Switching from UDATA to Lumos: what you need to know before deciding
UDATA has been a fixture in Quebec's inspection landscape for over two decades. Lumos is a next-generation platform built around modern technology, user experience, and AI specialized in practice standards (BNQ 3009-500 and more). Here's an honest comparison across the five dimensions that truly matter in your daily work.
In 60 seconds
Stay with UDATA if
you've already configured dozens of templates over the years, you rely on the UDATA Store as your primary source of findings, and your offline tablet workflow meets 100% of your needs.
Consider Lumos if
you want a modern experience, the ability to use field capture where the system starts doing the writing work for you (drafting assistance, compliance checking), and for your client or buyer to receive more than just a PDF attachment.
🎙️Field capture
Avec UDATA, With UDATA, you collect data in a dedicated offline tablet app. You take photos, fill in fields, annotate. The report gets built later, using your notes as raw material.
Avec Lumos, With Lumos, you dictate your observations out loud during the inspection and take photos as you go. The AI analyzes what you say and what's in your photos, generating a structured finding while you continue. You're not collecting data — you're producing your draft. You can also work more traditionally and import your photos after the inspection. Flexibility is key.
| Lumos | UDATA | |
|---|---|---|
| Hands-free voice capture | Built-in | |
| Photo annotations (arrows, frames, text) | Native, linked to finding | Basic |
| Web and mobile | Cloud, laptop, tablet and mobile | |
| Native mobile app iOS + Android offline | Coming in the next few months | Dedicated tablet app |
| Google Street View + MLS pre-fill |
with UDATA, capture feeds the writing later. With Lumos, capture is the writing.
🤖AI in the report
Avec UDATA, With UDATA, there's no generative AI. You select findings from your library, adapt them, and write the rest by hand.
Avec Lumos, With Lumos, the AI proposes a structured draft from your voice and photos. It's not a generic LLM like ChatGPT. It's an AI trained specifically on the BNQ 3009-500 standard, the Quebec Civil Code, building codes, and inspection documentation. Each finding goes through two levels of review before you approve, correct, or reject it.
| Lumos | UDATA | |
|---|---|---|
| AI-generated findings | With human validation | |
| AI specialized in BNQ + Civil Code | N/A | |
| 2-level quality review | Automated | Manual |
| AI assistant on standards | Built-in | |
| Findings library | 1,100+ bilingual FR/EN | 650+ templates |
Lumos AI doesn't write for you. It saves you the most tedious hour of your day.
📋BNQ 3009-500 and REIBH 2027
Avec UDATA, With UDATA, compliance depends entirely on how you've configured your templates. You maintain the component structure, mandatory fields, and descriptive text rules yourself.
Avec Lumos, With Lumos, the standard is the structure. The editor is organized component by component, mandatory fields are built in, and a visual gauge alerts you in real time to coverage gaps before you close the inspection.
| Lumos | UDATA | |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time BNQ compliance gauge | ||
| Component-based structure | Native | Depends on configuration |
| Ready for REIBH October 2027 | Requires configuration |
you no longer need to maintain your own compliant template. The standard is the tool.
📦What your buyer receives
Avec UDATA, With UDATA, you deliver a PDF by email. It's clean, professional, standard.
Avec Lumos, With Lumos, your buyer receives a secure access-code link that opens an interactive web report. Section-by-section navigation, full-screen photos and videos, priority filtering, invoice and signed contract all in one place. Accessible on phone, tablet, or computer. The professional PDF remains available for those who want to download it.
| Lumos | UDATA | |
|---|---|---|
| Secure interactive web report | ||
| Customizable PDF (logo, colors) | Complete | Standard |
| Marketing (contact info, Google reviews, social media) | Integrated in web report | Limited to PDF |
your report becomes an extension of your brand, not just an attachment.
🏢Managing your business
Avec UDATA, With UDATA, the software stops at report production. For client onboarding, AIBQ/APCHQ agreements, signatures, invoicing, and Google reviews, you use other tools.
Avec Lumos, With Lumos, everything lives in one place. Proposal with service agreement sent in one click, invoicing with automatic GST and QST calculation, embeddable service request widget for your website, Google review automation, multi-seat team management with AI credits per member.
| Lumos | UDATA | |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in AIBQ/APCHQ agreement | ||
| Invoicing + automatic GST/QST | ||
| Google review automation | ||
| Multi-seat team + AI credits per member | ||
| Embeddable service request widget |
Lumos replaces three or four tools you juggle today.
Migrating from UDATA: what changes, what stays
If you're seriously considering the switch, here's what it concretely involves.
What you bring with you
your own wording and standards. Lumos lets you create custom blocks on top of the base library of 1,100+ bilingual findings. If you have precise phrases you've used for years, you recreate them once in Lumos, with version history, and reuse them on every report.
What you simplify
template maintenance. Most inspectors who migrate discover that what they'd built in UDATA is already provided by default in Lumos — BNQ structure, findings library, Q&A logic. Migration is often a simplification.
What you temporarily lose
100% offline tablet app. The native Lumos mobile app with offline mode is coming in the next few months. In the meantime, the web platform works on phone and tablet with a connection, with optimizations for areas with intermittent connectivity.
What you gain immediately
voice capture, specialized AI, BNQ compliance gauge, interactive web report for your buyers, and a unified platform for all your business management.
Pricing and getting started
Lumos has two public and transparent plans.
Starter : $10 per inspection. Your first 3 inspections are free, no credit card required. Ideal if you want to test on real cases before committing.
Unlimited : $110 per month for unlimited inspections, advanced BNQ compliance, and 200 AI messages per month. Annual plan with two free months.
Team : $99 per additional seat per month.
Student program : free for the duration of your inspection program, plus three months post-graduation.
Questions inspectors ask us
In summary
UDATA dominated Quebec by producing reports. Lumos aims higher: a complete workflow where capture already produces the draft, where the BNQ standard is the tool, and where delivery becomes an experience for your buyer. Try it on a real inspection, for free.
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This comparison is based on publicly available information at the time of publication. Features evolve. If something seems inaccurate, write to us and we'll update it.