Two questions come up once a manager understands the platform is free: are there limits? and is anything ever going to cost us money? This article answers both honestly.
What's included, with no limits
The free platform is not a stripped-down tier. Your community gets the whole product, and the things a subscription usually meters are simply unlimited here:
- Unlimited residents — add every owner and tenant; there is no seat count and no per-resident charge.
- Unlimited guards — create a guard account for everyone who works your gates. See Add and manage guards and security staff.
- Unlimited gates and passes — as many entry points and visitor passes as your community issues.
- Visitor pre-registration and recurring vendors, gate scanning with a stated reason for every refusal, the live on-property log, work orders, packages, amenity booking, announcements, vehicle registration and violations, incident logging and emergency broadcast, deny lists and BOLO alerts, board reports, and the app in eleven languages.
Adding residents, guards or gates never triggers an overage charge or asks you to upgrade. If you ever see anything that looks like a hard cap blocking you from adding staff or residents, that's not expected — contact your point of contact rather than assuming you've hit a paid limit.
The three things that actually cost money
Being honest about "free" means naming what isn't. Exactly three optional add-ons carry a real cost. None is required, and none is billed to residents.
- Text messaging (SMS). Every text has a carrier cost, and the sending number must first be registered under the US rules for business messaging, which carries its own fee. SMS is charged only if your community switches it on, and only for what you send. Email and in-app notifications stay free and unlimited, so a community that never turns on SMS never pays anything here. See Message every resident at once (reach and limits) for how reach works.
- Access-control integration. Opening a gate arm, pedestrian gate or clubhouse door from the same pass means physical equipment, cabling, a controller and a licensed installer. It is surveyed and quoted per site, because no two properties have the same gates and wiring. It's optional — the free platform runs fine alongside whatever access control you already have, including none.
- White-labeling. Your association's own name, colors and domain across the resident app, emails and passes, with the platform's branding removed. It's bespoke work per community, so it's quoted separately. Nothing is withheld without it — an unbranded community gets exactly the same features.
What about guarding, patrol and cameras?
On-site or remote gate guarding, vehicle patrol, camera monitoring, traffic enforcement and the AI gate intercom are separate, optional security services, quoted per site. They are not part of the platform bill, and keeping the free platform without buying any of them is completely normal. Your existing guards get accounts and scan passes at no charge, whether or not you use those services.
Is there a "plan" I should know about?
Internally the account carries a plan tier and a licensed size, but that's set for you by the platform team — it isn't something you choose, manage, or get billed against as you add residents. For your purposes, treat the platform as the full product with unlimited residents, guards, gates and passes. If a paid add-on above is relevant to your community, your point of contact will raise it with you directly.