Openherd

What Openherd does

Openherd (legal entity: Alpaca Elite LLC) is a US-based, bootstrapped cloud SaaS platform founded in 2009 by Adam Thompson and Joe Preston that combines a national livestock marketplace, herd management software, and farm website hosting for family farms and small livestock operations in the United States and Canada. The platform supports more than 36 livestock species — led by alpacas (8,335 active listings), followed by goats, sheep, swine, yak, cattle, horses, llamas, dogs, and poultry — and provides animal listing tools, encrypted cloud-based health-record management with batch entry and Excel export, an auction engine with proxy bidding and sniper protection, and hosted farm websites with SSL, SEO, Google Analytics, and Facebook Messenger integrations.

The company monetizes through a five-tier subscription model: a free Herd Health tier with unlimited herd records, Marketplace at $14.95/month for unlimited animal listings, Essentials at $24.95/month with website hosting and one boosted listing, Business at $34.95/month with an online store (PayPal) and event-booking app, and Commerce at $49.95/month with full ecommerce including Square payments, inventory, shipping, tax, and gift cards. Supplemental revenue is generated from non-expiring advertising credits (boosted listings, inline display ads), domain registration, professional email accounts, and one-time concierge services for website setup, content migration, and marketing coaching. Distribution is fully self-serve and product-led, with US-based phone and email support and no sales team in the funnel.

Recent strategic activity includes the merger of competing niche marketplaces Goatzz and Yakzz into Openherd (consolidating traffic into dedicated species search pages), tier expansion into full ecommerce, and operations across the US and Canada. The company claims 10,000+ farms served and 8,502+ active animal listings, but is privately held, founder-owned, has no disclosed external funding, and operates with an 11–50 person team out of Curtisville, Pennsylvania. The customer base is overwhelmingly long-tail SMB farms — testimonials and named users come almost exclusively from small alpaca, goat, and multi-species breeders — implying low concentration risk but tight unit economics and a structural ceiling on per-account revenue.

Name

Openherd

Legal name

Alpaca Elite LLC

Website

https://openherd.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Openherd is a US-based SaaS and marketplace platform that lets family farms list livestock across 36+ species, manage herd health records, and host farm websites with ecommerce. Founded in 2009, it serves small livestock operations across the United States and Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Livestock Marketplace and Farm Management SaaS

NAICS

Support Activities for Animal Production (115210), Support Activities for Animal Production (11521), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Livestock Precision Monitoring Software (Herd/Flock Analytics, Health Alerts) (AFAAAFAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Livestock Identification, Traceability & Recordkeeping Services (Tagging, RFID) (AFAEALAF)

Keywords

• Livestock marketplace
• Farm website hosting
• Herd management software
• Online livestock auctions
• Farm ecommerce platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Curtisville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans: Monthly recurring subscription plans (Herd Health, Marketplace, Essentials, Business, Commerce) with tiered pricing. No contract required; cancel anytime. Monthly billing with 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time subscribers.
2. Advertising Credits: Boosted/promoted listings and display ads purchased with credit packs. Credits never expire as long as user logs in at least once per year. Bulk discounts available for larger credit packs.
3. Domain Registration: Annual registration fees for new or transferred domains for farm websites.
4. Email Accounts: Professional email accounts (e.g., [email protected]) available as additional paid service per month.
5. Concierge Services: Website setup, branding customization, content migration, animal data upload, and marketing coaching services sold as one-time purchases or packages.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Openherd is a cloud-based SaaS platform that combines a national livestock marketplace, herd health record management, and farm website hosting into a single system for family farms. It enables livestock owners to create professional animal listings, manage breeding and health records, sell animals via fixed-price listings or online auctions, and host ecommerce-enabled farm websites. It also offers advertising (boosted listings and display ads), professional email accounts, and concierge website setup services.

Product overview

Openherd is a unified platform for family farms offering herd management, livestock marketplace listing, and website hosting services. The core products include: (1) Herd Health - free herd management with unlimited animal records and health tracking; (2) Marketplace - $14.95/month unlimited animal listings; (3) Website plans (Essentials $24.95, Business $34.95, Commerce $49.95) providing farm website hosting with ecommerce, event booking, and payment processing. Additional services include Boosted Listings, Display Ads, Concierge Services, and Email Accounts. Goatzz and Yakzz have merged with Openherd into one dynamic marketplace. All services are managed from one place with US-based customer support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Herd Health Free-tier standalone herd management offering unlimited animal records, unlimited secure health records, batch entries with pre-loaded drug and procedure lists, custom animal groups, printable health reports, and pay-as-you-go access to marketplace listings for family farm operators.
• Marketplace Subscription $14.95/month subscription providing unlimited animal listings on the Openherd.com Marketplace, a farm profile with sales lists, albums, pages, blogs, and articles, plus access to all Herd Health features for farm owners across the US and Canada.
• Farm Website Hosting Professional farm website hosting with free responsive designs, SSL certificates, custom domain connection, unlimited pages, SEO optimization, Google Analytics integration, and a pre-installed Facebook Messenger widget for independent family farms and small livestock operations.
• Boosted Listings Advertising Pay-as-you-go advertising product that promotes selected animal listings to the top of Openherd.com marketplace search results based on relevance to buyer queries, sold in volume-discounted credit packs for farms and livestock sellers.
• Display Ads Credit-based custom display advertising including 1x1 display ads and inline display ads on the Openherd platform, supporting custom graphics, category selection, and external website links for farm product and service advertisers.
• Openherd Auctions Online livestock auction venue supporting fixed-price Buy It Now and auction-style bidding with proxy bidding, sniper protection (2-minute extension on late bids), anonymous bidder messaging, and integrated advertising for farm sellers across the Openherd marketplace.
• Concierge Services One-time professional services for farm customers including Website Setup, Branding Customization, Content Migration, Animal Data Upload, and Website Coaching (1-hour and 3-hour packages) for marketing support.
• Email Accounts Professional email accounts (e.g., [email protected]) available as monthly add-ons with POP3/IMAP/Webmail access, 5GB storage, and spam/virus protection for farm subscribers on Business and Commerce plans.
• Domain Registration Annual registration of new or transferred domain names for farm websites hosted on Openherd, billed as an annual subscription.

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• CattleMax: Specialized livestock record-keeping SaaS for cattle operations; competes most directly with Openherd's My Herd Health record module and serves an overlapping SMB rancher customer base.
• Farmbrite: Farm management SaaS offering herd/livestock records, farm planning, ecommerce, and website-like farmer profiles—directly overlapping Openherd's herd management and online store modules for small farms.
• AgriWebb: Farm management software with livestock and pasture management, built for ranchers and family farms—a comparable SaaS-only herd/farm record platform, though typically oriented to larger grazing operations.
• HorseClicks: Horse listing marketplace with farm profile pages and ad upgrades—very similar marketplace + boosted listing monetization mechanics to Openherd, within the equine niche.
• DreamHorse.com: Long-standing online horse classifieds and marketplace with farm websites—analogous to Openherd in model (marketplace + farm website + breed-specific community) but specialized in equine.

Regional players

• Local Harvest: US-focused directory and marketplace connecting consumers to small farms for farm products and CSA sign-ups—overlaps with Openherd's farm-products ecommerce and agritourism direction more than its livestock core.

Emerging players

• Tractor Zoom: Online equipment marketplace and data platform for agricultural assets; comparable marketplace model and auction dynamics to Openherd, though focused on farm equipment rather than livestock.

Others

• Mighty Networks: Community-led SaaS platform often used by niche farming and breeder communities for membership sites and paid communities—an adjacent ecosystem play that could host livestock-breeder communities as an alternative to Openherd.

Broad incumbents

• Homestead: Small-business website builder owned by Endurance/Hsiao with templated site options used by farms—a general substitute for Openherd's farm website module without livestock-specific integrations.
• Wix: General-purpose website builder widely used by farms and ranches as a substitute for Openherd's farm website module; offers templates, ecommerce, and SEO but lacks native herd records and livestock marketplace liquidity.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/openherd
• Xx.com/openherd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Openherd