The right crane inspection software depends on two things: whether you inspect your own cranes or other people's, and which rules your customers work under. Most comparison lists skip both and rank tools that do different jobs against each other. This guide sorts the options by the job they do, gives you eight checks to run on any of them, and says where Core fits and where something else fits better.
Start with whose cranes you inspect
Crane owners need the daily and monthly checks done and recorded, a maintenance plan, and proof for an auditor. One site or one fleet, one set of users.
Inspection and service companies have a different problem. The register spans hundreds of customer sites. Each customer wants their own certificates and nobody else's. Technicians hold different qualifications. The inspection is a job that has to be scheduled, approved, delivered, and invoiced. Software built for an owner's daily checklist does not carry that workload, and software built for service companies is more than an owner needs.
Decide which you are before you read a feature list.
Eight checks to run on any vendor
1. Does it know the inspection classes of your standards? Under OSHA 1910.179 a crane has frequent inspections, monthly certification-record inspections of hooks, hoist chains, and running ropes, and periodic inspections at 1 to 12 months. Construction cranes under 1926.1412 run on shift, monthly, and annual inspections. ASME B30.2 has five inspection types with intervals by service class, hoists follow B30.16, UK equipment runs on LOLER's 6 and 12-month thorough examinations, and Australian cranes on AS 2550. Ask to see one asset carrying all of its classes with separate due dates. Our guides to OSHA crane inspection requirements and ASME B30.2 list what each class involves.
2. Does it produce the record each rule wants, in your template? A 1910.179 certification record needs the date, the inspector's signature, and the identifier of the hook, chain, or rope. A LOLER Report of Thorough Examination needs the Schedule 1 particulars. Your customers know your certificate, so bring it to the demo and ask to see it filled from a real inspection.
3. Does it work where cranes are? That means offline in a steel mill or at height, photos attached to the finding, and signatures captured on the device. OSHA has accepted electronic signatures on certification records since its October 21, 1997 interpretation letter.
4. Can it inspect a batch? A crane visit is the bridge crane, its hoist and hook, the jib beside it, and a rack of slings. If the software opens one form per item, a 200-item visit is 200 forms. Ask to see a batch passed in bulk with only the defects opened individually.
5. Does it enforce competency when the job is scheduled? 1926.1412 splits inspections between competent and qualified persons, ASME B30 separates designated and qualified persons, and LOLER requires a competent person for each class of equipment. Storing a technician's tickets as data is common. Blocking the booking when the ticket is missing is rarer.
6. How is the client portal priced? If logins are charged per seat, someone at your customer's plant goes without access. Ask how many client users are included and whether the portal carries your branding and your domain.
7. What happens between the inspection and the invoice? Some tools stop at the inspection report. Others carry quoting, work orders, and invoicing. Others hand a billing summary to your accounting system. None is wrong, but you should know which one you are buying.
8. Can you get your data out? Ask for an export of the register and the inspection history in a format another system could import, and ask who owns the vendor.
The options, sorted by the job they do
Descriptions below come from each vendor's own website in October 2026. Check them yourself before you shortlist.
| Type | Examples | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Crane-service inspection apps | InspectAll | US overhead crane and hoist service companies |
| Field-service platforms for crane companies | crewOS | Crane service companies that want work orders and invoicing in the same tool |
| Reliability and maintenance platforms | Redlist | Crane owners running inspections and preventive maintenance on their own fleet |
| OEM apps | Konecranes CheckApp | Crane owners recording daily inspections |
| General inspection apps | SafetyCulture | Owner-operators running their own checklists across many topics |
| Visual and drone inspection | Averroes, vHive | Detecting defects from images or drone flights |
| Lifting-inspection service platforms | Core, and in the UK Motion Kinetic | Companies that inspect and certify lifting equipment for customers |
InspectAll describes itself as the leading inspection platform for overhead crane and hoist inspections. Its overhead crane page covers frequent inspections, periodic inspections, load testing, certificates, and reporting, and cites OSHA 1910.179, ASME B30.2, and CMAA Specification 75. It has the longest track record in US overhead crane service. Our Core vs InspectAll comparison sets out where each is the better choice.
crewOS positions itself as one platform from inspection to work order to invoice for crane service companies, with accounting integrations. If you want dispatch, change orders, and invoicing in the same tool as the inspection, that is the category to look at.
Redlist calls itself a reliability platform for crane and rigging operations: inspection forms, certification tracking with expiry alerts, preventive maintenance scheduling, and defect tracking through to work orders. It is aimed at companies running their own crane fleets.
Konecranes CheckApp records daily crane inspections for crane owners and sits alongside Konecranes' own service contracts.
SafetyCulture is a general inspection and checklist platform. It suits an owner-operator who wants one app for crane pre-use checks, site safety walks, and everything else. Our Core vs SafetyCulture comparison covers the differences for inspection companies.
Averroes and vHive appear on some lists of crane inspection software. They analyse images or fly drones to find defects, which is a different job from scheduling inspections and issuing certificates.
Where Core fits, and where it doesn't
Core is built for companies whose business is inspecting and certifying lifting, rigging, and height-safety equipment for their customers. It fits best when:
- You inspect more than cranes on the same visit: hoists, hooks, slings, shackles, harnesses, below-the-hook devices.
- Your customers work under more than one regime: OSHA and ASME in the US, LOLER in the UK, AS 2550 and AS/NZS 1891 in Australia and New Zealand.
- You inspect at volume and need to pass a rack or a bay as one batch.
- You want every customer to have portal access without counting seats.
- Technician competency has to block a booking when the ticket is missing.
Something else fits better when:
- You are a US overhead crane service company working only to 1910.179 and you want the deepest crane-specific form shortcuts. Look at InspectAll.
- You want quoting, work orders, and invoicing inside the inspection tool. Core hands a per-customer billing summary to your accounting system and integrates with Xero, so look at a field-service platform if you want the invoice itself in the same place.
- You own the cranes and want maintenance planning as much as inspection. Look at a reliability platform.
How to run the trial
Bring three things to every demo: your own certificate template, a list of twenty real assets from one customer site, and a technician who will use the app. Ask the vendor to schedule the visit, inspect the twenty assets on a phone in airplane mode, fail two of them with photos, and issue the certificates. Then log in as the customer. You will learn more in that half hour than from any feature matrix. You can run the same sequence in Core's interactive demo without signing up.
Where Core fits in your shortlist
If the checks above describe your business, see the crane inspection software page for the detail, read the US crane and rigging inspection software workflow, or see it on your own workflow.
Sources
- InspectAll, "Overhead Crane and Hoist Inspections" (inspectall.com/overhead-cranes), accessed 5 October 2026.
- crewOS, "crewOS vs InspectAll" (crewos.io/overhead-crane-inspection-software), accessed 5 October 2026.
- Redlist, "Crane Inspection Software for Industrial Lifting Operations" (getredlist.com/industries/crane-and-rigging), accessed 5 October 2026.
- Konecranes, "Daily Crane Inspection Tracking with CheckApp" (konecranes.com), accessed 5 October 2026.
- Averroes, "5 Best Crane Inspection Software (2025)" (averroes.ai/blog/crane-inspection-software), accessed 5 October 2026.
- OSHA letter of interpretation, October 21, 1997, on electronic signatures for 1910.179 certification records.
Put this guide to work
Free daily, monthly, and annual crane inspection sheets to run alongside any software trial. PDF and Excel. Or see the whole program running (scheduling, mobile inspections, certificates) in an interactive demo. No signup, about 3 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best crane inspection software?
It depends on whose cranes you inspect and which rules apply. For a US overhead crane service company working only to OSHA 1910.179, InspectAll is the long-standing specialist. For a crane owner running daily checks and preventive maintenance on its own fleet, a reliability platform such as Redlist or an OEM app such as Konecranes CheckApp fits better. For an inspection company that covers more than cranes (hoists, slings, hooks, harnesses, below-the-hook devices), works across OSHA, ASME, LOLER, or AS 2550, and needs client portals and batch inspection, Core is built for that business.
What should crane inspection software include?
Eight things: every inspection class of the standards you work to, scheduled per asset; the record each rule requires, in your own template; offline field capture with photos and signatures; batch inspection for a bay or a rack; technician competency enforced at scheduling; a client portal priced so every customer can use it; a handoff from inspection to invoice; and a clean export of your data.
Does OSHA require crane inspection software?
No. OSHA requires the inspections and, for some of them, records: 1910.179 requires monthly certification records for hooks, hoist chains, and running ropes, and 1926.1412 requires documented monthly and annual inspections on construction cranes. The records can be electronic. OSHA's October 21, 1997 interpretation letter accepts an electronic system in place of a physical signature, provided it identifies the inspector and stands as their certification.
How much does crane inspection software cost?
Most vendors in this category price by quote rather than on a public price list, usually by number of technicians or users. When you compare quotes, check three things that change the real cost: whether client portal logins are charged per seat, whether there is a per-inspection or per-certificate fee, and whether onboarding your certificate templates is included. Core prices by quote with no per-inspection or per-certificate charges, and client portal logins are unlimited.
Is crane inspection software different from a general inspection app?
Yes, in what it assumes. A general inspection app gives you a form builder and a place to store completed checklists. Crane inspection software starts from an asset register and the inspection classes of a standard, so each crane, hoist, and hook carries its own due dates and produces the record that standard asks for. If you inspect for customers, it also needs the service side: jobs, technician competencies, client portals, and billing.