Comparison
Wave vs Symbility (now Cotality): Estimating Built for Operators
A clear look at Cotality's sprawling platform (Claim Workspace, Claims Estimate, Mitigate) and how Wave's focused estimating tool fits differently.
Cotality is an enterprise platform. Wave is a tool built for the person doing the work.
Cotality owns a sprawling ecosystem of products for carriers, lenders, and corporate restoration teams. Wave is one tool, built for the individual contractor or adjuster writing the estimate today. If you have ever tried to make sense of Claim Workspace, Claims Estimate, Mitigate, Mitigate Scan, Validate, DASH, and the rest of the Cotality family, this comparison is written for you.
What happened to Symbility, and what is Cotality?
If you remember Symbility, you're not out of date. The product family is the same, the names changed.
Symbility was acquired by CoreLogic years ago. In March 2025, CoreLogic rebranded the entire company to Cotality. Most of the product names came along for the ride.
- Claim Workspace (formerly Symbility Claims Connect) is a collaboration portal. It handles files, notes, and communication between contractors, carriers, and TPAs. It is not an estimator.
- Claims Estimate (formerly Symbility Mobile Claims) is the estimating tool. This is the direct Wave competitor.
- Mitigate (formerly MICA) is a water mitigation documentation tool. Not an estimator.
- Mitigate Scan is the LiDAR floor plan add-on for Mitigate.
- Validate (formerly QA Assist) is an estimate review and QA tool.
- DASH, Next Gear, Luxor, and iRestore are restoration job management CRMs.
- Ali is a conversational AI research tool aimed at lenders and housing analytics.
Each product has its own login. Each has its own interface. Each has its own learning curve. Cotality has built a platform. Wave is a tool.
The real difference
Cotality is building for the enterprise buyer. Wave is building for the individual operator.
You can see it in Cotality's own messaging. Their 2026 theme is "Intelligence beyond bounds." They run Train-the-Trainer Certification programs. Their LiDAR scanning feature requires premium iPhone Pro or iPad Pro hardware. Their SmartScope AI is scoped to large-loss claims. Their Ali conversational AI is built for lenders and housing market research. Their pricing is quote-based. Their 22,000 data sources feed carrier and lender analytics.
Those are real investments. They are built for carriers, lenders, and enterprise restoration firms with corporate training infrastructure.
Wave is the opposite. Voice-first chat interface. Runs on any phone. Estimates in 10 to 15 minutes. Public pricing and self-serve signup. Built by a restoration operator who still runs a restoration business. The customer is always the person doing the work.
At a glance
| Wave | Cotality Claims Estimate | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary customer | Contractors and adjusters in the field | Carriers, large enterprise restoration firms |
| Platform complexity | One tool, one login | Workspace plus Estimate plus Mitigate plus more |
| Intelligence | AI-generated scope from natural language | Manual entry, SmartScope for large-loss only |
| Mobile experience | Voice-first, runs on any phone | Mobile app with limited feature parity |
| Training required | First estimate on day one | Third-party training industry exists to support it |
| LiDAR or sketching | Not required to generate an estimate | LiDAR available, requires iPhone Pro or iPad Pro |
| Pricing | Public, $199 to $495 monthly | Quote-based, tied to carrier programs |
| Innovation pace | Ships new features monthly | Ships platform updates; mobile app has evolved slowly |
| Ideal user | Anyone on the claim | Enterprise teams with training infrastructure |
How Wave actually works
Open Wave. No menus, no code trees, no separate product to launch first. There is one chat box and a short greeting.
You type or speak what you see on site. Customer name, address, loss category, cause of loss, which rooms are affected. Wave pulls the scope out of natural language and asks short follow-up questions to fill in what is missing. Most of those questions are multiple choice. Tap A, B, C, or D and keep moving. You are on site. You are holding a moisture meter. You are not typing paragraphs.
When Wave has enough information, it generates the complete estimate. Line items grouped by room, with subtotals. Equipment sized from the room dimensions you provided, using IICRC drying science. PPE kit auto-added and scaled to the loss category. Containment barriers, antimicrobial application, HEPA vacuuming on exposed framing, and every line item a senior estimator would know to add.
Every line item self-documents. Under the fan line, Wave notes the equipment count and duration. Under the floor protection line, Wave explains why it is there. Under the testing line, Wave references the post-remediation clearance requirement. Your adjuster reads the estimate and does not have to ask questions because the answers are already written.
Edit any line item inline. Type a math expression like 5'6 times 3'4 in the quantity field and Wave resolves it. Talk to Wave to make revisions. Export when ready.
Total time from scope to export: typically 10 to 15 minutes. On the job site. From any phone.
How Cotality Claims Estimate works
Cotality Claims Estimate is a desktop application. You download it by first logging into Claim Workspace, their collaboration portal. Once installed, Claims Estimate stores data locally and syncs back to Workspace.
Line item entry happens through drag-and-drop from the sketch window. You select a line item, drag it into the sketch, and the system places it. You cannot type line items directly into the estimate view. You can only select one line item at a time. If you need 10 similar items in a room, that is 10 drag-and-drop operations.
A mobile app exists. Based on publicly available reviews from working adjusters and contractors, the mobile app has limitations. No laser measurement integration. No LiDAR on the estimating side. No augmented reality. Line items can only be added through the sketch window. The consensus from reviewers is that the app has not kept up with modern field tools.
For large-loss claims, Cotality offers SmartScope, a conditional logic driven question-and-answer workflow. SmartScope requires you to import an aerial roof plan from a provider like EagleView or HOVER before the questionnaire begins. It is designed for complex roofing and large-loss scenarios, not the everyday water, fire, or mold job.
Cotality Claims Estimate has no general-purpose AI for scope generation. It is a manual tool with guided workflows, and it relies on the user bringing the estimating knowledge.
In our team's past experience on the restoration side, claims that required Claims Estimate itself were notably difficult. A third-party training industry exists specifically to teach contractors how to write defensible estimates in the Cotality system. That is a signal.
Where Cotality's investments actually land
Cotality has been investing heavily in new features. Every one of them is worth acknowledging, and every one of them is built for the enterprise buyer.
LiDAR scanning via Mitigate Scan. Technicians with an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro can scan a room and generate a floor plan with measurements. It is a feature built for enterprise restoration firms that need standardized spatial documentation across thousands of claims. It requires premium hardware, which means it works for teams whose entire field staff carries Pro-model devices. For most restoration jobs, a floor plan is not the deliverable. The estimate is. LiDAR is a faster sketching tool, not a faster estimating tool.
SmartScope AI for large-loss claims. Cotality has an AI workflow for complex adjuster-driven large-loss scenarios. It requires imported aerial imagery and is scoped to claims where the multi-party review process justifies the setup. It is not a tool for the tech on a bathroom water loss.
Ali conversational AI. Cotality's conversational AI assistant is a housing data research tool aimed at lenders, analysts, and corporate insurance decision-makers. It is not an estimating tool.
22,000 data sources. Cotality aggregates enormous amounts of property data for carrier analytics, risk modeling, and climate forecasting. That data powers underwriting and catastrophe prediction. It does not help a technician write tomorrow's estimate.
These are real investments. They are built for enterprise buyers who need platform intelligence and spatial documentation at scale. They are not built for the person on the job site trying to get an estimate to the adjuster by end of day.
Why Wave wins
Built for the technician, not the adjuster
Cotality's own marketing repeatedly references adjusters, loss adjusting expenses, and carrier workflows. Their product literature is written for the carrier side of the claim. Wave was built by a restoration operator who still runs a restoration business. The customer is always the person doing the work, and that shapes every design decision.
Skip the sketching step entirely
Wave doesn't need a floor plan to generate your estimate. It needs room dimensions and a scope description. The estimate comes out the other end, complete with line items, equipment sizing, PPE, and documentation. The floor plan is a middleman step that doesn't change what gets billed.
We're not anti-sketch. We just don't think every job needs one. Cotality is investing in LiDAR sketching because it is a catchy feature for enterprise marketing. Most jobs don't need that level of spatial capture. A bathroom is a bathroom. A hallway is a hallway. Tell Wave about it and the estimate writes itself.
AI that writes the estimate, not AI for someone else's problem
Cotality's AI is built for different problems: housing analytics for lenders, aerial imagery for large-loss claims, and conditional workflows for enterprise adjusters. Wave's AI is built to do what contractors and adjusters actually need done, which is to generate the complete priced estimate from natural language.
A technician on their first week, using Wave, produces an estimate that looks like the work of a senior estimator. That is the entire product thesis in one sentence. If the work you do is write restoration estimates, Wave's AI was built for that. Cotality's was built for someone else.
One tool, one login, no ecosystem sprawl
To do your job in Cotality, you may need Claim Workspace for collaboration, Claims Estimate for the estimate, Mitigate for water mitigation documentation, Mitigate Scan for LiDAR floor plans, Validate for estimate review, and DASH for job management. Each has its own interface. Each has its own learning curve. Each is sold separately.
Wave is one tool. You log in once. You do the work. You export. That's the product.
Transparent pricing, no enterprise sales motion
Wave Pro is $199 per month with unlimited users. Growth is $299 per month. Ultra is $495 per month for unlimited estimates. Save two months when you pay annually. All of it is published on the pricing page. Sign up online.
Cotality pricing is quote-based and typically tied to carrier programs or enterprise contracts. You have to talk to sales. You have to negotiate. You have to fit into their sales motion. If you can't see the price, the product probably wasn't built for you.
Ships new features continuously
Wave releases new product capabilities monthly. Cotality's flagship mobile app has evolved slowly by comparison, with reviewers publicly noting that key capabilities have not changed in years. Platform products at Cotality's scale move at platform speed, which is not the pace of a restoration job site.
Where Cotality wins
Three scenarios, honestly.
You are a carrier-side adjuster or claims team deeply integrated with the Cotality ecosystem, and Claim Workspace plus Claims Estimate is how your organization runs.
You are a large enterprise restoration firm that needs standardized spatial documentation across thousands of claims, with corporate training infrastructure to bring new staff up the Cotality learning curve.
Your carrier has mandated Cotality Claims Estimate for specific claim types, and you have no choice but to submit in their format.
For everyone else, Wave wins.
Who should switch
Restoration contractors who looked at the Cotality product family and wondered why they need five tools to write one estimate.
Adjusters who don't want to run three separate logins across Workspace, Estimate, and Mitigate.
Teams that don't have iPhone Pros and iPad Pros issued to every technician.
Anyone who has ever Googled "why is Symbility so hard to use" and ended up on a forum thread with no good answers.
Growing operations where onboarding a new estimator into the Cotality ecosystem takes longer than training them on the restoration work itself.
Anyone who opened Claims Estimate and asked out loud, "why is this so hard?"
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Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Symbility?
Symbility was acquired by CoreLogic. In March 2025, CoreLogic rebranded the whole company to Cotality, and the Symbility product names changed with it. Symbility Claims Connect is now Cotality Claim Workspace. Symbility Mobile Claims is now Cotality Claims Estimate. The products are the same, the branding is new.
What's the difference between Claim Workspace, Claims Estimate, and Mitigate?
Claim Workspace is a collaboration portal for files, notes, and multi-party claim communication. Claims Estimate is the actual estimating software. Mitigate is a separate product focused on water mitigation documentation. You may need more than one to do the job, and each has its own login and learning curve.
Does Wave do LiDAR scanning or floor plans?
No. We don't think every job needs a sketch. Wave generates the complete estimate from scope description, including room dimensions, loss category, and affected materials. The estimate is the deliverable contractors get paid for, and we've focused on making that faster and more accurate.
Can Wave integrate with Cotality Claim Workspace?
Not today. Wave is a standalone tool with PDF export. Teams that use Claim Workspace for carrier collaboration can still use Wave for the estimate itself and attach the Wave PDF inside their existing Workspace workflow.
Is Cotality's AI better than Wave's?
Cotality's AI is built for different problems: housing analytics for lenders, aerial imagery for large-loss claims, and conditional workflows for enterprise adjusters. Wave's AI is built to generate the complete priced estimate from natural language. If the work you do is write restoration estimates, Wave's AI was built for that. Cotality's was built for someone else.
How does Wave compare to SmartScope for large-loss claims?
SmartScope is Cotality's Q&A-driven workflow for large-loss scenarios and requires an imported aerial roof plan before the questionnaire begins. It is designed for the complex multi-party adjuster workflow. Wave handles scope-to-estimate in a single chat interaction without requiring aerial imagery or a separate sketch import. For everyday water, fire, and mold losses, Wave is the faster path.
Ready to estimate without the platform?
Wave was built by a restoration operator for restoration operators. If you have ever felt like the Cotality ecosystem is solving problems you don't have, you already know why Wave exists.
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