AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs Palmtech: A Comment Helper, or AI That Writes the Comment

Palmtech is the cheapest full-featured platform on this site — $50 a user, every feature, seven-day phone hours — and a Porch Group business since 2021. Its AI suggests up to 75 characters from a starting phrase and reads defects in photos, with daily caps. Hive Inspect's AI drafts the whole comment from your voice in the house, merges related defects and adds market context, with a Realtor dashboard, SMS automations and pay splits around it.

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The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or Palmtech?

Both write interactive reports, schedule jobs, sign agreements, take payments and send automated emails, both cover TREC and Florida forms, and both have AI in the report writer. Palmtech is cheaper — $50 a user a month, every feature — and we say so. What the difference buys: AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from your voice in your own template style, with no daily cap, where Palmtech's AI Comment Helper generates up to 75 characters from a typed starting phrase, 100 calls a day in beta; AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, Spanish and French delivery, a Realtor dashboard and client portal, SMS automations, pay splits and team analytics — none of which are on Palmtech's published pages as of August 2026. And Palmtech is “a business unit of Porch.com, Inc.,” whose programs share client information for marketing if you opt in; Hive has no such program. Hive Inspect is used by 2,500+ inspectors; Palmtech has been used by inspectors since 1998.

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and Palmtech for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	Palmtech
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, no daily cap.	AI Comment Helper “suggesting spot-on, accurate comments based on your inspection notes” — in their help article, from a typed Starting Phrase, up to 75 characters by default, 100 AI calls per user per day during beta, documented in the web Report Writer. 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 (Palmtech 11): “Automatically detects issues in photos and drafts detailed comments you can review and add” — up to 10 images at a time, 100 per inspector per day. Real, and credited.
Voice in the field	Say the finding; AI Comment Assist drafts it.	Voice commands — “Go to Exterior”, “Add a comment to Exterior Windows”, “Take a picture of Sub panel” — for navigating and inserting, on mobile. Not dictation into a draft.
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 Palmtech’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 Palmtech’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 Palmtech’s published pages.
State and industry forms	Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in.	TREC (“Meets all Texas Real Estate Commission reporting requirements right out of the box”), the 2026 Florida wind mitigation form and the Citizens 4-point form, auto-populating your inspector details. Credit where due.
Repair request builder	Included. Buyers and agents build a repair list straight from the delivered report.	Build Request List — clients and agents “request repairs or credits based on inspection findings,” with credit amounts and notes. Parity.
Realtor dashboard and CRM	A Realtor dashboard where agents see every inspection you have done together, plus CRM and automated follow-up — included.	A client and agent database, and portal metrics for top agents by inspections and revenue. A client portal, an agent portal and SMS automations are not on their published pages as of August 2026 — automations are email only.
Back office	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, all included.	Since Palmtech 11: a portal with calendar, scheduling and services, an online scheduler you embed on your site (June 2026), agreements with e-signature, Guardian card processing “as low as 2.75%,” ten automated emails, metrics, and an ISN handoff. A real back office, credited.
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.	Owner, Admin and Inspector roles, several inspectors on one inspection working simultaneously online, inspector flagging by colour, $50 per user. Pay splits and per-inspector revenue analytics are not on their published pages as of August 2026, and inspectors “can only be added to an inspection when it is first created.”
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.	“You’ll get a live person between the hours of 6AM – 5PM PT, M-F and 6AM – 3PM PT on Saturday and Sunday,” plus email, portal chat and free onboarding sessions. Seven-day phone support, credited.
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.	Palmtech’s data page: “Palmtech does not sell or share any inspection data with third parties.” Its privacy policy: client information is shared with Porch Family Companies for marketing “if you choose to participate in Porch programs, such as Porch Gold.” Opt-in, and worth reading before you opt in.
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.	Founded by Will Singer in 1998; “a business unit of Porch.com, Inc.” since Porch acquired it in January 2021, alongside ISN, Home Inspector Pro and Guardian Inspection Payments. Palmtech 11, the web-and-mobile rebuild, shipped February 17, 2026. “Used by 1000s of home inspectors.”
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.	“$50 a user per month” or “$500 a user per year,” every feature included, unlimited reports, free support, no contracts; an introductory offer of $199 up front and $20 a month for the first year. Five free published inspections, no card. The cheapest full-featured platform on this site.

Palmtech figures are quoted from Palmtech's own homepage, pricing, features and Palmtech 11 pages, its help center, its privacy policy and terms, Porch Group press releases, and its App Store listing, 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 starting phrase 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 Palmtech 11

Say “Go to Roof” and “Take a picture of the shingles”; upload the photos to the AI Image Defect Detector, which drafts a comment per image.
Or click New Comment, type a Starting Phrase — “lifted shingles” — and the AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters; tick Longer or Include Recommendation.
Keep, edit or delete each suggestion; three findings stay three comments, against the daily caps of 100 each.
Mark complete; the interactive report and PDF go out, with the Build Request List for the agent.

Real AI, credited — a helper and a detector inside a rebuilt 1998 report writer, documented in the web Report Writer.

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.

Palmtech’s own blog puts it well: the AI “generates comment suggestions based on your findings. You review, edit, and approve before anything goes to a client.” The difference is how much of the comment exists before you start reviewing.

Beyond the helper

Hive — AI that writes, and the office around it

What does Hive Inspect have that Palmtech doesn't?

Hive Inspect includes what Palmtech's published pages do not as of August 2026 — AI that drafts the whole comment with no daily cap, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, multilingual delivery, a Realtor dashboard with a client portal and SMS, and pay splits with team analytics.

AI that writes the comment, not a 75-character 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, with no daily cap, and it is included in the $99. Palmtech’s AI Comment Helper generates up to 75 characters from a typed Starting Phrase, 100 calls per user per day during beta, and as of August 2026 is documented only in the web Report Writer.

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 Palmtech’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 Palmtech’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 Palmtech’s published pages.

Realtor dashboard, client portal and SMS automations

The Realtor dashboard is a Hive Inspect feature where agents log in once and see every inspection you have done together, with a client portal, CRM, and automated email and SMS included in the $99. Palmtech has a client and agent database and ten automated emails; as of August 2026, a client portal, an agent portal and SMS automations are 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. Palmtech has Owner, Admin and Inspector roles and simultaneous co-editing — credit where due — but as of August 2026, pay splits and per-inspector revenue analytics are not on its published pages.

Hive for multi-inspector firms

Common ground

Tie, and Palmtech covers the basics

Where the two are the same

The common ground is wide and Palmtech covers the basics well for its price; it is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing.

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

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

Online scheduling, agreements with e-signature, card payments and automated emails, on both.

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

Interactive HTML reports with PDF, on both.

Team roles and several inspectors on one inspection, on both.

Seven-day support hours, on both.

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

Business model

Read the Porch program terms, then decide

Who gets your client after the report?

Palmtech is “a business unit of Porch.com, Inc.,” and Porch said in the 2021 acquisition announcement that it expected to give Palmtech “the ability to help its consumers with key move-related transactions such as insurance.” Two Palmtech pages describe what that means in practice. Their data-protection page: “Palmtech does not sell or share any inspection data with third parties… We also do not share your contact information, or your client’s contact information, unless you and your client give us permission to do so.” Their privacy policy: client information is shared with the Porch Family Companies for marketing “if you choose to participate in Porch programs, such as Porch Gold” — the program in which Porch’s concierge contacts homebuyers about insurance, moving and home services. So the honest summary is: opt-in, and read the opt-in. Hive Inspect has no such program to opt into: 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★

Price and phone hours

Palmtech, at $50 a seat with seven-day phones

Where Palmtech is simply cheaper — and reachable

An honest page says this first: Palmtech is the lowest-priced full-featured platform on this site, and you can get a person on the phone seven days a week.

$50 a seat to our $99 and $69

“$50 a user per month” or “$500 a user per year,” every feature included, unlimited reports, no contracts — and an introductory year at $199 up front plus $20 a month. Solo, that is roughly half of Hive; at three inspectors, $150 against $237.

A live person, seven days

“You’ll get a live person between the hours of 6AM – 5PM PT, M-F and 6AM – 3PM PT on Saturday and Sunday.” Phone, email, portal chat, free onboarding sessions. Few platforms publish weekend phone hours; Palmtech does.

Twenty-eight years of templates

Used by inspectors since 1998, with pre-loaded templates, “thousands of comments,” TREC and Florida forms, a shared template library, and — in 2026 — Global Lists and Global Ratings so one edit updates every template.

What the difference buys on Hive is the rest of this page: AI that writes the whole comment from your voice with no daily cap, merge, market context, Spanish and French, a Realtor dashboard and client portal, SMS automations, pay splits and team analytics, and a client relationship with no Porch program attached to it. If you do not need those, Palmtech is the better deal, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

Direction

A 1998 writer rebuilt in 2026, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

Palmtech 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.

Palmtech — from their release posts

AI Comment Helper (December 2024)
Palmtech 11: web and mobile rebuild, AI Image Defect Detector (February 2026)
Global Ratings and Global Lists (March 2026)
Online Scheduler (June 2026); category imports (July 2026)
Chris Schuld returns to lead engineering across Palmtech, ISN and HIP (July 2026)

A 1998 report writer rebuilt for the web in 2026, with the same AI helper as its sister brand ISN. Shipping steadily.

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 seven days; engineers here, a call center there

Who picks up when something breaks

Credit first: Palmtech publishes seven-day phone hours — 6am to 5pm Pacific on weekdays, 6am to 3pm at weekends — with email, portal chat and free onboarding sessions, and it is now supported by the same inspector-success team as ISN. That is genuinely good. The difference here is who picks up: at Palmtech, a support team that logs and escalates; at Hive, the engineers who build the product, seven days a week, with unlimited video calls and screen sharing — so most issues get fixed on the call rather than after it.

Support on Hive Inspect

Seven days a week, including Saturday and Sunday — published hours, like Palmtech’s.
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 — five inspections each, no card on either. So run the like-for-like test:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times.
On Palmtech, click New Comment, type its Starting Phrase 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 the AI to write the whole comment from your voice in the house, in your own style, with no daily cap — not a 75-character starting point.
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, client portal and SMS automations, not an agent database and email only.
You run a firm and need pay splits and team analytics — included.
You want your client to hear from you and nobody else, with no Porch program to opt into or out of.
You want features shipping every week, with a Sunday summary of what changed.

Choose Palmtech instead if price decides it — $50 a user a month, every feature, against our $99 and $69 — or if seven-day phone hours matter more than who answers, or if you want a report writer with twenty-eight years of templates behind it and an ISN handoff. Those are real advantages, and an honest page says so.

If you switch, everything transfers free

Palmtech 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 Palmtech: 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 Palmtech doesn’t?

AI that drafts the whole comment from your voice in the house, in your own template style, with no daily cap (Palmtech’s AI Comment Helper suggests up to 75 characters from a typed Starting Phrase, 100 calls a day in beta); AI Comment Merge; Context Layer market context; multilingual delivery in Spanish and French; a Realtor dashboard and client portal; SMS automations; pay splits and team analytics; engineers on support; and a client relationship with no Porch program attached. As of August 2026, none of these are on Palmtech’s published pages. What both have: TREC and Florida forms, a repair request builder, scheduling, agreements, payments, email automations, team roles and seven-day support.

How much does Palmtech cost compared to Hive Inspect?

Palmtech is cheaper. Its pricing page lists “$50 a user per month” or “$500 a user per year,” every feature included, unlimited reports, free support and no contracts, with an introductory year at $199 up front plus $20 a month; five published inspections are free, no card. 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, Hive is $49 a month more; at three inspectors, $237 against $150.

Does Palmtech have AI?

Yes, two features included in the subscription. The AI Comment Helper, announced in December 2024, suggests comments “based on your inspection notes” — in their help article, from a typed Starting Phrase, up to 75 characters by default, with a cap of 100 AI calls per user per day during beta. The AI Image Defect Detector, part of Palmtech 11 in February 2026, scans uploaded photos and drafts a comment per image, up to 10 at a time and 100 per inspector per day. Both are documented in the web Report Writer. Voice on Palmtech is navigation commands, not dictation into a draft. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment from what you say or type in your template’s style with no daily cap, and AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are included.

Who owns Palmtech?

Porch Group. Palmtech was created by Will Singer in 1998 and Porch announced its acquisition on January 14, 2021; Palmtech’s privacy policy and terms describe it as “a business unit of Porch.com, Inc.,” alongside ISN, Home Inspector Pro, Guardian Inspection Payments and America’s Call Center. Porch’s FY2025 annual report says its inspection brands together represent roughly half of all U.S. home inspections. Hive Inspect is privately owned.

Does Palmtech have Texas TREC and Florida forms?

Yes. Palmtech publishes a TREC sample that “meets all Texas Real Estate Commission reporting requirements right out of the box,” the 2026 Florida wind mitigation form and the Citizens 4-point form, both auto-populating your inspector details. Hive Inspect includes Texas, Florida and NPMA formats. This is a parity feature.

Does Palmtech have a back office?

Yes, since Palmtech 11: a web portal with calendar, scheduling, services and metrics, an online scheduler you can embed on your website (June 2026), agreements with e-signature, Guardian card processing “as low as 2.75%,” ten automated emails, a client and agent database, and an ISN handoff. What is not on their published pages as of August 2026: a client portal, an agent or Realtor portal, SMS automations, pay splits, per-inspector analytics, Google Calendar, QuickBooks or Zapier. Hive Inspect includes a Realtor dashboard, client portal, CRM, email and SMS automations, pay splits and team analytics in the $99 plan.

Does Palmtech support multi-inspector companies?

Yes, with Owner, Admin and Inspector roles, several inspectors working on one inspection simultaneously online, colour-coded inspector flagging, and $50 per user. Their help center notes that inspectors “can only be added to an inspection when it is first created.” Pay splits and per-inspector revenue analytics are not on their published pages as of August 2026. 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.

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at Palmtech?

Palmtech publishes seven-day phone hours — “6AM – 5PM PT, M-F and 6AM – 3PM PT on Saturday and Sunday” — plus email, portal chat and free onboarding sessions, through the inspector-success team it shares with ISN. On Hive Inspect, your message reaches the engineers who build the product, seven days a week, with unlimited video calls and screen sharing, so most issues get fixed on the spot rather than logged and escalated.

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 Palmtech’s published pages.

Can I import my Palmtech templates into Hive Inspect?

Yes. Palmtech templates and comment libraries import directly, and the Hive team moves the rest — contacts, agreements, services and modifiers, automations, business hours, team signatures and company info — at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection. Palmtech’s data page confirms “you own your Palmtech data.” Do not cancel first: keep both running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.

Where is Palmtech the better choice?

Three places. If price decides it, Palmtech is $50 a user a month with every feature, against Hive’s $99 and $69 a seat. If seven-day phone hours matter more to you than who answers, Palmtech publishes them. And if you want a report writer with twenty-eight years of templates, TREC and Florida forms, and a handoff to ISN, it has all three. If those matter more than AI that writes the whole comment, merge, market context, Spanish and French, a Realtor dashboard, SMS, pay splits and a client with no Porch program attached, Palmtech is the better buy.

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