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Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Sentera

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
Sentera logo

Sentera

Agriculture

Precision agriculture sensors and analytics

From
$29/month
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.; Sentera the offering bundles Sentera sensor hardware with the software, with hardware covered by separate Hardware and Services Addenda to the master agreement
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Sentera covers Multispectral imaging.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Sentera differ
AttributeLely HorizonSentera
Starting priceOn request$29/month
Pricing modelquotesubscription
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsWeb, Ios, Android, Hardware
FoundedUnknown2014

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 Sentera

  • Multispectral imaging
  • Stand counts
  • Weed detection
  • Crop stress analysis
  • Variable rate prescriptions
  • DJI
  • John Deere
  • Climate FieldView

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

Sentera

  • Capturing multispectral and high-resolution aerial imagery of fieldsnot Lely Horizon
  • Turning drone imagery into stand counts and crop health analytics in FieldAgentnot Lely Horizon
  • Generating variable rate prescriptions with SmartScriptnot 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.

Sentera

  • The offering bundles Sentera sensor hardware with the software, with hardware covered by separate Hardware and Services Addenda to the master agreement
  • No price, rate or minimum is published anywhere on the site

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

Sentera

$29/month
  • Scout$1500/year
    • Basic analytics
    • NDVI maps
    • 5000 acres
  • Advanced$5000/year
    • Full analytics
    • Stand counts
    • Unlimited acres

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 Sentera if

  • You need multispectral imaging.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Hardware.
  • You also want stand counts.
Sentera review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Sentera better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Sentera at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Sentera?
Lely Horizon starts at On request and Sentera at $29/month.
Does Lely Horizon or Sentera run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Sentera runs on Web, Ios, Android, Hardware.
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 Sentera is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Sentera cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Sentera covers Multispectral imaging, Stand counts, Weed detection, Crop stress analysis.

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.

Sentera: How much does Sentera cost?

Sentera does not publish pricing on their website. The company describes solutions as scalable and affordable but requires direct contact for specific pricing. Customers can call 1-844-SENTERA or use the contact page.

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.

Sentera: How can I get a Sentera pricing quote?

You can contact Sentera directly at 1-844-SENTERA or through their contact page. You can also log into FieldAgent or explore the product catalog and mission calculator for more information about specific offerings.

Source
Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

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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