6 of the Best Apps for Making a Home Inventory

updated Sep 13, 2024
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
Credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Take it from me: By the time most people realize they need a home inventory app, it’s too late. If you’re new to the concept, a home inventory is a simple-enough (if not daunting) concept. A home inventory is simply a list or record of all of your personal possessions and how much they are worth. As someone who has just barely escaped near-disaster from a burst water-pipe in a basement apartment, trust me firsthand when I say that having an inventory of all of your items, and how much they cost, will save you tons of headaches down the line.

That’s because the last thing you want to do after disaster strikes — be it that burst water pipe, or a fire, or a climate-related event — is try to get a sense of how much all your stuff was worth before it got ruined. As a renter, I’ve always relied on a home inventory in order to have accurate renters’ insurance as well. 

In other words, the first best time to do a home inventory was yesterday. The second best time to do a home inventory is now. According to the Insurance Information Institute, making a home inventory can help you purchase the correct amount of insurance, simplify filing a claim after a disaster, and substantiate property losses for tax purposes.

Luckily, there are home inventory apps that make this task as easy as point-and-click. Sometimes called “asset tracking software,” home inventory apps range from simple categorized lists to powerful tools that manage personal and small business inventories. The following are six of the best apps for making a home inventory, and their pros and cons.

Encircle

Encircle is a powerful app designed for insurance adjusters and restorers. The major pro of this app is that it’s free — you can access the simplified Encircle free home inventory app, which allows you to create a home inventory list using your smartphone. The cons of this app are that it’s primarily designed for insurance adjusters and professional restorers. If you’re a pro, or if you own multiple properties, the app does let you take inventory on multiple properties. In addition, you can create PDF or spreadsheet reports that can be used for filing claims. 

Available: iOS and Android

Sortly 

Sortly and Encircle have a lot in common — Sortly was designed for small businesses to track their inventories, and the company offers a free version for individuals. One con of the app, though? The free app limits your inventory to 100 items — that might be plenty for me, as an apartment dweller, but if you have more than one property or a lot of stuff, Sortly might not be enough for you.

But the app is so functional, too. Sortly lets users create custom barcodes and QR labels, plus sort and filter inventory via custom lists. (Operate an inventory-rich small business from your home!) The upgraded monthly Advanced plan allows 2,000 entries, unlimited code label generation, and an integrated barcode scanner, but you have to pay for it.

Available: iOS and Android

Skyware Inventory

One pro of Skyware inventory is that it’s highly trusted — more than 33,000 companies in 160 countries use Skyware Inventory to manage their inventories. Like Sortly and Encircle, you can use a free, ad-supported version of the app to create a home inventory and you can save manuals, receipts, and warranties on hundreds of items. The free web-based software allows you to create a searchable database of your items, too. The biggest pro? There’s no limit to how many items you can upload. The biggest con? It’s not really an app — it’s a website. 

Available: In-browser

Itemtopia

Like Skyware Inventory, Itemtopia is a feature-rich home inventory app developed for businesses, with affordable options for individuals. The biggest pro for this app is that it’s fully customizable, and allows you to share your lists of items with others — like, say, your roommates. If you have extensive collections to inventory, such as baseball cards, stamps, or coin collections, Itemtopia might be the best bet. However, some reviewers, like one from the iOS store, said that the app is almost too customizable, so if you want something easy and straightforward, Itemtopia might not be the best choice. 

Available: iOS and Android

BluePlum Home Inventory

BluePlum Home Inventory is user-friendly and allows you to organize stuff by room, location, or collection. This app is ideal for travelers or for folks who split their time between multiple locations — the moving feature allows you to create multiple packing lists and assign insurance policies and claims to different items and locations. The biggest con is it’s only available on iOS.

Available: iOS only

Nest Egg

Not to be confused with the Nest home thermostat, Nest Egg is a simple-to-use scan home inventory system that recognizes millions of items. It’s available in 32 languages, including Chinese, German, French, and Spanish. You can scan up to 10 high-resolution photos per item. One big pro of the app? It goes way beyond inventorying your valuable items for home insurance — you can also inventory everyday items like your groceries, medicines, collectibles, and more.

You can also add warranty information on your items to keep it in one safe place — no paper clutter necessary. As an iPhone user, Nest Egg is my personal favorite — I aspire to have a Nest home thermostat one day, so having all of my home data in one place (besides my renter’s insurance) is a big plus to me.

One con of the Nest Egg is that if you don’t want to pay for the app (which is $6.99) the free version only allows up to 25 items. But $6.99 is nothing compared to peace of mind. The other con is that it’s an iOS only app. 

Available: iOS only

Honorable Mention: NAIC Home Inventory

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ home inventory app is neither as user-friendly nor dynamic as the others. But it has most of the same features, including scanning and categorized lists. Moreover, it gets the job done. Although NAIC is not in the software development business, the organization represents experts who know precisely what home inventory you need when processing a claim. 

Available: iOS and Android