Best countertop garden for herbs (2026): true cost per plant
By Brian Horner, Ember Farm LLC, Waxhaw NC
Links marked "placeholder affiliate link" go to the brand's normal site for now. Disclosure
I grow herbs outside on a working farm. I haven't grown in any of these countertop gardens yet, so this isn't a review. I'll be buying a few and testing them side by side in public. What I can do now is compare what each one really costs to keep growing herbs, using each brand's own published prices, checked Oct 26, 2026. The sticker price is the easy part. The pods, nutrients and power bill are what you keep paying.
The short answer
- Lowest cost per plant: LetPot, at roughly $2.25–$2.45 per plant. It's an open system, so you start your own seeds in cheap sponges. You do more of the work and you buy your own seed.
- Easiest low-cost pick: Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 (about $4.60/plant, or $4.25 at the current sale price) and the AeroGarden Harvest (about $4.60/plant at today's clearance price). Both use pre-seeded pods.
- Most expensive per plant: the Personal Rise Garden, at about $6.90/plant. The Click & Grow 25 is the biggest buy at $949.95 but comes in at a middling $5.49/plant.
How I ran it: herbs, replanted 4 times a year per pod (my assumption, explained below), the unit kept 3 years, and electricity at $0.15/kWh. These are estimates built on published prices, not measured results.
The comparison
| Garden | Price | Pods | Light | Pod / seed cost | Nutrients / yr | Power / yr | True cost / yr | Per plant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Click & Grow Smart Garden 3 | $124.95 | 3 | 8 W (3.8 kWh/mo) | $2.00 (30-pack) | In pods | $7 | $72 | $6.04 |
| Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 | $249.95 | 9 | 13 W (6.2 kWh/mo) | $2.00 | In pods | $11 | $166 | $4.62 |
| Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO | $209.95 sale (list $299.95) | 9 | 13 W (6.2 kWh/mo) | $2.00 | In pods | $11 | $153 | $4.25 |
| Click & Grow 25 | $949.95 | 25 | 38 W (18.24 kWh/mo) | $2.00 | In pods | $33 | $549 | $5.49 |
| LetPot LPH-Mini | $56.99 | 5 | 10 W | ~$0.30 (est.) | ~$11 (est.) | ~$9 (est.) | $45 | $2.24 |
| LetPot LPH-SE | $119.99 | 12 | 24 W | ~$0.30 (est.) | ~$41 (est.) | ~$21 (est.) | $116 | $2.42 |
| LetPot LPH-Max | $251.99 | 21 | 36 W | ~$0.30 (est.) | ~$55 (est.) | ~$32 (est.) | $196 | $2.34 |
| AeroGarden Harvest | $76.97 sale (list $109.95) | 6 | 20 W | $2.83 (6-pod kit) | Included with kits | ~$18 (est.) | $111 | $4.62 |
| AeroGarden Bounty | $114.98 sale (list $229.95) | 9 | 40 W | $2.83 (est.) | Included with kits | ~$35 (est.) | $175 | $4.86 |
| Personal Rise Garden | $349 | 8 | 30 W | $2.00 (12-pack) | ~$15 (est.) | ~$26 (est.) | $222 | $6.92 |
True cost per year = price ÷ 3 + pods + nutrients + power. Plants per year = pods × 4. Click & Grow publishes kWh per month, so I used those figures. For LetPot, AeroGarden and Rise, I estimated power from light wattage × 16 hours a day. Pump power isn't included. At list price, the AeroGarden Harvest comes to $5.08/plant and the Bounty to $5.93/plant.
Why 4 plantings a year?
Click & Grow says most herbs keep producing for up to 12 weeks, greens for up to 6, and fruiting plants for up to 21 (Click & Grow basil pods). AeroGarden says basil is ready in about 3–4 weeks and keeps producing "for several months" with pruning (AeroGarden). Twelve weeks per round works out to about 4 rounds a year. That's my assumption. Some herbs, like mint and thyme, may last longer, and that would lower every per-plant number above.
Click & Grow: the simplest pods, at a cost
The Smart Garden 3 is $124.95 and comes with 3 basil pods (Click & Grow). The Smart Garden 9 is $249.95 with 9 pods included (Click & Grow). The Smart Garden 9 PRO is on sale at $209.95, down from $299.95 (Click & Grow). The big Click & Grow 25 is $949.95 with no plants included, 38 W of light and an 18.24 kWh/month rating (Click & Grow). Lights run 16 hours on, 8 off.
Nutrients are built into the pods, so the pod price is the whole running cost apart from power. Basil pods cost $14.95 for 3 ($4.98 each), $29.95 for 9 ($3.33), or $59.95 for 30 ($2.00) (30-pack, 9-pack). Click & Grow's help center shows a subscription example of 27 pods for $47.85, about $1.77 each, with free shipping (Click & Grow help). I used $2.00 in the table. On a Smart Garden 3, a 30-pack lasts over two years. If you buy 9-packs instead, the Smart Garden 3 comes to about $7.37 per plant.
Who it fits: people who want to drop in a pod and never think about nutrients. The Smart Garden 9 uses the least electricity per plant of anything here. The 25 is for a family that wants a lot of greens and has a spot for a piece of furniture.
LetPot: cheapest per plant, more hands-on
LetPot sells open systems: the LPH-Mini ($56.99, 5 pods, 10 W), the LPH-SE ($119.99, 12 pods, 24 W, 5.5 L tank, app-adjustable lights from 1 to 24 hours), and the LPH-Max ($251.99, 21 pods, 36 W, 7.5 L tank, auto-refill) (Mini, SE, Max). There are no pre-seeded pods. You plant your own seed in grow sponges. A pack of 100 sponges costs $24.99, or about $0.25 each (LetPot sponges). A 200-seed packet of organic Genovese basil is $5.25 at Johnny's, about 5 cents for two seeds. That's how I get roughly $0.30 per plant.
Nutrients cost $16.99 for two 100 ml A bottles and two 100 ml B bottles, mixed at 5 ml of each per liter (LetPot nutrients). That's enough for about 40 L. My yearly nutrient figures assume you change the full tank every 3 weeks. That's an estimate, and your use could run higher or lower.
Who it fits: people who don't mind starting seeds and want the lowest running cost. It's also the cheapest way to try hydroponic herbs at all. The trade-off is a higher chance of user error, which my test will show me firsthand.
AeroGarden: back, and on clearance
AeroGarden announced it was shutting down at the start of 2025, then came back under ScottsMiracle-Gro. Right now, the Harvest (6 pods, 20 W) is $76.97, down from $109.95, and the Bounty (9 pods, 40 W) is $114.98, down from $229.95 (Harvest, Bounty). The site was also advertising an extra 15% off through Nov 1. Both come with a seed kit and a 3 oz bottle of plant food. Replacement kits include plant food too. The 6-pod Pesto Basil kit is $16.95, about $2.83 a pod, and AeroGarden says you don't need to buy plant food separately (AeroGarden seed kit).
Who it fits: bargain hunters who want pre-seeded pods. At clearance prices, the Harvest is the cheapest pod-based garden to own. Prices like these won't last, so check before you count on them.
Personal Rise Garden: nicest app, highest cost per plant
The Personal Rise Garden is $349, with 8 pod slots (Rise says it's expandable to 12) and a 30 W LED. It comes with 8 starter seeds and starter nutrients (Rise). Genovese basil pods are $9.99 for 4 or $23.99 for 12, about $2.00 each in the 12-pack (Rise). Rise estimates nutrients at about $0.10–$0.20 per plant per cycle (Rise blog), so I rounded to about $15 a year. The high price of the unit is what pushes its per-plant cost up.
Who it fits: someone who values the app and design, and who may move up to Rise's larger gardens later.
A farmer's take (before testing)
Basil is the herb most people buy one of these for, and it's a hungry, fast plant. Outdoors I pinch it hard and it keeps coming. Indoors, how long a pod keeps producing matters more than anything else in this table. If basil lasts 16 weeks instead of 12, you buy a quarter fewer pods each year. That's the first thing I'll measure.
What we still don't know
- Default light hours for LetPot, AeroGarden and Rise. I assumed 16 hours a day, and pump power isn't counted.
- AeroGarden's 9-pod kit price. I used the 6-pod price per pod for the Bounty.
- Click & Grow shipping on orders under $150. Orders over $150 ship free.
- Real pod life and yield in a kitchen. That's what our test will measure.
See Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 (placeholder affiliate link) · See LetPot LPH-SE · See AeroGarden Harvest · See Personal Rise Garden · True-cost calculator