BarnOps vs Stable Secretary: Which Equine Barn Management Software Fits Your Operation?

Who is Stable Secretary built for?

Stable Secretary is an established cloud-based equine management platform with strong billing, invoicing, horse records, financial reporting, and client account management for boarding barns.

• ✓Barns where billing and financial reporting are the main priority.
• ✓Operations managed primarily by the owner with few hourly employees.
• ✓Facilities looking for an established billing-first equine platform.
• ✓Barns that manage staff communication and accountability outside their software.

Who is BarnOps built for?

BarnOps is operations-first equine facility management software for boarding barns, training operations, and working horse farms that manage employees, boarders, horses, daily care, billing, and communication in one system. BarnOps is available on the web and through native iOS and Android apps.

• ✓Boarding barns with hourly staff teams.
• ✓Facilities that need GPS-verified staff accountability.
• ✓Barns that want billing integrated with care records and daily operations.
• ✓Operations trying to reduce missed care tasks, payroll disputes, and group-text chaos.

How do BarnOps and Stable Secretary compare feature by feature?

BarnOps includes GPS-verified staff clock-in, timestamped care logs, and weather-based care alerts on every plan. The table below lists each feature side by side; where Stable Secretary's current feature set is not confirmed, the table says so.

What is the main difference between BarnOps and Stable Secretary?

The main difference is focus: Stable Secretary can be a fit for barns that mostly need records, scheduling, or billing (check its current feature set), while BarnOps is built for the daily operating layer: staff accountability, GPS-verified time tracking, timestamped care logs, weather-based horse care workflows, and role-based visibility for everyone at the barn.

That difference matters most when a facility has hourly staff. Once multiple people are feeding, turning out, administering medications, changing blankets, logging incidents, and answering boarder questions, the barn needs more than a digital filing cabinet. It needs a verified operating record.

How does BarnOps handle billing and records?

BarnOps Command includes boarding billing, lesson billing, service charges, invoice generation, payment tracking, and Stripe-connected payments. Those billing records sit beside the same horse care records, feeding plans, treatment logs, scheduling, and staff activity that drive daily operations.

BarnOps is not just a billing module next to a record module. It connects billing to operational activity, which helps barns capture chargeable services, answer client questions, and reduce end-of-month reconciliation.

What does BarnOps cost for a barn your size?

BarnOps costs the same flat monthly price no matter how many horses or people your barn has: Core is $79/month and Command, which adds billing and payments, is $99/month. Both plans include unlimited users and unlimited horses.

That means a 12-stall barn and a 60-stall barn pay the same, and adding a seasonal groom, a new instructor, or five new boarders does not change the bill. Before you decide, write down what you pay Stable Secretary today: the base price, any per-horse or per-user charge, and any add-ons you need for billing or payments. Then compare that total with $79 or $99.

What does switching from Stable Secretary to BarnOps involve?

Switching mostly means moving your horse list and inviting your people. BarnOps setup walks you through barn details, horses, and people, and you can add horses one at a time or upload them from a CSV file.

• ✓Export your horse list from Stable Secretary or your spreadsheet, if you can, and upload it as a CSV during setup.
• ✓Enter your barn's address so weather-based tools like BlanketOps have a location.
• ✓Invite staff, managers, instructors, and boarders. Each person gets the access that matches their role.
• ✓Set up feeding plans and medications on each horse so they show on the AM and PM feeding rounds.
• ✓On Command, connect your Stripe account and set up board packages and service prices before you send the first invoice.
• ✓Use the 14-day free trial to run BarnOps next to Stable Secretary for a couple of weeks before you switch over.

What should you ask Stable Secretary before you decide?

The best way to compare is to ask each vendor the same questions about your own barn. These are the questions that usually decide it for working barns:

• ✓Is there a per-horse, per-user, or per-module charge, and what will the bill be when the barn grows?
• ✓Can staff clock in and out on their phones, and does the record show where they were?
• ✓Does every feeding, medication, and blanket change record who did it and when?
• ✓Can a boarder see their own horse's care without seeing the rest of the barn?
• ✓Can charges for extra services come from what staff logged, instead of being typed in at month end?
• ✓Is there a phone app for iPhone and Android that staff use in the aisle?
• ✓Can you export your records if you leave?

Which platform should you choose?

Choose Stable Secretary if its current feature set matches your barn and staff accountability, GPS tracking, automated blanketing, and operational audit trails are not priorities.

Choose BarnOps if you run a boarding barn, training operation, or working horse farm with employees and need one platform for staff accountability, horse care records, scheduling, communication, forms, billing, and daily operational visibility.