Almost every Hover comparison you will read scores it on accuracy and output quality, which misses the thing that actually separates it from its supposed competitors. Hover builds its model from overlapping photos of the building. Somebody has to be standing at the property, phone in hand, walking the perimeter.
That is not a criticism — it is what makes the siding, window and door measurements and the visualisation possible. But it is a workflow fact, and it sorts this entire category more cleanly than any feature list. If you need a number for an address nobody has visited, Hover is not an option at any price, and no amount of feature comparison changes that.
Disclosure: Scout Data is our product. We do not produce measurements of any kind and do not compete with Hover or with any alternative listed here. Say the word “adjacent” and mean it: we sit one step before the capture.
What Hover publicly advertises
| Measurement | Starter (pay as you go) | Pro ($999/year) |
|---|---|---|
| Roof only — simple / average / complex | $29 / $49 / $69 | $9 / $29 / $49 |
| Full exterior — simple / average / complex | $59 / $99 / $139 | $39 / $79 / $119 |
| Interior — under 200 / 201–600 / 600+ sq ft | $29 / $59 / $89 | $9 / $39 / $69 |
| Expedited delivery | +$39 | +$19 |
Starter advertises the first three projects free. Pro is $999 a year and advertises $20 off every project plus $1,000 in Hover credits for every $10,000 spent. Enterprise is quoted, with flat-rate options, multi-branch management and SSO. Insurance plans mirror the construction structure.
Every figure above is what Hover publicly advertised on its own pricing page at the time of writing, and rate cards move. Confirm current pricing, complexity definitions and plan terms with the vendor directly.
The Pro break-even is one division
The discount is a flat $20 a project across every row of that card, so the subscription pays for itself at $999 ÷ $20 = 50 projects a year. Call it four to five a month.
That is a low bar for a working roofing company and a real one for a remodeller who captures a handful of houses a season. If you are near it, the credits programme tilts it further — but do the division on your actual capture count from last year rather than on the number you intend to hit this year, because the second one is always higher.
The fork that decides your shortlist
Alternatives split cleanly on whether a person goes to the house. Almost every disappointed switch we hear about is somebody crossing that line without noticing they were crossing it.
| Tool | Who has to be where | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Hover | A person at the property with a phone | Full exterior 3D model — roof, siding, windows, doors — plus visualisation for the sales conversation |
| EagleView | Nobody; ordered from imagery | Aerial roof measurement with the widest carrier familiarity on claim work |
| Roofr | Nobody | Low-cost aerial reports bundled with proposals and a job board |
| GAF QuickMeasure | Nobody | Per-report aerial measurement with preferential terms for GAF-certified contractors |
| RoofSnap | Nobody, but somebody in the office measures | A subscription plus your own labour — the lowest marginal cost per roof once past the learning curve |
Pricing shapes above reflect publicly advertised information at the time of writing and vary by plan, volume and certification. Confirm current terms directly with each vendor.
When on-site capture is worth the trip
Three cases, and if none of them describes you then the aerial branch is cheaper and faster and you should take it.
- You sell more than the roof. Siding, windows and doors need elevations that overhead imagery does not resolve well. A full-exterior job priced from a roof-only report is a job priced from half the information.
- The visual is part of the close. Showing a homeowner their own house in a new colour, at the kitchen table, on the first visit, is a sales instrument rather than a measurement one. That is not something an aerial PDF does.
- Somebody is already going. If your process includes an inspection anyway, the capture is nearly free in labour terms and the calculus changes entirely.
Conversely, if your estimators price from the office and your work is roof-only retail, you are paying a site-visit tax on every measurement for capability you do not use. That is the most common reason teams arrive on this page.
A mixed stack is usually the right answer
Most established contractors stop trying to pick one. Aerial reports for everyday roof-only estimating where nobody is going to the house; Hover for full-exterior jobs and for the appointments a rep attends anyway; whichever vendor your carriers are comfortable with on claim work. Standardising on a single measurement tool is a procurement preference, not an operational requirement, and it usually costs more than running two.
Where Scout Data fits — adjacent, not competing
This is the part where a measurement page usually turns into a pitch for a measurement product. We do not have one. What we have is the layer that decides where the truck goes.
On-site capture makes that decision more expensive than it looks. An aerial report wastes $30 when it is ordered on the wrong house; a capture visit wastes a drive, a parking space and forty minutes of somebody’s day. The worse your address selection, the more the on-site model costs you — which means Hover users have more to gain from filtering the list than anyone else in this category.
List Builder and Scout combine hail and wind footprints mapped within hours, more than a million new permits a week, roof age and ownership changes into a ranked list of addresses, with owner-matched and DNC-scrubbed phones attached. Then you capture, measure and price with whatever you already use.
For the aerial side of the decision, see EagleView pricing and EagleView alternatives. For the bundled measurement-plus-proposal option, see Roofr alternatives. And if the real shortage is doors rather than measurements, how to get roofing leads is the more useful page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Hover cost?
As publicly advertised at the time of writing, Hover offers a pay-as-you-go Starter tier with the first three projects free, a Pro subscription at $999 a year that takes $20 off every project, and a custom Enterprise tier. Per-project prices vary by complexity: a roof-only measurement is $29 / $49 / $69 on Starter for a simple, average or complex structure, and $9 / $29 / $49 on Pro. A full exterior is $59 / $99 / $139 on Starter and $39 / $79 / $119 on Pro. Expedited delivery is advertised at $39 on Starter and $19 on Pro.
Can you get a roof measurement without visiting the property?
Yes — that is the whole aerial branch of this category. EagleView, Roofr, GAF QuickMeasure and self-measure tools like RoofSnap all work from imagery, so anyone in the office can order a report on any address without a truck roll. Hover’s model is the opposite by design: it builds its 3D model from overlapping photographs somebody takes while walking around the building.
Does Scout Data measure roofs?
No. We produce no squares, no pitch, no waste factor and no 3D model, and we are not an alternative to anything on this page. We answer the question that comes before the capture: which addresses are worth sending somebody to.