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Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Nofence

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
Nofence logo

Nofence

Agriculture

GPS collar virtual fencing for cattle, sheep and goats with no base station required

From
$229/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Nofence everything depends on mobile network coverage, so a farm in a signal shadow cannot change boundaries, receive escape alerts or rely on the fence at all, and no amount of spending fixes that.
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Nofence covers Virtual paddocks.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lely Horizon and Nofence actually diverge.

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Nofence differ
AttributeLely HorizonNofence
Starting priceOn request$229/one-time
Pricing modelquoteOne-time collar purchase plus annual subscription per collar
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsiOS, Android, Web

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 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 Nofence

  • Virtual paddocks
  • No base station
  • Species range
  • Escape alerts
  • Grazing history
  • Solar charging
  • Multi-user access

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 Nofence
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Nofence
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Nofence
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Nofence

Nofence

  • A conservation body grazing cattle on open heath or moorland where fencing is prohibited or impracticalnot Lely Horizon
  • A contractor running goats to clear scrub and maintain firebreaks on rotating sitesnot Lely Horizon
  • A smallholder rotating a small mob through awkward parcels without building temporary fencenot Lely Horizon
  • A grazier renting seasonal parcels where investing in permanent fence makes no sensenot 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.

Nofence

  • Everything depends on mobile network coverage, so a farm in a signal shadow cannot change boundaries, receive escape alerts or rely on the fence at all, and no amount of spending fixes that.
  • Collar purchase is a real up-front barrier at roughly $349 a head for cattle, so fencing a 200 cow herd is a five-figure hardware outlay before the first subscription renewal.
  • Battery life depends on daylight and on how often the animal challenges the boundary; a busy animal in a Nordic or British winter runs the collar down faster than the headline figures suggest.
  • Virtual fencing is restricted or unaccepted in some jurisdictions and by some welfare and organic certification schemes, which can rule the product out on eligibility grounds regardless of cost.
  • It is a fencing product first, so herd health, rumination and reproduction monitoring are thin compared with dairy-focused collar systems, and a dairy will still need separate heat detection.

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

Nofence

$229/one-time
  • Sheep and goat collar$229/one-time
    • One-time collar purchase
    • First 12 months subscription included
    • Five year warranty
  • Cattle collar$349/one-time
    • One-time collar purchase for 1 to 24 collars
    • Approximately $309 per collar at 25 or more
    • First 12 months subscription included
  • Annual subscription$45/year
    • Per collar per year after the first 12 months
    • Approximately $35 per collar at 100 or more
    • Monthly option around $6.50 per collar

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 Nofence if

  • You need virtual paddocks.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want no base station.
Nofence review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Nofence better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Nofence at $229/one-time, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Nofence?
Lely Horizon starts at On request and Nofence at $229/one-time.
Does Lely Horizon or Nofence run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Nofence runs on iOS, Android, Web.
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 Nofence is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Nofence cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Nofence covers Virtual paddocks, No base station, Species range, Escape alerts.

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.

Nofence: Do I need towers or a base station?

No. Nofence collars connect to the mobile network directly, which is the main structural difference from tower-based virtual fencing and removes the largest install cost.

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.

Nofence: What does the subscription cost after year one?

Roughly $45 per collar per year, dropping to about $35 for herds of 100 or more. Monthly options are around $6.50 and $4.50 per collar.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Nofence: Is the first year of subscription really included?

Yes, twelve months of subscription come with each collar purchase, so the first renewal bill arrives a year after install.

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.

Nofence: Will it work for sheep?

Yes, with the smaller collar designed for sheep and goats, though horned and small-framed animals need care with fit.

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