If you are searching for "CropsBook vs Bushel Farm," you probably have a simple goal: you want a free app that helps you keep track of what you planted, where, and how it did. Both apps cost nothing, both live on your phone, and both call themselves farm tools. On the surface they look interchangeable. They are not.
The real question is not which app is "better." It is which app was designed for the kind of farming you actually do. Bushel Farm is aimed at commodity grain operations, with large fields, big acreage, and crops sold by the bushel. CropsBook is built for vegetable gardeners, market gardeners, and small-scale crop growers who manage dozens of varieties on a few acres or less. This comparison walks through both honestly, including where Bushel Farm is the stronger pick.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | CropsBook | Bushel Farm |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Works Offline | Yes, 100% offline | Check current app details; farm apps built around field and grain data often lean on connectivity |
| Account Required | No | Typically yes, as with most farm management apps |
| Best For | Solo operators, market gardeners, small vegetable and crop farms | Commodity grain farming and larger field-crop operations |
| Platform | iPhone (App Store) | Mobile app; check the store listing for your device |
| Key Features | Crop and bed tracking, planting and harvest records, simple notes, built for many small plantings | Farm management geared toward field crops and grain |
| Data Privacy | Data stays on your device, no account | Account-based; review the app's privacy policy for how data is stored and shared |
A note on that table: we know CropsBook inside and out, and we only have Bushel Farm's public description to go on. Where we are not certain of a detail, we say so rather than guess. Check the App Store listing for the latest on Bushel Farm before you decide.
Pricing
This is the easy section, because there is no real contest on sticker price. Bushel Farm is free. CropsBook is free. Neither one charges you a monthly fee to log your crops, and neither one asks for a credit card to get started.
That matters more than it sounds. Many farm management tools in this space charge anywhere from a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars a year, often scaling by acreage. For a market gardener working a quarter acre and clearing a modest profit, a $30 monthly subscription is real money. Both of these apps remove that barrier.
So if price alone is your filter, you can stop worrying. The differences show up in what you get for the free price: how well the app fits your crops, whether it works in a field with no signal, and whether you have to hand over an account to use it.
| Time Period | CropsBook | Bushel Farm |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $0 |
| 1 Year | $0 | $0 |
| 3 Years | $0 | $0 |
One honest caveat: "free" can change. Apps sometimes add paid tiers later. CropsBook is free today with no account required, and because your data lives on your device, you are never locked into anything. That is a useful kind of insurance regardless of which app you choose.
Save money. Try CropsBook free today. Download CropsBook on the App Store — no account needed, works 100% offline.
Features
Features are where the two apps diverge, and where the "who is this built for" question becomes concrete.
What Bushel Farm does well. Bushel Farm is a farm management app, and its design reflects the world of commodity grain: large fields, a handful of crops (corn, soybeans, wheat), and thinking in terms of acres, yields per acre, and bushels. If you farm a few hundred acres of row crops, that vocabulary matches your reality. It is also free, which is a genuine strength for a tool aimed at working farms. A grain farmer who wants a lightweight, no-cost way to organize field-level information will find the framing familiar.
Where it falls short for market gardens. The same focus becomes a weakness if you grow vegetables. A market garden might have 40 to 80 different crops in a season, planted in succession every couple of weeks, in beds measured in feet rather than fields measured in acres. You are tracking lettuce planted on three different dates, a bed that was garlic last fall and will be tomatoes next spring, and a harvest that is sold by the bunch, pound, or flat. Software built around bushels and field-scale grain does not map neatly onto that. You end up bending your records to fit the app instead of the other way around.
What CropsBook does well. CropsBook is built around how small-scale growers actually work:
- Many crops, small plantings. Track dozens of varieties without the app feeling like it was designed for a single cash crop.
- Planting and harvest records. Log what went in the ground, when, and what came out, so you can answer "how did the Sungold tomatoes do compared to last year?" without digging through notebooks.
- Rotation-friendly history. Because your records stay organized by crop and location, planning crop rotation becomes a lookup instead of a memory test.
- Simple notes. Jot down pest pressure, weather, or what you would change next season while it is fresh.
- Low friction. Open it, log it, close it. No setup wizard asking for your acreage, field boundaries, or farm ID.
Good records also feed directly into better decisions. If you are working out how much to plant or deciding how to price at the farmers market, last season's actual numbers beat any guess. That is the whole point of keeping farm records as a vegetable grower.
Where CropsBook is not the answer. To be fair, CropsBook is deliberately simple. It is not trying to be a precision-agriculture platform with satellite imagery, equipment telematics, or grain marketing and contract tools. If those are what you need, CropsBook will feel too light, and that is by design.
Want to try CropsBook for free? Download CropsBook on the App Store — no subscription required.
Offline & Privacy
This is CropsBook's clearest advantage, and it comes down to a design decision: CropsBook works 100% offline and does not require an account.
Think about where you actually record things. You are standing at the end of a bed, in a high tunnel, or at the back of a field where the cell signal drops to one bar or none. You are hauling a harvest crate and want to log the weight right now, not later when you have Wi-Fi and have forgotten the number. An app that works fully offline means the record gets made in the moment, accurately, every time. There is no "waiting to sync" state, no spinner, and no lost entry because the connection dropped.
The no-account part is just as important:
- Faster start. You download it and begin logging. No email verification, no password, no onboarding survey.
- Your data stays yours. Because there is no account and no required cloud sync, your planting and harvest records live on your device rather than on someone else's server.
- Nothing to lose access to. If a company changes its terms, shuts down a service, or locks features behind a login, an offline, accountless app keeps working.
- Less to worry about. No account means no password reset, no breached credentials, and no marketing emails.
Farm management apps built around accounts and cloud storage have their place. They make sharing data across multiple users and devices easier, and that is a real benefit for larger teams. But for a solo operator or a small crew, that convenience often comes with trade-offs you do not need. Check Bushel Farm's current privacy policy and offline behavior directly so you know exactly how your data is handled.
One practical tip that applies to any app: back up your records. Whatever tool you use, make sure you know how your data is stored and what happens if you lose or replace your phone.
Who Should Use Bushel Farm
Bushel Farm is a reasonable choice if:
- You farm commodity grain. If your operation is corn, soybeans, wheat, or similar crops measured in bushels per acre, Bushel Farm speaks your language.
- You run larger acreage. Field-level thinking suits operations where the unit of management is a whole field, not a bed.
- You want a free farm management tool for field crops. Free is free, and for a grain operation that just wants an organized place for field information, that is a fair deal.
- You are comfortable with account-based apps. If you value having your data in the cloud and are fine creating an account, that trade-off may suit you.
If that describes you, there is no need to force a market-garden app onto a grain operation. Pick the tool that matches the work.
Who Should Use CropsBook
CropsBook is the better fit if:
- You are a market gardener or small vegetable farmer. Many varieties, small beds, succession plantings, and sales by the pound or bunch are exactly the use case it was designed for.
- You work alone or with a very small team. A solo operator does not need user roles, permissions, or team dashboards. You need a fast way to log and review.
- You often work without a signal. Fields, greenhouses, hoop houses, and rural properties are notorious for dead zones. Fully offline means it always works.
- You do not want another account. If you are tired of creating logins for every tool in your life, no account is a genuine relief.
- You care about keeping your data private. Records stay on your device.
- You are just starting out. If you are planning your first market garden, a simple free tool beats a complicated one you will abandon in March.
It is also worth noting that many small farms do more than grow vegetables. If you keep animals as part of your operation, our sister app Barnsbook covers livestock, ranching, and barn management. And if bees are part of your pollination plan or your honey sales, HiveBook handles beekeeping, apiary management, and honey production. Each app stays focused on one kind of work, so none of them turns into a bloated all-in-one tool.
The Bottom Line
Bushel Farm and CropsBook are both free, so this decision is not about money. It is about fit.
If you farm commodity grain on large acreage, Bushel Farm was built with you in mind, and it is a sensible free option. We would not tell a corn and soybean farmer to track their fields in a vegetable-focused app.
If you grow vegetables, run a market garden, or manage a small crop operation on your own, CropsBook is the stronger match. It is built around the way small growers actually work: lots of different crops, frequent succession plantings, and records you can pull up next season to make better decisions. It works completely offline, requires no account, and keeps your data on your device.
The best test is also the cheapest. Both apps are free, so try the one that sounds right and log a week of real work in it. If it fits how you think and move through the garden, keep it. If it feels like you are translating your farm into someone else's vocabulary, that is your answer.
Ready to switch? Download CropsBook on the App Store — it takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.