FarmKeep Alternative: Why I Built Cattly After Hitting Every Limit on FarmKeep's Free Plan

I’m Shehroz Afzal, and I run Cattly. So yes, I have a bias here. I’ll be upfront about that.

But I also spent months testing FarmKeep and half a dozen other farm management apps before building our own. I signed up for the free plan, hit the walls, upgraded, tested the premium features, and kept notes on what worked and what drove me crazy. This post comes from that experience.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already using FarmKeep — or you’re considering it — and something doesn’t feel right. Maybe you just got the “upgrade to premium” prompt for the third time this week. Maybe you tried adding a second farm member and realized you can’t. Maybe your herd grew past 50 head and the free plan just… stopped working for you.

I get it. Let me walk you through what I found, what FarmKeep does well, where it falls short, and why we built Cattly to fill those gaps.

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FarmKeep vs Cattly: the full comparison

Before I get into the specifics, here’s the side-by-side. No spin, just the facts from both platforms as of March 2026.

Feature	FarmKeep Free	FarmKeep Premium ($9.99/mo)	Cattly (Free)
Animals	50 max	Unlimited	Unlimited
Farm members	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Farms	1	Multiple	Unlimited
Production types	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Breeding groups	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Expense categories	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Guests (view-only)	None	Unlimited	Unlimited
Task management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Breeding tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes (AI-enhanced coming soon)
Health records	Yes	Yes	Yes + reminders
Financial tracking	Limited	Full	Full
Offline mobile app	Yes	Yes	In development (coming soon)
Web/desktop access	Waitlist	Waitlist	Yes, now
AI predictions	No	No	Coming soon
Land mapping	No	Yes	No
RFID/EID support	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Coming soon
Annual cost	$0 (limited)	$95.99-$119.88	$0 (full)

A few things jump out. FarmKeep has a genuinely useful land mapping feature on premium that we haven’t built yet. Credit where it’s due; their satellite pasture view is nice for rotation planning. But for the core job — tracking animals, managing breeding, keeping health records, running finances — Cattly gives you everything FarmKeep charges $10/month for, at no cost.

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The 50-animal ceiling (and why it matters more than you think)

Here’s what happens on FarmKeep’s free plan. You sign up, start entering your animals, get everything set up. It feels great. The app is well-designed, the interface is clean, and you’re thinking “this is exactly what I needed.”

Then you hit 50 head.

If you’re a backyard homesteader with 12 chickens and a few goats, 50 animals might be fine. But if you’re running even a small cow-calf operation — 30 cows, their calves, a couple bulls — you’re already over that limit before calving season wraps up.

That’s the ceiling where FarmKeep says “time to pay.” And $9.99/month doesn’t sound like much until you realize it’s $120/year for something Cattly does for free.

I ran into this exact problem on my own operation. We had 68 head when I started testing FarmKeep, and I couldn’t even finish entering my herd on the free plan. That frustration was one of the reasons I started building Cattly in the first place.

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The single-member problem nobody talks about

This one is sneaky. FarmKeep Free allows exactly one farm member. You. That’s it.

If your spouse helps with feeding, if your kid does chores after school, if you hire a part-time hand during calving season — none of them can access your farm records. They can’t log a treatment, can’t check vaccination schedules, can’t update a breeding record. They’re locked out unless you upgrade to premium.

For a family operation, this is a dealbreaker. Farming isn’t a solo job. My wife catches things I miss. My neighbor helps during calving. The vet tech needs to see treatment history. A farm management app that only lets one person use it isn’t really managing your farm — it’s managing your personal notebook with a nicer interface.

Cattly lets you add unlimited team members on the free plan. Everyone who touches your operation can access and update records. I feel strongly about this because farming works on trust and shared labor, and software shouldn’t get in the way of that.

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FarmKeep is mobile-only. Cattly is web-first (with a mobile app on the way).

FarmKeep is currently mobile-only. Their website says desktop/web access is “launching soon,” but as of March 2026, you’re working on your phone. Period.

That works for quick field entries. But there are times when you want a real screen. Sorting through 200 animal records during tax season. Building a detailed breeding plan for next year. Exporting financial data for your accountant. Running reports across multiple months. Doing that on a 6-inch screen is painful.

Cattly took the opposite approach. We built the full web platform first — it works right now from your laptop, desktop, or tablet. Our mobile app is in active development and will launch soon with full offline capability. So yes, FarmKeep has a mobile app advantage today. But we have the web advantage today, and our mobile app is coming. FarmKeep’s web access? Still on a waitlist.

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Where FarmKeep actually does better (being honest here)

I said I’d be fair, and I mean it.

Land mapping and pasture management. FarmKeep has a satellite-view mapping feature where you can outline your pastures, pens, and feeding areas. You can track pasture rotations and plan land usage. We don’t have that in Cattly yet. If pasture rotation tracking is your top priority, FarmKeep has an edge here.

Species breadth. FarmKeep supports over 1,200 species and breeds with species-specific breeding features — everything from cattle to parrots to ostriches. They’ve built breed-specific gestation calculators and breeding workflows for each. Cattly is built primarily around cattle and livestock operations. If you’re running a mixed operation with exotic birds and alpacas alongside your cattle, FarmKeep covers more ground.

Community maturity. FarmKeep launched in 2020. They’ve had six years to build a user base, a content library, and a community. Their Discord is active. Their blog has hundreds of farming guides. Cattly launched in 2026. Our community is growing fast, but it’s newer. That’s just reality.

I’m not going to pretend these things don’t matter. They do. But for most cattle and livestock operations, the trade-offs favor Cattly pretty heavily, especially when you factor in cost.

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The AI gap (this is where it gets interesting)

FarmKeep doesn’t mention AI anywhere on their website. No predictive breeding analytics. No automated health risk detection. No AI-driven insights about your herd’s performance.

That’s fine — plenty of farmers don’t care about AI. They want a clean digital notebook and that’s enough.

But if you’ve ever wondered when your cow is most likely to conceive, or which animals are trending toward a health issue before symptoms show, or what your feed-to-gain ratio actually means for your bottom line — that’s where AI stops being a buzzword and starts being useful.

We’re building AI breeding predictions and health risk alerts into Cattly right now. They’re not live yet, but they’re in active development and will roll out as part of the free plan. The goal is to identify optimal breeding windows, flag weight loss trends and missed vaccination intervals, and surface patterns you’d otherwise miss until they become expensive problems.

Neither platform has AI today. But only one of them is building it, and it won’t cost you a dollar when it ships.

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The pricing math over 3 years

Let’s get specific about what FarmKeep Premium costs versus Cattly over time.

Period	FarmKeep Premium	Cattly
Monthly	$9.99	$0
Year 1	$95.99 (annual) or $119.88 (monthly)	$0
Year 2	$191.98 - $239.76	$0
Year 3	$287.97 - $359.64	$0
5-year total	$479.95 - $599.40	$0

That’s $300-$600 over five years for FarmKeep Premium. Not earth-shattering money, but it’s real. That’s a couple rolls of fencing wire. A decent mineral feeder. Vet bills for a sick calf.

And here’s the thing that bugs me most: FarmKeep’s free plan is so limited that you basically have to upgrade if you’re running anything beyond a backyard hobby. The free tier feels like a demo. It gets you in the door, then the limits push you toward $10/month pretty fast.

Cattly’s free plan is the whole product. No gotcha. No “upgrade to unlock breeding groups.” No cap at 50 animals. What you see is what you get, and what you get is everything.

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Switching from FarmKeep to Cattly (it’s not complicated)

If you’re already on FarmKeep and want to try Cattly, here’s the migration path:

1. Export your data from FarmKeep — Download your animal records, breeding data, and financial records as CSV files
2. Sign up for Cattly — Takes about two minutes, no credit card needed
3. Import your data — Use Cattly’s bulk import tool to bring in your animal records
4. Verify the critical stuff — Check your breeding dates, animals currently under treatment, upcoming due dates
5. Run both apps for a week — Enter new data in both systems until you’re confident everything transferred correctly
6. Go full Cattly — Once you trust the data, make the switch

Most users complete this in under an hour, not counting the parallel-run period. And since Cattly is free, there’s zero financial risk in trying it alongside FarmKeep.

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Who should stick with FarmKeep

I’ll be straight with you. FarmKeep might be the better choice if:

• You run a mixed-species hobby farm with exotic animals (parrots, emus, alpacas) and need breed-specific breeding calculators for all of them
• Pasture mapping with satellite views is a must-have for your operation
• You’re already deep into FarmKeep’s ecosystem with years of data and the $10/month doesn’t bother you
• You prefer a mobile-only workflow and don’t need web/desktop access

For everyone else — especially cattle ranchers, cow-calf operations, beef and dairy farms, goat and sheep operations — Cattly gives you more functionality at no cost.

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Who should switch to Cattly

You should seriously look at Cattly if:

• You hit FarmKeep’s 50-animal limit and don’t want to pay $10/month for what should be free
• You need multiple team members on your farm account without paying per-user fees
• You want a full web platform now (with a mobile app coming soon)
• AI breeding predictions and health analytics on the roadmap matter to you
• You’re tired of the slow creep of “upgrade to unlock” prompts
• You’re starting fresh and want the most feature-complete free farm management software available

Try Cattly free — no credit card, no limits, no catch

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My honest take

I built Cattly because I was frustrated with the options available. FarmKeep is a solid app built by people who clearly care about farming — their team includes a retired cattle vet with 40 years of ranching experience, and that shows in the product. I respect what they’ve built.

But the 50-animal limit on free, the single-member restriction, and the lack of AI features on their roadmap — those are real gaps. We’re still building out mobile and AI on our side too, so Cattly isn’t the finished product yet either. But the core platform is live, it’s free with no limits on animals or users, and every feature we add will stay free. Charging $10/month to remove artificial limits on a digital product doesn’t sit well with me. Software should earn its price through value, not through locks.

Could my perspective be biased? Absolutely. I’m the founder of the competing product. Take everything I say with a grain of salt and test both apps yourself. FarmKeep has a free tier. Cattly has a free everything. You’ve got nothing to lose by comparing them side by side on your own operation.

The animals don’t care which app you use. They care that you’re tracking their health, managing their breeding, and keeping records that make your operation smarter. Whichever tool gets you there is the right one.

But if I had to bet on one? I’d pick the one that doesn’t charge you $120/year for features that should come standard.

Get started with Cattly for free

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I’m Shehroz Afzal, founder of Cattly. I’ve been involved in cattle operations and agricultural technology for years. The opinions in this post are my own and based on firsthand testing of both platforms. Pricing and features reflect what was available on FarmKeep.com as of March 2026. Always verify current pricing directly with any provider before making decisions.

Related reading:

• Cattle Management Software Comparison: Top 5 Compared
• Free Cattle Record Keeping App: Best Options for Ranchers
• Getting Started with Cattly
• How to Calculate Cattle Gestation and Predict Calving Dates