AI-first home inspection software

Hive Inspect vs ScribeWare: AI-First With the Whole Back Office, or a Report Writer

ScribeWare is a report writer of real craft: you assemble the report from a library and checkboxes, and its AI is an assistant you connect yourself, on your own Claude or Gemini bill. Hive Inspect is AI-first: AI Comment Assist drafts the comment in the house in your own style — inspectors tell us it saves them around 30 minutes a report — and the same subscription runs the whole business: Realtor dashboard, CRM, business and team analytics, pay splits, and a team that moves you in for free.

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

The short answer

Should you choose Hive Inspect or ScribeWare?

Both write reports, book jobs and take payments. The difference is what writes the report and what runs the business around it. ScribeWare is a desktop-era report writer of real craft — a deep written comment library, Gunnysacks™, Required Items Review — and its AI is an assistant you connect yourself, on your own Claude or Gemini subscription; nothing on its pages drafts a comment from the house. Hive Inspect is AI-first: AI Comment Assist drafts the comment in your own style in the house, AI Comment Merge combines related defects, Context Layer adds market context, and the finished report is translated into Spanish or French — inspectors tell us Comment Assist alone saves them around 30 minutes a report — and the same subscription runs the whole back office: Realtor dashboard, CRM, business and team analytics, pay splits, and free done-for-you onboarding, none of which are on ScribeWare's published pages or documentation as of August 2026. Hive Inspect is used by 2,500+ inspectors; ScribeWare has been publishing since at least 2016.

At a glance

The whole comparison in one table

Side by side

Feature and price comparison of Hive Inspect and ScribeWare for home inspectors
Category	Hive Inspect	ScribeWare
AI comment writing	AI Comment Assist drafts the comment in the house from what you say or type, in your own template writing style — built in, included in the $99.	Their AI Assistant is a connection (MCP): you bring your own Claude or Gemini subscription, and it can edit observations you already wrote under your standing instructions. Nothing on their pages drafts a comment from your field notes, and the AI it connects to is a separate bill — typically $20 to $100 a month, paid to the AI provider.
Merging related defects	AI Comment Merge combines related findings into one clean comment, with photos and location tags carried across.	Gunnysacks™ — a bulleted list of defects per system — does a related job by hand, and does it well. No AI merge is on their published pages as of August 2026.
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 ScribeWare’s published pages or documentation.
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 portal on “one link” — sign, pay, view the report — and a contacts list. An agent portal and a CRM are not on their published pages or documentation as of August 2026.
Business analytics and pay splits	Business metrics, team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections are in the base plan; each inspector gets their own login and permissions.	Team roles and permissions are documented — who edits templates, who sees whose reports, who is admin — and the calendar is color-coded per inspector. Business analytics and pay splits are not on their published pages or documentation as of August 2026.
Back office: booking, contracts, payments	Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations and client delivery, all included.	Yes, since ScribeWare 7: online booking with intake forms and quotes, a Contract Editor, card payments through Payfactory, message automations, a client portal and Google Calendar sync — plus ISN, Keystone and Zapier integrations. Credit where due: their January 2025 post still pointed inspectors to ISN and Keystone for this; it is in the product now.
State and industry forms	Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in.	Texas TREC templates and a built-in Florida wind mitigation form, per their pages and documentation. Parity.
Spanish and French report translation	Write the report in English once; Hive translates it and delivers it in the language your client prefers — Spanish, French, and more. One report serves the English-speaking agent and the Spanish-reading client.	No translation on their published pages as of August 2026. “We even support French and Spanish reports” — as templates written in that language (a non-English template is available by contacting support). You write the whole report in Spanish or French yourself.
Where the report gets finished	In the house, on the phone or tablet you inspect with, offline if the basement has no signal — so the report can go out before you leave the driveway.	Desktop for Windows and Mac plus iOS and Android with offline sync; finishing on the desktop is the designed workflow. One Capterra reviewer: “It’s not really possible to give them the report right after finishing the inspection.”
Comment library and report craft	Your own library imports and AI Comment Assist drafts in its style, so new comments read like the old ones.	An extensive, professionally written library from a co-founder who is a Washington-licensed inspector with 5,500+ inspections, Gunnysacks™, Required Items Review, interactive HTML reports with unlimited photos and video. This is the part ScribeWare does best.
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.	A phone line (866-660-4185), email, documentation, a “get help” button that sends trace logs, and a monthly Zoom meetup. Support hours are not published as of August 2026.
Migration / Onboarding Support	ScribeWare templates and comment libraries import directly. The Hive team moves the rest — agreements, contacts, services, business profile — at no cost, with unlimited onboarding calls until your first inspection.	One-on-one onboarding at $100 an hour and “Scriber Tune-Up” sessions at $89 an hour; annual subscriptions include two free hour-long Zooms. Horizon switchers get free template and library imports and 50% off the first annual plan.
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 to start, no card. New inspectors: $39 → $59 → $79, then $99. AI included; onboarding calls free and unlimited.	$99/mo, or $89/mo paid annually as a $1,068 lump sum. $69/mo per additional inspector. $12 per report à la carte. First three reports free, no card. The AI Assistant needs your own Claude or Gemini subscription (typically $20–$100/mo, paid to the AI provider); one-on-one onboarding is $100/hr.

ScribeWare figures are quoted from ScribeWare's own home inspection, features, pricing and about pages, 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

ScribeWare on craft. Hive in the house.

Two ways to write the same report

This is the difference an inspector feels on day one. 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 ScribeWare

Open the roof system and pull three comments from the professionally written library, or your own.
Stack them into a Gunnysack™ so they read as one bulleted defect list.
Dictate edits with voice-to-text — or connect your own Claude or Gemini through their AI Assistant and ask it to tighten the observations, on your AI subscription.
Run Required Items Review, then deliver the web report.

Every word on the page was written by a human, in advance. That is the craft, and for many inspectors it is the point.

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 — translated into Spanish or French if the client prefers.

Every word on the page was drafted in your style and signed by you, in the house.

Neither way is wrong. If you would rather assemble from a library you trust, ScribeWare is a genuinely good place to do it. If you would rather say it once and approve a draft — inspectors tell us AI Comment Assist saves them around 30 minutes a report — that is what Hive Inspect is built for, at the same price.

Beyond the report

Hive, on everything a business runs on

What does Hive Inspect have that ScribeWare doesn't?

Hive Inspect includes what ScribeWare's published pages and documentation do not as of August 2026 — AI built in with no second bill, AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, Spanish and French report translation, a Realtor dashboard with CRM and business metrics, pay splits and team analytics, and done-for-you onboarding at no cost.

AI built in — no second bill

AI Comment Assist is a Hive Inspect feature that drafts the comment in the house from what you say or type, in your own template writing style, and it is included in the $99. ScribeWare’s AI Assistant connects your own Claude or Gemini to edit observations you already wrote — the AI subscription it needs is a separate bill, typically $20 to $100 a month, and as of August 2026 nothing on their pages drafts a comment from your 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. ScribeWare’s Gunnysacks™ organise defects into per-system lists by hand; as of August 2026, no AI merge is on their 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 ScribeWare’s published pages or documentation.

How Context Layer works

Spanish and French report translation

Report translation is a Hive Inspect feature: write the inspection in English and deliver it in the language your client reads — Spanish, French, and more — with no translator, no second template and no delay. ScribeWare supports French and Spanish reports as templates you write in that language; as of August 2026, nothing on its published pages translates an English report.

Realtor dashboard, CRM and business metrics

The Realtor dashboard is a Hive Inspect feature where agents log in once and see every inspection you have done together, with CRM, automated follow-up and business metrics included in the $99. ScribeWare’s Scheduling+ has a client portal and contacts; as of August 2026, an agent portal, a CRM and business analytics are not on its published pages or documentation — which is why a Capterra reviewer wrote that “integrating with ISN or some management software is almost a must.”

See every feature

Pay splits and team analytics

Multi-inspector operations are built into Hive Inspect: each inspector gets their own login, custom permissions and workspace, and pay splits, tandem inspections, team automations and team analytics are in the base plan with unlimited inspectors at $69 each. ScribeWare documents team roles and permissions — credit where due — but pay splits and team analytics are not on its published pages or documentation as of August 2026.

Hive for multi-inspector firms

Done-for-you migration and onboarding, free

Done-for-you migration is a Hive Inspect service included in every subscription: templates and comment libraries import directly, our team moves the rest, and onboarding calls are unlimited until your first inspection. ScribeWare’s published rate for one-on-one onboarding is $100 an hour and $89 an hour for tune-up sessions, with two free hour-long Zooms on annual plans.

What switching involves

Common ground

Tie, and it is a long list

Where the two are the same

The common ground on this pair is wide, and it is listed so the gaps above read as gaps rather than as marketing: ScribeWare has state forms and, since ScribeWare 7, a real booking-and-payments back office.

State forms — Texas TREC templates, Florida wind mitigation — on both.

Online booking, contracts, card payments and automated messaging, on both.

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

Interactive web reports with unlimited photos and video, on both.

Repair lists for buyers and agents, on both.

Team logins with roles and permissions, on both.

Business model

Both keep your client yours — in writing

What else can end up on the bill?

Nothing on ScribeWare’s side worth warning you about, and one thing worth crediting: their pages say “We will not reach out to your client with any offer, ever.” That is the right stance and it is ours too. ScribeWare is independently owned by its two co-founders and sells one thing — the software — plus hourly onboarding help; the AI subscription its AI Assistant connects to is billed by Anthropic or Google, not by ScribeWare. Hive Inspect is privately owned and makes money one way, the subscription: no per-inspection charge, no offers in your client’s portal, and nothing sold to anyone about your client. On this question the two companies agree, in writing.

We do not sell 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★

Direction

A craftsman’s report writer, or AI-first

What has each team been building?

ScribeWare 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.

ScribeWare — feature list, from their pages

Gunnysacks™ defect lists and Required Items Review
ScribeWare 7 back office: booking, contracts, payments, message automations
AI Assistant (MCP) — connect your own Claude or Gemini
Sewer, RV, UK survey and EEE balcony report types
ISN, Keystone, Zapier and Google Calendar integrations

A report writer refined since at least 2016, with a back office added in ScribeWare 7 and an actively updated changelog. The AI on the list is a connection to an assistant you pay for separately.

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

ScribeWare publishes a phone number, an email address, documentation and a monthly Zoom meetup — a small team you can actually reach, which is more than many platforms offer. What it does not publish is hours, so we will not invent them. 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 — not a fixed allotment or an hourly rate.
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

ScribeWare’s AI edits a report you already wrote, through an assistant you connect and pay for; nothing on their pages drafts the comment from the house. So run this test instead — it takes five minutes and both trials are free:

Pick a defect you have written a hundred times and pull the comment for it from your ScribeWare library — theirs or yours.
Describe the same defect to Hive Inspect, out loud or typed, and let AI Comment Assist draft it in your template’s style.
Read the two side by side, then look at the clock: ScribeWare says it saves its average user 30 to 90 minutes a report. See what Hive saved you.

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 AI built in and included — not a second $20 to $100 monthly AI subscription to connect.
You want the comment drafted in the house, in your own style, and merged and put in context before you leave.
You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French without writing them in Spanish or French.
You want a Realtor dashboard, CRM and business metrics without adding an ISN or Keystone plan on top.
You run a firm and need pay splits, team analytics and tandem inspections — included, not missing.
You want migration done for you, free, with unlimited calls — not $100 an hour.
You are brand new and want a ramp for the first three months.
You would rather reach an engineer on a Saturday, with published hours.

Choose ScribeWare instead if you want a professionally written comment library built by a working inspector with 5,500 inspections behind him, prefer to assemble reports from Gunnysacks™ on a Windows or Mac desktop, or need sewer, RV, UK survey or EEE balcony report types out of the box. The price is the same, and those are real reasons to choose it.

If you switch, everything transfers free

ScribeWare 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 ScribeWare: 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 ScribeWare doesn’t?

Everything around the report that a business runs on, in one subscription: built-in AI that drafts the comment in the house in your own template style (ScribeWare’s AI Assistant connects your own Claude or Gemini, a separate bill), AI Comment Merge, Context Layer market context, Spanish and French report translation, a Realtor dashboard, CRM, business and team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections, free done-for-you migration with unlimited onboarding calls, and a reduced ramp for brand-new inspectors. As of August 2026 none of these are on ScribeWare’s published pages or documentation. What both have: state forms, Spanish and French delivery, online booking, contracts, payments and automated messaging.

How much does Hive Inspect cost compared to ScribeWare?

The same sticker. ScribeWare is $99 a month, or $89 a month paid annually as a $1,068 lump sum, with $69 a month per additional inspector and a $12-per-report à la carte option. 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. The differences sit outside the sticker: ScribeWare’s AI Assistant needs your own Claude or Gemini subscription, typically $20 to $100 a month paid to the AI provider, and one-on-one onboarding is $100 an hour; on Hive the AI is built in and the onboarding calls are free and unlimited.

Does ScribeWare have AI features?

Yes, in the form of a connection. ScribeWare’s AI Assistant uses MCP to link your own Claude or Gemini subscription to your ScribeWare data, so you can ask it to, in their example, “tighten up the observations in the Roof chapter,” with standing instructions for your style and a review-and-undo bar. Their homepage also mentions an AI Concierge for template setup. Two things follow: the AI subscription it connects to is a separate bill, typically $20 to $100 a month paid to the AI provider, and as of August 2026 nothing on their pages or documentation drafts a comment from your field notes in the house. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist, AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are built in and included in the $99 plan.

Does ScribeWare translate reports into Spanish or French?

Not on its published pages as of August 2026. ScribeWare’s features page says “We even support French and Spanish reports,” and their sample reports include a fully French report from a Canadian client — that is a non-English template you write the whole report in, available by contacting their support. Hive Inspect translates: write the report in English and deliver it in the language the client prefers — Spanish, French and more — so one report serves both the agent and a client who reads Spanish. Credit ScribeWare for the templates; the translation is the gap.

Does ScribeWare have scheduling and a back office?

Yes, since ScribeWare 7. Their changelog and documentation cover online booking with intake forms and quotes, a Contract Editor for agreements, invoices with card payments through Payfactory, message automations, a client portal and Google Calendar sync, plus ISN, Keystone and Zapier integrations — a real change from their January 2025 position of pointing inspectors to ISN and Keystone for business management. What is not on their pages or documentation as of August 2026: an agent or Realtor portal, a CRM beyond contacts, business analytics, and pay splits. Hive Inspect includes all of those in the $99 plan.

What are Gunnysacks in ScribeWare, and does Hive have an equivalent?

Gunnysacks™ are ScribeWare’s bulleted defect lists per system — a way to stack related findings into one clean list rather than a string of separate comments. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Merge solves the same readability problem differently: it combines related defect comments into one, carrying photos, location tags and descriptions across, without assembling the list by hand.

How much does onboarding cost on ScribeWare and on Hive Inspect?

ScribeWare’s published rate for one-on-one onboarding is $100 an hour; annual subscriptions include two free hour-long Zooms, and Horizon switchers get free template and library imports. Hive Inspect’s done-for-you migration and onboarding calls are free and unlimited until your first inspection, on every plan.

Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at ScribeWare?

ScribeWare publishes a phone line (866-660-4185), an email address, documentation and a monthly Zoom meetup, and does not publish support hours as of August 2026. 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.

Can I import my ScribeWare templates and comment library into Hive Inspect?

Yes. ScribeWare 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. Do not cancel ScribeWare first: keep both running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.

Does ScribeWare market to my clients?

No, and they say so plainly: “We will not reach out to your client with any offer, ever.” Hive Inspect takes the same position — no offers in your client’s portal, no client data sold, and your client’s contact details stay in your account. On this question the two platforms agree in writing.

Who owns ScribeWare, and who owns Hive Inspect?

ScribeWare is independently owned by its co-founders, Dylan Chalk — a Washington-licensed home inspector with 5,500+ inspections and author of The Confident House Hunter — and Steve Lamb, its CTO, formerly an engineer at Microsoft and Xbox Live; it is based in Seattle and has been publishing since at least 2016. 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 ScribeWare the better choice?

Three places. If you want a professionally written comment library from a working inspector rather than drafting from your own, ScribeWare’s is deep and well organised. If you prefer to finish reports on a Windows or Mac desktop with Gunnysacks™ and Required Items Review, that workflow is built for it. And if you need sewer, RV, UK survey or EEE balcony report types out of the box, they publish them. The price is identical, and so are the state forms; if those three matter more to you than built-in AI, comment merging, market context, Spanish and French translation, a Realtor dashboard, CRM, team analytics and free onboarding, ScribeWare is the better buy.

Last reviewed: August 2026. We revisit this page when our own capabilities change and when ScribeWare 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, Palm-Tech, 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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