A home inventory that is yours, in one file
List What You Own, Before You Need the List
A room-by-room inventory with photos, the fields an insurer asks for, and one file you keep — no account, no monthly bill, no server holding your only copy. $44, one time.
Start free with the template. Buy the app when you are ready to walk the house with your phone.
The InventoryByHand App — $44, one time
The free template on this page proves the fields. The app does the walking for you: room-by-room on your phone, photos attached to every item, a claim-ready report in one tap — and everything saved in a file you own. No subscription. No item cap.
Start free — the paper version is complete
The free inventory template
Every claim-ready field, room by room, ready to print — plus the proof-of-loss worksheet. Complete on its own; no email, no catch.
Leaving Sortly?
The honest comparison and the two-step import, told exactly: your CSV by column name, your photos through the Dropbox export.
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Why a list on paper, in a drawer, does not survive a fire
After a fire or a flood, the question is not whether you remember owning a thing. It is whether you can show it: what it was, where it was, what it cost, and a photo of it in place. Claims guides commonly put it at 30 to 50 percent for how much people underestimate or forget their belongings when they work from memory alone.
A list kept only inside the house it lists can be lost with the house. A list kept only in a browser tab can be cleared by the browser. A list kept only on a company's server can be lost when that company closes — Centriq, a home-records app, shut down in January 2026 and deleted its users' data.
The list that survives is the list with a copy outside the house, in a file you can open without any company: your list and your photos, exported, kept in your email or cloud storage or with family at another address.
- Walk room by room, photographing each room wide, each wall and corner, and each larger item in place.
- Photograph serial plates on appliances, screens, and tools, and open every drawer, closet, and cabinet.
- Fill in the short field set for each item: brand and model, room, serial number, purchase date and price, replacement cost today, age and condition, and proof of ownership.
- Export the whole file — list plus every photo — and keep a copy outside the house.
The honest comparison
Four ways to keep a home inventory, side by side, with the prices and limits as checked October 2026. The honest comparison first, the sales page second — read both before you choose.
| Price | Items | Built for | Where your list lives | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sortly | Free for 100 items; Advanced $49/mo for 500 items | 100 free; 500 on the homeowner tier | Built mainly for businesses — their own support tells personal users so | In your Sortly account, while you keep paying |
| Encircle (free) | Free for homeowners | Unlimited items, up to 2 properties | Pro seats sold to restoration contractors and carriers; homeowners usually meet it after a loss, through the industry | In the industry's system, reached through the professionals who use it |
| NAIC Home Inventory app (free) | Free | No item limit stated; reports of entries disappearing | The regulators' own free app for homeowners | In the app — 2.0 stars on Google Play and about 2.2 on iOS, with user reports of entries disappearing and exports failing |
| InventoryByHand | $44, one time | No item cap | Homeowners making a claim-ready record for themselves | On your device, and in the exported file you keep — yours, with no account |
How we work
No account. No server copy. The app runs in your browser, your records live on your device, and the export file — items as CSV, every photo in a folder, the report as a PDF — is yours to keep anywhere. The method, in full. And what it can't do, in full, before you pay anything.
Questions, answered straight
What is a home inventory, in plain words?
A room-by-room list of what you own, with a photo of each item in place and the facts an insurer would ask for: brand and model, room, serial number, purchase date and price, replacement cost today, age and condition, and proof of ownership. The Insurance Information Institute says an up-to-date inventory helps you 'get your insurance claim settled faster, verify losses for your income tax return and help purchase the correct amount of insurance.'
Do I really need an inventory if I have insurance?
Insurance covers the house and its contents; it does not remember what was in them. After a loss, you are the one who has to list what was lost. A list made on a quiet day, with photos, does that remembering for you — and claims guides commonly put it at 30 to 50 percent for how much people underestimate their belongings from memory alone.
Is InventoryByHand really $44 once, with no monthly bill?
Yes. InventoryByHand is $44, one time, for the whole app, with no item cap. Compare Sortly Advanced at $49 a month for 500 items: $49 times 36 months is $1,764 over three years, against $44 once here, as checked October 2026.
Where does my list live? What if your site goes away?
On your device, and in the exported file you keep. There is no account and no server copy, so your list does not depend on us staying in business. Export the file — a spreadsheet of your list plus every photo — and keep copies in your email, cloud storage, or with family at another address.
Will this app make my insurer pay a claim?
No, and no inventory app can honestly promise that. Your insurer and your policy decide any claim. What this app does is give you a claim-ready record: the itemized fields, the photos, and the printed report, ready to hand over. That is the honest job, and it is a valuable one.