AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs ISN: One Flat Price, and Your Client Stays Yours

ISN is the industry's office platform — since 2002, over two million inspections a year — with a newer report writer and an AI helper bolted on, billed per inspection, and owned by Porch, whose privacy policy shares your clients' information with Porch companies for marketing. Hive Inspect is the report writer and the office in one flat $99, AI that writes the comment in the house, and a client relationship nothing markets into.

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

The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or ISN?

Both schedule jobs, sign agreements, take payments, run automations and give agents a dashboard, and both have AI in the report writer. The differences are what the AI does, how you are billed, and who gets your client. ISN's AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters from a typed title, 100 calls a day in beta; Hive's AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from your voice in your own style, and AI Comment Merge and Context Layer come with it. ISN bills every inspection — $7.25 each for the first fifty in a month, then $5.50, then $3.75, plus a monthly minimum — where Hive is a flat $99 with nothing charged per inspection. And ISN's privacy policy says it shares “inspectors' and their clients' information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes,” with opt-outs you must set; Hive shares no client data and markets nothing into your client's portal. Where ISN wins: integrations, payroll tools and sheer scale. Hive Inspect is used by 2,500+ inspectors; ISN powers over two million inspections a year.

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and ISN for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	ISN
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.	AI Comment Helper “automatically suggests categorized, editable comments based on your notes” — in practice from a typed title such as “well maintained”, up to 75 characters by default, 100 calls per user per day during beta. Nothing on their pages drafts a narrative from voice or field notes.
AI on photos	Photos and voice feed AI Comment Assist together, so the draft comes from what you saw and said.	AI Image Defect Detector flags potential defects in uploaded photos and writes a separate comment per image — up to 10 images at a time, 100 per inspector per day. Real, and credited.
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 ISN’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 ISN’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, multilingual delivery is not on ISN’s published pages.
Report writer	Built around AI from the first line. Interactive web report, layout and branding customized to you, finished in the house on the phone or tablet you inspect with.	The ISN Report Writer: “sleek, interactive HTML reports” and PDF export, comment library, image editor, repair request builder, and templates for Florida wind mitigation, Citizens 4-Point, NPMA-33 and TREC. The mobile app works offline; the web report writer “requires an active internet connection.” ISN also integrates with HomeGauge, Spectora, Palm-Tech, HIP and others if you keep another writer.
Back office	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and a Realtor dashboard, all included.	ISN’s home turf since 2002: online scheduling with inspector assignment by availability and proximity, agreements, Guardian card and ACH payments, FlexFund pay-at-close, email and SMS automations, message history, and the Real Estate Professional Dashboard for agents. Genuinely deep.
Multi-inspector operations	Each inspector gets their own login, custom permissions and workspace; admin controls, centralized billing, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections are in the base plan. Unlimited inspectors at $69 each.	User privileges, split or fixed payroll calculations with an Inspector Earnings Report, primary and secondary inspectors per order, per-inspector availability, time clock, QA and task assignment. No per-seat charge — you pay per inspection instead.
Integrations	Payments, scheduling and delivery are built in; the Hive team moves your data in.	QuickBooks Online, Google Calendar, Zapier (11 triggers, 9 actions), RecallChek, radon monitors, HomeBinder, six call-center partners and more than a dozen third-party report writers. ISN’s strongest card.
Who gets your client	Nobody but you. No offers in the client portal, no client data shared for marketing, contact details stay in your account.	ISN’s privacy policy: “We share inspectors’ and their clients’ information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes.” Under Porch Gold and Evergreen, Porch’s concierge emails and calls the homebuyer about insurance, moving, utilities and handyman services. Inspectors can opt out at office, agent and client level.
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, email, live chat and a 24/7 help center, with free 1:1 onboarding. Their contact page publishes weekday and weekend hours (Pacific); their homepage says weekdays 9am–7pm Eastern; their features page says weekday business hours Pacific. Weekend coverage is real — which hours apply is not clear from their pages.
Migration / Onboarding Support	Your ISN contacts, agents, agreements, services, automations and business settings move with our team, and report templates import directly — at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection.	Free 1:1 onboarding, 23 tutorial videos and webinars. Template import from Spectora and Palm-Tech, converted by email with a “typical turnaround time of 2 business days.”
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.	Launched in 2002 by Chris Schuld and Dan Huber, Seattle. “Inspection Support LLC, a Porch.com, Inc. business” — Porch Group acquired it in 2017 per Porch, or 2021 per ISN’s own about page. “ISN powers over 2 million inspections a year.” The industry’s largest office platform.
Price	$99/mo flat, 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. Report writer, AI, automations, CRM and Realtor dashboard all included; nothing charged per inspection.	Per inspection, billed monthly in arrears: $7.25 each for the first 50 in a month, $5.50 for the next 50, $3.75 up to 150, “contact sales” above that — plus an unpublished monthly minimum. No seat fees; report writer included. Add-ons: Premium SMS $15/mo, ACH $20/mo + $2.25 per transaction, FlexFund $50 per transaction. 30-day free trial, no card.

ISN figures are quoted from Inspection Support Network's own homepage, pricing, features and report-writer pages, its help center and privacy policy, and Porch Group press releases, 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

A title and a suggestion, 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 ISN

Photograph the defects; the AI Image Defect Detector flags what it sees and writes a separate comment per image, up to ten at a time.
Type a title such as “lifted shingles” and the AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters — tick “longer box” for more, “include recommendation” for a next step.
Keep, edit or delete each suggestion; three findings stay three comments.
Finish in the mobile app offline, or in the web report writer with a connection.

Real AI, credited — a suggestion engine inside an office platform. 100 helper calls and 100 images per inspector per day during beta.

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, no daily quota.

ISN built an office platform and then added a report writer and an AI helper to it. Hive Inspect built the AI report writer and put the office around it. Both are legitimate orders of operations; they produce very different afternoons.

Beyond the office

Hive — the report and the business, one flat price

What does Hive Inspect have that ISN doesn't?

Hive Inspect includes what ISN's published pages do not as of August 2026 — AI that drafts the whole comment, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer and multilingual delivery — on a flat price with no meter, and with no partner program marketing to your client.

AI that writes the comment, not a suggestion

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. ISN’s AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters from a typed title, 100 calls a day during beta, and as of August 2026 nothing on their pages drafts a narrative from voice or field notes.

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 ISN’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 ISN’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, multilingual delivery is not on ISN’s published pages.

A flat price with no meter

Everything in Hive Inspect — report writer, AI, scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM, Realtor dashboard, team tools — is included in a flat $99 a month, so a forty-inspection month costs what a four-inspection month costs. ISN bills every inspection processed: $7.25 each for the first fifty in a month, then $5.50, then $3.75, on top of an unpublished monthly minimum.

See what $99 includes

A client who stays yours

On Hive Inspect your client’s portal shows your report and your branding, nothing else; no client data is shared for marketing and contact details stay in your account. ISN’s privacy policy shares inspectors’ and clients’ information with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes, and Porch’s concierge contacts homebuyers under its Gold and Evergreen programs unless you opt out.

Read our data privacy pledge

Common ground

Tie, and ISN’s office tools are real

Where the two are the same

The common ground here is wide and ISN's office tools are excellent; it is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing.

Online scheduling, agreements, payments and automated email and SMS, on both.

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

State and industry forms — Florida wind mitigation, 4-point, NPMA-33, Texas — on both.

An agent dashboard — Hive’s Realtor dashboard, ISN’s Real Estate Professional Dashboard — on both.

Interactive HTML reports with PDF export, unlimited photos and video, on both.

Multi-inspector logins, permissions and pay splits, on both.

AI in the report writer, on both — different depths.

Business model

Read their privacy policy, then decide

Who gets your client after the report?

This is the section to read twice. ISN is “Inspection Support LLC, a Porch.com, Inc. business,” and its privacy policy, last updated January 2026, says: “We share inspectors’ and their clients’ information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes.” Under Porch Gold and ISN Evergreen — which ISN describes as optional programs that can pay you “up to $474 per inspection” — Porch’s home-services concierge emails the homebuyer after the inspection and, in their words, “we’ll call and see if they need help,” offering insurance quotes, moving, utilities, security and handyman services. ISN is careful about consent: inspectors can disable Porch for the whole office, for an individual agent, or for a single client, and the policy says the client “will never be contacted by Porch” once opted out. We credit that. Hive Inspect has no such program to opt out of: no offers in your client’s portal, no client data shared for marketing, one revenue line — the subscription.

We do not sell or share client data for marketing. Not to lead buyers, not to contractors, not to a parent company.
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★

Integrations and scale

ISN, by a distance

Where ISN is simply bigger

An honest page says this out loud: on integrations and scale, ISN is not close to anyone.

“Over 2 million inspections a year”

ISN’s homepage figure. Porch Group says its inspection brands together processed roughly 40% of U.S. home inspections in 2023. If you want the platform most agents’ offices have already seen, this is it.

Integrations for everything

QuickBooks Online, Google Calendar, Zapier with eleven triggers and nine actions, RecallChek, radon monitors, HomeBinder, six call-center partners, and more than a dozen third-party report writers including HomeGauge, Spectora, Palm-Tech and HIP.

Money tools a firm notices

Guardian card and ACH processing, FlexFund pay-at-close so you are paid the next business day while the client pays at closing, split or fixed payroll calculations, and an Inspector Earnings Report.

None of that is on Hive’s pages because Hive is built around one subscription that already contains the report writer, the AI and the office. If your business runs on a stack of specialist tools, ISN is the hub built for that. If you would rather have one tool, keep reading.

Direction

An office platform adding AI, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

ISN 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.

ISN — from their pages

ISN Report Writer with HTML and PDF output, templates and repair request builder
AI Comment Helper (2024) and AI Image Defect Detector
Guardian payments, FlexFund, ACH, Premium SMS
Real Estate Professional Dashboard, Smart Scheduling
Porch Gold and Evergreen partner programs

An office platform since 2002, adding a report writer and AI helpers in the last few years. The AI suggests; it does not yet write.

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

Both publish weekend hours — ISN publishes five versions

Who picks up when something breaks

Credit first: ISN publishes weekend hours on its contact page and help center, offers phone, email and live chat, and gives free 1:1 onboarding — more than most platforms. What it does not do is agree with itself: their homepage says weekdays 9am to 7pm Eastern, their features page says weekday business hours Pacific, and their contact page says 5am to 9pm Pacific plus weekends. Ask which one is true before you sign. Here, the hours are one line: your message reaches an engineer seven days a week.

Support on Hive Inspect

Seven days a week — one published schedule, not five.
Live chat, screen sharing and video calls, unlimited — not a fixed onboarding allotment.
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 — 30 days on ISN, five reports on Hive, no card on either. So run the like-for-like test:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times.
On ISN, type its title into the AI Comment Helper and take the suggestion. 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 one flat price — $99 whether the month brings four inspections or forty — instead of a per-inspection meter with a monthly minimum.
You want your client to hear from you and nobody else after the report.
You want the AI to write the comment in the house, in your own style, not suggest 75 characters from a title.
You want related defects merged and market context on every finding.
You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French.
You want the report writer, the office and the AI in one tool rather than a hub for a stack of them.
You would rather reach an engineer, with one published schedule, seven days a week.

Choose ISN instead if your business runs on a stack of specialist tools — QuickBooks, a call center, a third-party report writer, Zapier — and you want the hub the industry built around them; if you need FlexFund pay-at-close and payroll reporting today; or if you value being on the platform behind two million inspections a year. Those are real advantages, and ISN earned them.

If you switch, everything transfers free

ISN 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 ISN: 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 ISN doesn’t?

AI that drafts the whole comment in the house in your own template style (ISN’s AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters from a typed title), AI Comment Merge, Context Layer market context, multilingual delivery in Spanish and French, a flat $99 price with nothing charged per inspection, and a client relationship nothing markets into. As of August 2026, ISN’s published pages include none of the first four; ISN bills per inspection and its privacy policy shares client information with Porch Group Companies for marketing.

How much does ISN cost compared to Hive Inspect?

ISN bills per inspection, monthly in arrears: $7.25 each for the first 50 inspections in a month, $5.50 for the next 50, $3.75 up to 150 and “contact sales” above that, plus a monthly minimum whose amount is not published. There are no per-seat fees and the report writer is included; Premium SMS is $15 a month, ACH is $20 a month plus $2.25 per transaction, and FlexFund is $50 per transaction. A solo inspector doing 25 inspections pays about $181 a month on ISN; Hive Inspect is $99 flat. A three-inspector firm at 100 inspections pays about $638 on ISN; Hive is $237. Hive Inspect is $99 a month or $999 a year, $69 per additional inspector, with nothing charged per inspection.

Does ISN charge per inspection?

Yes. ISN’s pricing page lists $7.25 per inspection for the first 50 in a month, $5.50 for the next 50, and $3.75 for the next 49 up to 150, with “contact sales” for 151 or more, plus a monthly minimum fee after the 30-day trial whose amount is not published. Hive Inspect charges nothing per inspection on any plan.

Does ISN have AI?

Yes, two features inside the ISN Report Writer. The AI Comment Helper “automatically suggests categorized, editable comments based on your notes” — in their help article, from a typed title, up to 75 characters by default, with a limit of 100 calls per user per day during beta. The AI Image Defect Detector flags potential defects in uploaded photos and writes a separate comment per image, up to 10 images at a time and 100 per inspector per day. As of August 2026, nothing on ISN’s pages drafts a narrative from voice or field notes. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from what you say or type, in your template’s writing style, with no daily quota, and AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are included.

Who owns ISN, and what does Porch do with my clients?

ISN is “Inspection Support LLC, a Porch.com, Inc. business.” Porch Group says it acquired ISN in 2017; ISN’s own about page says ISN “became part of the Porch house of brands in 2021.” ISN’s privacy policy, last updated January 2026, says: “We share inspectors’ and their clients’ information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes.” Under the optional Porch Gold and Evergreen programs, Porch’s concierge emails and calls homebuyers after the inspection about insurance, moving, utilities, security and handyman services, and pays the inspector commissions. Inspectors can disable Porch for the office, for an agent, or for a single client, and ISN says an opted-out client “will never be contacted by Porch.” Hive Inspect has no equivalent program: no client data shared for marketing and nothing marketed into your client’s portal.

Can I turn Porch off in ISN?

Per ISN’s help center, yes, at three levels: disable Porch in Office Settings for the whole company, disable it for an individual agent, or mark a single client “Do not send any emails or SMS messages relating to Porch.” Evergreen can also be opted out per client or inspection. Whether Porch is on or off by default for a new account is not on their published pages, so ask. The separate privacy-policy sentence about sharing information with Porch Group Companies “for marketing purposes” describes an opt-out for marketing calls specifically — read it before you decide.

Does ISN have its own report writer?

Yes. The ISN Report Writer is included in the per-inspection fee and produces interactive HTML reports and PDFs, with a comment library, image editor, repair request builder and templates including Florida wind mitigation, Citizens 4-Point, NPMA-33 and TREC. The mobile app works offline; the web report writer requires an internet connection. ISN also integrates with more than a dozen third-party report writers — HomeGauge, Spectora, Palm-Tech, Home Inspector Pro and others — if you keep the one you have.

Does ISN support multi-inspector companies?

Yes, and well. ISN publishes user privileges, split or fixed payroll calculations with an Inspector Earnings Report, primary and secondary inspectors per order, per-inspector availability, a time clock, QA and task assignment, with no per-seat charge because billing is per inspection. 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 and additional inspectors at $69 each — so a ten-inspector firm pays $720 flat rather than a per-inspection bill.

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at ISN?

ISN offers phone, email, live chat, a 24/7 help center and free 1:1 onboarding, and publishes weekend hours — though its pages disagree on the schedule: weekdays 9am–7pm Eastern on the homepage, weekday business hours Pacific on the features page, 5am–9pm Pacific plus weekends on the contact page. On Hive Inspect, your message reaches the engineers who build the product, seven days a week on one published schedule, 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, multilingual delivery is not on ISN’s published pages.

Can I move from ISN to Hive Inspect?

Yes. Your ISN contacts, agents, agreements, services, automations and business settings move with the Hive team’s help, report templates import directly, and onboarding calls are unlimited until your first inspection — at no cost. ISN’s pricing FAQ confirms “you can export and download your data anytime.” Do not cancel ISN first: keep both running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.

Where is ISN the better choice?

Three places. If your business runs on a stack of specialist tools — QuickBooks, a call center, a third-party report writer, Zapier — ISN is the hub the industry built around them. If you need FlexFund pay-at-close and payroll reporting today, ISN has both. And if being on the platform behind two million inspections a year matters to you, nothing else comes close. If those matter more than a flat price, AI that writes the comment in the house, Spanish and French delivery and a client nobody else contacts, ISN is the better buy.

Last reviewed: August 2026. We revisit this page when our own capabilities change and when ISN 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, Palmtech, Inspector Toolbelt, 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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AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs ISN: One Flat Price, and Your Client Stays Yours

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

The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or ISN?

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and ISN for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	ISN
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.	AI Comment Helper “automatically suggests categorized, editable comments based on your notes” — in practice from a typed title such as “well maintained”, up to 75 characters by default, 100 calls per user per day during beta. Nothing on their pages drafts a narrative from voice or field notes.
AI on photos	Photos and voice feed AI Comment Assist together, so the draft comes from what you saw and said.	AI Image Defect Detector flags potential defects in uploaded photos and writes a separate comment per image — up to 10 images at a time, 100 per inspector per day. Real, and credited.
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 ISN’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 ISN’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, multilingual delivery is not on ISN’s published pages.
Report writer	Built around AI from the first line. Interactive web report, layout and branding customized to you, finished in the house on the phone or tablet you inspect with.	The ISN Report Writer: “sleek, interactive HTML reports” and PDF export, comment library, image editor, repair request builder, and templates for Florida wind mitigation, Citizens 4-Point, NPMA-33 and TREC. The mobile app works offline; the web report writer “requires an active internet connection.” ISN also integrates with HomeGauge, Spectora, Palm-Tech, HIP and others if you keep another writer.
Back office	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and a Realtor dashboard, all included.	ISN’s home turf since 2002: online scheduling with inspector assignment by availability and proximity, agreements, Guardian card and ACH payments, FlexFund pay-at-close, email and SMS automations, message history, and the Real Estate Professional Dashboard for agents. Genuinely deep.
Multi-inspector operations	Each inspector gets their own login, custom permissions and workspace; admin controls, centralized billing, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections are in the base plan. Unlimited inspectors at $69 each.	User privileges, split or fixed payroll calculations with an Inspector Earnings Report, primary and secondary inspectors per order, per-inspector availability, time clock, QA and task assignment. No per-seat charge — you pay per inspection instead.
Integrations	Payments, scheduling and delivery are built in; the Hive team moves your data in.	QuickBooks Online, Google Calendar, Zapier (11 triggers, 9 actions), RecallChek, radon monitors, HomeBinder, six call-center partners and more than a dozen third-party report writers. ISN’s strongest card.
Who gets your client	Nobody but you. No offers in the client portal, no client data shared for marketing, contact details stay in your account.	ISN’s privacy policy: “We share inspectors’ and their clients’ information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes.” Under Porch Gold and Evergreen, Porch’s concierge emails and calls the homebuyer about insurance, moving, utilities and handyman services. Inspectors can opt out at office, agent and client level.
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, email, live chat and a 24/7 help center, with free 1:1 onboarding. Their contact page publishes weekday and weekend hours (Pacific); their homepage says weekdays 9am–7pm Eastern; their features page says weekday business hours Pacific. Weekend coverage is real — which hours apply is not clear from their pages.
Migration / Onboarding Support	Your ISN contacts, agents, agreements, services, automations and business settings move with our team, and report templates import directly — at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection.	Free 1:1 onboarding, 23 tutorial videos and webinars. Template import from Spectora and Palm-Tech, converted by email with a “typical turnaround time of 2 business days.”
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.	Launched in 2002 by Chris Schuld and Dan Huber, Seattle. “Inspection Support LLC, a Porch.com, Inc. business” — Porch Group acquired it in 2017 per Porch, or 2021 per ISN’s own about page. “ISN powers over 2 million inspections a year.” The industry’s largest office platform.
Price	$99/mo flat, 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. Report writer, AI, automations, CRM and Realtor dashboard all included; nothing charged per inspection.	Per inspection, billed monthly in arrears: $7.25 each for the first 50 in a month, $5.50 for the next 50, $3.75 up to 150, “contact sales” above that — plus an unpublished monthly minimum. No seat fees; report writer included. Add-ons: Premium SMS $15/mo, ACH $20/mo + $2.25 per transaction, FlexFund $50 per transaction. 30-day free trial, no card.

How the report gets written

A title and a suggestion, or the whole comment

Two ways to write the same comment

On ISN

Photograph the defects; the AI Image Defect Detector flags what it sees and writes a separate comment per image, up to ten at a time.
Type a title such as “lifted shingles” and the AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters — tick “longer box” for more, “include recommendation” for a next step.
Keep, edit or delete each suggestion; three findings stay three comments.
Finish in the mobile app offline, or in the web report writer with a connection.

Real AI, credited — a suggestion engine inside an office platform. 100 helper calls and 100 images per inspector per day during beta.

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, no daily quota.

Beyond the office

Hive — the report and the business, one flat price

What does Hive Inspect have that ISN doesn't?

Multilingual reports (Spanish, French)

A flat price with no meter

See what $99 includes

A client who stays yours

Read our data privacy pledge

Common ground

Tie, and ISN’s office tools are real

Where the two are the same

The common ground here is wide and ISN's office tools are excellent; it is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing.

Online scheduling, agreements, payments and automated email and SMS, on both.

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

State and industry forms — Florida wind mitigation, 4-point, NPMA-33, Texas — on both.

An agent dashboard — Hive’s Realtor dashboard, ISN’s Real Estate Professional Dashboard — on both.

Interactive HTML reports with PDF export, unlimited photos and video, on both.

Multi-inspector logins, permissions and pay splits, on both.

AI in the report writer, on both — different depths.

Business model

Read their privacy policy, then decide

Who gets your client after the report?

We do not sell or share client data for marketing. Not to lead buyers, not to contractors, not to a parent company.
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★

Integrations and scale

ISN, by a distance

Where ISN is simply bigger

An honest page says this out loud: on integrations and scale, ISN is not close to anyone.

“Over 2 million inspections a year”

Integrations for everything

Money tools a firm notices

Guardian card and ACH processing, FlexFund pay-at-close so you are paid the next business day while the client pays at closing, split or fixed payroll calculations, and an Inspector Earnings Report.

Direction

An office platform adding AI, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

ISN 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.

ISN — from their pages

ISN Report Writer with HTML and PDF output, templates and repair request builder
AI Comment Helper (2024) and AI Image Defect Detector
Guardian payments, FlexFund, ACH, Premium SMS
Real Estate Professional Dashboard, Smart Scheduling
Porch Gold and Evergreen partner programs

An office platform since 2002, adding a report writer and AI helpers in the last few years. The AI suggests; it does not yet write.

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

Both publish weekend hours — ISN publishes five versions

Who picks up when something breaks

Support on Hive Inspect

Seven days a week — one published schedule, not five.
Live chat, screen sharing and video calls, unlimited — not a fixed onboarding allotment.
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 — 30 days on ISN, five reports on Hive, no card on either. So run the like-for-like test:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times.
On ISN, type its title into the AI Comment Helper and take the suggestion. 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 one flat price — $99 whether the month brings four inspections or forty — instead of a per-inspection meter with a monthly minimum.
You want your client to hear from you and nobody else after the report.
You want the AI to write the comment in the house, in your own style, not suggest 75 characters from a title.
You want related defects merged and market context on every finding.
You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French.
You want the report writer, the office and the AI in one tool rather than a hub for a stack of them.
You would rather reach an engineer, with one published schedule, seven days a week.

If you switch, everything transfers free

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 ISN: common questions

What is Hive Inspect?

What does Hive Inspect have that ISN doesn’t?

How much does ISN cost compared to Hive Inspect?

Does ISN charge per inspection?

Does ISN have AI?

Who owns ISN, and what does Porch do with my clients?

Can I turn Porch off in ISN?

Does ISN have its own report writer?

Does ISN support multi-inspector companies?

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at ISN?

Does Hive Inspect support Spanish and French inspection reports?

Can I move from ISN to Hive Inspect?

Where is ISN the better choice?

Keep reading

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

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