Most farm management software providers make it deliberately difficult to compare prices. TELUS does not publish Gatekeeper pricing. AgriWebb requires a quote. Farmplan's pricing tiers are not listed online. This article puts the real numbers together in one place, including the costs that do not appear on the sales page.
| Platform | Published? | Starting Price | Typical Annual Range | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herdwatch | Yes | Free (basic); ~£119/yr | £0 - £250/yr | Per-farm, annual subscription |
| xFarm | Partially | Free tier available | Free - varies | Freemium, paid precision ag features |
| John Deere Ops Center | Yes | Free | £0 | Free with qualifying JD machinery |
| TELUS Crop Management | No | Quote-based | Est. £500 - £2,000+/yr | Tiered by farm size and modules |
| Farmplan | No | Quote-based | Est. £400 - £1,500+/yr | Module-based (accounts, crops, livestock) |
| AgriWebb | No | Quote-based | Est. £600 - £2,000+/yr | Per-property for larger operations |
| Hutchinsons Omnia | Bundled | Part of agronomy relationship | Varies | Bundled with Hutchinsons services |
| SUM-IT | On enquiry | Varies | Est. £300 - £800/yr | UK-based, module pricing |
Estimates are based on published historical pricing, market data, and information from farming forums. Actual pricing will vary by farm size, number of users, and features required. Always request a written quote with the full annual cost before committing.
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Switching from one system to another rarely costs nothing. Historical field records, spray logs, soil test data, and livestock records need to be exported and imported. Some platforms charge for data migration support. Others give you migration tools, and leave the manual work to you. If you are moving from Gatekeeper to a non-TELUS platform, the export format may require conversion work.
Most platforms include basic onboarding, but team training (particularly for farms with multiple operators or seasonal staff) often costs extra. Budget £200 to £500 for formal training sessions, or plan for the time cost of self-training.
Some livestock platforms charge for SMS alerts (movement confirmations, health reminders). These are often billed per message or as a monthly add-on. Ask what is included in the base price and what is metered.
The headline price may cover basic crop recording or livestock management. Extra modules for mapping, precision agriculture, soil analysis, compliance reporting, or accounting are often priced separately. A system advertised at £500 per year can easily reach £1,500 once you add the modules you actually need.
Cloud-based platforms need reliable internet. If your farm broadband is poor, you may need to budget for a 4G/5G backup connection or a rural broadband upgrade. This is not a software cost, but it is a real cost that many farms encounter when moving to cloud-first platforms.
A mixed 600-hectare farm with both arable and livestock enterprises typically runs multiple systems:
| System | Annual Cost | Five-Year Total |
|---|---|---|
| Crop recording (TELUS / Gatekeeper) | £800 - £2,000 | £4,000 - £10,000 |
| Livestock management (Herdwatch / AgriWebb) | £120 - £1,500 | £600 - £7,500 |
| Farm accounts (Farmplan / SUM-IT) | £400 - £1,000 | £2,000 - £5,000 |
| Compliance / SFI evidence | £0 - £500 | £0 - £2,500 |
| Total (subscription model) | £1,320 - £5,000 | £6,600 - £25,000+ |
Some diversified farms run more systems, such as a shop till, a holiday let booking tool and event management. Their five-year total can reach £30,000 to £38,500 across all the software.
A bespoke farm management system built by ESRE Media is a one-off capital investment, not a recurring subscription. Typical pricing:
| Cost Item | Subscription (5 years, mixed farm) | Bespoke |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | £0 (first month's subscription) | £15,000 - £30,000 |
| Annual recurring | £1,500 - £5,000/year | £0 |
| Five-year total | £7,500 - £25,000 | £15,000 - £30,000 |
| Ten-year total | £15,000 - £50,000 | £15,000 - £30,000 |
| Data ownership | Vendor-controlled | You own everything |
| Customisation | Limited to vendor features | Built to your exact operation |
The breakeven point for most farms is three to five years. After that, the bespoke system costs nothing in ongoing fees while subscription costs continue indefinitely. For farms planning to operate for decades, the lifetime cost difference is substantial.
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Every figure above is money you pay a supplier. One more cost sits beside them, and it is usually larger.
It is your own time. Somebody enters a movement twice, matches a farm shop till against the accounts, and finds the evidence for an inspection. On a farm that person is often the owner, and no invoice records the hours.
Two things create that work. Your systems hold different ideas of the same field, animal or sale. Your business also changes shape, and each change needs a new field or a new record type.
We build farm systems on engage.re. All data sits in five database tables, and those five tables never change. A new enterprise adds a dictionary entry, so it costs configuration and not a development quote. We also charge no fee for each seat, so a new worker does not raise your bill.
We work through the full cost, including your own time, in what does it cost to own and run your own systems. We explain why a rented price rises each year in your software bill goes up every year.
Our live farm demo opens without a login, and it covers the systems costed here. Sign in as owner and see the 5-year TCO comparison in the live costing module, or as worker and log the enterprise data. It is a working system, not a screenshot.