Hive Inspect vs Tap Inspect: iPad-Only Since 2010, or AI on Every Plan and Every Device
Tap Inspect is a field-first iPhone and iPad report writer, founder-run since 2010, with a million inspections behind it. In its own help center it has no AI, no Android, no laptop editing, and “not yet” for Texas TREC and Florida wind mitigation. Hive Inspect runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, drafts the comment with AI in the house, generates the state forms, and includes an agent portal, CRM and pay splits.
Should you choose Hive Inspect or Tap Inspect?
Choose Hive Inspect for Smart Add, which matches what you say or type to your own comments, and AI Comment Assist, which drafts the whole comment when nothing fits, following your company's writing prompt. Tap Inspect has no AI features, and voice is Siri dictation into a text box, online only. Android, web and laptop editing, Texas and Florida forms generated from the report, Spanish and French delivery, an agent portal, CRM, analytics and pay splits are not on Tap Inspect's published pages as of 7 Oct 2026, and their help center answers several with “not yet” or “in the future”. Hive customer support runs 7 days a week, where theirs is weekday tickets.
Choose Tap Inspect if price decides it: $7.50 a report or $90 a month. Tap Inspect is cheaper, and we say so.
Same on both: offline field work, scheduling, agreements, payments, automatic client messages and a client portal. Hive Inspect is used by 2,500+ inspectors; Tap Inspect is a two-founder company in Louisville, Kentucky.
At a glance
Side by side
| Category | Hive Inspect | Tap Inspect |
|---|---|---|
| AI comment writing | Hive Inspect: Smart Add matches what you say or type to your own template comments; when nothing fits, AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment in the house, following your company’s writing prompt. Included in the $99. | Tap Inspect: As of 7 Oct 2026, no AI feature of any kind on its pages, help center or App Store listing. Comments come from a saved library of about 1,200 starters, typed or dictated. |
| Voice in the field | Hive Inspect: Say or type the finding; Smart Add matches your own comments, or AI Comment Assist drafts one. Needs an internet connection. | Tap Inspect: Apple’s Siri dictation into a text box, “only if you use Tap Inspect on an Apple device that has a network connection.” Not drafting, and not offline. |
| Merging related defects | Hive Inspect: AI Comment Merge makes related findings one comment, photos and location tags carried across. | Tap Inspect: As of 7 Oct 2026, not on Tap Inspect’s published pages. |
| Market context on defects | Hive Inspect: Context Layer shows your client how common each defect is nationally and in their state, so findings land in proportion. | Tap Inspect: As of 7 Oct 2026, not on Tap Inspect’s published pages. |
| Platforms | Hive Inspect: iPhone, iPad, Android and the web: finish in the house or at a desk. Works offline. | Tap Inspect: iPhone and iPad only; no Windows or Mac laptops, and Android “in the future.” Designed to work offline, a genuine strength. |
| State and industry forms | Hive Inspect: Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in. | Tap Inspect: Texas TREC and Florida wind mitigation, as of 7 Oct 2026: “Not yet… Tap Inspect can not generate the format mandated by the state.” NPMA-33 only as an attachment. |
| Multilingual reports (Spanish, French) | Hive Inspect: Deliver the report in Spanish or French. Other languages on request. | Tap Inspect: As of 7 Oct 2026, not on Tap Inspect’s published pages; the App Store listing lists English only. |
| Repair request builder | Hive Inspect: Included: buyers and agents build a repair list from the delivered report. | Tap Inspect: As of 7 Oct 2026, in beta and “only available to beta testers”: Repair Request Lists let buyers and agents build a repair request from the report in the client portal. The older ISN repair request list worked with the legacy app only; the ISN integration “is not compatible with the modern app experience.” |
| Back office | Hive Inspect: Online scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and an agent portal, all included. | Tap Inspect: Autopilot, in paid plans: a jobs dashboard, a public web scheduler (December 2025), e-signed agreements, ProPay payments, invoicing, automated email and SMS, a per-job client portal. Real, and credited. |
| Agent portal, CRM and analytics | Hive Inspect: An agent portal, CRM with automated follow-up, and business metrics, included. | Tap Inspect: A contacts list with CSV export and a CSV job-history export. An agent portal, a CRM and an analytics dashboard are not on their published pages as of 7 Oct 2026. |
| Multi-inspector operations | Hive Inspect: Each inspector has their own login and permissions; admin controls, team analytics, pay splits and several inspectors on one job are in the base plan. $69 per additional inspector. | Tap Inspect: A Team plan with two roles (Team Owner and Inspector), several inspectors on one job, shared templates and comments, $45 per additional inspector. Office roles, pay splits and team analytics are not on their published pages as of 7 Oct 2026. |
| Customer support | Hive Inspect: 7 days a week, including Saturday and Sunday, by chat, screen share, video call or email, answered by the Hive team. | Tap Inspect: Tickets from the app, email and SMS, “8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, excluding major and company holidays”; “out-of-hours responses are always courtesy.” No phone line or live chat published. A video academy and a Facebook user group. |
| Company | Hive Inspect: AI home inspection software, independently owned. 2,500+ inspectors and growing. | Tap Inspect: Tap Inspect Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, founder-owned since 2010 by Jason Adams and Michael Wirth, a retired inspector with over 10,000 inspections. Two employees, per third-party listings. |
| Price | Hive Inspect: $99/mo or $999/yr (about $83/mo); $69/mo per additional inspector; $9.90 per report in a $99 pack of ten; new inspectors $39 → $59 → $79, then $99. Five free reports, no card. AI and a one-on-one onboarding call included. | Tap Inspect: Pay As You Go $7.50 per job in blocks of 20 for $150; Unlimited $90/mo; Team $90/mo plus $45 per inspector. First five inspections free. Monthly billing only, no annual plan published. Card processing 2.9% + 30¢ plus $5/mo; SMS texting an unpublished extra. Cheaper than Hive per report and on Unlimited. |
Tap Inspect figures are quoted from Tap Inspect's own homepage, pricing and Autopilot pages, its help center (with each article's updated date), and its App Store listing, checked on 7 Oct 2026. Their plans change and ours do too. Out of date? Email support@hiveinspect.com and we'll correct it.
Common ground · Verdict: Tie, and Tap Inspect’s field design is real
Where the two are the same
The common ground is real and Tap Inspect's field design is genuinely good. On both: designed to work offline in the house; online scheduling, agreements with e-signature, invoicing, card payments and automated messages; a client portal for report, agreement and invoice; web reports with PDF download, unlimited photos; teams of inspectors on one account, with shared templates and comments; five free inspections to start, no card; a published promise not to sell or share client data for third-party marketing. It is listed so the gaps read as gaps rather than as marketing.
How the report gets written · Verdict: Saved comments and Siri, or AI in your company’s voice
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 Tap Inspect
Fast, deliberate, and built for the field since 2010, and every word typed, dictated or selected by you. Nothing drafts it.
On Hive Inspect
Every word your own comment or a draft written to your company’s prompt, and signed by you, in the house. Included in the $99.
Tap Inspect solved the 2010 problem, writing the report on site instead of at a desk, and solved it well. Hive Inspect starts from that solution and adds the 2026 one: the software writes the first draft.
The four steps on each platform
On Tap Inspect
- 1Open the Roof section on the iPad and rate the item: Satisfactory, Marginal, Repair or Replace, Further Evaluation.
- 2Search the saved-comments library or type; with a signal, tap the microphone and Siri dictates into the box.
- 3Add and mark up the photo; repeat for the nail heads and the boot. Three comments.
- 4Set the report to publish; it sends when you are back in signal. No TREC or wind-mitigation form from this data.
On Hive Inspect
- 1Say or type the first finding into Smart Add: “lifted shingles on the south slope.”
- 2Smart Add shows up to three of your own template comments that match, each with a match score. When nothing fits, AI Comment Assist drafts one following your company’s writing prompt, with a title and description, filed in the right section. Needs an internet connection.
- 3Repeat for the nail heads and the pipe boot, then AI Comment Merge folds the three into one comment, photos and location tags carried across.
- 4Context Layer adds how common this is in the state; you approve and deliver, in Spanish or French if needed, on iPhone, iPad, Android or the web.
Beyond the iPad · Verdict: Hive: AI, every platform, every state form
What does Hive Inspect have that Tap Inspect doesn't?
As of 7 Oct 2026, no AI feature appears anywhere on Tap Inspect’s pages, help center or App Store listing. Its help center answers “not yet” on Texas and Florida forms and “in the future” on Android; AI Comment Merge, Context Layer, an agent portal, a CRM, analytics and pay splits are not on its published pages; and its App Store listing lists English only.
AI, of any kind
Smart Add matches what you say or type to your own comments, and AI Comment Assist drafts the whole comment in the house when nothing fits, following your company’s writing prompt. Included in the $99.AI Comment Merge and Context Layer
AI Comment Merge combines related findings into one clean write-up, photos and location tags carried across. Context Layer shows your client how common each defect is nationally and in their state. Both included in the $99.Android, web and desktop
Runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, so you finish the report in the house or at a desk, on whatever your team carries. Tap Inspect “will not run on Windows or Mac laptops,” and Android is planned “in the future.”State and industry forms
Texas, Florida and NPMA formats are built in, so the form your state requires is a selection, not a workaround.Multilingual reports (Spanish, French)
Deliver the report in Spanish or French. Other languages on request.Agent portal, CRM, analytics and pay splits
An agent portal where agents see their clients’ inspections, CRM with automated follow-up, business and team analytics, pay splits and tandem inspections. Tap Inspect’s Autopilot covers scheduling, agreements, payments and messaging.
Business model · Verdict: Both keep your client yours; one opt-in referral
What else can end up on the bill?
Tap Inspect’s SMS terms say it does not use client phone numbers for its own marketing and “does not sell or share this information for unrelated third-party marketing,” and its privacy policy says “We don’t sell or license Personal Information to third parties.” We credit that. Two things to know: their Secure24 alarm-referral integration, opt-in per report, forwards “the contact information for the client” to Secure24 “as a referral on your behalf” and pays you $200 per installation; and the terms of service, while saying you own your reports, grant Tap Inspect a licence to “use, copy, adapt, modify” data you upload “as needed, to provide the Application.”
- We do not sell client data. Not to lead buyers, not to contractors, not to anyone.
- No per-inspection charge, and no referral programs that hand out your client’s details.
- No warranty, insurance, security or alarm offers in your client’s portal.
- Hive Inspect is independently owned and makes money from what you pay for: your plan, and any add-ons you choose, such as a website.
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?
What an inspector said
“Hive also won’t sell your client’s data to 3rd party vendors unlike other platforms.”
Direction · Verdict: A two-founder app rebuilding, or AI on every plan
What has each team been building?
Tap Inspect does not publish a changelog we can quote, so we will not guess at their cadence. We compare what each product's own pages say it is made of, and how fast your request becomes a feature.
Tap Inspect, from their announcements
Modern app experience rebuild (2021–2023), with a legacy app still documented · SMS texting add-on (October 2024) · Autopilot web scheduler (December 2025) · ISN job import in the modern app: “It is planned” · Android and laptop editing: “in the future”
Four feature announcements in three years from a two-founder team. Careful work; no AI on the list.
Hive, recent releases
One-click repair quotes from your recommended contractors (6 Oct 2026) · A public page for your business (6 Oct 2026) · Smart Add (14 Sep 2026) · Context Layer (16 Aug 2026)
Different problems: AI that helps write and read the report, and new ways for clients to find you and act on it.
“It’s incredible to request quality of life features and see them implemented in a matter of hours.”
More from inspectors, and the Sunday email
“I’m so pleasantly surprised at how quickly these changes are being implemented, nice work!”
“They WANT our input and quickly integrate suggestions.”
Every Sunday, you hear what changed: New features ship often and go into a public changelog. A summary of what shipped goes out by email every Sunday. See the changelog
Support · Verdict: 7 days a week, or weekdays 8 to 5 Eastern by ticket
Who picks up when something breaks
Tap Inspect publishes its support hours honestly: weekday tickets, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, with out-of-hours replies “always courtesy.” If your report breaks on a Saturday, you wait for Monday. Here, your message reaches a person on the Hive team, not a chatbot.
Customer support 7 days a week, including Saturday and Sunday, by chat, screen share, video call or email, not a ticket that auto-closes after three days.
“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.”
Report quality · Verdict: Test it yourself
Do not take our word on the AI
Tap Inspect has no AI to test against, so run this instead. It takes five minutes, and both trials are free, five inspections each:
- 1Pick a defect you have written a hundred times and pull your saved comment for it in Tap Inspect.
- 2Type the same defect into AI Comment Assist on the web, or say it into Smart Add’s microphone in the mobile app, and let Hive draft it to your company’s writing prompt.
- 3Read the two side by side, then look at the clock.
If it does not read like you, do not buy it. That goes for us too.
The report itself is yours to shape: layout, sections and branding, customized to how you prefer to present.
See sample reportsField-first since 2010 · Verdict: Tap Inspect, on mobile craft and price
When Tap Inspect is the better choice
Tap Inspect was mobile-first before most of the industry, and it shows. Choose it if you inspect on an iPad, want the fastest field-first workflow with no AI in the loop, and want to pay $7.50 a report or $90 a month, or if you value a founder-run app with sixteen years and a million inspections behind it. Those are real advantages, and an honest page says so.
A million inspections, 4.8 stars
“Trusted in Over 1 Million Home Inspections,” an App Store rating of 4.8 from roughly 4,900 reviews, and a claim that “96% of home inspectors stick with Tap Inspect.” Sixteen years of field use is not nothing.Built for the field, offline
“You can do an entire inspection, insert photos, create and insert comments, preview the PDF report and set the report to publish without a network connection.” Several devices can even edit the same report and merge when a signal returns.Cheaper, two ways
Pay As You Go is $7.50 a report, under our $9.90 pack price, and Unlimited is $90 a month to our $99. Their own guidance: fewer than 12 jobs a month, pay per job. For a part-timer who never needs AI, forms or a team, that arithmetic favours Tap Inspect.
What the extra $9 and the extra $2.40 a report buy on Hive is everything Tap Inspect’s pages say “not yet” or nothing about: AI that writes the comment, merge, market context, Android and web, Texas and Florida forms, Spanish and French, an agent portal, CRM, analytics, pay splits, and customer support 7 days a week.
Choose Hive Inspect if
- You want AI that finds your own comment or drafts one in your company’s voice from what you say or type. Tap Inspect has none.
- You or your team use Android, or want to finish reports on a laptop.
- You inspect in Texas or Florida and need the state form generated from the report.
- You want to deliver reports in Spanish or French.
- You want an agent portal, CRM, analytics and pay splits, not just scheduling and payments.
- You want support on a Saturday rather than waiting for Monday.
- You want new features often, with a Sunday email of what shipped.
If you switch, we move it for you, free
Our team moves your Tap Inspect templates and comment libraries into Hive Inspect, and the rest (agreements, contacts, services, business profile), with no migration fee and no hourly onboarding.
What moves, and how to switch safely
Templates · Comment libraries · Rating and severity choices · Contacts · Agreements · Services, add-ons & fees · Automations, where available · Discount codes, where available · Location tags · Team members & signatures · Business info & hours.
See what switching involves, then keep both subscriptions running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.
Hive Inspect and Tap Inspect: common questions
Something else? Ask customer support, 7 days a week, including Saturday and Sunday, by chat, screen share, video call or email.
What is Hive Inspect?
Hive Inspect is AI home inspection software. Its AI matches what you say or type to comments in your own template, and drafts a new one only when nothing fits. One subscription covers scheduling, agreements, payments, automations, CRM and a client and agent portal. It runs on iOS, Android and web, works offline (the AI tools need internet), and costs $99/month or $999/year however many inspections you do, every feature and AI tool included.
What does Hive Inspect have that Tap Inspect doesn’t?
AI of any kind: Smart Add matches what you say or type to your own comments, AI Comment Assist drafts one following your company’s writing prompt when nothing fits, AI Comment Merge combines related defects, and Context Layer adds market context. Also Android and web apps alongside iPhone and iPad; Texas, Florida and NPMA forms; multilingual delivery in Spanish and French; an agent portal, CRM, analytics and pay splits; and customer support 7 days a week. As of 7 Oct 2026, none of these are on Tap Inspect’s published pages or help center. What both have: offline field work, scheduling, agreements, payments, automated messaging, a client portal and teams.
How much does Tap Inspect cost compared to Hive Inspect?
Tap Inspect is cheaper. Pay As You Go is $7.50 per job in blocks of 20 for $150; Unlimited is $90 a month; the Team plan is $90 a month plus $45 per inspector. The first five inspections are free, and no annual plan is published. Card processing is 2.9% plus 30 cents with a $5 monthly account fee, and SMS texting is an extra monthly fee whose amount is not published. 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, AI included.
Does Tap Inspect have AI?
No, not on any published page, help-center article or App Store note as of 7 Oct 2026. Comments come from a saved library of about 1,200 starter comments or are typed; voice is Apple’s Siri dictation into a text box, which their help center says works “only if you use Tap Inspect on an Apple device that has a network connection.” Their only mentions of AI are a 2025 blog post describing it as an industry trend, a privacy-policy line that they may use AI tools “for customer support purposes and for operational efficiency,” and a help article suggesting ChatGPT to reformat a saved-comment export. Hive Inspect’s AI Comment Assist, AI Comment Merge and Context Layer are built in and included.
Does Tap Inspect work on Android or a computer?
No. Tap Inspect runs on iPhone and iPad (and Apple Vision). Their help center says it “will not run on Windows or Mac laptops… For now, you can only edit a report on your phone or tablet,” and that an Android version is planned “in the future.” The web account handles scheduling, settings and saved-comment editing, not report writing. Hive Inspect runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.
Does Tap Inspect have Texas TREC or Florida wind mitigation forms?
Not as of 7 Oct 2026. Tap Inspect’s help center answers “Not yet… Tap Inspect can not generate the format mandated by the state” for Texas TREC, and gives the same answer for Florida wind mitigation, suggesting inspectors fill the OIR form as a PDF in another app; NPMA-33 can only be attached. Hive Inspect includes Texas, Florida and NPMA formats built in.
Does Tap Inspect have a back office?
Yes: Autopilot, included in paid plans. It has a jobs dashboard, a public web scheduler launched in December 2025, agreements with e-signature, Tap Inspect Payments through ProPay, invoicing, automated email and SMS messages and a per-job client portal, plus Google Calendar one-way sync, Google Drive archiving, Mailchimp and HomeBinder. Not on their published pages as of 7 Oct 2026: an agent or Realtor portal, a CRM beyond a contacts export, an analytics dashboard, pay splits, QuickBooks or Zapier. Hive Inspect includes an agent portal, CRM, business metrics, pay splits and QuickBooks Online sync in the $99 plan.
Does Tap Inspect support multi-inspector companies?
Partly. The Team plan is $90 a month plus $45 per inspector, with two roles (Team Owner and Inspector), multiple inspectors on one job with a lead, and shared templates, comments and branding. Office or scheduler roles, pay splits and team analytics are not on their published pages as of 7 Oct 2026. Hive Inspect gives each inspector their own login and permissions, with admin controls, team analytics, pay splits and several inspectors on one job in the base plan, at $69 per additional inspector.
Who answers support at Hive Inspect and at Tap Inspect?
Tap Inspect support is by ticket from the app, email or SMS, “8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, excluding major and company holidays,” with out-of-hours replies described as courtesy and tickets auto-closing after three days without a reply; a phone line and live chat are not on their published pages. On Hive Inspect, customer support is 7 days a week, including Saturday and Sunday, by chat, screen share, video call or email, and your message reaches a person on the Hive team.
Does Hive Inspect support Spanish and French inspection reports?
Yes. Deliver the report in Spanish or French. Other languages on request. As of 7 Oct 2026, Tap Inspect’s App Store listing lists English only and multilingual delivery is not on its pages.
Can I move my Tap Inspect templates and saved comments to Hive Inspect?
Yes. The Hive team moves your Tap Inspect templates and saved-comment libraries, and the rest (contacts, agreements, services, business settings) at no cost, with a one-on-one onboarding call. Tap Inspect’s web account exports contacts and job history as CSV, and archived PDFs and photos through Google Drive. Do not cancel first: keep both running until your Hive templates have been through a real inspection.
Who owns Tap Inspect, and who owns Hive Inspect?
Tap Inspect Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky is founder-owned since 2010 by Jason Adams, its system architect, and Michael Wirth, a retired home inspector with over 10,000 inspections; third-party listings put the company at two employees. Hive Inspect is independently owned AI home inspection software, used by 2,500+ inspectors.
Where is Tap Inspect the better choice?
Three places. If you inspect on an iPad and want the fastest field-first workflow with no AI in the loop, Tap Inspect was built for exactly that and has a million inspections behind it. If price decides it, $7.50 a report or $90 a month beats Hive’s $9.90 and $99. And if you value a founder-run app with sixteen years of history, it is one. If those matter more than AI that writes the comment, Android and web, state forms, Spanish and French, an agent portal and customer support 7 days a week, Tap Inspect is the better buy.
Last reviewed: 7 Oct 2026. We revisit this page when either product changes. Verify competitor details with them too, since their plans move on their schedule, not ours. Comparing more than two? See the 2026 roundup of 11 tools.
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, Home Inspector Pro, ISN, 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 new comments get drafted to your company’s writing prompt.
Run five real reports before you decide
Start with 5 free reports, no credit card. We move your templates, agreements, services, contacts and settings, and set up your account so it’s ready to run your business, free.