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Agriculture · head to head

Lindsay FieldNET vs METER Group ZENTRA

Lindsay FieldNET logo

Lindsay FieldNET

Agriculture

Remote pivot monitoring, control and irrigation scheduling that retrofits almost any electric pivot

From
$300/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
METER Group ZENTRA logo

METER Group ZENTRA

Agriculture

Research-grade soil, plant and atmosphere sensors with the ZENTRA Cloud data platform

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Lindsay FieldNET the subscription is per pivot per year and permanent, so a thirty pivot farm carries roughly a five-figure annual bill on top of the retrofit hardware and never owns the capability outright.; METER Group ZENTRA hardware costs several times what commodity soil probes cost, so a farm that only needs a rough irrigation trigger is paying for calibration accuracy it will never use.
  • They diverge on capability: Lindsay FieldNET covers Pivot Watch, METER Group ZENTRA covers TEROS soil sensors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lindsay FieldNET and METER Group ZENTRA actually diverge.

Attributes where Lindsay FieldNET and METER Group ZENTRA differ
AttributeLindsay FieldNETMETER Group ZENTRA
Starting price$300/yearOn request
Pricing modelPer pivot per year plus hardwarePer device subscription

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Lindsay FieldNET

  • Pivot Watch
  • Pivot Control retrofit
  • Remote start and stop
  • FieldNET Advisor
  • Variable rate irrigation
  • Alerts and diagnostics
  • Multi-brand fleet view

Only in METER Group ZENTRA

  • TEROS soil sensors
  • Water potential measurement
  • ZL6 data loggers
  • ZENTRA Cloud
  • Threshold alerts
  • Open API
  • ATMOS weather stations

What people use each for

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

Lindsay FieldNET

  • A farm with Valley, Reinke and Zimmatic pivots that wants one app instead of three vendor systemsnot METER Group ZENTRA
  • An operation with pivots an hour apart where a physical check costs half a daynot METER Group ZENTRA
  • A grower under a water allocation that needs defensible scheduling to stay inside the limitnot METER Group ZENTRA
  • A manager who needs an alert the moment a pivot stops overnight rather than at dawnnot METER Group ZENTRA

METER Group ZENTRA

  • A university soil physics group that needs measurements defensible enough for peer reviewnot Lindsay FieldNET
  • An irrigation district accounting for water applied and lost across a schemenot Lindsay FieldNET
  • A vineyard managing deficit irrigation from water potential rather than volumetric moisture alonenot Lindsay FieldNET
  • An environmental consultancy monitoring a remediation or drainage site where the data may be contestednot Lindsay FieldNET

Where each one falls short

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

Lindsay FieldNET

  • The subscription is per pivot per year and permanent, so a thirty pivot farm carries roughly a five-figure annual bill on top of the retrofit hardware and never owns the capability outright.
  • The Pivot Control retrofit is around $1,700 a unit before installation, which on an older or low-value pivot can approach a meaningful fraction of what the machine is worth.
  • FieldNET Advisor is priced separately from control, so the scheduling intelligence that justifies the platform is an additional line item rather than part of the subscription.
  • Cellular coverage decides whether it works; pivots in a coverage hole get intermittent control and alerts, which is the worst possible failure mode for a system you have stopped driving out to check.
  • Support and installation run through Lindsay dealers, so a farm in a territory with a weak dealer gets slow retrofits and slow fault resolution regardless of what the platform can do.

METER Group ZENTRA

  • Hardware costs several times what commodity soil probes cost, so a farm that only needs a rough irrigation trigger is paying for calibration accuracy it will never use.
  • ZENTRA Cloud is a per-device subscription, so a large sensor network carries a recurring bill that grows linearly with every probe added and is easy to underestimate at design stage.
  • The three-year subscription bundled with the ZL6 Pro means the renewal decision arrives exactly when a typical research grant has ended, which is how long-running datasets get abandoned.
  • METER sells measurement rather than recommendations; there is no irrigation scheduling engine, so someone has to turn the numbers into decisions or buy a second platform that will.
  • Installation quality dominates results with soil sensors, and a badly installed TEROS probe produces confidently wrong data, so the accuracy you paid for depends on field technique the vendor cannot supply.

Pricing, plan by plan

Lindsay FieldNET

$300/year
  • Pivot Watch$undefined/year
    • Monitoring only, no remote control
    • Lower annual subscription than control tiers
    • Device purchased per pivot
  • Pivot Control$300/year
    • Approximately $300 per pivot per year
    • Retrofit unit around $1,700 plus installation
    • Full remote start, stop, speed and endgun control
  • FieldNET Advisor$undefined/year
    • Irrigation scheduling and decision support
    • Priced separately on top of control subscription
    • Uses soil, crop stage and weather inputs

METER Group ZENTRA

On request
  • ZENTRA Cloud$undefined/year
    • Priced per activated device, pay for what you use
    • Three year subscription included with the ZL6 Pro logger
    • Cellular data included in the device subscription

Which should you pick?

Choose Lindsay FieldNET if

  • You need pivot watch.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want pivot control retrofit.
Lindsay FieldNET review

Choose METER Group ZENTRA if

  • You need teros soil sensors.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want water potential measurement.
METER Group ZENTRA review

Questions people ask

Is Lindsay FieldNET or METER Group ZENTRA better?
Neither clearly leads. Lindsay FieldNET starts at $300/year and METER Group ZENTRA at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lindsay FieldNET or METER Group ZENTRA?
Lindsay FieldNET starts at $300/year and METER Group ZENTRA at On request.
Does Lindsay FieldNET or METER Group ZENTRA run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Lindsay FieldNET best used for?
Lindsay FieldNET is most often used for a farm with valley, reinke and zimmatic pivots that wants one app instead of three vendor systems, an operation with pivots an hour apart where a physical check costs half a day, a grower under a water allocation that needs defensible scheduling to stay inside the limit, a manager who needs an alert the moment a pivot stops overnight rather than at dawn. Of those, a farm with valley, reinke and zimmatic pivots that wants one app instead of three vendor systems and an operation with pivots an hour apart where a physical check costs half a day are not what METER Group ZENTRA is typically brought in for.
What can Lindsay FieldNET do that METER Group ZENTRA cannot?
Lindsay FieldNET covers Pivot Watch, Pivot Control retrofit, Remote start and stop, FieldNET Advisor. METER Group ZENTRA covers TEROS soil sensors, Water potential measurement, ZL6 data loggers, ZENTRA Cloud.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lindsay FieldNET: Does FieldNET only work with Zimmatic pivots?

No. FieldNET Pivot Control is built to retrofit almost any electric pivot, and mixed fleets of Valley, Reinke and Zimmatic machines run in one account.

METER Group ZENTRA: Is ZENTRA Cloud included with the loggers?

A three-year subscription is included with the ZL6 Pro. Other loggers require a separate per-device subscription.

Lindsay FieldNET: What does it cost per pivot?

Around $1,700 for a Pivot Control unit plus installation, then roughly $300 per pivot per year. Pivot Watch monitoring is cheaper on both.

METER Group ZENTRA: Do I need a separate cellular data plan?

No. Cellular data is covered within the device subscription rather than billed as a separate SIM contract.

Lindsay FieldNET: Is FieldNET Advisor included?

No. Advisor is the scheduling and decision support layer and is quoted separately from remote control.

METER Group ZENTRA: Will it tell me when to irrigate?

No. METER provides measurement, not scheduling recommendations. You either interpret the data yourself or feed it into a scheduling platform.

Lindsay FieldNET: What happens if the cellular signal drops?

You lose remote control and alerting until it returns, which is why coverage should be checked at each pivot before committing.

METER Group ZENTRA: Why is it more expensive than commodity soil probes?

Individual sensor calibration and documented measurement physics, which is what makes the data hold up in research, regulatory and legal contexts.

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