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Farmhand comparison

Looking for a Farmhand alternative?

$29/mo flat. $1 on standard orders, 2.5% on subscriptions and made-to-order.

Lower base price, lower percentage, standard Stripe processing.

30-day free trial, no credit card, no sales call.

$3,948

per year

AcreTrail Standard

$5,010

per year

Farmhand Business

200-member dairy herd share at $10K/mo. About $1,062 less per year on AcreTrail.

Both manage farm orders and subscriptions. Farmhand is a managed service with virtual assistants and done-for-you marketing. AcreTrail is self-serve software with a flat fee. Here's an honest look at where each one fits.

Last updated: May 21, 2026

The short version

Choose AcreTrail if

  • You want a lower base price and lower percentage on subscription revenue
  • You'd rather pay $1 flat per individual order than a percentage of every sale
  • You want a custom-branded mobile app in the App Store and Play Store, not just a branded website
  • You're a self-serve operator who'd rather handle member service yourself
  • You also run made-to-order or custom cuts and want them in the same tool
  • You want a free trial without scheduling a sales call

Choose Farmhand if

  • You want a virtual assistant team handling member service (skips, holds, billing questions, failed payments)
  • You want done-for-you marketing (campaigns, newsletters, flyers, social graphics)
  • You want 1:1 business coaching from someone who's worked with other farms
  • You need first-class bottle deposit tracking for a glass-bottle dairy
  • You're large enough that the higher base price + service fee is worth the hand-holding

At a glance

Where the two platforms overlap, where they don't.

Feature AcreTrail Farmhand
Monthly base price $9 to $59 $80 to $200
Service fee on individual / one-time orders $1 flat per order 3% of every sale
Service fee on subscriptions / herd share 2.5% of subscription revenue 3% of subscription revenue
Credit card processing Stripe standard (2.9% + $0.30) 4% (1% above Stripe)
Free trial ✓ 30 days, no credit card Demo / sales call required
Customer-facing branded mobile app (App Store + Play Store) ✓ Pro plan Branded website only
Herd share program management
Subscriptions with vacation holds + skips
Made-to-order / custom cuts queue Not advertised
Bottle deposit tracking Workaround via Stripe credits ✓ Built-in
Delivery route optimization Basic ✓ Multi-driver
Proof of delivery (GPS photos) No
SMS / push broadcasts ✓ Included
Virtual assistant handling member service No ✓ 7 days a week
Done-for-you marketing campaigns No
1:1 business coaching No ✓ Pro tier
Setup fee None None
Annual contract No, monthly No, monthly

Pricing

The math, with a real-sized farm example.

AcreTrail per individual order

$1 flat

Farmhand per sale

3% + 4% card

AcreTrail

Monthly subscription, no setup fee, no annual commitment.

  • Starter, up to 100 customers $9/mo
  • Standard, unlimited customers, custom domain $29/mo
  • Pro, branded App Store app, analytics $59/mo

Plus $1 flat per standard catalog order, 2.5% on herd share subscriptions and made-to-order purchases. Standard Stripe processing applies on top (2.9% + $0.30).

All plans include a free 30-day trial with no credit card.

Farmhand

Monthly, plus a service fee and card processing markup.

  • Business, 2 campaigns / week, 3-page site $80/mo
    + 3% of sales
  • Business Pro, unlimited campaigns, coaching $200/mo
    + 3% of sales

Plus 4% on credit card payments (1% above standard Stripe), 1% on ACH, 0% offline.

No setup fee, no contract. Confirm current pricing at farmhand.partners/pricing.

Worked example: 200-member dairy herd share

$10,000/mo in herd share subscriptions, plus 50 ad hoc orders at $25 average = $1,250/mo. Stripe processing applies on both platforms, so we leave it out of the comparison.

Platform Base Subscription fee Ad hoc fee Per month Per year
AcreTrail Standard $29 $250 (2.5% × $10K) $50 ($1 × 50) $329 $3,948
AcreTrail Pro $59 $250 $50 $359 $4,308
Farmhand Business $80 $300 (3% × $10K) $38 (3% × $1,250) $418 $5,010
Farmhand Business Pro $200 $300 $38 $538 $6,450

At this scale, AcreTrail Standard runs about $1,062/year less than Farmhand Business. The gap grows on Farmhand's Business Pro tier ($2,142/year less on AcreTrail Pro) and on credit card sales (Farmhand's 4% vs Stripe's 2.9%). It narrows if you'd actually use Farmhand's virtual assistant and marketing services, since AcreTrail doesn't include those.

Where Farmhand is the better fit

Farmhand isn't just software, it's a managed-service relationship. If those services are what you actually want, the higher price tag becomes reasonable. Specifically:

If any of those would actually change your week-to-week work, Farmhand earns its price. We'd rather tell you that than pretend we cover everything.

Where AcreTrail is the better fit

Switching from Farmhand to AcreTrail

Most farms can move over in a weekend. We import your member list, product catalog, and active subscription cadences from a CSV export. You set your delivery schedule and pickup locations, and your customers get an invite to the new app.

Common reasons farms move:

Adam Nelson, AcreTrail founder, in southwest Washington

Why this exists

I'm a software developer in southwest Washington. I'm also a customer of a dairy farm here that runs local deliveries. They were drowning in text-message orders, so I built AcreTrail.

Now I run it for them, and for any other small farm that wants a flat-fee tool that doesn't punish growth. If you sign up, you'll talk to me, not a support queue.

Adam Nelson, founder · Coral Cove Software, LLC

Want to talk before signing up? Book 15 min → or text me at (360) 207-5673.

Common questions

My members are used to a virtual assistant. What happens when I switch? +

Most member requests (skip a week, change delivery date, update payment method) are self-serve in AcreTrail, so the volume of questions hitting you directly is usually lower than expected. The ones that do reach you (refunds, custom arrangements, questions about your products) are conversations a virtual assistant would have had to route to you anyway. If you'd really rather not handle any of it, Farmhand's the better fit.

Do my subscription members carry over without re-signing up? +

Their account information transfers from the CSV export, but they'll create a new password and re-authorize payment in AcreTrail (passwords and saved cards can't legally move across platforms). We'll walk through the member-side messaging with you so it feels smooth on their end.

Do you have marketing tools at all? +

We have SMS and push broadcasts (announce a new product, a delivery delay, a sale) and email transactional messaging. We don't do done-for-you campaign creation, flyer design, or social graphics. If marketing service hours are why you'd pay for Farmhand, that's a real reason to stay with them.

What about bottle deposits? +

Not a first-class feature today. Farms that need to track deposits typically price the bottle into the product and issue Stripe credits when bottles come back. Farmhand has a built-in deposit ledger; if that's mission-critical, they're the better tool.

Why are your fees lower? What am I giving up? +

The honest answer: AcreTrail is software, not a managed service. There's no virtual assistant team to fund, no marketing studio, no business coaches. If you don't want those services, you shouldn't pay for them. If you do, Farmhand is a fair price for what they deliver.

Start your free trial

Tell us about your farm and we'll set up your 30-day free trial. No credit card. Live in 24 hours.

Want to explore first? Try our live demo

Or email me directly at contact@acretrail.com

Have questions?

Book a 15-minute call →

Text us at (360) 207-5673

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