AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs Inspector Toolbelt: Two Independents. One Writes the Comment.

Inspector Toolbelt is an independent, bootstrapped company with a data pledge as plain as ours, a lower price, and Texas and Florida forms — all credited here. Its AI is a keyword helper that gives you a starting point to finish yourself. Hive Inspect's AI drafts the whole comment from your voice in the house, merges related defects, adds market context, and comes with a Realtor dashboard, pay splits and engineers on support seven days a week.

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

The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or Inspector Toolbelt?

Both are independent companies that promise never to sell your data, both have scheduling, agreements, payments and automations, both auto-generate the TREC form and Florida wind mitigation, and both give agents a repair list builder. Inspector Toolbelt is cheaper — $79 a month and $35 a seat to our $99 and $69 — and we say so. What the difference buys: AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from your voice in your own template style where Inspector Toolbelt's AI Assistant turns typed keywords into “a basis for your own comment”; AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, Spanish and French delivery, a Realtor dashboard, pay splits and team analytics — none of which are on Inspector Toolbelt's published pages as of August 2026; and engineers on support seven days a week with published hours, where theirs is email and chat for paid users with no hours listed. Hive Inspect is used by 2,500+ inspectors; Inspector Toolbelt is an eight-person team in Albany, New York.

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and Inspector Toolbelt for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	Inspector Toolbelt
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.	An AI Assistant, in beta since July 2023: “enter just a few keywords to help give you a basis for your own comment,” plus one-click lengthen and shorten. Turned on in settings, needs an internet connection. “Currently, there are no plans to charge for this feature, but this could change.”
Voice in the field	Say the finding; AI Comment Assist drafts it. Photos feed the same draft.	As of August 2026, voice-to-text and AI photo analysis are not on Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages.
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 Inspector Toolbelt’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.	As of August 2026, not on Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages.
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 Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages; their App Store listing lists English only.
State and industry forms	Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in.	TREC REI 7-6 “will auto-generate along with your web report,” plus Florida wind mitigation and 4-point forms, and “over 20 free templates.” Credit where due — this is real.
Repair request builder	Included. Buyers and agents build a repair list straight from the delivered report.	Repair List Generator™ — agents and clients make repair lists from your report and email them on. Parity.
Realtor dashboard and CRM	A Realtor dashboard where agents see every inspection you have done together, plus CRM and automated follow-up — included.	Contacts with custom referral sources, a client portal and a Company Stats Dashboard. An agent portal is not on their published pages as of August 2026 — agents receive links and the Repair List Generator.
Back office	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM, all included.	Free scheduling with a website widget, service areas and travel surcharges, auto-generated agreements and invoices, Square payments (Stripe “upcoming”), email and SMS notifications, Google Calendar one-way sync, a one-way beta ISN link. A real back office for $79.
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.	Admin, Manager, Inspector and free Scheduler roles, real-time team inspections and a calendar view, $35 per additional inspector. Pay splits and per-inspector analytics are not on their published pages as of August 2026; an “Advanced Team Calendar” was announced in December 2023.
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.	Email and website chat “for paid users only,” free one-on-one training, a knowledge base and a Facebook group. Support hours, days and a phone line for the app are not on their published pages as of August 2026.
Your data	No client data sold or shared for marketing; nothing marketed into your client’s portal; contact details stay in your account.	“YOUR DATA IS YOURS. PERIOD. We don’t sell, share, or monetize your data. Ever.” The same stance as ours, said as plainly. Credit where due.
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.	Full View Marketing LLC, Albany, New York. Independently owned and bootstrapped by co-founders Beon de Nood (lead developer) and Ian Robertson (a working inspector who runs three inspection companies); scheduling app since 2019, report writer relaunched January 2022. Eight people named on their about page.
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. New inspectors: $39 → $59 → $79, then $99. AI included; onboarding calls free and unlimited.	$79/mo (up from $69 in February 2025), $35/mo per additional inspector, monthly billing with no contracts; annual price not published. Five free published reports, no card, and unlimited practice reports. Websites $50/mo; website plus SEO $350/mo. Cheaper than Hive on both the base and the seat.

Inspector Toolbelt figures are quoted from Inspector Toolbelt's own pricing, features and knowledge-base pages, its release posts and terms of service, and its App Store and Google Play listings, 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

Keywords and a helper, or the whole comment

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 Inspector Toolbelt

Pick the item, tap the sparkles icon, and type a few keywords — “lifted shingles south slope.”
The AI Assistant returns a basis for your comment; tick options for how much detail, or lengthen and shorten it.
Add the photo and rating; repeat for the nail heads and the boot — three comments.
Publish the web report and PDF, or the auto-generated TREC form.

Fewer taps than most apps — their launch claim — and a helper that turns keywords into a starting point. Internet required for the AI.

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 — in Spanish or French if needed.

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

Both companies say the same thing about AI — Inspector Toolbelt’s blog: “a tool, not a substitute for an inspector’s knowledge”; ours: if it does not read like you, do not sign it. The difference is how much of the comment the tool writes before you read it.

Beyond the helper

Hive — AI that writes, and the office around it

What does Hive Inspect have that Inspector Toolbelt doesn't?

Hive Inspect includes what Inspector Toolbelt's published pages do not as of August 2026 — AI that drafts the whole comment from your voice, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, multilingual delivery, a Realtor dashboard, and pay splits with team analytics.

AI that writes the comment, not a keyword helper

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. Inspector Toolbelt’s AI Assistant, in beta since July 2023, takes a few typed keywords and gives you “a basis for your own comment,” with lengthen and shorten buttons — and as of August 2026 voice-to-text and photo analysis are not on their pages.

How Comment Assist works

AI Comment Merge

AI Comment Merge is a Hive Inspect feature that combines related findings into one clean write-up, carrying photos and location tags across. Three roof callouts become one comment instead of three alarming line items. As of August 2026, it is not on Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages.

How Comment Merge works

Context Layer

Context Layer is a Hive Inspect feature that shows your client how common each defect is nationally and in their state, and how big the repair usually runs. Findings land in proportion, and fewer panicked calls follow the report. As of August 2026, it is not on Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages.

How Context Layer works

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, Inspector Toolbelt’s App Store listing lists English only.

Realtor dashboard

The Realtor dashboard is a Hive Inspect feature where agents log in once and see every inspection you have done together, included in the $99 alongside CRM and automated follow-up. Inspector Toolbelt gives agents report links and the Repair List Generator; as of August 2026, an agent portal is not on its published pages.

See every feature

Pay splits and team analytics

Multi-inspector operations are built into Hive Inspect: per-inspector logins and permissions, admin controls, centralized billing, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections, all in the base plan. Inspector Toolbelt has team roles and real-time team inspections — credit where due — but as of August 2026, pay splits and per-inspector analytics are not on its published pages.

Hive for multi-inspector firms

Common ground

Tie, and ITB’s basics are real

Where the two are the same

The common ground is wide and much of it is to Inspector Toolbelt's credit; it is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing.

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

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

Online scheduling, agreements, invoices, payments and automated notifications, on both.

iOS, Android and web, working offline, on both.

Web reports and PDF, unlimited photos and video, on both.

Team logins with roles and real-time collaboration, on both.

Five free reports to start, no card, on both.

A plain, published promise never to sell or share your data, on both.

Business model

Both keep your client yours — in writing

What else can end up on the bill?

Nothing on Inspector Toolbelt’s side worth warning you about, and one thing worth crediting loudly: their page titled “We do not share client data” says “YOUR DATA IS YOURS. PERIOD. We don’t sell, share, or monetize your data. Ever… We make our money one way: by providing software inspectors pay for.” That is our stance, in their words. Their other revenue is websites and SEO, which they sell to any inspector, and a referral share from inspection schools. Hive Inspect is privately owned and makes money one way, the subscription: no per-inspection charge, no offers in your client’s portal, nothing sold to anyone about your client. On this question the two companies are allies.

We do not sell or share client data. Not to lead buyers, not to contractors, not to anyone.
No third-party ads or upsells inside your reports.
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★

Price

Inspector Toolbelt, by $20 a month and $34 a seat

Where Inspector Toolbelt is simply cheaper

An honest page says this first: on price, Inspector Toolbelt wins, and by a margin that matters to a small firm.

$79 to our $99

Inspector Toolbelt’s paid plan is $79 a month — up from $69 in February 2025 — with no per-report fees and no contracts. Hive Inspect is $99. Twenty dollars a month, $240 a year.

$35 a seat to our $69

Each additional inspector is $35 a month on Inspector Toolbelt and $69 on Hive. At three inspectors that is $149 against $237; at ten, $394 against $720. For a firm that does not need pay splits or team analytics, that is a real number.

Free scheduling, even without the writer

Their scheduling, agreements and invoicing are free “whether you use our inspection app or not,” and unlimited practice reports let a student learn before paying. Generous, and unusual.

What the $20 and the $34 buy on Hive is the rest of this page: AI that writes the comment from your voice, merge, market context, Spanish and French, a Realtor dashboard, pay splits and team analytics, and engineers on support seven days a week with published hours. If you do not need those, Inspector Toolbelt is the better deal, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

Direction

A scheduler that grew a writer, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

Inspector Toolbelt 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.

Inspector Toolbelt — from their release posts

AI Assistant beta (July 2023); “more AI features” on the roadmap
Multi-inspector admin and teams (December 2023)
New web report format (September 2024), report attachments and locking (May 2025)
Florida 4-point form (June 2025); comment ratings and sub-items (January 2026)
Stripe payments, discount codes and sales tax listed as upcoming

A scheduling app from 2019 that grew a report writer in 2022 and keeps shipping. The AI on the list is a keyword helper.

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, published hours

Who picks up when something breaks

Inspector Toolbelt’s support is email and a website chat widget, “for paid users only,” with free one-on-one training sessions, a knowledge base and an active Facebook group. Hours, days and a phone line for the app are not on their published pages as of August 2026, so we will not guess at them — ask before you sign. Here, the hours are published: your message reaches an engineer seven days a week, and the person who answers is usually the person who can fix it.

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 — for free-trial users too.
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

Both platforms have AI in the report writer and both trials are free — five reports each, no card on either. So run the like-for-like test:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times.
On Inspector Toolbelt, turn on the AI Assistant and type a few keywords. On Hive, say the finding out loud into AI Comment Assist on one of your own templates.
Read the two results beside your library comment and ask which one you would sign — and which one you had to finish yourself.

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 want the AI to write the comment from your voice in the house, in your own style — not a keyword helper you finish yourself.
You want related defects merged and market context on every finding.
You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French.
You want agents in a Realtor dashboard, and pay splits and team analytics for a firm.
You would rather reach an engineer on a Saturday, with published hours — and support during the trial.
You want features shipping every week, with a Sunday summary of what changed.

Choose Inspector Toolbelt instead if price decides it — $79 a month and $35 a seat against our $99 and $69 — or if you want free scheduling without a report writer, unlimited practice reports while you learn, and an independent, bootstrapped company with a data pledge as plain as ours. Those are real advantages, and an honest page says so.

If you switch, everything transfers free

Inspector Toolbelt 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 Inspector Toolbelt: 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.

What does Hive Inspect have that Inspector Toolbelt doesn’t?

AI that drafts the whole comment from your voice in the house, in your own template style (Inspector Toolbelt’s AI Assistant works from typed keywords), AI Comment Merge, Context Layer market context, multilingual delivery in Spanish and French, a Realtor dashboard, pay splits and team analytics, published seven-day support hours, and free unlimited onboarding calls. As of August 2026 none of these are on Inspector Toolbelt’s published pages. What both have: Texas and Florida forms, a repair list builder, scheduling, agreements, payments, team roles, and a plain promise never to sell your data.

How much does Inspector Toolbelt cost compared to Hive Inspect?

Inspector Toolbelt is cheaper. Its paid plan is $79 a month (raised from $69 in February 2025) with $35 a month per additional inspector, no per-report fees, monthly billing with no contracts and no published annual price; five published reports are free and practice reports are unlimited. 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, five free reports and a $39/$59/$79 ramp for new inspectors. Solo, that is $20 a month more on Hive; at three inspectors, $237 against $149.

Does Inspector Toolbelt have AI?

Yes — an AI Assistant released in beta in July 2023, built in and free “currently,” with the note that “this could change in the future.” You turn it on in settings, tap the sparkles icon, type a few keywords describing the issue, choose how much detail you want, and it generates a basis for your comment, which you can lengthen or shorten with one click; it needs an internet connection. As of August 2026, voice-to-text, AI photo analysis and comment merging are not on their pages. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from what you say or type, in your template’s writing style, and AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are included.

Does Inspector Toolbelt have Texas TREC and Florida forms?

Yes. Inspector Toolbelt auto-generates the TREC REI 7-6 form alongside the web report, and publishes Florida wind mitigation and 4-point forms among “over 20 free templates.” Hive Inspect includes Texas, Florida and NPMA formats. This is a parity feature, not a difference.

Does Inspector Toolbelt sell client data?

No, and they say so as plainly as anyone in the industry: “YOUR DATA IS YOURS. PERIOD. We don’t sell, share, or monetize your data. Ever.” Hive Inspect takes the same position — no client data sold or shared for marketing, no offers in your client’s portal, and your client’s contact details stay in your account. On this question the two companies agree in writing.

Does Inspector Toolbelt support multi-inspector companies?

Yes, with Admin, Manager, Inspector and free Scheduler roles, real-time team inspections and a calendar view, at $35 a month per additional inspector. As of August 2026, pay splits, per-inspector analytics and the “Advanced Team Calendar” announced in December 2023 are not on their published pages. Hive Inspect gives each inspector their own login, custom permissions and workspace, with admin controls, centralized billing, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections in the base plan, at $69 per additional inspector.

Does Inspector Toolbelt have a Realtor portal?

Not on its published pages as of August 2026. Agents receive report links and can use the Repair List Generator to build and email a repair list; contacts track referral sources. Hive Inspect includes a Realtor dashboard where agents log in once and see every inspection you have done together, alongside CRM and automated follow-up, in the $99 plan.

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at Inspector Toolbelt?

Inspector Toolbelt offers email and website chat “for paid users only,” free one-on-one training, a knowledge base and a Facebook group; support hours and a phone line for the app are not on their published pages as of August 2026. On Hive Inspect, your message reaches the engineers who build the product, seven days a week on published hours, with unlimited video calls and screen sharing — including during the free trial.

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, Inspector Toolbelt’s App Store listing lists English only and multilingual delivery is not on its pages.

Can I import my Inspector Toolbelt templates into Hive Inspect?

Yes. Inspector Toolbelt templates and comment libraries import directly, and the Hive team moves the rest — contacts, agreements, services and modifiers, automations, discount codes, location tags, business hours, team signatures and company info — at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection. Inspector Toolbelt’s own knowledge base includes a template export. Do not cancel first: keep both running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.

Who owns Inspector Toolbelt, and who owns Hive Inspect?

Inspector Toolbelt is operated by Full View Marketing LLC of Albany, New York, independently owned and bootstrapped by co-founders Beon de Nood, its lead developer, and Ian Robertson, a working inspector who runs three inspection companies; they say they have turned down a purchase offer from Porch and venture capital. 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.

Where is Inspector Toolbelt the better choice?

Three places. If price decides it, Inspector Toolbelt is $79 a month and $35 a seat against Hive’s $99 and $69. If you want free scheduling, agreements and invoicing without paying for a report writer, theirs is free. And if you are learning the trade, unlimited practice reports let you train before you pay. If those matter more than AI that writes the comment from your voice, merge, market context, Spanish and French, a Realtor dashboard, pay splits and published seven-day support, Inspector Toolbelt is the better buy.

Last reviewed: August 2026. We revisit this page when our own capabilities change and when Inspector Toolbelt 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, Binsr, 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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