional additions the administrator must implement by editing the settings file

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Node-RED

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Visual editor
    • Extensible
    • REST API

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Node-RED if

  • You need visual editor.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Node.js, Docker, Cloud, Edge devices.
  • You also want flow-based programming.
Node-RED review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Node-RED better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Node-RED at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Node-RED?
Node-RED has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Lely Horizon and Free for Node-RED.
Does Lely Horizon or Node-RED run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Node-RED runs on Node.js, Docker, Cloud, Edge devices.
Can I use Node-RED for free?
Yes. Node-RED has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lely Horizon starts at On request.
What is Lely Horizon best used for?
Lely Horizon is most often used for a 180-cow dairy running four astronaut robots that needs the attention list to replace walking the barn twice a day, a farm adding vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milking, a dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one account, a lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth box. Of those, a 180-cow dairy running four astronaut robots that needs the attention list to replace walking the barn twice a day and a farm adding vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milking are not what Node-RED is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Node-RED cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Node-RED covers Visual Editor, Flow-Based Programming, Extensible, HTTP Integration.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Node-RED: Is Node-RED free?

Yes, Node-RED is completely free and open source. It is available under the MIT License through GitHub and npm package manager. The project is maintained by the OpenJS Foundation.

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.

Node-RED: Does Node-RED offer commercial support?

Node-RED itself is free and community-supported. FlowFuse, Inc. was founded in 2021 as a separate commercial entity offering enterprise support and a professional platform for Node-RED deployment, but FlowFuse is not Node-RED.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Node-RED: What is Node-RED pricing model?

Node-RED has no pricing model. It is completely free open source software. Commercial support and hosting options may be available separately through third-party providers like FlowFuse, but the core software is not sold.

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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