Househound vs ISN: per-inspection fees or a flat seat (2026)

ISN costs $7.25 per completed inspection for the first 50 each month, $5.50 each for inspections 51 to 100, and $3.75 each for 101 to 150. Above 150 a month the pricing page says to contact sales. A monthly minimum "may apply" after the 30-day trial, and ISN doesn't publish the amount. Househound costs $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one, whatever the volume, or $990 a year for the first inspector and $690 for each added one on annual billing.

The two bills move on different things. ISN's grows with the number of inspections your company completes. Househound's grows with the number of inspectors.

How the columns are worked out: ISN is 25 × $7.25; then 50 × $7.25 + 10 × $5.50; then 50 × $7.25 + 50 × $5.50; then that plus 50 × $3.75. Househound is $99 + $69 for each inspector after the first ($99 + 2 × $69 = $237; $99 + 9 × $69 = $720), billed monthly. On annual billing the same three columns come to $82.50, $197.50 and $600 a month ($990, $2,370 and $7,200 a year). List prices checked October 27, 2026. The ISN column leaves out ISN's unpublished monthly minimum and any card processing.

Where ISN comes out cheaper, against Househound's monthly price: a solo inspector doing 13 or fewer inspections a month (13 × $7.25 = $94.25 against $99), and a 3-inspector company doing 32 or fewer (32 × $7.25 = $232 against $237), about 11 each. Past 50 a month ISN's rate drops, so a large team breaks even a little higher: a 10-inspector company pays less on ISN up to 121 inspections a month, and the two match at 122 ($637.50 + 22 × $3.75 = $720). On Househound's annual plan those points fall to 11 inspections a month for a solo inspector, 27 for 3 inspectors and 93 for 10. A 3-inspector company doing 25 a month pays $181.25 on ISN against $237 on Househound. Where Househound comes out cheaper: a solo inspector doing 25 a month, 3 inspectors doing 60 or 100, or 10 inspectors doing 150 ($720 against $825).

A few more things shape the ISN bill:

• It counts completed inspections. ISN bills a month in arrears for every completed inspection, including one finished without a report. If ISN only runs your schedule, every job still carries the fee.
• The ISN Report Writer is included. If you write reports in a separate product and use ISN for the back office, add that subscription to the ISN column for a fair comparison.
• Porch may pay the fee for you. Under "Sponsored ISN Fees", Porch can cover an order's per-inspection fee when the client's full name, email and phone are on the order, the agreement is signed with consent to be contacted, and the client hasn't opted out.
• Prices have moved. Porch's April 2024 release said that "in the first quarter of 2024 ISN increased its minimum monthly fee and increased transaction fees by approximately 20%."
• Extras: Premium SMS/MMS is $15 a month ($5 for Evergreen members). Websites are a new add-on with no published price. InspectionBooking.ai is free "through the end of 2026".

Househound's only charge beyond the seat is the card fee: 3.25% + $0.40 per client card payment, with Stripe's processing included, so nothing else comes out. ISN's supported processor is Guardian, and ISN doesn't publish its rate.

ISN is owned by Porch Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRCH), which bought it in 2017. Porch describes itself as "a new kind of homeowners insurance company" in its 2026 earnings releases, and its annual report for 2025 says the "ISN collection of brands ... together represent roughly half of all U.S. home inspections in 2025."

ISN's privacy policy (last updated January 8, 2026) covers what happens to the reports you write:

"when an inspector submits an inspection report for the inspector's client, we collect property data from the inspection report."

"We share inspectors' and their clients' information, including inspection reports, with the Porch Group Companies for marketing purposes, to allow them to improve their products and services (such as confirming or supplementing information they have about a person or to classify a person as a mover), in connection with the data, technical, legal, accounting, and other services shared between the Porch Group Companies, and for other internal business purposes."

The opt-out the policy describes covers marketing calls: an inspector can "opt out of sharing your clients' personal information with the Porch Group Companies for the purpose of receiving marketing calls" by asking to disable Porch Gold or Evergreen in Office Settings. ISN's help center also documents switching Porch off for one client or one agent. The policy doesn't describe an opt-out from sharing inspection reports for the other purposes it lists.

What Porch does with property data is in its filings. The 2023 annual report says "more than 40% of home inspections in 2023 ... are processed through our software" and "This data helps feed our insurance underwriting models, better understand risk, and create competitive differentiation in underwriting." The 2025 annual report says the Porch-managed insurance exchange "uses Home Factors and other data points to better assess homes, underwrite risk, and effectively price homeowners insurance policies, with pricing advantages for well-maintained homes and pricing surcharges for homes that are higher risk." Neither filing says which details from a report go into which rate, so we don't either.

ISN also pays inspectors through Porch. ISN Evergreen says "We pay you when your clients buy any of six types of services": insurance, warranty, security, TV and internet, moving and solar. Insurance pays $75 at signup, $50 in year 2 and $25 in year 3, deposited monthly. Clients are offered a concierge appointment after they pay for the inspection, and called if they don't book one. Some inspectors value that income; others would rather their clients weren't contacted. Evergreen replaced Porch Gold, which waived ISN fees in exchange for home-services leads.

Househound is independently owned, with no investors or parent company. Its privacy policy says client data is never sold and never used to market to your clients. The more general guide is who owns home inspection software.

ISN says it has served inspection businesses for more than 25 years and powers over 2 million inspections a year. Its back office goes further than Househound's in several places:

• Report writer choice: Keep Spectora, HomeGauge, Home Inspector Pro, Palm-Tech or one of 11 other integrated writers, or use the included ISN Report Writer.
• Texts and integrations: Built-in text events and two-way texting, QuickBooks, Google Calendar and iCal, Zapier, an API with webhooks, HomeBinder and RecallChek. Househound is email only, with no integrations.
• Getting paid: Release gated on signature and payment, FlexFund pay at closing, and a surcharge you can pass to the client where the law allows it.
• Agents and booking: The Real Estate Dashboard, an agency relationship manager, coupons, zip-code limits, and a phone assistant that answers calls and creates the order.
• Reports: The PDF sent as an attachment as well as a link, Report Designer layouts, revocable links, and an image Defect Detector.

Both cover TREC, Florida wind mitigation, the Citizens 4-Point and NPMA-33, and both have a repair request builder. If several of the points above run your week, ISN is the better fit, and for a team doing modest volume it can cost less.

You can, but the two won't talk to each other. Househound isn't one of ISN's integrated report writers and has no API, so each job would be entered twice, and ISN would still bill for every completed inspection.

The simpler route is the other way round: Househound takes over booking, agreements, emails, invoices and the report together, and ISN is cancelled at the end of the month.

ISN's mobile app says it does: the App Store listing reads "Offline inspection support - no connection needed" and "Work offline without losing progress." ISN's help article on offline mode doesn't spell out what stays on the phone. When several inspectors share a report, ISN says the Report Writer keeps them in sync "so long as they're connected to the Internet."

Househound's apps are built offline-first. With signal, every inspection in the week either side of today downloads on its own, with photos and your comment library. With none, findings, photos, video and dictation save on the phone and upload later. Notes dictated with no signal are drafted by Autodraft when you're back in range. The web dashboard is online only.

ISN delivers an interactive web report and a PDF, by link or attachment, and can send the link by text. Links can be revoked, restored or set to expire, and release can wait until the client signs and pays. Agents and clients can build a repair request list from the findings.

Househound delivers a link that opens on any phone with no login. It starts on a count of major, moderate and minor findings, holds video and 360° photos, and keeps a dated copy of each publish. Clients and agents get a portal with reports, agreements and invoices. Each published version has a PDF download of the same report, and the delivery email links to the PDF rather than attaching it. If you turn them on, clients can switch the report to Spanish or French (each with its own PDF), and see the repair cost ranges you entered with a total by severity. The client or the buyer's agent can build a repair request from the deficiencies and share it as a link, copy it into the repair addendum, download a CSV or print it. Report styling is one design with your logo and contact details.

Export everything before you cancel. ISN's terms say charges are non-refundable and that after termination "ISN has no obligation to retain or provide any User Content to you."

• Clients and agents: download each list as CSV from Clients/Agents, then import it in Househound under People › Clients or Agents › Import contacts… (on the web). You map the columns and preview; a contact whose email is already saved is updated, not duplicated.
• Past reports: connect the Dropbox or Google Drive backup in Office Settings, which copies reports, agreements and attachments. Downloading one order at a time also works. Upload the report PDFs to Househound's past-report archive (Reports › Archive › Past reports, up to 50 at a time): they're read-only, searchable by address, client and date, and shareable, but they don't become editable inspections.
• Templates: ISN doesn't publish a template export. Save one finished report from each template as a PDF and upload it on Househound's Templates page; Autodraft builds a template and comment library you can edit. Up to 10 files at once, 20 MB each.
• If you use another report writer with ISN: a Spectora template export (.xlsx) is read directly, recommendations and default estimates included, from either the Plain Text or the HTML Text export. Word (.docx) templates import directly; other writers come in through a sample PDF or spreadsheet.
• Services, agreements, emails and the booking page: set up fresh in Househound. You can upload your existing agreement file.
• Billing: ISN bills a month in arrears, so expect one more invoice after you stop.

There's no 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 ISN.