Home inventory app vs a spreadsheet: which should you use?
A spreadsheet is free and works. An app saves typing and keeps photos with each thing. Here's how to choose, and how to get the best of both.
The BoxTrack team · Facts checked · We make BoxTrackHome inventory app
Plenty of people keep their home inventory in Excel or Google Sheets, and that's a perfectly good choice. The Insurance Information Institute and state insurance departments care that you have a list with what you own, what it cost and when you got it. They don't care what it's made in.
At a glance
Home inventory app (BoxTrack)Where a spreadsheet wins
- It costs nothing. You already have Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
- You control the columns. Add whatever your insurer or your own records need.
- It lasts. A .xlsx or .csv file will open in twenty years.
- It's easy to send. Insurers, adjusters and movers all accept a spreadsheet.
Where a spreadsheet gets hard
- No photos in the row. The photo is the proof, and in a spreadsheet it lives somewhere else, in your camera roll or a folder, matched up by hand.
- Everything is typed. A kitchen alone can be 100+ lines. Most home inventories stall partway through the first room.
- It's awkward on a phone. You make an inventory by walking around the house with your phone, and spreadsheets are built for a keyboard.
- Finding a box or a thing later. A spreadsheet can tell you "box 14", but it can't open when you scan the box.
Where an app wins
A home inventory app is built for the walk-around. In BoxTrack, you make a box for a room, a closet or a bin, and snap each thing. AI fills in the name, the quantity and a replacement value from the photo, and the photo stays attached to the item with the date you added it. You can add serial numbers and purchase dates, then make a PDF report with every photo and value to send your insurer.
Where an app is the wrong pick
- If you already have a finished spreadsheet you're happy with, keep it. Switching costs more than it gains.
- If you want something completely free for a whole home, BoxTrack isn't it: the free plan is 1 box with up to 5 items, and a whole home needs a paid plan. A spreadsheet, or the free NAIC Home Inventory app, may suit you better.
Pax is an AI. He knows BoxTrack and moving, not other apps, so check them on their own sites.
The details
Why this comparison+
So the real question is which one you'll actually finish, and keep up to date.
Best of both+
You don't have to pick one forever. BoxTrack exports everything to Excel or CSV, box by box with values, so you can make the list with your phone and keep a spreadsheet copy as your backup. That's what we'd recommend whichever app you use: a copy you can open without the app.
Quick answer+
Want to try the walk-around way? Start with our free room-by-room home inventory checklist, which needs no sign-up, or read how to make a home inventory for insurance.
About BoxTrack’s plans: the free plan is 1 box with up to 5 items, with every feature to try. On paid plans, Starter has up to 5 boxes and 10 AI photo scans a month; Plus has up to 49 boxes, unlimited AI scans (whole boxes too), the insurance PDF report, Excel and CSV export, sharing and custom fields; Unlimited adds unlimited boxes and Ask Pax, the AI assistant. New accounts get 72 hours free on any paid plan.