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Agriculture · head to head

SMARTBOW vs Tend

SMARTBOW logo

SMARTBOW

Agriculture

Ear tag cow monitoring with real-time indoor location, from Zoetis

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Tend logo

Tend

Agriculture

Crop planning and record keeping for small diversified market farms, priced in flat tiers rather than by acre

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Tend has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: SMARTBOW real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.; Tend the free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
  • They diverge on capability: SMARTBOW covers Real-time location, Tend covers Visual crop planning.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which SMARTBOW and Tend actually diverge.

Attributes where SMARTBOW and Tend differ
AttributeSMARTBOWTend
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer month by user count
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Web, iOS, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: 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 SMARTBOW

  • Real-time location
  • Heat detection
  • Rumination monitoring
  • Health alerts
  • On-farm server
  • Individual baselines
  • Herd software integration

Only in Tend

  • Visual crop planning
  • Growing templates
  • Crop library
  • Task management
  • Harvest and inventory tracking
  • CSA and sales storefront
  • Financial reporting
  • AI credits

What people use each for

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

SMARTBOW

  • A 1,500 cow freestall barn where finding a flagged animal by eye takes twenty minutesnot Tend
  • A dairy replacing visual heat detection with per-animal oestrus alerts to tighten calving intervalsnot Tend
  • A herd manager wanting rumination-based early warning of displaced abomasum or metritisnot Tend
  • A vet practice using behavioural data to audit transition cow management across client herdsnot Tend

Tend

  • A three-acre market garden running weekly lettuce successions that needs the seeding calendar to generate itself from the harvest targetnot SMARTBOW
  • A cut-flower farm planning bed space against wedding orders months aheadnot SMARTBOW
  • A CSA operation managing 150 member shares alongside the planting plan that has to fill themnot SMARTBOW
  • A two-person farm replacing a spreadsheet and a whiteboard without paying a per-acre platform's minimumnot SMARTBOW

Where each one falls short

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

SMARTBOW

  • Real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.
  • It is an indoor system; a grazing or partly grazed herd loses the location capability that is the main reason to choose it over cheaper monitoring.
  • Ear tags are consumable and go missing with the tag, so the running cost includes replacements at a rate that depends on how rough your handling facilities are.
  • Zoetis ownership means a pharmaceutical company holds continuous behavioural data on every animal alongside your treatment records, and the integration roadmap favours other Zoetis products.
  • Nothing is published on price, and sales run through veterinary and dealer channels, so comparing it against DeLaval, Nedap or CowManager requires several quotes and there is no reference list price.

Tend

  • The free tier keeps only three years of history and 500 MB of storage, so a grower who stays on it loses the multi-season comparison that makes crop planning software worth having in the first place.
  • Data retention is a paid feature at every level below Ultimate, which is an unusual thing to meter: a farm that downgrades from Pro to Free after a bad year risks losing records it may need for organic certification audits.
  • There is no machinery, telematics, soil sampling or variable-rate capability at all, so any operation that adds broadacre ground has to run a second platform rather than extend this one.
  • AI features are metered in credits rather than included, and the allowances are small at the lower tiers, so the assistant becomes something you ration rather than rely on.
  • The company is small and privately held with a narrow customer base, which means integrations outside payments and basic accounting are thin and a request for a connector to a regional distributor or certifier is unlikely to be built.

Pricing, plan by plan

SMARTBOW

On request
  • SMARTBOW$undefined/year
    • Ear tags priced per animal
    • Barn receiver infrastructure and on-farm server quoted per building
    • Installation and commissioning quoted separately

Tend

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1 user
    • 25 AI credits per month
    • 3 years data retention
  • Pro$30/month
    • 5 users
    • 500 AI credits per month
    • 7 years data retention
  • Ultimate$75/month
    • Unlimited users
    • 2,500 AI credits per month
    • Unlimited data retention
  • Enterprise$400/month
    • Unlimited users
    • 10,000+ AI credits per month
    • 250 GB storage and up

Which should you pick?

Choose SMARTBOW if

  • You need real-time location.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want heat detection.
SMARTBOW review

Choose Tend if

  • You need visual crop planning.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want growing templates.
Tend review

Questions people ask

Is SMARTBOW or Tend better?
Neither clearly leads. SMARTBOW starts at On request and Tend at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, SMARTBOW or Tend?
Tend has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for SMARTBOW and Free for Tend.
Does SMARTBOW or Tend run on more platforms?
SMARTBOW runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android. Tend runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Tend for free?
Yes. Tend has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. SMARTBOW starts at On request.
What is SMARTBOW best used for?
SMARTBOW is most often used for a 1,500 cow freestall barn where finding a flagged animal by eye takes twenty minutes, a dairy replacing visual heat detection with per-animal oestrus alerts to tighten calving intervals, a herd manager wanting rumination-based early warning of displaced abomasum or metritis, a vet practice using behavioural data to audit transition cow management across client herds. Of those, a 1,500 cow freestall barn where finding a flagged animal by eye takes twenty minutes and a dairy replacing visual heat detection with per-animal oestrus alerts to tighten calving intervals are not what Tend is typically brought in for.
What can SMARTBOW do that Tend cannot?
SMARTBOW covers Real-time location, Heat detection, Rumination monitoring, Health alerts. Tend covers Visual crop planning, Growing templates, Crop library, Task management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

SMARTBOW: What does SMARTBOW do that other activity monitors do not?

Real-time indoor location. It tells you where the flagged cow physically is, not just that she is behaving abnormally.

Tend: Does Tend charge by the acre?

No. Pricing is flat by user count, and there are no acreage or crop limits on any tier including the free one. That is the main reason small growers pick it over broadacre platforms.

SMARTBOW: Does it work on grazing herds?

Poorly. Location depends on barn-mounted receivers, so animals out at pasture fall outside the system's coverage.

Tend: Can Tend handle a CSA?

Yes, including member share management and a farm-stand storefront, though payment processing runs through a third party.

SMARTBOW: Who owns it?

Zoetis, which also owns Valley Agricultural Software and DairyComp. The technology came from Smartbow GmbH in Austria.

Tend: Is it suitable for a 500 acre grain farm?

No. There is no machinery data, no prescription writing and no as-applied reporting. It is built for high-crop-count, low-acreage operations.

SMARTBOW: Is it cloud based?

Analysis runs on an on-farm server rather than in the cloud, which keeps it working during an internet outage but makes the server your responsibility.

Tend: What happens to my records if I cancel?

Export before you cancel. Retention limits apply per tier, and the free tier keeps three years, so downgrading is not a safe archive strategy.

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