SafetyCulture is the global category leader for generic safety audits and checklists across every industry. Core is the right answer when your business needs serialised equipment registers, statutory certificates, customer portals, and a workflow built around the lifting inspection service company.
Safety Audits or Lifting Inspections? Pick the Right Tool.
SafetyCulture is the right call for general safety audits across many use cases. Core is the right call when your business is inspecting and certifying lifting and height-safety equipment — and you need serialised equipment registers, statutory certificates, and a branded portal for every customer.
Which one is right for you?
A straight call. We'd rather you self-select the right fit than push the wrong tool.
Choose SafetyCulture if…
- You run generic safety audits across many domains — food, retail, hospitality, manufacturing QC, vehicle pre-starts, factory walks.
- You need broad enterprise certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR) and integrations into corporate BI (Tableau, Power BI, SAP, Procore).
- You want a free tier (up to 10 users) and self-service evaluation before any sales contact.
- Your lifting inspection volume is light and ad-hoc, not a service line of its own.
Choose Core if…
- Your business is inspecting and certifying lifting, rigging, or height-safety equipment.
- You need persistent serialised equipment registers — each chain sling, harness, or crane carrying its full inspection history — not ad-hoc audit forms.
- You need branded statutory certificates (LOLER ROTE, AS 4991, ASME B30) as customer deliverables, not generic PDF exports.
- You inspect at field volume and need batch capture, not 100 separate forms per site visit.
- You want every customer of yours to log into their own branded portal at your subdomain, with no per-portal-seat cost.
Three reasons inspection businesses switch to Core
Equipment registers, not checklists
SafetyCulture's model is forms — checklist completion as the atomic unit. There's no concept of a chain sling that has lived for seven years, been inspected sixteen times, failed a proof load once, been re-certified, and is now scheduled for retirement. That's a serialised equipment register, and it's the centre of Core's data model. Independent review summaries consistently describe SafetyCulture's equipment-certificate management as shallow relative to dedicated asset platforms. Core's runs deep, because equipment registers are the product.
Statutory certificates, not generic reports
SafetyCulture offers a free LOLER inspection checklist template — but that's a checklist, not a Report of Thorough Examination certificate. Core ships LOLER ROTE, AS 4991 lifting-device certification, AS 2550 crane major-inspection records, and ASME B30 retirement criteria as native certificate formats. The output your customer files in their compliance folder is a properly formatted statutory document, not a PDF export of a checklist.
Your customers' portal is built in
SafetyCulture is an internal team tool. There's no native concept of a customer to whom inspections are sold and certificates delivered. Core gives every one of your customers a branded online register at your custom subdomain — your URL, your styling, your logo. They log in, see their equipment, download certificates, and (where granted) move or archive assets. Unlimited logins, no per-seat charge. That converts the inspection software from a back-office tool into a customer-retention asset.
Side-by-side: Core vs SafetyCulture
Capability, where each platform lands, and what the difference means in practice.
| Capability | Core | SafetyCulture | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Lifting / rigging / height-safety inspection | Generic safety audits | Different product DNA, different workflow design. |
| Serialised equipment register | Native — every asset carries its lifecycle | Forms-based; equipment record support is shallow | Review summaries describe iAuditor's certificate management as shallow. |
| Statutory certificates | Native (LOLER ROTE, AS 4991, ASME B30) | Build via templates | Compliance frameworks ship pre-formatted in Core. |
| Customer portal per client | Unlimited, branded, your subdomain | Internal-team focused | Core turns the software into a customer-retention feature. |
| Multi-inspect batches | Native | Linear, one-at-a-time forms | Batch capture for 100+ similar items per visit. |
| Restrictive competencies | Enforced at scheduling | Trackable | Only certified technicians can be scheduled to certain equipment. |
| Service-company billing flow | Timesheets, service charges, job sheets | Out of scope | Core captures revenue inputs in the field. |
| Generic audit use cases | Possible, not the focus | Best-in-class | iAuditor's category-leader strength. |
| Template library volume | Vertical-ready (depth) | 100,000+ community templates (breadth) | Different angle on coverage. |
| Public pricing | By quote | Free–$29/user/mo public | iAuditor's top-of-funnel marketing advantage. |
| Enterprise certifications | By demand | ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR | iAuditor's strength for enterprise procurement. |
Built for: Different product DNA, different workflow design.
Serialised equipment register: Review summaries describe iAuditor's certificate management as shallow.
Statutory certificates: Compliance frameworks ship pre-formatted in Core.
Customer portal per client: Core turns the software into a customer-retention feature.
Multi-inspect batches: Batch capture for 100+ similar items per visit.
Restrictive competencies: Only certified technicians can be scheduled to certain equipment.
Service-company billing flow: Core captures revenue inputs in the field.
Generic audit use cases: iAuditor's category-leader strength.
Template library volume: Different angle on coverage.
Public pricing: iAuditor's top-of-funnel marketing advantage.
Enterprise certifications: iAuditor's strength for enterprise procurement.
SafetyCulture packaging, pricing, and review details verified against public sources as of May 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.
Why Core, in five lines
The same five things matter no matter which competitor you're evaluating.
Built for the inspection service business
Quote → schedule → inspect → certify → bill is the workflow. Most competitors stop at 'inspection completed'.
Multi-region compliance in one platform
LOLER, ASNZ 2550, ASME B30, and LEEA Code of Practice ship together — not as separately purchased modules.
Unlimited customer logins
Every one of your customers gets a branded portal to view equipment and certificates — no per-portal-seat charge.
Multi-inspect for batch capture
Inspect 200 chain slings as a single batch with shared metadata. Drill into defects only.
Restrictive competencies enforced
Only certified technicians can be scheduled to certain inspection types — competency becomes an operational rule, not just a data field.
From operators who switched
“Core has modernised our business and given our customers the oversight of their legal requirements that they were looking for.”
Director, Scotia Handling Services — migrated 300+ customers onto Core in three months
Read the case studiesFAQ
SafetyCulture offers a free LOLER inspection checklist template, but it doesn't ship a Report of Thorough Examination certificate, a serialised lifting-equipment register, or UK regulatory vocabulary by default. Core ships all of those as native objects, not configurations to build.
See it on your data, not a generic demo
We'll show you Core Inspection against the workflow you run today — including how a switch from SafetyCulture would actually look on your operation.