If you grow vegetables for market, run a small mixed farm, or manage a few raised beds as a side business, you've probably searched for software to keep it all organized. Two names that come up are Bushel Farm and CropsBook. They both help you track what happens on your land, but they were built for very different kinds of farming. Bushel Farm grew out of the world of commodity grain — corn, soybeans, wheat — where fields are measured in hundreds of acres and profitability hinges on grain contracts and yield-per-acre. CropsBook was built for the market gardener growing 40 kinds of vegetables on a few acres or less.
This comparison is honest. Bushel Farm is a genuinely capable product with real strengths, and if you farm grain it may be the better tool. But if you're a solo operator or small vegetable business, there's a good chance CropsBook fits the way you actually work. Let's break it down feature by feature so you can decide.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | CropsBook | Bushel Farm |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free (paid tiers for advanced features) |
| Works Offline | Yes, 100% offline | No, cloud-based, needs connection |
| Account Required | No | Yes |
| Best For | Market gardeners, small vegetable growers, solo operators | Commodity grain and row-crop farms |
| Platform | iOS (iPhone & iPad) | Web & mobile |
| Key Features | Crop tracking, planting records, harvest logs, notes | Field mapping, yield tracking, grain contracts, satellite imagery |
| Data Privacy | Data stays on your device | Data stored in the cloud |
Pricing
Both apps advertise a free tier, so pricing deserves a close look. Bushel Farm offers a free version that covers basic recordkeeping and field mapping. That's real value, and worth acknowledging. However, several of the features Bushel is known for — deeper analytics, advanced satellite imagery layers, and certain integrations — sit behind paid plans or are aimed at operations large enough to justify the spend. The free tier is a doorway; the full product is built for a farm with a budget line for software.
CropsBook takes a simpler approach: it's free, and it stays free. There's no premium tier waiting to upsell you, no per-acre pricing, and no subscription. You download it, and everything works. For a solo grower watching every dollar, that difference matters more than a feature checklist.
| Cost Over Time | CropsBook | Bushel Farm |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $0 free tier / paid plans vary |
| 1 Year | $0 | $0 free tier / paid plans vary |
| 3 Years | $0 | $0 free tier / paid plans vary |
The honest summary: if you only ever use Bushel's free tier, you pay nothing too. But CropsBook gives you a complete tool with no upgrade path dangling in front of you and no account tying your records to a subscription you might forget to cancel.
Save money. Try CropsBook free today. Download CropsBook on the App Store — no account needed, works 100% offline.
Features
This is where the two apps reveal their different DNA. Bushel Farm does field-level management extremely well. Its satellite imagery, field boundary mapping, and yield-per-acre analytics are built for someone managing large contiguous blocks of a single crop. If you need to know how your north 160 acres of soybeans performed versus last season, or you're tracking grain in a bin against a contract, Bushel has thought carefully about your workflow. That's genuine strength, and grain farmers value it.
CropsBook is built for the opposite problem: many crops, small spaces, constant succession. A market gardener isn't tracking one crop across 160 acres — they're tracking lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and two dozen other crops across a patchwork of beds, each on its own planting-to-harvest timeline. CropsBook lets you log plantings, record harvests, keep notes on what worked, and see your crops at a glance. It maps to the rhythm of intensive vegetable production rather than commodity acreage.
Neither is "better" in the abstract — they're aimed at different farms. Bushel's satellite maps are wasted on a half-acre of mixed vegetables; CropsBook's crop-by-crop logging would feel granular to someone farming a thousand acres of wheat. The right tool is the one built for the farm you actually run.
If you also raise animals or keep bees alongside your vegetables, it's worth knowing CropsBook has sister apps built the same way. Barnsbook handles livestock, ranching, and barn management, and HiveBook covers beekeeping, apiary tracking, and honey production. Same philosophy: free, offline, and focused on the small operator rather than the industrial farm.
Want to try CropsBook for free? Download CropsBook on the App Store — no subscription required.
Offline & Privacy
Here's where CropsBook has a clear, practical edge. It works 100% offline. Your beds are often exactly where cell signal isn't — behind a hoop house, at the back of the property, in a low spot ringed by trees. With CropsBook, that never matters. You can log a harvest, check a planting date, or jot a note whether or not you have a bar of signal. When you're standing in the dirt with muddy hands, the last thing you want is a spinning loading icon.
Bushel Farm, like most cloud-based farm platforms, expects a connection. Its satellite imagery and syncing features depend on it. That's a reasonable trade-off for a data-heavy platform, but it does mean the field is sometimes the worst place to use it.
Privacy is the other half of this. Because CropsBook stores your records on your own device, your planting data, harvest numbers, and notes never leave your phone. There's no account, no cloud database, no company holding your farm's operational history. For growers who'd rather not have their yield data sitting on someone else's server, that's a real advantage.
The best farm record is the one you'll actually keep. An app that works in the field, with no login and no signal required, gets used. One that fights you gets abandoned by July.
Who Should Use Bushel Farm
Be honest with yourself about your operation. Bushel Farm is the stronger choice if:
- You grow commodity grain or row crops — corn, soybeans, wheat — at meaningful scale.
- You manage large, contiguous fields where satellite imagery and per-acre yield analytics genuinely inform decisions.
- You deal with grain contracts, storage, and marketing and want those tracked alongside production.
- You have reliable connectivity across your operation and a budget for farm software.
If that describes you, Bushel Farm was built for your world, and you'll get value from features CropsBook simply doesn't offer. There's no shame in using the tool designed for your kind of farming.
Who Should Use CropsBook
CropsBook is the better fit if:
- You grow a diverse mix of vegetables rather than one commodity crop.
- You farm on a small footprint — a market garden, a few acres, raised beds, or a large home plot you treat like a business.
- You run the operation solo or with a small team and want something simple you'll actually keep up with.
- You want to log plantings and harvests in the field, offline, without an account.
- You'd rather keep your farm data private and on your own device.
- You don't want a subscription or an upgrade nag — you want a free tool that stays free.
This is the sweet spot. CropsBook was made for the grower who's outside more than they're at a desk, juggling a dozen crops on a small scale, and wants records without overhead.
The Bottom Line
Bushel Farm and CropsBook aren't really competitors so much as tools for two different kinds of farming. If you run a grain operation, Bushel's field mapping and yield analytics are worth a serious look, and its free tier is a fair place to start. But if you're a market gardener or small vegetable grower, most of what makes Bushel powerful is aimed at a farm that doesn't look like yours — and the parts you'd actually use, CropsBook does more simply, for free, offline, and without an account.
For solo operators and small businesses growing vegetables, CropsBook is the tool that matches how you work: many crops, small spaces, muddy hands, spotty signal, and a tight budget. It costs nothing, keeps your data private, and works everywhere your crops grow. That's a hard combination to beat.
Ready to switch? Download CropsBook on the App Store — it takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.