Househound vs Palm-Tech: price, forms and ownership (2026)

Palm-Tech costs $50 per user a month, or $500 per user a year, with every feature on every plan and unlimited reports. Househound costs $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one, or $990 a year for the first inspector and $690 for each added one. On price alone, Palm-Tech is about half for one inspector and about two thirds for a team.

Assumptions: list prices checked October 27, 2026; each inspector is one Palm-Tech user. Neither charges per report, so the totals hold at 25 or 100 inspections a month. Palm-Tech costs less at every size and on both billing periods.

Card processing adds to the gap. Palm-Tech's payments run through Guardian Inspection Payments, whose Palmtech page lists 2.75% + $0.30 per transaction, with an asterisk it doesn't explain and an annual PCI questionnaire. On a $400 inspection that's $11.30. Househound's fee is 3.25% + $0.40, which includes Stripe's processing, so the same $400 costs $13.40 and nothing else comes out.

The extra money on Househound pays for live editing by a whole crew, automatic offline downloads, Autodraft, 360° media, a client and agent portal, and payroll. If none of those matter to you, Palm-Tech is the cheaper choice.

Palm-Tech is owned by Porch Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRCH). Porch announced the acquisition in January 2021, and Palmtech's terms say "Palmtech is a business unit of Porch.com, Inc." The app's App Store seller is Porch.com, Inc. Palm-Tech has been used by inspectors since 1998. Porch also owns ISN and Home Inspector Pro.

Palmtech's privacy policy (last updated October 12, 2021) says it collects "information about the properties that are inspected in connection with the services you provide to your clients through our platform, such as when you prepare an inspection report", and in some cases information about your clients. It says client information is shared with "Porch Family Companies" if you "choose to participate in Porch programs, such as Porch Gold", for marketing, to improve their products and services, and "to classify a person as a mover". Palmtech's terms extend the license you grant over your content to "Palmtech partners, Porch Family Companies".

Porch runs a homeowners insurance business, and its filings say property data feeds it. 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." The 2023 annual report says "This data helps feed our insurance underwriting models." Neither says which details from a report go into which rate, and we don't claim to know.

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. More in who owns home inspection software.

Palm-Tech's current version, Palmtech 11, has release notes starting in May 2026, and it covers several things Househound doesn't:

• Price: $50 per user a month or $500 a year, against $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one ($990 and $690 a year).
• Report design: Report Designer layouts, custom cover pages and summary organization. Househound has one report design.
• Card rate: Guardian's published 2.75% + $0.30, against Househound's 3.25% + $0.40.
• Photo drafting: AI Image Defect Detector drafts comments from photos. Autodraft works from spoken or typed notes.
• ISN: If ISN runs your office, Palm-Tech pulls in the appointment and sends the finished report back to the order.
• Free start: 5 published inspections, against Househound's 3 reports.

Both offer a PDF beside the web report, Florida 4-Point and wind mitigation, and a request list clients and agents build from the report.

Our observation, which neither company has confirmed: Palmtech 11's feature names (AI Comment Helper, Defect Detector, Report Designer, Global Lists, line-level ratings) match the ISN Report Writer's, and some help articles appear on both help centers. Neither company says the two share a platform.

Palmtech says "The one time purchase is no longer an option", and that the older versions keep running but get no planned updates. Support for versions 7 and 8 has ended. Reviewers on Capterra and GetApp have described being moved off the desktop versions; that's reviewer sentiment, not a Palmtech statement.

If you're on a legacy Windows version, you're choosing a new product either way, Palmtech 11 or something else. Before you move, use Support › "Backup Program Data" (in version 7, Setup › "Backup Program Data to Disk") to save a backup file, and save a finished report from each template as a PDF. Palmtech's documented use for that file is sending it to a Palmtech specialist, who migrates your templates and libraries into Palmtech 11. Househound reads the PDF instead: upload it on the Templates page and Autodraft builds a template and comment library you can edit.

Partly. The Palm-Tech mobile app has an offline-mode toggle: inspections, agreements, services and templates already on the device stay available, and changes sync when you switch back online. Live Data Sync, which keeps several devices current, needs internet, and the Palmtech 11 page says the product needs an internet connection.

Househound's apps are built offline-first. When you have signal, every inspection in the week either side of today downloads on its own, with photos and your comment library, so you don't have to remember to switch modes before driving out. With no signal you can add findings, photos, video and dictation; they save to the phone and upload later, and Autodraft drafts dictated notes when you reconnect. The web dashboard is online only.

Palm-Tech delivers an interactive web report that works on any device, plus a PDF download, sent automatically to clients and agents. Clients and agents can build a request list from it, and the Report Designer controls the layout and cover.

Househound delivers a link that opens on any phone with no login. It starts on a count of major, moderate and minor findings with a filter for the major ones, and can hold video and 360° photos. Each publish keeps a dated copy, so a later edit never changes what was sent. Clients and agents also 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. 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 before you cancel. Palmtech's terms say charges are non-refundable unless otherwise explained and that after termination "Palmtech has no obligation to retain or provide any User Content to you." Accounts inactive for a year or more may be terminated.

• Inspection list: Portal › Inspections › Export gives an XLSX of every inspection your company created. It holds inspection details only.
• Past reports: Palmtech doesn't publish a bulk download. Open each inspection and save its PDF, then upload the PDFs to Househound's past-report archive (Reports › Archive › Past reports, up to 50 at a time): read-only, searchable by address, client and date, and shareable. They don't become editable inspections.
• Clients and agents: no export is described in Palmtech's help. Ask support before you cancel. If you get a CSV or Excel file, import it in Househound under People › Clients or Agents › Import contacts… (on the web), mapping the columns as you go.
• Templates: no Palmtech 11 template export is published. Save a 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.
• Services, agreements, emails and the booking page: set up fresh. You can upload your existing agreement file.
• Cancelling: Settings › Billing Plan › Cancel Plan. Access runs to the end of the paid period, so on an annual plan, time the move for renewal.

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 Palm-Tech.