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Frontier vs Agritecture vs CEA Site Scout
Honest feature-by-feature comparison. The three tools sit on a funnel — Site Scout screens parcels, Agritecture sketches the facility, Frontier produces the bank submission — and a serious operator going for financing realistically uses all three. Verified 2026-06-01.
Agritecture
Polished pre-feasibility planner. Greenhouse / vertical / container. Spanish coverage. Consultancy upsell.
Site Scout
Free Cornell-built parcel screening. NLCD / FEMA flood / DLI / BLS overlays. "Where should I build?"
Frontier
Aquaponics + AD depth, Monte Carlo, and bank-grade Loan Pack PDFs. "Hand me the lender submission."
Core modeling depth
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aquaculture bioenergetics (Cho-Bureau) | No | No | Yes | No other commercial planner has this |
| Recirculating aquaculture (RAS) sizing | No | No | Yes | |
| Aquaponics — coupled & decoupled modalities | No | No | Yes | |
| Anaerobic digestion + nutrient remineralization | No | No | Yes | BMP-based v1; full ADM1 deferred |
| Nitrogen mass balance + Sankey | No | No | Yes | |
| Greenhouse / vertical / container CEA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Site Scout: screening lens; Agritecture + Frontier: full design |
| Open-field / soil-based farms | No | Yes | No | Out of scope for Frontier |
Risk & uncertainty
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monte Carlo P(NPV > 0) | No | No | Yes | 5,000+ iterations × 4 modalities, RQ-streamed |
| Tornado / sensitivity (driver-ranked) | Partial | No | Yes | Agritecture: static one-at-a-time |
| Convergence diagnostics (Saltelli) | No | No | Yes | |
| Q-Q plot of NPV samples | No | No | Yes | |
| Benchmark residuals vs published windows | No | No | Yes | CapEx intensity, energy intensity, fish:plant, min DSCR |
| Risk register (auto-synthesized + editable) | No | No | Yes | 8–12 rows from MC drivers + biological + market |
Financial modeling
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NPV / IRR | Yes | Partial | Yes | Site Scout: simple payback only |
| 3-statement model (P&L + balance sheet + cash flow) | No | No | Yes | Monthly Y1–Y3 + annual Y4–Y10 |
| Debt schedule with capitalised construction interest | No | No | Yes | |
| DSCR / LLCR / PLCR coverage ratios | No | No | Yes | Per-year + min / avg |
| Loan covenants (DSCR ≥ 1.20, etc.) | No | No | Yes | |
| Bank stress tests (rate / revenue / OPEX / energy shocks) | No | No | Yes | 4 standard tests |
| Commissioning ramp (logistic S-curve) | Partial | No | Yes | Agritecture: linear ramp |
| MACRS + §168(k) + §45Q + §48 ITC tax stack (US) | No | No | Yes | |
| EU per-country linear depreciation | No | No | Yes |
Evidence collection (bank/lender)
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor PFS (SBA Form 413) | No | No | Yes | |
| Vendor quotes (multi-line, currency-aware) | No | No | Yes | |
| Use-of-Proceeds with model-CAPEX reconciliation | No | No | Yes | Banner flags > 2% Δ vs NEEMO |
| Letters of Intent (binding flag, $/kg, term) | No | No | Yes | LOI prices flow into wizard chips |
| Site control (deed / lease / option / ground lease) | No | No | Yes | |
| Permits matrix (FDA, FSMA 204, NPDES, USDA Organic) | No | No | Yes | |
| Insurance policies (incl. aquaculture mortality) | No | No | Yes | |
| Key-personnel CVs + food-safety SOPs | No | No | Yes | |
| Bates-stamped file uploads in PDF appendices | No | No | Yes |
Output artefacts
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web summary page + scenario compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Site-suitability report | Partial | Yes | Partial | Site Scout's home turf |
| TEA PDF (80–150 pp, AACE 18R-97 class-aware) | No | No | Yes | US (SBA/USDA) + EU (EIB/EAFRD) templates |
| Production Plan PDF (planting calendar, fish Gantt, FSMA 204) | Partial | No | Yes | Agritecture: pitch-deck slides |
| Financial Plan PDF (3-statement + DSCR + covenants + stress) | No | No | Yes | |
| Cover Memo PDF (2–3 pp loan-officer brief) | No | No | Yes | |
| Verification & Validation PDF (proof-of-math) | No | No | Yes | Standalone + 6th doc in LoanPack.zip |
| LoanPack.zip bundle with manifest.json + sha256 | No | No | Yes | |
| Excel export (unit-aware) | Yes | Partial | Yes |
Site & location intelligence
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address → lat/lon geocoding | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Parcel-level NLCD land-use overlay | No | Yes | No | Site Scout wins here |
| FEMA flood-zone overlay | No | Yes | No | |
| Solar insolation / DLI map | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Co-location finder (waste-heat, AD feedstock, packing, distributor) | No | No | Yes | EPA AgSTAR + LMOP + DOE CHP + EPA Excess Food map |
| Climate-aware OPEX (seasonal heating + lighting) | Yes | Yes | Partial | Frontier: scaffolding live, seasonal refactor in progress |
| US BLS labor wage benchmarks | Yes | Yes | Partial | Country-level + US-state coarse defaults |
| US county-level site parquet (NOAA/NREL/BLS) | No | Yes | No | Site Scout's wedge |
Compliance & standards scaffolding
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBA SOP 50-10 alignment | No | No | Yes | |
| USDA B&I / 7 CFR Part 5001 alignment | No | No | Yes | |
| EIB Vademecum + EAFRD 4.1 templates | No | No | Yes | |
| AACE 18R-97 class declaration + contingency floor | No | No | Yes | |
| FSMA 204 (US) traceability callout (effective 2026-01-20) | No | No | Yes | |
| 18-rule readiness validator + strict_mode publish gate | No | No | Yes |
Sustainability & LCA
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cradle-to-farm-gate LCA (GWP / water / land) | Partial | No | Yes | Agritecture claims 'climate-smart'; doesn't publish numbers |
| ReCiPe2016 midpoint method | No | No | Yes | |
| Biogas → CHP electricity + heat offset accounting | No | No | Yes | |
| Digestate-as-fertilizer credit | No | No | Yes | |
| Nitrogen-Use Efficiency (NUE) reporting | No | No | Yes |
Wizard / UX
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided multi-step wizard | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Multi-crop selection with per-crop kg targets | Partial | No | Yes | |
| Unit system toggle (metric ↔ US customary) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Frontier: flips wizard + evidence + PDFs + Excel + charts |
| Multi-currency display with FX | Yes | No | Yes | ECB annual averages, EUR-canonical math |
| Spanish-language UI | Yes | No | No | Agritecture is ahead |
| Save / resume / version scenarios | Yes | Partial | Yes |
Ecosystem & openness
| Capability | Agritecture | Site Scout | Frontier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-source model + reproducibility hash | No | No | Yes | packages/neemo + packages/cli, Apache-2.0 |
| CLI: run scenario from JSON | No | No | Yes | |
| Equipment vendor templates | Yes | No | No | Agritecture: 16+ partner integrations |
| Financial partner / lender RFQ network | Yes | No | No | |
| Service-provider directory | Yes | No | No | |
| Educational video library | Yes | Partial | No | Frontier ships text-only Learn |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Partial | Frontier: open CLI + Learn; web app paid (TBD) |
Where each tool wins outright
Site Scout wins for
- Picking a parcel before you've decided what to build.
- US-specific NLCD / flood / DLI / utility-rate overlays.
- Cornell-grade methodology, free.
Agritecture wins for
- Polished UX for non-technical operators.
- Spanish-language coverage.
- Equipment vendor + service-provider network.
Frontier wins for
- Anything aquaponics / RAS / AD / N mass balance.
- Monte Carlo + sensitivity + risk register at lender depth.
- Submittable bank-grade PDFs with bates-stamped evidence.
- Open-core math — every constant cited, every result reproducible.
- US tax stack (MACRS + §168(k) + §45Q + §48 ITC).
Sources: Agritecture Jan 2023 launch post + their live product; ceasitescout.org; Frontier feature inventory from this monorepo. Disagree with an assessment? Open an issue with evidence and we'll update.