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Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Raven Slingshot

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
Raven Slingshot logo

Raven Slingshot

Agriculture

Seamless field data connectivity

From
$600/year
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.; Raven Slingshot requires cell network connectivity, limiting utility in areas with poor cellular coverage
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Raven Slingshot covers Wireless data transfer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lely Horizon and Raven Slingshot actually diverge.

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Raven Slingshot differ
AttributeLely HorizonRaven Slingshot
Starting priceOn request$600/year
Pricing modelquotesubscription
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsCloud, Mobile
FoundedUnknown1956

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 Raven Slingshot

  • Wireless data transfer
  • Field mapping
  • As-applied maps
  • Equipment connectivity
  • Cloud storage
  • Raven equipment
  • John Deere
  • Case IH

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

Raven Slingshot

  • Data transfernot Lely Horizon
  • Prescription deliverynot Lely Horizon
  • As-applied recordsnot Lely Horizon
  • Fleet managementnot 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.

Raven Slingshot

  • Requires cell network connectivity, limiting utility in areas with poor cellular coverage
  • Ecosystem is agriculture-specific, with limited applicability to other field operations

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

Raven Slingshot

$600/year
  • Standard$600/year
    • Data transfer
    • Field management
    • Basic analytics
  • Premium$1200/year
    • All Standard features
    • Remote support
    • Advanced analytics

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 Raven Slingshot if

  • You need wireless data transfer.
  • You work on Cloud, Mobile.
  • You also want field mapping.
Raven Slingshot review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Raven Slingshot better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Raven Slingshot at $600/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Raven Slingshot?
Lely Horizon starts at On request and Raven Slingshot at $600/year.
Does Lely Horizon or Raven Slingshot run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Raven Slingshot runs on Cloud, Mobile.
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 Raven Slingshot is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Raven Slingshot cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Raven Slingshot covers Wireless data transfer, Field mapping, As-applied maps, Equipment connectivity.

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.

Raven Slingshot: What does Raven Slingshot do?

Raven Slingshot is a wireless data management and logistics solution that enables prescription file delivery to field equipment, real-time machine data uploads to the cloud, and seamless data flow between farm management software and field equipment without manual downloads.

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.

Raven Slingshot: How does Slingshot work with farm management software?

Slingshot provides an open ecosystem API designed to work with software developed by other companies, enabling growers, retailers, agronomists, and software vendors to share agronomic data securely.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Raven Slingshot: Does Slingshot require internet connectivity?

Raven Slingshot uses high-speed connectivity via cell technology and cloud-based data transfer for real-time data uploads and prescription delivery to equipment.

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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