The short answer: Belfry is guard-management software sold to security agencies, not to the businesses that hire guards. On its own site it describes itself as an all-in-one security operations platform covering scheduling, timekeeping, field operations, payroll and billing in one system, priced per employee per month with billing limited to active employees. It says it has raised a $12 million Series A, works with hundreds of security businesses, and that agencies with 10 or more officers get the most out of it. The credible alternatives fall into four software buckets — enterprise suites, mid-market competitors, budget modular tools, and general workforce apps — plus one category that is not software at all. If your real problem is that the schedule has holes because you do not have enough contracts to fill, no scheduling tool fixes that.
What Belfry actually does well
It is worth being fair before listing competitors, because "alternative" often means "I have not read the product page carefully."
Belfry is a back-office system for an agency owner. The modules it names are Scheduling (shift matching, automated updates, overtime control), Timekeeping (electronic timesheets, GPS syncing, automated approvals, compliance alerts), Operations (client portals, GPS tracking, NFC and geofence checkpoint tours, custom patrol workflows), Payroll and HR (payroll synced to timesheets, direct deposit, tax filing, benefits), and Billing (automated invoice distribution, ACH and card processing, profitability dashboards).
The genuinely differentiated part of that list is the vertical integration between timekeeping, payroll and billing. A lot of guard software stops at the schedule and hands you a CSV. Belfry's pitch is that the hours a guard clocks flow into both the paycheck and the invoice without a person retyping them, and its published outcome claims center on that — hours saved on weekly payroll and scheduling work, and a reduction in unbilled overtime. For a 40-guard agency where the owner's spouse is doing timesheets on Sunday night, that is the whole value proposition, and it is a real one.
Its own about page says the product was shaped by security company owners and built by engineers from large technology companies. The interface reflects that: it is one of the more modern-feeling tools in a category where a lot of the incumbents look like 2012.
So if you are leaving Belfry, be precise about why. The three honest reasons are: it is more system than a very small operation needs, it is not deep enough on billing or analytics for a very large one, or you want to see a number before you sit through a demo.
Why agency owners shop the category
Pricing opacity. Belfry does not publish dollar figures. Its plans page states that it charges per employee per month and that pricing includes all core features in the selected package with no hidden fees, but the call to action is a demo. Two agencies of the same size can therefore walk away with different quotes and no way to sanity-check either. This is normal for the category, but it is the single most common reason owners keep shopping.
Headcount fit. A three-guard operation running one recurring post does not need payroll tax filing and profitability dashboards. A 900-guard regional operation with union rules, multiple pay classes and a client that demands a custom SLA report often needs more configurability than a mid-market product carries.
Migration cost. Switching guard software means re-entering post orders, checkpoint maps, pay rates, bill rates and client contacts. Owners underestimate this every time. It is the reason a mediocre tool you have already configured frequently beats a better tool you have not.
Support responsiveness. This is the most common complaint across the entire category, not one vendor. Ask any shortlisted vendor for the actual support SLA in writing, not the marketing claim.
The wrong problem. Some owners buy software when the constraint is demand. More on that below, because it is the part nobody selling software will tell you.
The alternatives, by category
Enterprise suites: TrackTik and the Trackforce Valiant portfolio
TrackTik, now part of Trackforce Valiant, is the enterprise end of the market. It is the right call when you have hundreds of officers, complex multi-client billing, and a procurement process that expects SSO, an API and a named implementation team. Silvertrac, also in the Trackforce family, remains a strong dedicated reporting and patrol-verification tool.
TrackTik does not publish prices either. Its pricing page offers a "clear, customized quote" and states that "our sales team will contact you to discuss pricing options." So you are trading one demo-and-quote motion for another, at a higher price point and a longer implementation. That is a reasonable trade above a certain size and a bad one below it. Our Calvis vs TrackTik and Calvis vs Silvertrac pieces cover those two specifically.
Mid-market competitors: Novagems and Celayix
Novagems is the closest like-for-like swap for a 10-to-500-guard agency. It also quotes rather than publishes, but its billing model is unusually owner-friendly: it bills only for staff who are actually scheduled and working, so guards on leave, seasonal staff and off-roster people do not cost you that month. For an agency with heavy seasonal swing — event work, summer construction sites — that mechanic matters more than the headline rate. It offers a 14-day free trial with no contract and no setup fees, and states that volume and annual discounts are available.
Celayix is the one mid-market vendor in this comparison that publishes actual dollar ranges. Its site lists roughly $400 to $800 per month for a small team of up to 100 employees, and $1,000 to $8,000 per month for a medium team of up to 1,000, with enterprise on request. It also requires a minimum 25-employee license on an annual term, which prices out the smallest operations by design. Celayix is scheduling-first with strong rules-based auto-scheduling; it is less of an all-in-one payroll-and-billing system than Belfry.
Budget and modular: GuardsPro
GuardsPro is the honest low end, and it publishes everything. Its plans run $5, $8 and $10 per user per month billed monthly, dropping to $4.25, $6.80 and $8.50 on annual billing, with a three-user minimum. Modules are priced separately on top: the Scheduler add-on is $2 per user per month, and Payroll, Dispatcher, Vehicle Patrol, Visitor Manager, Invoicer and Parking Manager are $1 each. It offers a 30-day free trial and states plainly that it does not tie customers into long-term contracts.
The catch is arithmetic. A base plan plus four add-ons is not a base plan price, and modular pricing rewards agencies that genuinely only need two or three pieces. For a 20-guard agency that wants patrol verification and incident reports and nothing else, it is the cheapest credible option in the category.
General workforce apps: Connecteam
Connecteam is not security software, and that is the point. It is free for life for up to 10 employees, and its Operations Hub runs $29, $49 and $99 per month covering the first 30 users, with per-user pricing above that. For a very small agency running static posts where "did the guard show up and clock in" is the entire operational question, it is difficult to argue with free.
What you give up is everything security-specific: checkpoint tours, post orders, incident report formats a client will accept, licence and certification expiry tracking, and bill-rate-versus-pay-rate margin visibility. Those gaps decide whether you keep a contract when something goes wrong on site. Our Calvis vs Connecteam piece and our guard tour and patrol app roundup go deeper.
Side-by-side: what each vendor actually publishes
Every figure below was taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor does not publish numbers, this table says so rather than guessing.
| Tool | Pricing model | Published dollar figures | Trial and contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfry | Per employee per month, modular packages | No — demo required | Guided onboarding; no trial published |
| TrackTik / Trackforce | Quote-based enterprise | No — sales team contacts you | Not published |
| Novagems | Per active scheduled user, custom quote | No | 14-day trial, no contract, no setup fees |
| Celayix | Tiered by headcount band | Yes — about $400–$800/mo up to 100 employees; $1k–$8k/mo up to 1,000 | Minimum 25-employee licence, annual term |
| GuardsPro | Per user per month plus paid add-on modules | Yes — $5 / $8 / $10 per user per month | 30-day trial, month-to-month |
| Connecteam | Flat for first 30 users, then per user | Yes — free up to 10 employees; $29 / $49 / $99 per month | Free tier available |
Read that column three carefully. Four of the six vendors in the guard-software category will not tell you a price without a call, which means the only way to compare Belfry against TrackTik or Novagems on cost is to run three demos and normalise three quotes yourself. Budget a week for it, and ask every vendor for the price at your current headcount and at double it, because per-employee pricing is where growth quietly gets expensive.
How to run the evaluation without wasting a month
Count the modules you will actually turn on. All-in-one pricing is good value only if you use the payroll and billing pieces. If you already run payroll through a provider you like, you are paying twice for it.
Ask for the migration plan in writing. Specifically: who re-enters post orders and checkpoint maps, how long it takes, and what it costs. This is the real switching cost, not the subscription.
Test the guard-side app on the worst phone in your fleet. Not the owner's phone. Officers on five-year-old Android devices in a basement parking structure are the actual users, and a checkpoint scan that fails offline will cost you a client.
Price it at your projected headcount. Per-employee pricing scales linearly with growth. A tool that is cheap at 25 guards can be a meaningful line item at 150.
Ask what happens to your data if you leave. Get the export format and the retention window before you sign, not after.
Our roundups of guard scheduling software and the broader platform landscape cover the field in more detail.
The problem none of these tools solve
Here is the part worth being straight about. Every vendor above sells operational efficiency. Not one of them sells you a contract.
If you are a 30-guard agency and your schedule has holes, better scheduling software makes the holes visible faster. It does not fill them. If your margin is thin, a profitability dashboard tells you which client is unprofitable — it does not bring you a better one. Software is a cost-control tool, and cost control has a floor. Demand does not.
Calvis sits on the other side of that equation. It is a marketplace that connects businesses needing security with licensed local agencies, so for an agency owner it is a source of bookings rather than a system of record. Customers post the coverage they need, vetted agencies are matched to it, and the agency that takes the job staffs it with its own officers under its own state licence. Calvis does not employ guards and is not a security agency; licensing belongs to each agency and is verified against its state regulator before that agency appears.
That makes Calvis a complement to Belfry, not a replacement for it. You would still run your schedules, timesheets and payroll in whichever guard-management tool you pick. What changes is where the work comes from. If you are shopping guard software because your back office is drowning, buy guard software. If you are shopping it because revenue is flat, you are solving the wrong problem.
See how agencies join the Calvis network →
If you are not an agency owner
A meaningful share of people searching for Belfry alternatives are not agencies at all. They are facility managers who found Belfry while looking for a way to hire guards, and Belfry does not sell to them — the agency is the customer, and the building manager never touches the product.
If that is you, the category you want is not guard-management software. It is a way to compare licensed agencies and book coverage. Calvis vs Belfry walks through that distinction directly, security guard cost covers what coverage actually runs, and you can hire security guards without going through an agency sales cycle.