The Roundtable Awards
Awards the field actually voted on.
Most software awards are judged by a panel or bought with a sponsorship. These aren't. Every Roundtable award comes from ratings by members who use these apps on the job, and every result is published here in full: the winner, the runners-up, and the number of ratings behind every score.
Not Live Yet The first awards come from the first review round, which opens once the founding table is full. Results will be published here.
The Categories
Three awards. Three different questions.
Best New Inspection Platform
The highest-rated platform on the Field Scorecard among apps that first went on general sale in the 36 months before voting opens. New tools get a fair shot without having to out-install companies that have been around for twenty years.
Best Value
The platform techs say is most worth it on the job. Members rate one question: For the time and hassle it takes, how much does this app help you get the job done? Value here means value to the person holding the tablet.
Best Value for the Business
The platform owners and managers say is most worth what the company pays. Members in owner, manager, and operations roles rate one question: For what your company pays, how much does this app deliver? This is the only award owners and managers vote in.
How Winners Are Picked
No panel. No judges. Just the ratings.
The review round opens.
Members rate the app they use. One rating per member, per app, per year.
Ratings are scored.
A platform's score is the plain average of its ratings on a 1-to-5 scale. Best New Inspection Platform uses the average across all six Field Scorecard categories. The two value awards use their single question.
Minimums are checked.
To qualify in a category, a platform needs enough ratings from enough different companies (see the rules below). Platforms that fall short aren't ranked, so a handful of fans can't carry an app.
The highest score wins.
Ties go to the platform with more ratings. If it's still tied, both win.
Everything is published.
Every qualifying platform, its score, its rating count, and its company count go on this page. Nothing is held back.
The Rules
Set before voting opens. Never changed after.
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Rule 01
Who rates.
Best New Inspection Platform and Best Value are rated by members in field roles: inspection techs, service techs, lead techs and field supervisors, and apprentices. Best Value for the Business is rated by members in owner, manager, and office or operations roles.
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Rule 02
Rate what you use.
Members rate only the app they use for work, and only one app per category per year.
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Rule 03
Field minimums.
For Best New Inspection Platform and Best Value, a platform needs at least 10 ratings from members at 3 or more different companies.
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Rule 04
Business minimums.
For Best Value for the Business, a platform needs at least 5 ratings from members at 3 or more different companies.
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Rule 05
Not enough to award.
If fewer than two platforms meet the minimums in a category, that category isn't awarded that year.
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Rule 06
No vendor votes.
Anyone who works for a software company, or for a fire protection company owned by a software company's owners, can't rate or vote in the awards. That includes InspectSync, LLC and companies owned by its owners.
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Rule 07
No campaigning for ratings.
A vendor that offers anything of value in exchange for ratings, or pushes customers to rate during the round, is disqualified for that year, and the disqualification is published here.
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Rule 08
No buying, appealing, or removing results.
Vendors can't sponsor a category, buy a result, or have a published result changed. If a platform's facts are wrong (a release date, for example), email us and we'll correct the facts and note the correction.
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Rule 09
Fixed for the year.
These rules are published before each review round opens and don't change until the round closes.
Techs run the Roundtable. InspectSync coordinates it. Here's what that means for the awards.
FireTech Roundtable is run by technicians who are out in the field every day and coordinated by InspectSync, LLC, which makes one of the apps that can win. That's why the rules exist. InspectSync is rated by the same members, on the same questions, against the same minimums as everyone else. Nobody who works for InspectSync or a company owned by its owners can rate. And anywhere InspectSync shows up in the results, the label says so, right next to its name.
Read the CharterFor Winners
Won one? Here's how to use the badge.
Winners can use their badge for free, on their website, proposals, trade-show booths, and anywhere else, as long as they follow these rules:
- Use the badge exactly as issued. No recoloring, cropping, or edits.
- Keep the year on it. A 2027 badge stays a 2027 badge.
- Online, link the badge to this page's results for that category (for example,
firetechroundtable.com/awards/2027#best-value). - Only use the badge for the category you won.
- If you're InspectSync, say next to the badge that InspectSync coordinates the Roundtable.
Badges used outside these rules are listed here as misused, by company name.
Winners get their badge files by email from hello@firetechroundtable.com after results are published. There is no public download link.
The next winner is up to you. Get your say in.
Members rate in the review round, and the awards come straight from those ratings. Joining is free.
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