Househound vs Spectora (2026): cost, fees and what differs

Spectora costs $109 a month for the first inspector and $99 for each added one, or $1,090 and $999 a year on annual billing. The optional Advanced add-on is $4 per inspection. Those are list prices from Spectora's pricing page, checked October 27, 2026. Househound is $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one, or $990 and $690 a year, with no per-report fee. Monthly billing is month to month.

Monthly billing:

Spectora is $109 + $99 × (inspectors − 1), so 10 inspectors is $109 + $891 = $1,000. Advanced adds $4 × inspections, so 100 inspections adds $400. Househound is $99 + $69 × (inspectors − 1), so 10 inspectors is $99 + $621 = $720.

Annual billing, shown per month:

Spectora's annual price is $1,090 + $999 × (inspectors − 1); Househound's is $990 + $690 × (inspectors − 1). Assumptions: inspections a month is the whole company's volume, Advanced is charged on every inspection, and card fees, websites, Pay at Close and tax are left out.

On list prices Househound costs less than Spectora at every size, monthly or annual, with or without Advanced: $10 a month less for one inspector paying monthly, and $2,881 a year less for 10 inspectors paying annually. Advanced includes things Househound doesn't do at all, such as SMS conversations, tasks and time tracking, so compare the features you'd use. Spectora's annual plan gives no refund or prorated credit if you leave mid-term.

Card fees: the same headline rate

Both charge 3.25% + $0.40 per card payment when the inspector absorbs it, which is $15.03 on a $450 inspection. Househound's fee includes Stripe's processing, and the money goes to your own Stripe account. Spectora's payment article lists no separate Stripe charge on top, says most of its 3.95% client-paid fee goes to the processor, and Spectora covers the fee on your first payment. Spectora also offers ACH ($3.99 flat), Buy Now Pay Later (about 8% + $0.30) and Pay at Close ($50 per inspection; at least $450 and a closing within 60 days; limited release).

The rest of the category: what home inspection software costs.

Spectora is a private company in Denver, founded in 2015 and backed by Radian Capital, a growth-equity firm. Spectora's About page says it was "bootstrapped from day one"; Radian Capital lists Spectora among its current investments. Spectora bought HomeGauge on April 1, 2025, and in July 2026 Carson Dunlop named Spectora as the place for Horizon users to go before Horizon closes on December 15, 2026.

Spectora's client portal can carry offers. From Spectora's own help articles:

• Fixle offers homeowners insurance, home warranty and home security in the client portal after the client has paid and signed. It's on by default for new US accounts. You turn each product off under Settings → Buyer Protection Products, for the whole company; Spectora says inspectors can't opt individual clients out.
• Spectora says clients must opt in before a partner contacts them, reports aren't shared, and data isn't sold.
• Inspectors earn Spectora Rewards points (not cash) when clients engage. Tracking began April 7, 2026.
• Move-In Concierge (September 1, 2026, rolling out to US accounts) helps clients set up utilities, internet, insurance and security.
• A Secure24 (ADT) home-security referral integration pays the inspector $200 per installation. It's off by default.

Some inspectors see these as a service to clients; others want nothing but the report in front of them. Househound has no such program: client data is never sold and never used to market to your clients, and there are no ad trackers. More: who owns home inspection software.

Yes. Spectora's app runs a whole inspection offline, photos, annotation and new comments included, once the day's inspections are on the device. Spectora says to open the app on a strong connection before you leave, because inspections can't download offline, then sync by hand ("Sync All Changes") or with auto-sync.

Househound's iPhone, iPad and Android apps work offline too. The difference is setup: inspections within a week of today download automatically whenever the phone has signal, with photos and the comment library. Notes dictated offline are queued and drafted by Autodraft when you reconnect, for you to approve. Neither web dashboard works offline. More: offline home inspection apps.

A Spectora client gets a web report in the client portal plus a downloadable summary PDF and full PDF. By default the report is held until the client pays and signs. Agents can open the Repair Request Builder from the report, pick defects, add credit amounts and send the list by email or text.

A Househound client gets a link that opens on any phone with no login. The report opens on a count of major, moderate and minor findings with a filter for the major ones, and photos, video and 360° media play in the page. Each publish is a dated version that later edits don't change, and clients and agents get a portal with reports, agreements and invoices. Reports are delivered as a link, with a PDF download of the same report, and the delivery email links to the PDF. If you turn them on, clients can switch the report to Spanish or French (translated automatically, English governs), and the report can show your repair cost estimates, totalled by severity. The client or the buyer's agent can build a repair request from the report and share it as a link, copy it as text for the addendum, download a CSV or print it; Househound doesn't send it by email or text. There's no payment hold (publishing can wait on a signed agreement). If your agents want a separate summary PDF, or repair requests sent from the software, Spectora fits that workflow better.

Yes. Spectora's AI Comment Assist is live in the app, the web editor and the template builder, and turns your observations into client-friendly comments. Its newer Match tool, which pairs spoken observations and photos with the approved comments in your template, is in early access.

Househound's Autodraft is included in every seat. Dictate a note on the phone or the web, or type it. Autodraft picks the area and item, then reuses a comment from your library word for word, adapts one, or writes a new one, with a suggested severity and recommendation. It lands as a draft you edit and save; nothing reaches a report until you do. Both tools start from your own comment library; Autodraft's library matching is available to every customer today.

Spectora has been building since 2015. If any of these matter to your business, weigh them first:

• Forms: the Texas WDI form. Both have TREC REI 7-6, NPMA-33 and the Florida 4-Point and wind mitigation forms; Househound's Florida forms print as its own layout of the form, not the official PDF filled in.
• PDFs: a summary PDF beside the full one, and a nightly Google Drive backup.
• Texting: SMS on paid plans, two-way with Advanced.
• Payments: ACH, Buy Now Pay Later, Pay at Close, and a payment hold on the report.
• Integrations: QuickBooks, Google Drive, Repair Pricer, and a public API and AI Connector since September 22, 2026. Househound has none.
• Agent tools and re-inspections: the Repair Request Builder sends by email or text, Repair Pricer prices repairs, and there's a Reinspection Report. Househound's repair costs are entered by the inspector, and it has no re-inspection workflow.
• Websites, built and hosted by Spectora.
• Community: Spectora says more than 12,000 inspectors use it, and its help center covers almost every workflow.

Househound's case is narrower: a field app for a crew writing one report live, Autodraft included, a lower price with no add-on tier, and no investors or offers in front of your clients.

Your templates, comment library and client and agent lists come across; past reports go into a read-only archive; your schedule doesn't.

1. Export each template. In Spectora: Templates → My Templates → pick the template → three-dot menu → Export to spreadsheet → Export Plain Text or Export HTML Text → Download File. It needs the template export permission (Settings → Teams).
2. Either export option works. Househound cleans the HTML option's formatting on import (tags become paragraphs, line breaks and lists), and Plain Text needs no cleaning.
3. Drop the files on Househound's Templates page on the web, up to 10 at once, 20 MB each. Househound recognizes Spectora's column headers and reads the file exactly, with no Autodraft step and nothing truncated.
4. Move your past reports. Download them from Spectora as PDFs, one at a time or through Spectora's Google Drive backup (about 100 reports a night, no videos), then upload the 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, email and date, and shareable by link, but they don't become Househound inspections. Spectora says your account stays readable after you cancel and clients keep portal access to past reports.
5. Import your client and agent lists. Download the Inspection Data and Agent Export spreadsheets from Spectora's Data Exports, then in Househound go to People → Clients or Agents → Import contacts… on the web. You map the columns, and a contact whose email is already saved is updated, never duplicated.

The import keeps areas (Spectora's sections), items, and each comment's title, text, type (info, limit and defect become informational, limitation and deficiency), severity from the Category column (−1 minor, 0 moderate, 1 major), answer type, multiple-choice options, units and defaults. On deficiencies, the Recommendation column becomes a recommendation sentence and Default Estimate Min and Max become a repair cost range (Spectora's untouched 10 to 1000 placeholder is ignored). Location copies such as "Damaged outlet (Bedroom)" merge into one comment. It doesn't read default locations, default photos or the Locked flag.

Agreements, services, email wording and the booking page are set up fresh. There's no done-for-you migration; if a file doesn't come through, email hello@househoundusa.com. On an annual Spectora plan, time the move for renewal, and cancel a Spectora website separately. Full steps: switching from Spectora.