Keypad Lock or Managed Access Control: Which Does Your Business Need?

What is the difference between a keypad lock and managed access control?

A keypad lock is programmed at the door. A cloud system runs from an app, so you can add or remove someone from your phone. Almost every other difference comes back to that.

A standalone keypad lock keeps its codes inside the lock. The Alarm Lock Trilogy keypad trims we install on narrow aluminum doors run on batteries, with no cable back to an IT closet and no monthly software. To add or delete a code, someone stands at the door with the master code. Higher-end Trilogy models are set up with Alarm Lock's PC software and can hold a door schedule and a log of which code opened the door, but you still carry each change to the lock.

A managed system like Kisi puts a reader beside the door and a controller in your IT closet or above the ceiling. The controller is wired to the lock hardware and connects to the cloud. You manage people, door groups and hours from a web dashboard or the phone app, and staff open doors with a phone, card or fob.

Both kinds can use a keypad, and some standalone locks take cards too. So skip the question of keypad versus fob. Ask where you make changes and how many doors you have to walk to.

Keypad lock and managed access, side by side

Here is how the two compare on the jobs an office manager or owner deals with every month.

When is a keypad lock good enough?

A keypad is a real step up from a key that half the staff has copied. It fits when most of these are true:

If you go with a keypad, give each person their own code instead of one shared code. Trilogy locks hold individual user codes, so you can delete one person without retraining everyone else.

The weak spot is people leaving. A code that a former employee still remembers keeps working until someone deletes it. Building entry codes also spread: once a code goes to one delivery driver, assume it has been passed around. If that happens a few times a year and someone handles it the same day, a keypad is fine.

• It's one door, like a storage room, supply closet or IT room.
• The same few people use it, and they have for a while. Turnover is low.
• You only need the door to stay locked. You don't need to know who opened it.
• Someone is on site who can walk over and delete a code the day a person leaves.
• The door has no easy cable path, and running wire would cost more than the problem is worth.

When should you switch to managed access control?

Most San Jose and Santa Clara businesses we talk to move to a managed system for one of these reasons:

Managed access runs about $3,000–$7,000 per door as a new install. For a three-door office, that works out to roughly $9,000–$21,000 as a new install, before software. The subscription depends on the platform and is quoted with the job, so ask for both numbers together. Most installs are scheduled two to four weeks out, faster with an expedite fee.

You can also mix the two. Plenty of businesses put Kisi on the front and back doors and keep a keypad on a supply closet. Write down which doors use which, so the next office manager knows where to make changes.

Kisi is the platform we install most often. See our Kisi access control installation page. PDK is another cloud platform we set up; see PDK access control installation. For what goes into the per-door price, read how much access control costs per door.

• Staff turnover. If people leave several times a year, removing them in an app beats walking to every door and hoping someone remembered.
• Schedules. The front door unlocks at 8 a.m. for customers and locks at 6 p.m. The cleaning crew gets in from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., a shift that crosses midnight. A managed system handles both without anyone punching in codes.
• An audit trail. You want to know whose credential opened the stockroom at 2 a.m. Door logs show whose fob opened the door, not who walked in behind them. Don't use them as a headcount.
• Several doors. Front door, back door, IT closet, stockroom. Each standalone lock is its own list to keep up. A managed system is one list.
• You're not always on site. You can unlock a door for a contractor from your phone.
• Phones as keys. When staff open doors with their phone, there are no fobs to collect when someone leaves.

A keypad job on an apartment glass door

At a San Leandro apartment building, we installed two Alarm Lock Trilogy narrow-stile keypad trims on the aluminum glass entry doors. The trims work with Adams Rite deadlatches inside the door stiles. Residents punch in a code, push the lever and walk in. There was no cable to run and no software to pay for, which suited a building with a steady resident list and a manager on site.

The tricky part with glass apartment and storefront doors is the narrow aluminum stile. The keypad trim doesn't hold its own latch. It turns the deadlatch that's already inside the door, so the trim and the latch have to be made for each other.

Either way, the door has to close and latch first

No lock fixes a door that drags, sags or doesn't latch on its own. A Kisi reader on a door that stays open an inch is just a light. A keypad on the same door is a keypad on an unlocked door. Before you choose, open the door, let it go and watch it close and latch. If it doesn't, the closer, hinges or pivots need work first.

Many San Jose and Santa Clara offices and shops have narrow aluminum storefront doors. Those take narrow-stile keypad trims, or electric strikes made for aluminum frames, which limits your hardware choices on both sides of this decision.

Whatever you choose, people inside must be able to get out without a code, key or app. Your fire marshal or the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) decides compliance on exit doors.

If you're adding a reader to a door you already have, read how to add access control to an existing door first.

Keypad lock and managed access questions