Best sites like horsepower.com: quick answer
horsepower.com at a glance
Updated October 2026Traffic and link figures are estimates and change over time.
What horsepower.com is
Horsepower.com describes itself as “your farm-to-fork marketplace”. Growers post what they have, set their own price, choose how to deliver, and talk to buyers directly with no middleman. Buyers search by state, with a picker that lists all 50, and browse four kinds of listing: classified ads, storefronts, farmers markets and fairs.
The company behind it, HP AgriSystems, was based in San Luis Obispo County, California, on farmland belonging to Cal Poly, the local university. Its user list is broad: farmers and ranchers, farm suppliers, consumers, restaurants, and youth FFA and 4-H projects.
How horsepower.com connects sellers and buyers
- Classified adsSingle posts at the seller's price
- StorefrontsA standing page for a farm's range
- Farmers marketsMarket listings by state
- FairsEvents where growers sell in person
- Advanced searchBuyers filter by product and area
How selling on horsepower.com works
Posting is free. Sellers pick a category, add photos, name a price and state how the buyer receives the goods. Conversation then moves to direct messages, and payment happens between the two parties. Sellers wanting more could pay monthly for upgraded storefronts, premium posts and analytics, or pay the team to manage their account and marketing.
Locally, the company went further than software. When enough people took part it ran pick-up spots around the county, and once a month it invited farmers, restaurant owners and customers to its office for coffee and scones.
Horsepower.com next to a farm’s own website
The site never tried to replace a grower’s own website. Its advice was to keep that as the home base and treat a horsepower.com post as extra reach to its community of farmers and food buyers. For producers with no online presence at all, the team offered to help with setup in person, and posts could be shared to a seller’s social media network in one step.
Where horsepower.com falls short today
- It looks dormant. The footer still reads 2012, the social links point to Google+, which closed years ago, and the jobs page still recruits ASP.NET developers for a young startup.
- No checkout. Without online payment, every sale needs a phone call or message to settle.
- Thin coverage outside California. The pick-up spots and meet-ups only ever served one county.
Who should still use horsepower.com
A free post costs nothing, so a rancher with surplus hay or a 4-H member selling a steer can list there alongside other channels. Anyone building a real sales channel should look elsewhere: buyers expect to pay online, and a local directory such as the USDA’s national farmers market listing will reach shoppers more reliably than an inactive marketplace.
horsepower.com vs. the alternatives
| Service | Model | Who sells | Payments online | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| horsepower.com | Free classified posts and storefronts | Farmers, ranchers, suppliers, 4-H and FFA members | Nobuyer and seller arrange it | Listing surplus without software |
| #1Local Line | Ordering platform for both sides of the trade | Farms, CSAs, food hubs, producers | Yes | Wholesale and food hub orders |
| #2Barn2Door | Branded online store and farm tools | Individual farms | Yes | Direct-to-consumer farm brands |
| #3GrazeCart | Online store plus point of sale | Farms, butchers, fresh food retailers | Yes | Variable-weight meat and farm stores |
| #4Open Food Network | Open source marketplace software | Farmers, producers, community hubs | Yes | Co-ops and community food hubs |
horsepower.com vs. the alternatives in numbers
Estimated monthly visits from search
Domain Rating (0–100)
Four platforms for selling farm food direct
Local Line
Best for: Farms and food hubs trading with professional kitchens and stores
Local Line is the closest modern match to the original idea, because it serves both ends of the trade. Farms, CSAs, food hubs and packaged-goods producers run their catalogue, orders and payments there, while grocers, restaurants and distributors use the same system to source from them. The company reports more than 3,000 orders placed a day, and it now syncs with Square for in-person sales.
Barn2Door
Best for: A single farm building its own name with shoppers
Barn2Door builds a farm its own website and online shop rather than placing it in a shared directory. Its tools cover subscriptions, sell-by-weight items, a point of sale, email campaigns and delivery-day planning, so orders, payments and inventory stay in one place. It markets itself plainly as a paid, farm-specific service, not a cheap generic do-it-yourself store.
GrazeCart
Best for: Ranchers and butchers pricing cuts by actual weight
GrazeCart is built for farms, butchers and fresh food retailers, and its strongest feature is selling by weight, where the final charge matches the cut a customer actually receives. It pairs a website builder with point-of-sale, delivery and pickup scheduling, recurring subscriptions, and a course on shipping perishable products. A phone line is listed for sales questions.
Open Food Network
Best for: Co-ops and community hubs wanting software they can shape
Open Food Network is an international not-for-profit whose open source marketplace software lets farmers, producers and community hubs sell online without commercial software costs. It says more than 2,500 enterprises in over 15 countries use it, run by local chapters, including one in the USA. It also produces research and resources for community food businesses.
Sites like horsepower.com: FAQ
Does horsepower.com charge a commission on sales?
No. The site never handles the money, so there is nothing to take a cut of; paid extras were sold as monthly subscriptions and account management instead.
Can I buy livestock or farm equipment on horsepower.com?
The listings were meant to cover both, alongside artisan jams and produce. Whether anything current is listed in your state is another matter, so check the posting dates first.
Who ran horsepower.com?
HP AgriSystems, a small startup that recruited developers and interns from Cal Poly and worked from a post office box in San Luis Obispo.
How we compared sites like horsepower.com
Each of these 4 alternatives was compared against horsepower.com on model, who sells, payments online and best for, using each service's documentation, published policies and reputable reporting. No company paid to be included or ranked.Read our review method orreport a change.
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