All products › Side by side
Farmers Business Network vs Sentera FieldAgent
Both rows from the comparison table, set side by side. Nothing here is a recommendation; the facts are the vendors' own public statements, cited on each product page.
Capabilities
Farmers Business Network describes 5 of 10 capabilities (1 partial); Sentera FieldAgent describes 2 (1 partial). They differ on ai assistant, grain marketing, field maps & agronomy, inputs, weather, equipment data, elevator / buyer connection. Both describe mobile app.
| Capability | Farmers Business Network | Sentera FieldAgent |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant | ● Yes | ○ No |
| Accounting | ○ No | ○ No |
| Grain marketing | ● Yes | ○ No |
| Field maps & agronomy | ◐ Partial | ● Yes |
| Inputs | ● Yes | ○ No |
| Labor & staff | ○ No | ○ No |
| Weather | ? Unverified | ○ No |
| Equipment data | ? Unverified | ◐ Partial |
| Elevator / buyer connection | ● Yes | ○ No |
| Mobile app | ● Yes | ● Yes |
Farmers Business Network: Norm is FBN's AI advisor for agronomy/farm-management questions (FBN calls it a proprietary LLM; site warns 'Norm can make mistakes'). FBN Direct sells crop protection, fertilizer, seed, animal health, feed and supplies direct-to-farm. FBN Crop Marketing lets members 'review local bids, manage contracts, scale tickets, and even receive payments' with grain buyers. FBN Finance offers land loans, operating lines 'of up to $5 million', equipment loans. Agronomy analytics are benchmarking/seed-performance insights from member data rather than a full field-mapping tool.
Sentera FieldAgent: FieldAgent processes drone, satellite and ground imagery for stand count, canopy cover, tassel count, NDVI/NDRE/VARI crop health, elevation, zone analytics and weed pressure; includes drone flight planning and ground scouting. Integrations named: John Deere Operations Center and Climate FieldView ('keeping data in sync'); Enterprise tier adds ERP/GIS/R&D API integrations. SMARTSCRIPT Weeds generates drone-based weed prescriptions (sold to farmers and to retail/consultants). Analytics lean toward hybrid seed production and research plots as well as grower scouting.
Price, data and ownership
| Farmers Business Network | Sentera FieldAgent | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Farmer's Business Network, Inc. | Sentera, Inc. |
| Category | input purchasing | field maps-agronomy |
| What the AI does | Generic assistant — Norm answers agronomy and farm-management questions; FBN's pages do not state that it reads a member's own records. | None |
| Pricing model | Free | Subscription |
| Published price | 'Membership is free.' 'Fees may apply for certain product and service offerings other than FBN membership.' (fbn.com, accessed 2026-10-25). Norm pricing not published. | Annual subscription: Collaborator $99; Scout (500 GB) $499; Advisor (1,000 GB) $999; Advanced (2,000 GB) $1,499; add-ons: +500 GB storage $100, male/female stand counts unlimited $1,999, research plot trial package $4,999; Enterprise and SMARTSCRIPT Weeds contact sales (sentera.com/fieldagent, accessed 2026-10-25) |
| Your data | FBN states 'all data provided to FBN always remains the data of the farmer contributing it' and 'FBN has never — and will never — sell member data', nor share it with seed or input companies; member data is anonymized and used in aggregated analytics. | Sentera's website privacy policy covers personal information only ('We do not sell your personal information' in its Nevada section) and says customer-data terms are in the separate Sentera Software/Application License Agreement, which was not retrievable; farm-data ownership statement not published on the privacy page. |
| Crops and regions | US and Canada; 117,000+ member farms, 187M acres (July 2025 release); row crops and livestock | Row crops (corn imagery/tassel and male/female stand counts), seed production, research; US-based with global research customers |
| Farm size | Not published | Not published |
| Ownership | Private, investor-backed — VC-backed private | Private, investor-backed — VC-backed private |
| What else they sell | Ag retailer / fintech — part of ag retailer/fintech | Farm software co. — farm-software-only company |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA (US) | St. Paul, MN (US) |
| Built and supported | US-built; US and Canada support (online, phone, on-farm per fbn.com) | US-built, US support (1-844-SENTERA) |
| Founded | 2014 | 2014 |
| Status | Active. July 2025 raise tied to expanding Norm AI into crop marketing, finance and risk management. | Active. Company moved HQ from Richfield, MN to St. Paul (Midway) after 2021. Sells drones, multispectral sensors and FieldAgent software directly and through distribution partners. |
| Confidence | partially verified | partially verified |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-25 |
Prices are quoted as shown on the vendor page on the review date and change often. Sources with access dates are on each product page: Farmers Business Network and Sentera FieldAgent. Request a correction.