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Farmers Business Network vs Traction Ag
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); Traction Ag describes 5 (3 partial). They differ on ai assistant, accounting, grain marketing, labor & staff, weather, equipment data, elevator / buyer connection. Both describe inputs, mobile app.
| Capability | Farmers Business Network | Traction Ag |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant | ● Yes | ? Unverified |
| Accounting | ○ No | ● Yes |
| Grain marketing | ● Yes | ◐ Partial |
| Field maps & agronomy | ◐ Partial | ◐ Partial |
| Inputs | ● Yes | ● Yes |
| Labor & staff | ○ No | ● Yes |
| Weather | ? Unverified | ○ No |
| Equipment data | ? Unverified | ● Yes |
| Elevator / buyer connection | ● Yes | ◐ Partial |
| 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.
Traction Ag: Core product is cloud farm accounting: multi-entity books, bank/credit-card sync via Plaid, cash and accrual reports, Schedule F and 1099s, land agreements, invoicing, payroll via Paylocity add-on. Grain: scale tickets, load tracking and crop/grain inventory in Plus; full grain contract/position/settlement management is in the enterprise 'Advanced Farm Management' suite. Field records: tillage, planting, application and harvest records with per-field profitability; machine integrations are John Deere Operations Center and Climate FieldView (no Case IH/AGCO listed); no imagery or agronomy modeling described. Inputs: seed, chemical and fertilizer inventory and prepay tracking. Labor: payroll integration, work orders and roles/permissions (enterprise and Sept 2026 update). Buyer/retailer: bill import from Keystone Cooperative and FS Billing; no grain buyer contract feeds named. Mobile: Traction Mobile on Apple App Store and Google Play. No AI assistant feature found on public pages.
Price, data and ownership
| Farmers Business Network | Traction Ag | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Farmer's Business Network, Inc. | Traction Ag Inc. |
| Category | input purchasing | whole-farm management |
| 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. | Unverified — AI level not assessed. |
| 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. | Basic $95/month or $950/year; Plus $195/month or $1,950/year; Pro $395/month or $3,950/year (yearly billing shown as 'save 15%'); no per-acre or per-entity charges listed; free trial offered. Enterprise 'Advanced Farm Management' pricing not published. Accessed 2026-10-25 at tractionag.com/pricing-and-plans. |
| 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. | Traction's Ag Data Use Agreement (Trust Center) states 'Traction believes that you are the owner of Ag Data that originates from your farm, device, or equipment' and 'Traction will not sell or share your Ag Data to third parties without your consent'; anonymized aggregated benchmarking is on by default with an opt-out. |
| Crops and regions | US and Canada; 117,000+ member farms, 187M acres (July 2025 release); row crops and livestock | '100+ crop types' with customizable harvest units; U.S. (Midwest origin) and Australia; livestock tracking not supported per FAQ |
| Farm size | Not published | Not published |
| Ownership | Private, investor-backed — VC-backed private | Private, investor-backed — VC-backed private (vendor: 'proudly independent and owned by farm investors'; $10M Series A May 2024 led by Cooperative Ventures, a CHS–GROWMARK joint venture, with Plymouth Growth; 2022 release described it as majority employee- and farmer-owned) |
| What else they sell | Ag retailer / fintech — part of ag retailer/fintech | Farm software co. — farm-software-only company (lead investor is a venture arm of two farmer-owned cooperatives) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA (US) | Auburn, Indiana (US) |
| Built and supported | US-built; US and Canada support (online, phone, on-farm per fbn.com) | US-built ('Born in the Midwest'); US phone/live-chat/video support team (888-466-6080); also operates in Australia following the Conservis acquisition |
| Founded | 2014 | 2020 |
| Status | Active. July 2025 raise tied to expanding Norm AI into crop marketing, finance and risk management. | Active. Now the owner of both Conservis and Granular Business, marketed together as 'Advanced Farm Management'; vendor says it plans to fold that functionality into the core Traction Accounting product. Pricing page shows overlapping promotions (one dated 'expires December 19, 2025', another 'rest of 2026 free with yearly 2027 plan — expires Nov 15'). Founders not named on site; CEO Dustin Sapp named in 2024 funding coverage; team roots in Farm Works Software. |
| 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 Traction Ag. Request a correction.