Comparing guard tour systems without wasting three weeks
Every vendor demo looks the same. Here is what actually separates these systems, the questions that expose the differences, and where we are genuinely not the right answer.
The five things that actually differ
Nearly every guard tour system on the market can scan a checkpoint and draw a map. If you compare on feature lists you will conclude they are identical, pick on price or on whoever called you back fastest, and find out the differences six weeks later. These are the areas where they genuinely diverge.
1. Pricing model, not price
Per guard, per site, per module, or flat. The model matters more than the headline number, because it decides what happens when you grow or take on seasonal work. Ask for a twelve-month total at your current headcount and at your headcount plus twenty.
2. The guard-side app
This is the one people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the rollout succeeds. A dashboard is used by two people in an office; the app is used by forty officers at night in the rain. Insist on seeing it. Count the taps needed to scan a checkpoint and to file an incident.
3. Offline behaviour
Ask directly: what happens when there is no signal? A good answer describes local queuing and automatic sync with the original event time preserved. A vague answer usually means lost scans.
4. What the client sees
You are buying evidence to give your customer. Ask for a real sample report, not a screenshot. If you would be embarrassed to forward it to a client without editing, that is a problem you will have every single week.
5. Support, and the exit
Who answers at 6am when a site cannot log in? Is support included? And — the question nobody asks — how do you get all your data out if you leave in two years?
Take this to every demo you book
Same questions, every vendor, written down. The differences show up immediately.
- Twelve-month total cost at my exact headcount, in writing
- Is there a setup, onboarding or training fee?
- Is scheduling and rota included or an add-on?
- Are extra admin or supervisor logins charged?
- Show me the guard app, not the dashboard
- How many taps to scan a checkpoint?
- What happens with no mobile signal?
- Are NFC tags proprietary or standard?
- Send me a real client report as a PDF
- Can reports be scheduled to send automatically?
- Is there an SOS / lone worker function included?
- What is the minimum contract term?
- What happens to my price at renewal?
- Who answers the phone, and in what hours?
- How do I export all my data if I leave?
- Where is the data hosted, and is it UK GDPR compliant?
How SMS-Patrol answers its own checklist
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat, per company. £60/mo to 40 guards, £100/mo to 100. |
| Setup fee | None. Configuration, import and training included. |
| Scheduling included? | Yes, in the base price. |
| Extra admin users | Unlimited, free. |
| Offline | Scans, photos and reports queue locally and sync automatically with original timestamps. |
| Tags | Standard NFC and printed QR. Buy from anyone. |
| Client reporting | PDF and Excel, filterable, schedulable. Ask us for a sample on the demo. |
| Lone worker / SOS | Included. |
| Contract | Rolling monthly. Cancel any time. |
| Support | UK team, phone / email / WhatsApp, Mon–Fri 9–6, included. |
| Data export | Full export to PDF, Excel and CSV whenever you want it. |
| Hosting | UK/EU cloud, encrypted in transit, UK GDPR compliant. |
When we are not the right choice
We would rather say this now than on month three. SMS-Patrol is probably not your answer if:
- You need vetting, screening and HR in one place. We do patrols, rotas, incidents and billing. BS 7858 screening workflows and applicant tracking are somebody else's product.
- You run full payroll in-house and want it inside the platform. We produce verified hours and export them. We are not a payroll engine.
- You need certified ARC integration for alarm response. Keep your ARC relationship; we sit alongside it.
- You have 500+ officers across many countries. At that size you want an enterprise platform with a dedicated implementation team, and you can afford one.
- You want an on-premise installation. We are cloud only, deliberately — it is a large part of why we cost what we do.
If you have between five and a hundred officers, you are drowning in spreadsheets, and you want proof of patrol plus a rota plus accurate invoicing without a four-figure annual bill — that is exactly the company we built this for.
Comparison questions
Work out your must-haves first, then compare on total twelve-month cost at your real headcount. The four things that decide it in practice are: can your guards use the app without training, does it work offline, is scheduling included, and what does the client-facing report look like.
Ask to see the guard app rather than the manager dashboard. Ask what happens with no signal. Ask for the twelve-month total including setup at your headcount. Ask whether tags are proprietary. Ask who answers the phone at 7am and whether it costs extra. Ask how you would export everything if you left.
Only if you will genuinely use it. All-in-one suites cost considerably more and often do the core patrol job no better. If your immediate pain is proving patrols, running rotas and billing accurately, buy something that does those three well and keep your existing payroll.
Usually not. Export sites, checkpoints and officers from your current system and we will import them. Physical NFC tags from another vendor can often be reused because they are standard tags. Most companies run both systems in parallel for a week before switching.
Free tiers work for a couple of guards on one site. Self-hosted open source shifts the cost from a subscription to your own time — hosting, updates, mobile builds and support all become your job. For most operators that costs more than £60 a month.
If you run key holding and alarm response and your ARC requires certified integration, keep that relationship. A guard tour system sits alongside it, handling patrols, rotas and reporting rather than replacing the ARC.