AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs Horizon: Horizon Ends December 15, 2026. Here Is the AI-First Option.

On July 27, 2026 Carson Dunlop announced that “Horizon is Sunsetting on December 15, 2026” and recommended Spectora — with “no automatic migration.” This page lays out what Carson Dunlop said, the three options they list, and the case for the second one: Hive Inspect imports your templates, clients and agents free, drafts the comment with AI in the house, and lands Horizon switchers at $50 a month for six months.

Try Hive Inspect — 5 free reports, no credit card required

The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or Horizon?

Horizon is a good report writer with the best-illustrated library in the industry, and it stops working on December 15, 2026. Carson Dunlop says so plainly: Horizon “stays fully operational through December 15, 2026,” there is “no automatic migration,” export tools close at the sunset, and after that the data “will no longer be accessible.” They recommend Spectora and list two other options, one of which is moving to a different platform with your exported data. Hive Inspect imports your Horizon templates, clients and agents at no cost, runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, and adds what Horizon never had: AI Comment Assist that drafts the comment from your voice, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, Spanish and French delivery, a Realtor dashboard and pay splits. Horizon switchers pay $50 a month for six months or $500 for the first year — under the endorsed path's $55 and $545. What you will miss: the Carson Dunlop library, which they sell separately for any report writer.

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and Horizon for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	Horizon
Status	Actively developed AI-first platform; features ship most days with a Sunday digest.	“Horizon is Sunsetting on December 15, 2026.” Carson Dunlop: “There is no automatic migration,” export tools until the sunset, and after that “the data will no longer be accessible.” Carson Dunlop recommends Spectora.
AI comment writing	AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment in the house from what you say or type, in your own template writing style — included in the $99.	As of August 2026, no AI feature is named on any Carson Dunlop or Horizon page. Their sunset FAQ cites “AI-powered tools” as one reason the market moved on. Auto-suggested notes remember your top ten entries per item.
Merging related defects	AI Comment Merge combines related findings into one clean comment, with photos and location tags carried across.	As of August 2026, not on Horizon’s published pages.
Market context on defects	Context Layer shows your client how common each defect is nationally and in their state, so findings land in proportion.	Ballpark costs, maintenance notes, life-expectancy guidance and “automatically-included implications” from the Carson Dunlop library — a different tool, credited. No national or state frequency data.
Multilingual reports (Spanish, French)	Write your report in English once, deliver it in the language your client prefers — Spanish, French, and more.	As of August 2026, not on Horizon’s published pages; both app-store listings list English only, despite a Toronto home.
Comment library and illustrations	Your own library imports and AI Comment Assist drafts in its style, so new comments read like the old ones.	“Over 6,000 standard items,” “1,700+ colour illustrations from The Illustrated Home,” technical articles linked in the report, and a Home Reference eBook with every report. Nothing else in the industry has this library. Credited — and the illustrations are sold separately for any software.
Where the report gets finished	In the house, on the phone or tablet you inspect with, offline if the basement has no signal — delivered before you leave the driveway.	Collected in Horizon Mobile, synced, and written up in Horizon Web or Laptop; the Report Designer “requires Microsoft Word™ and also the Windows 10 Operating System.” Their own help center: “Most inspectors don’t do it on-site because it takes time to tweak and refine it.”
Report format	An interactive web report with layout, sections and branding customized to you.	PDF, with 250+ title pages, Word-based Report Designer layouts, and “180-240 photos” per report. A polished PDF; not an interactive web report.
State and industry forms	Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in.	TREC REI 7-6, Texas WDI, Florida wind mitigation and 4-point, over 30 ancillary forms (radon, mold, pool, septic, WDO — “generic, non-NPMA”) and an ASTM E2018 commercial set. Credited.
Repair request builder	Included. Buyers and agents build a repair list straight from the delivered report.	The Action List — “Allows agents & buyers to quickly create a list of request items for sellers.” Parity.
Back office	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and a Realtor dashboard, all included.	Scheduler with online booking and conflict alerts, contracts accepted online, Guardian and Authorize.net payments, invoices and receivables, Horizon Marketer email automations set up by their team, a client and agent database, Business at a Glance reports, Google Calendar one-way, ISN one-way. A real back office — until the sunset.
Multi-inspector operations	Each inspector gets their own login, custom permissions and workspace; admin controls, centralized billing, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections in the base plan. $69 per additional inspector.	A subscription per inspector with free admin and customer-service accounts, a “Who’s closest” assignment tool, sales-by-inspector reports, and two inspectors on one job sharing the lead’s login. Pay splits: “Export … to Excel … calculate inspectors’ pay.”
Customer Support	Seven days a week, with unlimited video calls and screen sharing. Support is staffed by engineers who solve your problem directly instead of escalating it, so queries get resolved sooner.	Phone and email, 1:1 onboarding, monthly webinars and a Facebook group — weekdays only, and their pages disagree on the hours (9am–5pm ET on the contact page, 8am–7pm ET in the help-center footer). “Sat and Sun: Closed.” Support continues until December 15, 2026.
Company	AI-first home inspection software, privately owned, built by a team with decades of software engineering and AI research experience. 2,500+ inspectors and growing.	Carson Dunlop, Toronto — “the country’s first dedicated home inspection company,” founded 1978, software since 1988, and a career college. Owned by The Co-operators, an insurer, since February 2024. Their words on the sunset: “a training and inspection company first.”
Price	$99/mo, or $999/yr (about $83/mo). $69/mo per additional inspector. $9.90 per report in a $99 pack of ten. Five free reports, no card. Horizon switchers: $50/mo for six months or $500 for the first year. AI included; template, client and agent import free.	$79/mo or $799/yr per inspector, admin accounts free, or credits from $12 down to $4 per inspection — honoured “through to sunset.” The endorsed move to Spectora: $55/mo for six months or $545 for the first year, then $109/mo, if you sign up by January 31, 2027.

Horizon figures are quoted from Carson Dunlop's own Horizon sunset page and retirement announcement, its pre-sunset Horizon marketing pages and help center, the Horizon migration FAQ Carson Dunlop published with Spectora, the app stores, and press on the Co-operators acquisition, checked in August 2026. Their plans change and ours do too. If anything here has gone out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it.

How the report gets written

Six thousand items and Word, or AI in the house

Two ways to write the same comment

Take a roof with three related defects — lifted shingles, exposed nail heads, a cracked pipe boot. Here is how the comment gets written on each platform, using only what each publishes about itself.

On Horizon

In Horizon Mobile, Speed Write through the Required Items; search the 6,000-item library — “lifted shingles” — with the microphone if you have signal.
Select each item; implications, an Illustrated Home drawing and ballpark cost attach automatically. Three findings, three items.
Sync to Horizon Web or Laptop and write up — the Report Designer layouts need Word on Windows.
Publish the PDF; agents build an Action List from it. Until December 15, 2026.

The best-illustrated library in the industry, assembled item by item and finished at a desk. Every word is Carson Dunlop’s or yours.

On Hive Inspect

Say what you see: “three lifted shingles south slope, exposed nail heads, cracked boot on the plumbing vent.”
AI Comment Assist drafts each comment in your template’s writing style, with title, description, category and service.
AI Comment Merge folds the three into one comment, photos and location tags carried across.
Context Layer adds how common this is in the state; you approve and deliver from the driveway — in Spanish or French if needed.

Every word drafted in your style and signed by you, in the house. Included in the $99.

Carson Dunlop said it themselves when they retired Horizon: “Inspection reporting software has become a specialty in its own right. The platforms leading the work today are built by teams whose entire focus is that product.” That is the standard Hive was built to.

Beyond the library

Hive — AI-first, on every device, with the office included

What does Hive Inspect have that Horizon doesn't?

Hive Inspect offers what Horizon's published pages do not — a future past December 15, 2026, AI that drafts the comment, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, a report finished in the house on any device, multilingual delivery, and free import with a switcher rate.

A platform that is not shutting down

Hive Inspect is AI-first home inspection software that ships features most days, with a Sunday digest to its inspectors. Horizon, by Carson Dunlop’s own announcement, stops operating on December 15, 2026, with no automatic migration and data no longer accessible after that date. Whatever you choose next, you are choosing it now.

The Horizon switching guide

AI that writes the comment

AI Comment Assist is a Hive Inspect feature that drafts the whole comment in the house from what you say or type, in your own template writing style, and it is included in the $99. No AI feature is named on any Horizon page; Carson Dunlop’s sunset FAQ names “AI-powered tools” as one of the reasons inspection software moved past Horizon.

How Comment Assist works

AI Comment Merge and Context Layer

AI Comment Merge combines related findings into one clean write-up with photos and location tags carried across; Context Layer shows your client how common each defect is nationally and in their state. Both are Hive Inspect features included in the $99. Horizon’s library adds implications, ballpark costs and life expectancies — a real strength — but no merge and no frequency data.

How Context Layer works

Finished in the house, on any device

Hive Inspect runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web and works offline, so the report is finished and delivered from the driveway. Horizon collects in the field and writes up on the web or a Windows laptop; its Report Designer needs Microsoft Word, and its own help center says most inspectors do not generate the report on site.

Get the app

Multilingual reports (Spanish, French)

Multilingual reports are a Hive Inspect feature: write the inspection in English and deliver it in the language your client reads — Spanish, French, and more. No translator, no third party, no delay. As of August 2026, both Horizon app-store listings list English only.

Free import, and a cheaper landing

The Hive team imports your Horizon templates, clients and agents at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection, and Horizon switchers get $50 a month for six months or $500 for the first year. Carson Dunlop’s endorsed path to Spectora is $55 a month for six months or $545 for the first year, then $109 a month — and its FAQ says historical reports, PDFs and photos do not migrate there either, so export them before December 15 whichever way you go.

See the switcher offer

Common ground

Tie, and Horizon’s basics were solid

Where the two are the same

Horizon's basics were solid and its library is the best in the industry; the common ground is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing — and so you know what transfers.

Texas TREC and WDI, Florida wind mitigation and 4-point forms, on both.

A repair request list for buyers and agents, on both.

Online booking, contracts accepted online, card payments, invoices and automated emails, on both.

iOS, Android and web, working offline in the field, on both.

A client and agent database with agent reports, on both.

Free admin accounts for office staff, on both.

Free 1:1 onboarding, on both — Hive’s unlimited.

Business model

An insurer-owned parent; read the policy

Who owns the platform, and what happens to the data?

Carson Dunlop has been owned since February 2024 by The Co-operators, a Canadian insurer, which described the purchase as entering “home services.” Two sentences from Carson Dunlop’s privacy policy are worth reading together: “We do not trade, rent or sell your personal information,” and “We may de-identify information collected in the course of our home inspection business … for the purposes of generating commercial insights for insurers and loan providers.” Their partner-page promise to inspectors, “we won’t reach out to your clients to sell them anything,” is credited. And for Horizon specifically, the sunset FAQ says that after December 15, 2026, the data “will no longer be accessible” and will be “securely delete[d].” Hive Inspect is privately owned and makes money one way, the subscription: no client data shared for marketing or insight generation, nothing marketed into your client’s portal, and your data exportable whenever you like.

We do not sell or share client data. Not to lead buyers, not to contractors, not to an insurer.
No third-party ads, offers or upsells inside your reports or your client’s portal.
Your client’s contact details stay in your account.
We make money one way: the subscription you pay. That is the whole model.

Read our data privacy pledge

Worth asking any platform you are evaluating, and you should ask it of us too: besides my subscription, how do you make money, and who gets my client’s contact details?

“Hive also won’t sell your client’s data to 3rd party vendors unlike other platforms.”
richarddbrown · App Store review, 5★

Sunset

December 15, 2026 — three options, no automatic migration

What the sunset means, in Carson Dunlop’s own words

On July 27, 2026 Carson Dunlop announced that it is retiring Horizon. Everything below is quoted from their sunset page and the migration FAQ they published; none of it is our characterisation.

“Horizon is Sunsetting on December 15, 2026”

“Horizon stays fully operational through December 15, 2026 / Your data is yours throughout the transition / Your subscription terms continue as agreed through to sunset.” After that date, “the data will no longer be accessible.” Unused months are refunded, prorated to full months.

“There is no automatic migration”

Carson Dunlop lists three options: migrate to Spectora, their recommended platform; “Move to a different platform — Export your data and take it with you. Export tools available through December 15, 2026”; or keep using Horizon until the sunset. Whichever you choose, historical reports, PDFs and photos should be exported — the endorsed path does not migrate them either.

Why, in their words

“Inspection reporting software has become a specialty in its own right … Rather than continuing to split our investment, we are bringing in a partner whose company is built around it.” Their FAQ cites “mobile technology, automation, integrations, customer experience expectations, and, more recently, AI-powered tools,” and notes Spectora is paying Carson Dunlop “a one-time administrative fee” for the recommendation.

Option two is the one this page exists for. Hive Inspect imports your Horizon templates, clients and agents for free, runs on every device you own, drafts the comment with AI in the house, and lands you at $50 a month for six months — five dollars a month under the endorsed path, with the whole business included rather than metered.

Direction

Retiring, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

Horizon does not publish a changelog we can quote, so we will not guess at their cadence. What we can compare is what each product's own pages say it is made of.

Horizon — from their pages

Help-center “Announcements & Latest News”: newest item “Horizon interface update (October 2020)”
Horizon Mobile 3, last app builds January 2026 (bug fixes)
Report Designer state forms, launched January 2019
July 27, 2026: retirement announced; Spectora recommended
December 15, 2026: sunset; export tools close

Carson Dunlop explored a next-generation Horizon and chose not to build it: “Rather than spending several years developing a new platform internally.”

Hive — recent releases

AI Comment Merge
Context Layer
Multi-language report delivery

Different problems — because the product was designed around AI rather than extended toward it.

Every Sunday, you hear what changed

Features ship most days. A summary goes out every Sunday, in our Facebook group and by email. Inspectors tell us they look forward to it.

Join the Facebook group

The speed that matters is how fast your request becomes a feature. Our inspectors describe it best:

“It’s incredible to request quality of life features and see them implemented in a matter of hours.”
Michael Stushie · Home Inspector

“I’m so pleasantly surprised at how quickly these changes are being implemented, nice work!”
PJ Smith · Home Inspector

“They WANT our input and quickly integrate suggestions.”
DanBurkhead · App Store review, 5★

Support

Seven days, or weekdays until the sunset

Who picks up when something breaks

Horizon support — phone and email, weekdays, with 1:1 onboarding, monthly webinars and a Facebook group — continues until December 15, 2026, and Carson Dunlop deserves credit for saying so plainly. Their pages disagree on the hours (9am–5pm Eastern on the contact page, 8am–7pm in the help-center footer) but agree on “Sat and Sun: Closed.” Here, your message reaches an engineer seven days a week, and the person who answers is usually the person who can fix it — and there is no end date.

Support on Hive Inspect

Seven days a week, including Saturday and Sunday — published hours you can hold us to.
Live chat, screen sharing and video calls, unlimited — through the switch and after it.
Answered by the engineers who build the product, so most issues get fixed on the spot rather than logged.

“When there is an issue it is resolved very quickly because you actually talk to a human rather than an AI bubble… When needed, the Hive team will actually get on a video call with you to help resolve issues.”
Big Dawg Home Inspections · App Store review, 5★

Report quality

Test it yourself

Do not take our word on the AI

Horizon has no AI to test against, so run this instead — it takes five minutes and the Hive trial is free, five reports, no card:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times and pull the Horizon library item for it — implications and illustration included.
Describe the same defect to Hive Inspect, out loud, and let AI Comment Assist draft it in your template’s style.
Read the two side by side and ask which one you would sign — then check the clock.

If it does not read like you, do not buy it. That goes for us too.

The report itself is yours to shape, too — layout, sections and branding are customized to how you prefer to present. See sample reports.

Choose Hive Inspect if

You are leaving Horizon before December 15, 2026 and want the AI-first option rather than the recommended one.
You want your templates, clients and agents imported for free, with unlimited onboarding calls, and a switcher rate of $50 a month for six months.
You want the AI to draft the comment from your voice in the house, in your own style.
You want related defects merged and market context on every finding.
You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French.
You want a Realtor dashboard, CRM, pay splits and team analytics included, with nothing charged per inspection.
You would rather reach an engineer on a Saturday than wait for Monday.

Keep Horizon until the sunset if your season is already booked in it and you would rather switch in the quiet months — Carson Dunlop says that is a legitimate option and support runs to December 15, 2026. And if the Illustrated Home library is what you will miss most, Carson Dunlop sells the illustrations separately for use in any report writer. Those are real considerations, and an honest page says so.

If you switch, everything transfers free

Horizon templates and comment libraries import directly into Hive Inspect, and our team moves the rest — agreements, contacts, services, business profile — no migration fee, no hourly onboarding. See what switching involves, then keep both subscriptions running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.

Templates
Comment libraries
Contacts
Agreements
Services, add-ons & modifiers
Automations
Discount codes
Location tags
Profile photo
Business hours
Team & signatures
Business & company info

Common questions

Hive Inspect and Horizon: common questions

What is Hive Inspect?

Hive Inspect is AI-first home inspection software. It turns spoken findings, notes and photos into client-ready reports, and includes scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and a Realtor portal in one subscription. It runs on iOS, Android and web, works offline, and costs $99/month or $999/year with unlimited reports — every feature included, AI included.

Is Horizon shutting down?

Yes. Carson Dunlop announced on July 27, 2026 that “Horizon is Sunsetting on December 15, 2026” and selected Spectora as its recommended platform. Per their sunset page, Horizon “stays fully operational through December 15, 2026,” subscription terms continue as agreed, export tools are available until the sunset, and after that date the data “will no longer be accessible” and will be securely deleted. Carson Dunlop says “There is no automatic migration” and lists three options: migrate to Spectora, move to a different platform with your exported data, or keep using Horizon until the sunset.

Do I have to move from Horizon to Spectora?

No. Carson Dunlop’s own sunset page lists moving “to a different platform — Export your data and take it with you” as one of three options, and its FAQ notes Spectora is paying Carson Dunlop “a one-time administrative fee” for the recommendation, with “no long-term commercial relationship.” Hive Inspect imports your Horizon templates, clients and agents at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls, and Horizon switchers get $50 a month for six months or $500 for the first year — less than the endorsed path’s $55 a month for six months or $545 for the first year.

What does Hive Inspect have that Horizon doesn’t?

A future, first: Horizon stops on December 15, 2026. Then AI Comment Assist, which drafts the whole comment from your voice in your template style, AI Comment Merge, and Context Layer market context — no AI feature is named on any Horizon page; an interactive web report finished in the house on iPhone, iPad, Android or web rather than a PDF written up on a Windows laptop with Word; multilingual delivery in Spanish and French; a Realtor dashboard, SMS automations, pay splits and team analytics; and engineers on support seven days a week. What Horizon has that Hive does not: the Carson Dunlop library — over 6,000 items and 1,700+ Illustrated Home drawings.

How much does Horizon cost compared to Hive Inspect?

Horizon is $79 a month or $799 a year per inspector with free admin accounts, or inspection credits from $12 each in blocks of 25 down to $4 each in blocks of 500, honoured through the December 15, 2026 sunset with prorated refunds for unused months. Hive Inspect is $99 a month or $999 a year (about $83 a month), $69 per additional inspector, with a $9.90-per-report pack of ten and five free reports — and Horizon switchers pay $50 a month for six months or $500 for the first year, with templates, clients and agents imported free. For comparison, Carson Dunlop’s endorsed move to Spectora is $55 a month for six months or $545 for the first year, then $109 a month.

Does Horizon have AI?

No. No AI feature is named on any Carson Dunlop or Horizon page, help-center article or app-store listing as of August 2026. Horizon offers a voice search that needs an internet connection, auto-suggested notes that remember your ten most-used entries per item, and a library that attaches implications, illustrations and ballpark costs automatically. Carson Dunlop’s own sunset FAQ names “AI-powered tools” among the reasons inspection software moved past Horizon. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist, AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are built in and included.

What happens to my Horizon reports and photos after December 15, 2026?

Per Carson Dunlop’s migration FAQ, the data “will no longer be accessible” after the sunset and will be securely deleted; export tools — clients, agents, bookings, templates, dashboard and tax data — are available until then, with download links that expire after 14 days. The same FAQ says historical inspection reports, work-order data, PDF files, photos and attachments do not migrate to Spectora. Whichever platform you choose, export your report PDFs and photos before December 15, 2026. The Hive team imports your templates, clients and agents; ask us about archiving past reports.

Who owns Carson Dunlop, and who owns Hive Inspect?

Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, founded in 1978 as “the country’s first dedicated home inspection company,” has been a wholly owned subsidiary of The Co-operators, a Canadian insurer, since February 2024; earlier, FAX Capital took a controlling interest in 2020. Its privacy policy says it does not trade, rent or sell personal information and that de-identified inspection data may be used to generate commercial insights for insurers and loan providers. Hive Inspect is privately owned, AI-first home inspection software built by a team with decades of software engineering and AI research experience, used by 2,500+ inspectors.

Does Horizon have Texas TREC and Florida forms?

Yes — the Classic TREC REI 7-6 report, a Texas WDI report, Florida wind mitigation and 4-point forms, over 30 free ancillary forms including radon, mold, pool, septic and a generic WDO form, and an ASTM E2018 commercial set. Hive Inspect includes Texas, Florida and NPMA formats. This was a parity feature; after December 15, 2026 it is a Hive feature.

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at Horizon?

Horizon offers phone and email support on weekdays — 9am–5pm Eastern per the contact page, 8am–7pm per the help-center footer, closed Saturday and Sunday — with 1:1 onboarding, monthly webinars and a Facebook group, continuing until the December 15, 2026 sunset. On Hive Inspect, your message reaches the engineers who build the product, seven days a week, with unlimited video calls and screen sharing.

Does Hive Inspect support Spanish and French inspection reports?

Yes. Write the report in English and deliver it in the language your client prefers — Spanish, French, and more — with no translator, no third party and no delay. As of August 2026, both Horizon app-store listings list English only.

How do I move from Horizon to Hive Inspect?

Start a free Hive account, hand us your Horizon templates, client list and agent contacts, and we import them at no cost; run a practice inspection, then one real job in parallel while Horizon is still there as your safety net; then point new bookings at Hive. Onboarding calls are unlimited until your first inspection, and Horizon switchers pay $50 a month for six months or $500 for the first year. The step-by-step guide is at hiveinspect.com/migrating-from-horizon.

Where is Horizon the better choice?

Only until December 15, 2026, and honestly in two places. If your season is booked in Horizon and you would rather switch in the quiet months, Carson Dunlop says keeping Horizon to the sunset is a legitimate option and support continues. And the Carson Dunlop library — over 6,000 items with 1,700+ Illustrated Home drawings, implications and ballpark costs — has no equal; if it is what you will miss, Carson Dunlop sells the illustrations separately for use in any report writer. After the sunset, there is no Horizon to choose.

Last reviewed: August 2026. We revisit this page when our own capabilities change and when Horizon updates theirs. Verify competitor details directly with them too, since their plans move on their schedule, not ours.

Keep reading

If you are still working out which platform fits, these go deeper on the parts this page only summarises.

All comparisonsHive Inspect against Spectora, HomeGauge, ISN, Palmtech, and others.Switching to HiveWhat migration involves, and what we move for you at no cost.PricingEvery plan, including the part-time and new-inspector options.AI Comment AssistHow comments get drafted in the style of your own template.

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