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Agriculture · head to head

Lely Horizon vs Teralytic

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
Teralytic logo

Teralytic

Agriculture

Wireless soil probe reading NPK at three depths, sold as an annual per-probe service rather than a sensor

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.; Teralytic the company is reported at around six employees, so if it stops trading the buried probes become inert hardware, which is the single biggest risk in a multi-year soil sensing deployment.
  • They diverge on capability: Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Teralytic covers Wireless NPK sensing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Lely Horizon and Teralytic differ
AttributeLely HorizonTeralytic
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 Teralytic

  • Wireless NPK sensing
  • Three-depth profile
  • Soil respiration and aeration
  • Long-range radio uplink
  • Cloud analytics
  • Above-ground sensing
  • API access
  • Multi-field deployment view

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

Teralytic

  • A research trial that needs continuous nitrogen readings between sampling dates rather than two lab tests a seasonnot Lely Horizon
  • A vegetable grower on sandy ground where leaching after rain makes a fortnightly lab test worthlessnot Lely Horizon
  • An almond or vine operation tracking salinity build-up under drip irrigationnot Lely Horizon
  • An agronomist validating a variable-rate nitrogen prescription against in-ground readingsnot 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.

Teralytic

  • The company is reported at around six employees, so if it stops trading the buried probes become inert hardware, which is the single biggest risk in a multi-year soil sensing deployment.
  • No current pricing is published and reported figures have moved between roughly 300 and 500 US dollars per probe per year, so a buyer cannot model the cost of a hundred-probe deployment without a quote.
  • The subscription is mandatory for the probe to report at all, so the up-front hardware payment buys nothing durable and a lapsed account means a field full of dead instruments.
  • In-field NPK sensing is scientifically contested and readings need interpretation against soil type and calibration, so agronomists will not treat the numbers as interchangeable with a lab test and many will insist on both.
  • Spatial coverage is the unsolved problem: a probe measures one point, soil varies over metres, and covering a field properly multiplies both the hardware and the annual subscription by the number of zones you care about.

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

Teralytic

On request
  • Teralytic Soil Probe$undefined/year
    • Probe purchased or supplied with an annual per-probe subscription
    • Subscription covers hardware, network, software and analytics
    • Reported figures have ranged from roughly 300 to 500 USD per probe per year

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 Teralytic if

  • You need wireless npk sensing.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want three-depth profile.
Teralytic review

Questions people ask

Is Lely Horizon or Teralytic better?
Neither clearly leads. Lely Horizon starts at On request and Teralytic at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lely Horizon or Teralytic?
Lely Horizon starts at On request and Teralytic at On request.
Does Lely Horizon or Teralytic run on more platforms?
Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Teralytic 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 Teralytic is typically brought in for.
What can Lely Horizon do that Teralytic cannot?
Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management. Teralytic covers Wireless NPK sensing, Three-depth profile, Soil respiration and aeration, Long-range radio uplink.

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.

Teralytic: Can I buy the probe without a subscription?

No. The probe reports through Teralytic’s network into its cloud, and without an active subscription it does not deliver data.

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.

Teralytic: Does it replace lab soil tests?

No. It gives continuous in-season trend data. Most agronomists will still want lab results for absolute nutrient values and for compliance records.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Teralytic: How much does it cost?

Teralytic does not publish current pricing. Reported figures have ranged from roughly 300 to 500 US dollars per probe per year including hardware and connectivity.

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.

Teralytic: How many probes does a field need?

That depends on soil variability. One probe represents one point, so a field with several distinct soil zones needs one per zone to be meaningful.

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