Softwr

Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Reinke ReinCloud

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
Reinke ReinCloud logo

Reinke ReinCloud

Agriculture

Remote centre pivot control that is priced by the data device on the pivot, not by the acre

From
On request
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.; Reinke ReinCloud subscriptions are charged per data collection device, so cost scales linearly with pivot count and a fifteen-machine operation pays fifteen subscriptions for one farm.
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Reinke ReinCloud covers Remote pivot control.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lely Horizon and Reinke ReinCloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Reinke ReinCloud differ
AttributeLely HorizonReinke ReinCloud
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Reinke ReinCloud

  • Remote pivot control
  • Position and status monitoring
  • Fault alerts
  • Variable rate irrigation
  • Water application records
  • Multi-machine dashboard
  • Scheduling
  • Dealer diagnostics

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

Reinke ReinCloud

  • A farm with pivots spread across thirty miles of ground that currently drives to each panel after a stormnot Lely Horizon
  • An operator who needs to shut a pivot down at 2am when pressure drops rather than losing a night of waternot Lely Horizon
  • A grower under a water allocation who needs applied depth records per passnot Lely Horizon
  • A dealer diagnosing a fault remotely before deciding whether to send a trucknot 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.

Reinke ReinCloud

  • Subscriptions are charged per data collection device, so cost scales linearly with pivot count and a fifteen-machine operation pays fifteen subscriptions for one farm.
  • What ReinCloud can do is dictated by the RPM panel generation on each pivot, and variable rate needs an RPM Preferred or AnnexPF panel, so unlocking features on older machines means a field electrical upgrade rather than a software purchase.
  • It manages Reinke equipment only, so a farm that has bought pivots from more than one manufacturer over the years runs a separate app per brand with no combined water record.
  • No pricing is published; subscriptions are quoted through dealers, which means neighbouring farms can be paying different rates for identical hardware with no way to check.
  • Reinke is a privately held family manufacturer competing on software against Lindsay and Valmont, both listed companies with far larger digital budgets, so feature pace in the app lags what the bigger two ship.

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

Reinke ReinCloud

On request
  • ReinCloud$undefined/year
    • Priced per data collection device on each machine
    • Annual and period-based subscription options
    • Capability depends on the RPM panel generation fitted

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 Reinke ReinCloud if

  • You need remote pivot control.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want position and status monitoring.
Reinke ReinCloud review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Reinke ReinCloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Reinke ReinCloud at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Reinke ReinCloud?
Lely Horizon starts at On request and Reinke ReinCloud at On request.
Does Lely Horizon or Reinke ReinCloud run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Reinke ReinCloud runs on Web, iOS, Android.
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 Reinke ReinCloud is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Reinke ReinCloud cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Reinke ReinCloud covers Remote pivot control, Position and status monitoring, Fault alerts, Variable rate irrigation.

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.

Reinke ReinCloud: How is ReinCloud priced?

Per data collection device on each machine, with annual and period-based subscription options quoted through dealers. Reinke publishes no rates.

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.

Reinke ReinCloud: Can I run variable rate irrigation?

Only with an RPM Preferred or RPM AnnexPF panel. The Advanced Plus panel supports ReinCloud remote access but not the same variable rate capability.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Reinke ReinCloud: Does it control non-Reinke pivots?

No. It is tied to Reinke RPM panels.

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.

Reinke ReinCloud: What happens if the subscription lapses?

The pivot keeps irrigating from its panel, but remote monitoring and control stop, which is the function you bought it for.

Share

Related pages

More on Lely Horizon

More on Reinke ReinCloud

Keep looking

Other head to heads