How to choose a job site photo app: 10 questions to ask

1. How is it priced as your crew grows?

Some apps charge per user, some per company, some by the number of projects or photos. Do the math for your crew today and for your busiest season: a seasonal hire on a per-user plan is a new bill every month they're on the crew. Ask what happens when you go over a limit, too: do you get charged automatically, locked out, or given time to change plans?

2. Is every feature on every plan?

Check whether the features you need (reports, e-signatures, AI, payments) sit behind a higher tier. A cheap starting price is less useful if the feature you bought it for costs more.

3. How are photos stamped?

Ask whether the time, date and location are burned into the image itself or only stored in the file's data. File data can be lost when a photo is texted, emailed or edited; a stamp in the image survives being shared. Ask, too, whether the app records who took each photo.

4. Does it work with no signal?

Roofs, basements and new builds often have no reception. Find out whether photos, videos and recordings save on the phone and upload later on their own, and whether the time and location are kept when they do.

5. If it has AI, what does it actually do, and what are the limits?

AI features range from photo captions to full written notes from a voice recording. Ask what it produces, whether you review it before anyone else sees it, and whether your recordings are used to train AI models. Ask about limits: some apps sell AI in credits, others include it with fair-use limits.

6. What do the reports look like?

Ask for a sample report. Check that it carries your logo, groups photos in a way an adjuster or a homeowner can follow, and shows the time and place on each photo.

7. What can your client see?

A private link for the homeowner can save a lot of phone calls. Check what they see, whether you choose what is shared, and whether you can turn the link off.

8. Can you get signed and paid in the same app?

If you want agreements signed on site and deposits collected on the spot, ask how signatures work and what payments cost: processing fees, any platform fee on top, and where the money goes.

9. Which phones, which languages?

Make sure it runs on the phones your crew actually carries, iPhone and Android, and that the office has a web view. If your crew works in Spanish, check whether the app and any AI features do too.

10. What happens to your data?

Ask whether you can export your photos and reports, how account deletion works, and how long data is kept after you cancel. Read the privacy policy for whether your data is sold or used for advertising.

Red flags

• You can't find the price without booking a call.
• The features you need are only on a plan several times the starting price.
• Photos don't show the time and place unless you open the file's details.
• There is no way to export your photos and reports.
• The trial needs a card and you aren't told clearly when it turns into a paid plan.

Switching from another app

Export your existing photos and reports first, and keep them somewhere you control. Then run the new app on one or two new jobs while the old jobs finish where they are. Moving one active job at a time is less disruptive than moving everything on a Monday.

Questions to bring to a demo

• What will we pay with our crew today, and at our busiest?
• Which of the features we need are on the plan we'd buy?
• Show me a photo with the time and place burned in, after it has been texted.
• Show me a photo taken with no signal, after it uploads.
• What are the AI limits, and is our data used for training?
• Show me a report and what my client sees.
• What do payments cost, and where does the money go?
• How do we export everything if we leave?

Try it on a real job

A demo shows the best case. A free trial on one real job, with the crew who will use it every day, shows whether they actually will. Prefer a trial that doesn't need a card, so you aren't billed if you forget to cancel.

How FieldPix answers these

FieldPix costs one flat price per company: Starter for up to 5 users, Pro for any number, with every feature on both. Photos carry the time, date and location burned into the image, FieldPix records who took each one, and they save on the phone when there is no signal. AI walkthroughs are included with no credits to buy; fair-use limits apply. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, in English or Spanish. The web trial needs no card; a trial started in the iPhone app goes through your Apple ID and becomes the plan you picked unless you cancel before it ends. For your data: every job turns into a PDF report, the web portal downloads a job's photos as a zip, payments export to a spreadsheet, and invoices and payments can sync to QuickBooks Online. There is no one-click export of a whole account yet. Card and bank payments go to your own Stripe account, with Stripe's fees and a 1% FieldPix fee. Judge it by the same questions as anything else.