Carson Dunlop Horizon shuts down Dec 15, 2026: what to do

Yes. Carson Dunlop announced on July 27, 2026 that it is retiring Horizon on December 15, 2026, and has selected Spectora as the recommended inspection platform for Horizon customers. Horizon stays fully operational until then.

Carson Dunlop's Horizon page lists what isn't changing: Horizon runs through December 15, 2026, "your data is yours throughout the transition", Carson Dunlop's training, inspection and franchise services continue, and subscription terms continue as agreed to the sunset.

What happens after the date is in Spectora's migration FAQ: "After this date, the data will no longer be accessible." Carson Dunlop will manage the data "in accordance with applicable legal requirements" and securely delete it. Spectora's help center puts it more bluntly: export your historical reports and photos from Horizon before December 15, 2026, because after the shutdown that data can't be recovered.

There are 49 days between this guide's update (October 27, 2026) and the shutdown.

Carson Dunlop's Horizon page says "You have three options" and "There is no automatic migration." In its words:

1. Migrate to Spectora. "Our recommended path. One-click migration, dedicated onboarding, exclusive pricing."
2. Move to a different platform. "Export your data and take it with you. Export tools available through December 15, 2026."
3. Continue using Horizon until sunset. "Keep using Horizon through December 15 and export your records before that date."

Options 2 and 3 both depend on Horizon's own export, covered below. On the page, the "Export guidance" link under option 2 opens a meeting-booking page for a Spectora migration call rather than export instructions, so use the export steps in this guide or Carson Dunlop's support article.

The recommendation has a commercial side, which Spectora discloses in its FAQ: "To help offset a portion of these costs, Spectora is providing Carson Dunlop with a one-time administrative fee." The same FAQ says "There is no long-term commercial relationship related to this recommendation." Neither company publishes the amount.

Spectora's migration copies your working setup, not your history. Per Spectora's help center:

What moves: your comments and presets (merged into one Spectora template, with hidden comments under a "Hidden" item), company name and logo, client contacts (an email is required for each) and agent contacts, team members, special forms that have a Spectora equivalent (TREC, 4-Point, Wind Mitigation), and association templates (InterNACHI and ASHI in the US, CAHPI in Canada).

What doesn't: services and fees, agreements, booking options, email automations, historical inspection reports, report PDFs and photos, existing bookings, payment processing, and third-party integrations. If Horizon is connected to ISN, disconnect it first.

How it runs: click Migrate to Spectora on the Horizon dashboard, which creates your Spectora sign-up and starts a transfer of about 30 minutes. Review the data in Spectora, book the 45-minute Express Onboarding (listed as a "$299 value", and it needs an active paid subscription), and use Update Migration to re-run the transfer if you keep working in Horizon. Then set up Spectora Payments and invite your inspectors.

Dates: the migration button went live July 28, 2026. December 15, 2026 is the last day to migrate. Preferred pricing has to be claimed by January 31, 2027.

Price: $55 a month for the first 6 months (regular $109), or $545 for the first year (regular $1,090). Each added inspector is $49.50 a month or $499.50 a year. There's no website setup fee, and the offer can't be combined with other promotions. After the offer, Spectora's list price applies: $109 a month and $99 for each added inspector, with its Advanced add-on at $4 per inspection.

The migration is a fair choice for a lot of Horizon users: it keeps your comments, contacts and state forms, and the vendor is large. It still leaves you to save your past reports from Horizon yourself.

Horizon's Export Centre covers your lists and settings. It doesn't publish a way to export report PDFs or photos in bulk.

Per Spectora's FAQ, go to Profile, open the Export Centre, and pick an export:

• CRM Agents and CRM Clients
• Inspection Bookings (work order data)
• Company Templates
• Dashboard Data
• Tax Reporting 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. Carson Dunlop's own support article describes an older route from the Profile page (for example Export Clients Here, then Save) that produces Excel files for clients, agents, agent usage, work orders and report data.

What isn't covered

• Report PDFs and photos. Horizon publishes reports as PDFs, but neither company documents a bulk download. Open each report you need and save its PDF, or ask Carson Dunlop support early whether they can provide a bulk copy.
• Photos as separate files. No published export includes them. If you need them for a claim or a re-inspection, ask Carson Dunlop support how to get them before the date.
• Links already sent to clients. Neither company has published what happens to report links clients already have. Given that the data "will no longer be accessible", plan on those links stopping after December 15, and ask Carson Dunlop support to confirm.

How long you have to keep reports depends on your state or province and your E&O carrier. Check that rule before deciding what to save; it decides whether this is ten reports or a thousand.

Refunds

If you recently renewed, Spectora's FAQ says Carson Dunlop will prorate a refund to full unused months, or convert an annual plan to monthly and refund the unused months. Request it from your Horizon Profile settings; it can take up to 20 business days.

Work back from December 15, 2026, and leave room for the 14-day export links and the 20-day refund window.

If you have a team, do the export and saving yourself as the primary administrator; the links go only to that address.

Compare on what Horizon did for you, then on what you'd lose. Horizon users tend to rely on a few things that not every platform has:

• Carson Dunlop's content. Horizon included pre-written expert content and more than 1,700 illustrations from The Illustrated Home. That content belongs to Carson Dunlop; ask any new vendor what you'd write in its place, and keep your own wording when you import.
• PDF reports. Horizon delivered PDFs. Spectora, Hive Inspect, ScribeWare and Binsr deliver a web report and a PDF. Househound delivers a link with a PDF download of the same report; the delivery email links to the PDF rather than attaching it.
• State forms. Horizon had TREC, 4-Point and Wind Mitigation. Spectora, Hive Inspect and ScribeWare publish these. Househound has TREC REI 7-6, the Florida wind mitigation form (Rev. 04/26), the Citizens 4-Point and NPMA-33, printed in its own layout of each form.
• Integrations. Horizon connected to ISN, Google Calendar, HomeBinder, Guardian and others. Check each one you use.
• Canada. Inspectors on the InterNACHI forum describe Horizon as common in Canada. Ask each vendor about Canadian addresses, currency and CAHPI templates. Spectora's migration includes CAHPI templates. Househound takes client card payments in Canadian dollars into a Canadian Stripe account (3.25% + C$0.40, processing included). Its invoices carry no GST/HST lines, and its own subscription is priced in US dollars.

Offers aimed at Horizon users

• Spectora: $55 a month for 6 months or $545 for the first year, with the one-click migration.
• Hive Inspect: $500 for the first year or $50 a month for the first 6 months (code horizon26), with free import of templates, clients, agents and exported past reports.
• ScribeWare: 50% off an annual subscription, plus a free template and library import.
• InspectionX: 6 months free, per its own blog.
• Binsr: a general switch offer of 50% off the first 3 months (code SWITCH2026), through December 31, 2026.

Househound has no Horizon-specific offer. Its first 3 reports are free with no card, then it's $99 a month for the first inspector and $69 for each added one (US dollars). It imports a template from the Export Centre's Company Templates file or from a PDF of a recent Horizon report, and builds your comment library from it. The Export Centre's client and agent lists import from People → Import contacts…, and the report PDFs you save can go into a read-only, searchable past-report archive. Services don't import, and there's no done-for-you migration. The Househound vs Horizon page and the switching guide cover it in detail.

For the rest of the field, see Househound vs Spectora, Househound vs Hive Inspect, Househound vs ScribeWare, Househound vs Binsr, and the buyer's guide.

Ask these in writing, and keep the answers:

1. What exactly do you import from Horizon: templates, comments, presets, clients, agents, past reports? In what form do past reports arrive (editable, or as stored PDFs)?
2. Who does the import, and how long does it take this close to the deadline?
3. Do you produce the state or insurance forms I file, in the current revision?
4. Can I deliver a PDF if a client or lender asks for one?
5. What does it cost after any introductory price ends, for every inspector I have?
6. What can I export if I leave you, and in what format?
7. Who owns the company, and is client data used for anything besides running my account?

The last two matter more after a shutdown than before one. The ownership map covers who owns each vendor.