Photo Inventory Apps: 7 Compared, 3 Read the Photo for You

A photo inventory app builds a list of what you own from pictures instead of typing. The useful ones do three things: tie each photo to a record with a name, price, and serial number, group those records by room, and export something an insurance adjuster or a mover can read. Manifest reads the photo and fills the record in for you. Home Contents is the best one-time purchase. Retinelle is the best free option if you are happy to type the details yourself.

One disclosure first: I build Manifest. It is in this comparison, and it is not the right pick for everyone.

What does a photo inventory app actually do?

Apps that call themselves photo inventory apps mean three different things by it, and the difference decides how much typing you are in for.

Level one: the photo is attached to a record you type. You snap the item, then fill in the name, brand, price, and serial number yourself. The photo is evidence; the app is a nicer spreadsheet. Home Contents, Retinelle, and the free NAIC app work this way.

Level two: the app reads the photo. You snap the item and the app names it, picks the category, and pulls the brand, model, and serial number off the label when they are in the shot. You check its work instead of doing it. Manifest, Homvi, and StuffID do this.

Level three: one photo or video covers a whole room. You shoot the room, the app finds the items in it and makes a record for each. Manifest does this from a video walkthrough, Homvi and Under My Roof from a room photo. It is the fastest way to get a first pass, and it still needs a second pass for serial numbers.

If you have fewer than a hundred items and like data entry, level one is fine. If you are doing a whole house, level two or three is the difference between finishing and quitting in the garage.

Why isn't my camera roll already an inventory?

Because an adjuster cannot search it. Loose photos have no prices, no purchase dates, and no serial numbers, and after a fire you will be scrolling through four years of pictures trying to find the one of the TV.

An inventory app fixes four things a camera roll cannot. Each photo belongs to one item, so you can find it. Each item has a value and a date, so the claim has numbers. Receipts sit next to the item they prove. And the whole thing exports as a list, which is what the adjuster actually asks for.

Which photo inventory apps are worth using?

Prices and features come from each app's US App Store listing, checked October 15, 2026 for Retinelle, Homvi, and StuffID, and October 5 to 8 for the rest. They change often, so look before you pay.

Manifest

Best for: getting a whole house into an insurance-ready list without typing.

You take a photo and Manifest identifies the item, its brand, model, and serial number, and the category, then checks what it is worth. For a faster first pass, you walk through a room with the camera running and it pulls the items out of the video. Receipts go in by forwarding the email; Manifest suggests the item they belong to and you confirm the match. The export is a PDF with photos, serial numbers, and both actual cash value and replacement cost, which is the number the adjuster uses.

Price: 7-day trial, then $1.99 a month for about 15 scans a month, or $39 a year for unlimited scans. Works on iPhone, iPad, and in a browser, so you can do the typing-free part on your phone and the review on a big screen.

Skip it if: you want your data to stay on the device with no account, or you need Android. The App Store rating is high but comes from a handful of reviews, so do not read much into it.

Home Contents

Best for: paying once and owning it.

Home Contents has more App Store ratings than any other app built only for home inventory, 4.7 from 1,456 at last check. You photograph an item and add the details later, scan barcodes, attach PDF receipts, and print reports by room, category, or value. Data stays on the device and syncs through iCloud.

Price: free for 25 items and one property, then a single $5.99 payment.

Skip it if: you want the app to read the photo for you, or two people need to edit the same list.

Retinelle

Best for: a free, offline photo catalog you fill in yourself.

Retinelle (it was called Photo Inventory until a recent version) is rated 4.9 from 309 ratings. It lets you attach several photos to one item, group items into projects for rooms or collections, add your own fields, and sort and filter on them. It works offline with no account, and the free version exports PDF. Plus adds XLSX and ZIP export and automatic backups.

Price: free. Plus is $5.99 a month or $44.99 a year.

Skip it if: you are inventorying a whole house. Retinelle does not identify anything; every name and value is yours to type.

Under My Roof

Best for: an all-Apple household that wants one app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Under My Roof scans barcodes and documents, has a voice entry mode, and can photograph a whole room on iOS 27 with a device that supports Apple Intelligence. It also does coverage analysis and claims tracking. It is rated 4.7 from 526 ratings.

Price: free for 10 items, then $34.99 a year.

Skip it if: anyone in the house uses Android, or you will not pay a subscription.

Homvi

Best for: iPhone users who want room photos read by AI and a shared household list.

Homvi photographs a room and suggests names, categories, brands, and estimated replacement values for the items it finds, which you then edit. It scans barcodes, catches duplicates, and exports a PDF for claims, moves, or estates. It has 7 ratings as of this writing, so there is not much track record yet.

Price: free to start, then $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year.

Skip it if: you use an iPad or a Mac. It is iPhone only.

StuffID

Best for: trying AI identification for free with nothing leaving your phone.

StuffID identifies items from a photo and can catalog several items from one picture. The inventory stays on the device; photos leave only for recognition. It had one App Store rating when checked, and the listing does not describe an export, so treat it as a tool for building the list rather than handing it to an insurer.

Price: free, then $19.99 a year or $49.99 once for Pro.

Skip it if: you need a PDF or CSV at the end.

NAIC Home Inventory

Best for: free, on any phone.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' app takes photos, scans barcodes, and groups items by room and category. It is free with no upsell. Its App Store rating is 2.1 from 14 reviews, the lowest here, so keep a second copy of anything you put in it.

Skip it if: you want the app to do any of the identifying, or you have more than a few dozen items.

Which photo inventory apps are free?

Four of the apps above cost nothing for a basic inventory. NAIC is free outright. Retinelle's free version exports PDF; Plus only adds spreadsheet export and backups. Home Contents is free up to 25 items, which covers a studio apartment and not much more. StuffID is free with AI identification, but has no documented export.

The pattern: free apps store your photos and let you type. The moment an app reads the photo for you, it costs money, because the recognition is paid for per scan on the developer's side. If the typing is what stops you from finishing, a year of a paid app is cheaper than an unfinished inventory.

How do you take photos an adjuster will accept?

The app matters less than the photos. These are the habits that make a claim go through.

1. One item per photo. A shelf shot proves the shelf existed. An item shot proves the item did.
2. Get the label in frame. The model and serial plate is usually on the back, the bottom, or inside a battery door. That number is what lets an adjuster confirm which model you had, and it is what a level-two app reads.
3. Add a second photo for anything over a few hundred dollars. Front view plus label view. Jewelry and watches want a close-up with something for scale.
4. Photograph the receipt, or forward the email. A photo and a receipt are the two pieces of proof that let an adjuster put a number on an item without arguing.
5. Group the cheap stuff. Kitchen drawers, linens, and books can be one photo per drawer or shelf with a rough count. Nobody itemizes forks.
6. Keep it off the phone. If the app stores everything on the device, make sure the backup leaves the house. The phone burns with the couch.

Then work the house one room per sitting, living room first, garage last.

How accurate is photo identification?

Good on the common cases, and honest apps say where it fails.

On a clear photo of a normal consumer product, a TV, a stand mixer, a bike, a laptop with a visible logo, identification gets the brand and category right almost every time and usually gets the model. The failures cluster in three places. Generic items with no brand, like a plain wooden chair, come back as a category and a guess. Serial numbers on stickers under the device, or in tiny type, need a second, closer photo. And valuations are estimates from marketplace listings, which is fine for a sofa and wrong for a signed print.

So treat the first pass as a draft. Walk the room, let the app name everything, then spend ten minutes fixing the three items it got wrong and adding the serial numbers it could not see. That is still faster than typing all forty.

Looking for something else?

Two groups of people land on this page with a different problem.

If you are a photographer tracking camera bodies and lenses, you want asset tracking with serial numbers, purchase dates, and depreciation. A home inventory app will hold the gear, but a small-business asset tracker is built for it.

If you need a picture inventory for a business, a warehouse, or a team, look at the alternatives to Sortly. Those apps handle quantities, locations, and multiple users, which none of the home apps above do well.

FAQ

Is there an app that identifies items from a photo? Yes. Manifest, Homvi, and StuffID read the photo and fill in the name, category, and brand for you. Home Contents, Retinelle, and the NAIC app store the photo but leave the typing to you.

Can I use the photos already in my camera roll? Most of these apps let you import an existing photo instead of taking a new one. The catch is that old photos rarely show the label, so expect to add serial numbers by hand.

What is the best free photo inventory app? Retinelle, if you are willing to type the details. It works offline and exports PDF for free. NAIC is free on Android as well as iPhone but has a poor rating.

Do insurance companies accept photos as proof? Yes, and they prefer two forms of proof per item, such as a photo plus a receipt or a photo plus a serial number. A photo alone proves you had something; the receipt or serial proves which one and what it cost.

How many photos should I take per item? One for anything under about $200, two for anything over it: the front and the label. For jewelry, art, and collectibles, add a close-up, since those usually sit under a per-category payout cap regardless of how well you document them.