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Agriculture · head to head

Lindsay FieldNET vs Tend

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
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: 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.; 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: Lindsay FieldNET covers Pivot Watch, Tend covers Visual crop planning.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lindsay FieldNET and Tend actually diverge.

Attributes where Lindsay FieldNET and Tend differ
AttributeLindsay FieldNETTend
Starting price$300/yearFree
Pricing modelPer pivot per year plus hardwarePer month by user count
Free tierNoYes

Identical on both: 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 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.

Lindsay FieldNET

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

Tend

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

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

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

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 Lindsay FieldNET if

  • You need pivot watch.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want pivot control retrofit.
Lindsay FieldNET 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 Lindsay FieldNET or Tend better?
Neither clearly leads. Lindsay FieldNET starts at $300/year and Tend at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lindsay FieldNET or Tend?
Tend has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $300/year for Lindsay FieldNET and Free for Tend.
Does Lindsay FieldNET or Tend run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Tend for free?
Yes. Tend has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lindsay FieldNET starts at $300/year.
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 Tend is typically brought in for.
What can Lindsay FieldNET do that Tend cannot?
Lindsay FieldNET covers Pivot Watch, Pivot Control retrofit, Remote start and stop, FieldNET Advisor. Tend covers Visual crop planning, Growing templates, Crop library, Task management.

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.

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.

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.

Tend: Can Tend handle a CSA?

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

Lindsay FieldNET: Is FieldNET Advisor included?

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

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.

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.

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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