Househound vs Horizon: where to move before Dec 15, 2026

Horizon shuts down on December 15, 2026. Carson Dunlop announced it on July 27, 2026, and its Horizon page says plainly: "You have three options. You choose your path. There is no automatic migration."

1. Migrate to Spectora: Carson Dunlop calls this its recommended path, with a one-click migration, dedicated onboarding and preferred pricing. Spectora's own FAQ discloses the arrangement: "Spectora is providing Carson Dunlop with a one-time administrative fee," and "There is no long-term commercial relationship related to this recommendation."
2. Move to a different platform: Export your data and take it with you. Carson Dunlop says the export tools stay available through December 15.
3. Use Horizon until sunset: Keep writing in Horizon through December 15 and export your records before that date. Your subscription terms continue as agreed until then.

Option 3 still ends in a move. It pushes the choice into the same weeks you'll be finishing reports, so it suits an inspector who has already decided where they're going and wants to close out the year on familiar software.

Househound is one of the platforms under option 2. The rest of this page compares Horizon as it ran with Househound, and is plain about where Horizon did more.

Every date below comes from Carson Dunlop's notice or Spectora's migration documents.

Two details change how you should plan the last weeks:

• Large exports from Horizon's Export Centre arrive as an emailed link that expires after 14 days. Download each file the day it arrives, and don't count on a link that lands close to December 15 still working afterwards.
• Spectora's help article says to "export your historical reports and photos from Horizon before December 15, 2026," and that after shutdown the data cannot be recovered. That applies whichever platform you choose.

Export everything you might need for record-keeping, insurance claims or a client who calls in three years. Nothing comes back after December 15.

Spreadsheets from the Export Centre

Go to Profile → Export Centre and choose an export. Spectora's Horizon FAQ lists agent and client lists, bookings and work-order data, company templates, dashboard data and tax reporting data. Carson Dunlop's own help article describes Excel exports of clients, agents, agent usage, work orders and report data. Large exports run in the background and email a download link to the primary administrator; the link expires after 14 days and can be requested again.

Past reports and photos

Neither Carson Dunlop nor Spectora publishes a bulk "download every report PDF" procedure for Horizon. Spectora's migration doesn't bring historical reports, report PDFs or photos either. If you need your archive, save the report PDFs you're required to keep, starting with the most recent. It's one report at a time, so start well before the last week.

What Househound does with the exports

• Templates: a Horizon report PDF, or the templates export if it arrives as a spreadsheet, can be uploaded on Househound's Templates page. Word .docx files are read too; an older .doc file has to be saved as .docx or PDF in Word first. Autodraft reads the file and builds a template and comment library you can edit. Up to 10 files at once, 20 MB each.
• Clients and agents: import the client and agent spreadsheets under People → Clients or Agents → Import contacts… on the web (.csv, .xlsx or .xls, up to 5,000 rows). You map the columns and preview; a contact whose email is already saved is updated, never duplicated, and every skipped row is listed with the reason.
• Past reports: upload the PDFs to the past-report archive (Reports → Archive → Past reports), up to 50 at a time. They're read-only, searchable by address, client, email and date, and shareable by link or email, but they don't become Househound inspections.

Check your own province's or state's record-retention rules. Spectora's FAQ notes that retention requirements vary by jurisdiction.

Househound costs $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one, with no per-report fee. Horizon's last published price was $79 a month, so a solo inspector moving from Horizon pays $20 a month more on Househound ($3.50 a month more on the $990 annual plan). Both of the other platforms courting Horizon users run discounted first terms; Househound doesn't, and its entry offer is the first 3 reports free with no card. Househound's subscription is priced in US dollars.

Regular monthly prices, once any introductory offer ends:

Assumptions: monthly billing, list prices checked October 27, 2026, base plans only.

• Spectora sells an optional Advanced add-on at $4 per inspection (pay splits, CRM, custom exports and more). At 25 inspections a month that adds $100; at 100 it adds $400. Its Horizon offer is $55 a month for the first 6 months or $545 for the first year, with added inspectors at $49.50 a month or $499.50 a year, for sign-ups by January 31, 2027.
• Hive Inspect offers Horizon switchers $50 a month for the first 6 months or $500 for the first year. Its standard annual plan is $999 a year plus $599 per added inspector.
• Househound has an annual plan at $990 a year plus $690 per added inspector: $2,370 a year for 3 inspectors and $7,200 for 10. On annual billing Hive costs less than Househound from the second inspector on ($2,197 a year for 3).

Card fees also differ. Househound charges 3.25% + $0.40 per client card payment (3.25% + C$0.40 for a Canadian company paid in Canadian dollars), and that includes Stripe's processing. Spectora's own card rate is the same 3.25% + $0.40. Hive doesn't publish its rates.

Horizon carried Carson Dunlop's teaching material into the report, and Househound has nothing like it. If those pieces were the reason you chose Horizon, weigh them before you weigh price.

• Pre-written content and illustrations: More than 1,700 color illustrations from The Illustrated Home, implications and technical articles added automatically, and a Home Reference eBook with each report. Househound gives you built-in starter templates and your own comment library.
• Repair and maintenance guidance: Ballpark repair costs, maintenance notes and life-expectancy guidance written for you. Househound has repair cost ranges and a repair request builder, but the costs are ones the inspector enters, and there's no maintenance or life-expectancy content.
• Ancillary forms: 30+ of them (pool, spa, radon, mold, lead). Both cover TREC, 4-Point and Wind Mitigation; Househound's fixed forms are NPMA-33, TREC REI 7-6, Florida wind mitigation and the Citizens 4-Point, and its Florida forms print as its own layout of the form, not the official PDF filled in.
• Specialist reports in the report: JPGs, PDFs and specialist reports added to the client's report. Househound's report holds photos and video, with a PDF download of the same report, but no added files.
• Integrations and marketing: Google Calendar sync, ISN, HomeBinder, RecallChek and automated follow-up marketing with agent tracking. Househound has no integrations and sends one follow-up email.

Of these, the illustrations and the ancillary forms are the hardest to replace. Spectora's migration carries TREC, 4-Point and Wind Mitigation to Spectora's versions and includes CAHPI Canada association templates.

Househound was built for writing in the house, often with no signal and sometimes with two or three inspectors on one job. Three details matter to Horizon users in particular:

• The phone app is where the report gets finished. Findings, photos, video, Autodraft and publishing all work on the phone, and every inspection in the week either side of today is already downloaded when you arrive.
• Payroll is built in for companies that pay inspectors per job: pay statements per inspector and a CSV for your payroll provider. It records pay and doesn't move money.
• Canadian companies take client card payments in Canadian dollars into a Canadian Stripe account, and reports can have a Canadian French version (translated automatically, with the English original governing) that the client switches to in the report. Invoices carry no GST/HST, PST or QST lines.

Customers get the founders' personal cell numbers, and the email is hello@househoundusa.com.

Plan on an afternoon of setup and a couple of weeks of overlap, and finish before December 15 so you can still open Horizon to check a comment or a client's details.

1. Run the Horizon exports and save a copy of the report PDFs you need to keep.
2. Create a Househound account on the web. The first 3 reports are free, with no card.
3. Upload a recent Horizon report PDF on the Templates page and review the template and comment library Autodraft builds from it.
4. Import the client and agent spreadsheets (People → Clients or Agents → Import contacts…) and upload the past report PDFs to the archive (Reports → Archive → Past reports).
5. Set up services, your agreement, email wording and the booking page, then connect Stripe if you take cards (choose Canada if your company is Canadian).
6. Write your next real inspection in Househound while Horizon is still open.

What doesn't move: services and fees, and your schedule. Those start fresh, and the exports stay in your files. Past reports sit in the archive as read-only PDFs, not as Househound inspections. Househound doesn't offer a done-for-you migration; if a file doesn't come through, email hello@househoundusa.com.

The step-by-step version is in How to switch from Horizon, and the Horizon shutdown guide covers every option, not only this one.