Question 1

What is the best hail tracking app for roofers in 2026?

Accepted Answer

There is no single answer, and any list that gives you one is selling something. HailTrace is the best product if you need meteorologist-reviewed swaths, storm forecasting, or forensic reports that stand up in court. Hail Recon has the deepest archive and sells homeowner contact data alongside it. HailStrike is built around per-property hail reports. RadarScope is the best ten dollars in weather software if you can read raw radar yourself. HailMate is the one that puts a street-level map, the canvassing and the whole claim workflow on one subscription, and the cheapest way onto a street-level map for a single state at $79 a month.

Question 2

Which hail app has the best interface?

Accepted Answer

We build one of these, so read this with that in mind — but it is also the thing we hear first from people who switch. HailMate is designed for a rep standing in a driveway holding a phone: one map with the hail already drawn on it, a pin and an outcome in two taps, and the same interface on the web and in the app rather than a desktop console plus a separate mobile product. The hail map subscriptions are built for a researcher at a desk, so they lead with event pickers, layer controls and report tools — powerful, and a lot to learn before a new canvasser is useful. RadarScope is excellent and assumes you can read raw reflectivity. Judge it yourself with one test: hand each app to someone who has never used it and time how long before they drop a pin that means something.

Question 3

Do I have to pick a storm date to see hail on the map?

Accepted Answer

In most of these, yes, and it is the single biggest day-to-day difference between them. Hail Recon, HailStrike and the rest are organized around events — you select a storm date, load that day’s swath, then repeat for the next one — which means finding out which of the last dozen storms hit a particular street is a search you run one date at a time. HailMate loads every hail day on record across your whole territory onto one map by default, color-banded by stone size with the biggest drawn on top, so a neighborhood shows its entire storm history the second you open it. There is a date filter for working a single event or proving a date of loss, but it narrows a map that is already complete rather than being the thing that makes the map appear at all.

Question 4

Is there a free hail map app?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with real caveats. HailTrace has a free tier that shows reduced-detail maps with an account. Hail Recon publishes free public hail-event pages. And several sites, this one included, will check a single address for free with no signup at all — the hail tracker here does exactly that, no account, no card. What nobody gives away free is a whole state at street level with the canvassing and paperwork behind it. HailMate charges $79 a month for that, month-to-month, with three years of hail on the map.

Question 5

How much does HailTrace cost per month?

Accepted Answer

HailTrace does not publish subscription pricing. Their plans page lists Free, Maps Only, Maps & Data and Enterprise, and every paid tier routes to a contact-us form or a demo request, so the figure depends on your quote and your coverage area. The only prices they publish are per-report: $40 for a weather history report, $150 for a meteorologist-reviewed one, and $1,000 for a certified forensic report. Be skeptical of any article that quotes you a HailTrace monthly price — the number is not published anywhere, so it was invented.

Question 6

How much does Hail Recon cost?

Accepted Answer

Their pricing page lists $999 a year for a single state, $1,499 for three states and $1,999 for nationwide coverage, payable up front or split into monthly payments. Bulk homeowner contact data is a separate line at $799 a year per state. Hail Recon and Interactive Hail Maps are the same company and the same subscription — the name on the app and the name on the invoice.

Question 7

Are radar hail maps accurate enough to canvass from?

Accepted Answer

For picking streets, yes. Radar-estimated hail size is typically within about a quarter inch of what people measure on the ground, which is plenty to tell a 2-inch street from one that got pea gravel. Where it softens is at the edges of a swath and in unusual storm structures, which is why the better tools show ground reports and probability layers next to the swath rather than a single confident polygon. No radar product proves damage on a specific roof. The inspection does that.

Question 8

Do I need a hail map app if I already have a roofing CRM?

Accepted Answer

That is the real question, and for most storm crews the answer is that they end up paying twice. AccuLynx, JobNimbus and the rest have no hail data of their own, so the map becomes a second subscription — and because the two systems never talk, the storm date gets typed in by hand and the radar evidence never reaches the adjuster. The alternative is a product where the map and the job record are the same system. That is the argument HailMate is built on.

Question 9

What about free weather apps like RadarScope or AccuWeather?

Accepted Answer

They are good at what they do and they are not hail-canvassing tools. RadarScope shows you raw NEXRAD radar in real time, which is genuinely useful for watching a storm cross your market, but it will not hand you a swath polygon your reps can knock or a history you can search by address. Consumer forecast apps are further away still. Use them alongside a hail map, never instead of one.

Tool	Published price	Archive	Canvassing	CRM behind it
HailMateOurs	$79–149/mo	Mid-2023 to today — three years, on every plan, all of it drawn at once	Included on every plan, on the same map as the swaths	Jobs, claims, estimates, e-sign, supplement tracking, invoicing
HailTrace	Quote only	Back to 2010, per their FAQ	Enterprise tier only	Integrates with JobNimbus, SalesRabbit, SPOTIO — it is not one
Hail Recon (Interactive Hail Maps)	$999–$1,999 / yr	Back to January 2011; frame-by-frame radar replay to June 2015	Knock tracking and territories, one storm date loaded at a time	The lead still has to be re-entered somewhere else
HailStrike	$149–$249 / mo	Storm search back to 2011	No door-to-door pin tracking	A claim management system, not a sales CRM
RadarScope	$9.99 one-time + Pro tiers	Live and recent radar, not a canvassable hail archive	None	None

The 5 best hail tracking apps for roofers

Every published price, in one table

What each one is actually for

HailMate

Best for

Watch out for

HailTrace

Best for

Watch out for

Hail Recon (Interactive Hail Maps)

Best for

Watch out for

HailStrike

Best for

Watch out for

RadarScope

Best for

Watch out for

Eight things to check before you sign

Does the map show every storm, or one you have to name first?

How long until a new canvasser is actually productive?

Resolution — street, or county?

Archive depth — and be honest about whether you need it

What happens after the door

Published price, or a sales call

Does it work with no signal

Seats

The short version

Related reading

Picking a hail app, answered

More comparisons

HailMate vs HailTrace

Hail map apps for roofers (and the Hail Recon alternative)

Best roofing software, every category

Best canvassing apps, compared

HailMate vs SalesRabbit

Door-knocking apps for storm crews (and the SPOTIO alternative)

The cheapest way onto a street-level map