Land and landowners in the same system
Properties carry their acquisition status, landowner, area and eligibility, next to their boundaries on the map.
Terraware's fixed nursery-to-planting structure, or one system shaped around your project
Terraware is free and open source, and its strongest part is the nursery: seed banks, seed accessions and seedling batches. It covers a focused set of jobs with a fixed structure, from seed bank to planting site to monitoring, so your project adapts to it. Restoration Scope is a complete system configured around how your project already works, from land and partners to field work, monitoring and donors.
Restoration ScopeShould you use Terraware or Restoration Scope?
It depends on whether your project fits Terraware's structure. If you run your own seed bank and nursery, and your project fits its seed-to-planting structure and monitoring method as they are, Terraware is free and strongest there. If your project has land agreements, farmer agroforestry or several partners, or you report to your own donors, Restoration Scope is configured around how your project already works.
Terraware and Restoration Scope at a glance
 Terraware | Restoration Scope | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free, open-source tool from Terraformation, built around seed banks, nurseries and planting sites. | A complete restoration data platform configured around your project: records, a field app, monitoring, maps and portals. |
| Cost | Free. | Priced per project after a scoping call. No public price list. |
| Setup | Fixed modules for seed bank, nursery, planting sites and monitoring. You fill them with your sites, species and records, and fit your project to their structure. | Configured with our team around your project. Someone on your side owns the workflow. |
| Seeds and nurseries | Its strongest area: seed collections, seed bank inventory and viability, and nursery batches linked to seed accessions. | Nursery and species records, set up the way your team tracks them. |
| Monitoring | Survival and growth monitoring with its own sampling method, based on the US Forest Service Common Stand Examination protocol, plus remote sensing. | Site visits, plots and survival records linked to each site and set up to your method, with geospatial data layers. |
| Beyond the nursery | Its site does not describe land agreements, landowner records, custom forms or imports from tools such as Kobo. | Land and landowner records, partner programmes and data from Kobo, Google Sheets and GIS files in the same system. |
| Offline capture | Android and iOS apps capture seed collections and monitoring observations offline. Nursery changes need a connection. | The Field App works offline: points, lines, polygons and photos. |
| Funder reporting | A Funder Portal, launched in December 2025, for funders of Terraformation's projects. | Donor portals for your own funders, per donor or programme, from the same records. |
Checked against Terraware's own pages on October 17, 2026: Terraware, Funder Portal announcement, Plant monitoring, Seedling inventory, Mobile app, Source code.
Where Restoration Scope differs, on screen
These are Restoration Scope screens from our demo project and a public donor portal. To see Terraware, visit its own site.
Portals for your own funders
Each donor or programme gets their own portal, built from the same records the team keeps.
Where each fits
Pick Terraware when
- You run your own seed bank and nursery and want them tracked at no cost.
- Your project fits its seed-to-planting structure and monitoring method as they are.
- You work with Terraformation and your funders use its Funder Portal.
- You have experienced software engineers who can fork its open-source code and maintain your own version. Budget for an ongoing development team: maintaining software is expensive.
Pick Restoration Scope when
- You want one complete system for the whole project, shaped to how you work: carbon projects with land agreements, farmer agroforestry, multi-partner programmes.
- You want to keep tools your partners already use, such as Kobo or Google Sheets.
- You report to your own donors and want portals in your name.
Where each sits, from word of mouth to a custom system
- 1 Word of mouth
- 2 Paper
- 3 Excel files
- Workable from here4 Google Sheets
- 5 Advanced Sheets
- 6 Airtable
- 7 Restoration software: Terraware
- 8 Network of tools
- 9 Adaptable platform: Restoration Scope
- 10 Custom system
Terraware is restoration software: a set seed-to-planting structure your project adapts to. Restoration Scope is an adaptable platform, configured around your project’s own steps.
Where restoration records live, from word of mouth to custom softwareQuestions teams ask
Is Terraware free?
Yes. Terraformation describes Terraware as free and open source, and its code is on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 licence. A team with experienced engineers could fork it and maintain a modified version, but that needs an in-house development team, which is the expensive part.
Is Restoration Scope a Terraware alternative?
If your project fits Terraware’s structure, especially if the nursery is the heart of your work, it is hard to beat on cost. Restoration Scope suits projects that need one complete system shaped around their own workflow, partners and data sources.
How do the funder portals differ?
Terraware's Funder Portal is for funders of Terraformation's projects. Restoration Scope builds donor portals for your own donors and programmes, from the records your team keeps.
Does Terraware work offline?
Partly. Its mobile apps capture seed collections and monitoring observations offline; nursery inventory changes need a connection. The Restoration Scope Field App works offline.
Restoration Scope publishes this comparison. Something out of date? Write to info@restorationscope.com.