AeroGarden Harvest Elite vs Bounty Basic: Which One Actually Fits Your Kitchen?

The Harvest Elite and Bounty Basic are priced identically right now, both sitting at $179.95. That’s the first thing worth knowing, because a lot of buying guides treat this like a tiered decision where you’re trading up in price. You’re not. You’re trading space and growing capacity against footprint and light output, which makes this a genuinely interesting comparison.

What You’re Actually Comparing

The Harvest Elite buy on Amazon is a 6-pod unit with a 20W full-spectrum LED and a touch-sensitive illuminated display panel. It tops out at 12 inches of plant height. Stainless steel finish, compact footprint, and it comes with a seed pod kit in the box. On paper, it looks like a midrange unit, and for $100 it would be a great deal. At $180, you’re paying for the finish and the display features rather than raw growing power.

The Bounty Basic buy on Amazon runs a 30W LED over 9 pods, with a larger water bowl and grow deck. AeroGarden claims both units grow plants up to 5x faster than outdoor soil gardening, but the Bounty Basic’s extra wattage does matter when you’re trying to grow anything that needs more light to thrive, tomatoes, peppers, anything that isn’t a compact herb. It also has vacation mode and a digital display with reminders for water and nutrients.

So the Bounty Basic gives you 50% more pods, 50% more wattage, and a bigger reservoir. At the same price.

That should make the decision obvious. But it doesn’t, because the Bounty Basic is bigger, and in a small kitchen that matters a lot.

Spec Comparison Table

The Bounty Basic’s higher rating across fewer reviews is a decent signal. It’s not a dramatic gap, but it suggests people who bought it were more consistently happy with the result.

The Counter Space Problem

My shelf is 24 inches wide and I have a coffee maker on one end. The Harvest Elite fits in that space alongside other things. The Bounty Basic, with its wider bowl and grow deck, is harder to fit into a corner setup. If you have a dedicated counter run or a kitchen island with room to spare, this isn’t an issue. But if you’re working with a typical apartment kitchen where every inch has something on it, the Harvest Elite’s smaller footprint is a real advantage, not just a spec on a page.

My partner already gives me side-eye about the grow-light glow after 9pm, and a bigger unit with more LEDs would make that conversation worse. It’s not a rational factor in terms of growing outcomes, but it’s a real one in terms of keeping the hobby sustainable in a shared space.

Where the 20W vs 30W Difference Shows Up

For basil, parsley, chives, mint, the Harvest Elite’s 20W LED is plenty. I’ve grown two rounds of the Gourmet Herb seed kit in the Harvest (the base model) and the herbs were dense and fast. Light wasn’t a limiting factor.

But if you’re thinking about cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, or anything with real fruiting requirements, the 30W on the Bounty Basic is going to serve you better. Fruiting plants need sustained, intense light to set and develop properly, and the extra wattage gives you margin. I wrote more about which plants actually do well in these units in this post on what to grow in an AeroGarden , worth reading before you buy pods.

The 12-inch height cap on the Harvest Elite is also something to plan around. Compact herbs stay well within it. Anything that wants to stretch will hit the light arm before it’s done.

The WiFi and Display Features

Both units have WiFi connectivity and digital displays, which wasn’t always the case across AeroGarden’s lineup. The Harvest Elite’s touch-sensitive illuminated display is genuinely nice to use, you can adjust the light schedule, check reminders, and set vacation mode without opening an app. I find myself using the physical controls more than the app anyway, so having a responsive panel matters.

Both will send you reminders for water and nutrients, which is probably the feature that actually makes these worth buying for beginners. You don’t have to remember to check, the unit tells you. That alone saves a lot of plants in the first few months.

Who Should Buy What

Get the Harvest Elite if: your counter space is genuinely limited, you’re growing compact herbs, you want the stainless finish for aesthetic reasons, and you don’t need more than 6 pods running at once.

Get the Bounty Basic if: you want to experiment with fruiting plants, you want more volume (9 pods lets you run two or three herb varieties and still have slots left), or you’re willing to give it more physical room in exchange for more growing capacity.

At identical pricing, I’d push most beginners toward the Bounty Basic unless counter space is a hard constraint. More pods means more flexibility in what you try, and more wattage means you’re not limited to just compact herbs. The Harvest Elite is a better-looking unit, but the Bounty Basic is a better growing unit.

If the Budget Is the Real Issue

If $179.95 is at the top of your range and you’d rather spend less, the Harvest Lite buy on Amazon is worth a look. It’s around $69 right now, handles up to 6 pods, tops out at 12 inches, and has a simple indicator light instead of an LCD display. You lose vacation mode, WiFi, and the fancy control panel, but you get the same basic growing capacity as the Harvest Elite for about 60% less money. The cream finish is genuinely pleasant on a counter.

For a straight comparison of how the AeroGarden lineup stacks up at different price points, my AeroGarden Bounty vs Harvest post covers that in more depth.

The Harvest Black buy on Amazon sits below the Elite in the lineup and is worth knowing about as a baseline, it has the same 6-pod setup without the Elite’s stainless finish and display features. If you see it on sale at a significant discount, it performs the same core function.

One more thing: whichever unit you choose, don’t start at full-strength nutrients. I’ve had yellowing leaves pushing AeroGarden’s own liquid food at the recommended dose with basil, cutting to half strength for the first few weeks and building up gave me much healthier plants. More on that in the hydroponic nutrients for beginners post .

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use tap water in an AeroGarden Harvest Elite or Bounty Basic? Yes, tap water works fine in both units. If your tap water is heavily chlorinated, letting it sit for an hour before filling helps, but most people don’t bother and their plants do fine. Very hard water can leave mineral deposits in the bowl over time, so wipe it down during water changes.

How often should I change the water in these AeroGardens? You’re refilling rather than fully changing in most cases, top off when the indicator shows low, and aim for a full bowl drain and rinse every 4 to 6 weeks. AeroGarden recommends this with each nutrient addition cycle, but a full rinse once a month is a reasonable habit.

Is the Bounty Basic worth the extra size over the Harvest Elite? At the same price point, yes, you get 50% more pods and a stronger light for no additional cost. The only reason to choose the Harvest Elite is if counter space is genuinely limited or you specifically want the stainless steel finish.

Do both units work without WiFi? Yes. WiFi on both units enables app control and remote reminders, but you can run them entirely from the physical controls on the unit. The Harvest Elite’s touch panel lets you manage everything without ever downloading the app.

What’s the difference between the Harvest Elite and the Harvest Lite? The Harvest Lite is the budget version, simpler indicator light instead of an LCD display, no vacation mode or WiFi, and a cream finish instead of stainless. It grows 6 pods up to 12 inches just like the Elite. At roughly $69 vs $179.95, the Lite is the better buy if you just want to start growing and don’t need the extra features.