The short answer
Per Mar Security Services and Calvis solve different problems, and the honest way to compare them is to say which problem you have.
Per Mar is a full-service, family-owned security company founded in Davenport, Iowa in 1953. It sells manned guarding alongside alarm systems, monitoring, fire and life safety, access control, video surveillance, investigations, and background screening. It has grown into one of the largest security firms in the Midwest, largely through acquisition, with roughly 55 locations across states including Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Indiana. If you own a building in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Milwaukee, Omaha, or the Chicago suburbs and you want one vendor holding the guard contract, the alarm panel, the cameras, and the monitoring account, Per Mar is genuinely built for that.
Calvis is a marketplace, not a security agency. You describe the coverage you need, and Calvis matches you with independently licensed local agencies that have already been vetted, then shows you their flat hourly rates side by side before you book. The guards are employed and licensed by those agencies. Calvis does not employ guards and does not hold the guard license; each agency carries its own license through its state regulator.
The practical fork: Per Mar for an integrated, long-term, Midwest-based security program built around hardware. Calvis for coverage you want to price, compare, and start quickly, in any market, without a hardware relationship or an annual commitment.
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What Per Mar actually is
It is worth being precise, because "security company" covers three different businesses and Per Mar is in all of them.
A guarding company
Per Mar staffs on-site security officers for commercial, industrial, healthcare, education, and institutional clients, along with alarm response officers who are dispatched when a monitored system trips. This is the part of the business that competes directly with regional guard agencies and with the nationals.
An electronic security integrator
A large share of Per Mar's revenue and much of its acquisition activity sits here: intrusion alarms, fire alarm systems, video surveillance, access control, carbon monoxide and gas monitoring, and central-station monitoring for both business and residential customers. The Iverify, Accu-Com, Armor Security, Martin Security Systems, and Frederick's Electronics deals were largely electronics and monitoring acquisitions.
An investigations and screening firm
Pre-employment background screening, business fraud and insurance fraud investigations, vulnerability and threat assessments, and identity theft work.
That bundle is the whole point. A facilities director who does not want to manage three vendors can put guards, cameras, and the monitoring account under one account manager. That is a real operational benefit and it is the main reason customers stay with Per Mar for decades.
Per Mar's genuine strengths
Nobody is well served by a comparison that pretends the competitor has no case. Per Mar's is straightforward.
Seventy-plus years and family ownership. Founded in 1953 and still family-run, Per Mar is not a private-equity roll-up that changes hands every four years. Long institutional memory matters in security, and reviews frequently come from customers who have been with them since the 2000s.
Real Midwest density. Fifty-five locations across a compact regional footprint means local branch managers, a local labor pool, and technicians who can be on site the same day. A national firm running your Quad Cities account out of a regional office three states away cannot match that.
One vendor for guards plus hardware. If your post needs an officer, a camera system, badge access, and a monitored fire panel, Per Mar can sell and service all of it. Splitting that across a guard agency and an integrator means two contracts, two escalation paths, and finger-pointing when an alarm response goes wrong.
Alarm response officers. Pairing monitoring with a dispatchable officer is a specific capability most pure-play guard agencies do not have.
If those four things describe what you need, Per Mar is a reasonable choice and you should get a quote from them. Say so plainly.
Where Per Mar is a poor fit
Outside the Midwest, they simply are not there. This is the biggest limitation and it is not a criticism, it is geography. If your sites are in Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, or Los Angeles, Per Mar is not on the list. If your sites are split between Milwaukee and Miami, you either run two vendors or pick a national firm.
Pricing is quoted, not published. Like effectively every contract security firm, Per Mar prices per contract after a sales conversation. There is no rate card to compare. Two buyers in the same city can pay materially different bill rates for comparable unarmed coverage depending on scope, volume, and negotiation. Some customer reviews specifically cite difficulty getting pricing information without a drawn-out sales process. We are not going to publish a competitor's rate we cannot verify, and you should be skeptical of any site that does.
Contract terms are built for retention. The monitoring side of the business runs on multi-year agreements, and customers report early-termination fees and additional charges when moving service to a new address. Guard agreements are separately negotiated, but the underlying model is a long relationship, not a short one. Read the notice period and the auto-renewal clause before you sign anything.
Acquisition integration is uneven. Growing by buying dozens of local companies means the customer experience is not uniform across branches. Reviews that describe declining service or longer equipment lead times often trace to a recently absorbed office. Ask specifically who will service your account and how long that branch has been part of Per Mar.
Short-notice and one-off coverage is not the design center. Bundled, hardware-anchored, contract-based security is a poor instrument for a three-week construction phase, a single event, or a Friday-night fill-in.
Where a marketplace fits instead
Calvis is a structurally different model, and the differences are concrete.
You compare several vetted agencies at once. Instead of running one sales process at a time, you see multiple qualified local agencies for the same post side by side. That comparison does not exist in the traditional model.
Rates are visible before you book. Each agency's flat hourly rate is shown up front, with unarmed, armed, mobile patrol, and specialized posts priced accordingly. You see the number before a salesperson is involved.
No annual minimum to start. Book a single shift, a weekend, an event, or ongoing recurring coverage. You are not signing a term to find out whether the agency is any good.
Vetting happens before the guard arrives. Agency licenses and individual guard registrations are verified against state databases as a condition of appearing on the marketplace, and you can review each guard's credentials and GPS-verified patrol record in your dashboard. Every guard placed through Calvis holds a current state license issued to the employing agency. That is the work that a buyer shopping independent agencies normally has to do alone, and our guide on how to vet a security guard company covers what those checks actually involve.
National coverage without a national contract. Because the network is agencies rather than one company's payroll, coverage is not limited to one region. See locations for current markets.
What Calvis does not do: sell you cameras, install a fire panel, monitor an alarm, or run a fraud investigation. If the guard is one component of an integrated electronic security program, an integrator like Per Mar is the right partner for the hardware and you should treat the guarding decision separately.
Start comparing local agencies →
Head-to-head
| Factor | Per Mar Security Services | Calvis marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Full-service security company (guards, alarms, fire, video, investigations) | Marketplace matching buyers with vetted licensed agencies |
| Coverage area | Midwest regional, roughly 55 locations across IA, IL, WI, MN, NE, IN | Not region-locked; agency network by market |
| Pricing visibility | Quoted per contract after a sales process | Flat hourly rates published before you book |
| Contract commitment | Term agreements, auto-renewal and termination fees common on monitoring | None required to start; single shift to ongoing |
| Guard employer | Per Mar employs and licenses its officers | Independent agencies employ and license their guards |
| Hardware and monitoring | Yes: alarms, cameras, access control, fire, central station | No, guarding only |
| Investigations and screening | Yes | No |
| Comparison shopping | One vendor, one quote | Multiple vetted agencies, side by side |
| Credential visibility | On request | Guard license and GPS patrol record in dashboard |
| Best for | Long-term Midwest programs where guards and hardware are one system | Single-site, events, projects, short-notice, and price-sensitive coverage anywhere |
Read the table as a description of two designs, not a scoreboard. Per Mar optimizes for a single accountable vendor across every security system in a Midwest building. Calvis optimizes for choice, price transparency, and speed on the guarding line item specifically.
How to choose
You have Midwest facilities and need guards plus hardware
Get a Per Mar quote and get at least one competing bid from a regional guard agency plus an independent integrator, so you can see what the bundle premium actually is. Bundling has real value, but you should know its price rather than assume it is free.
You have one building and only need officers
You are shopping a labor line item, not a security system. Compare vetted local agencies on rate and responsiveness. A marketplace lets you do that in one sitting instead of cold-calling five agencies. For office and mixed-use sites, see commercial security.
Your need is an event, a project, or seasonal
Multi-year agreements are the wrong instrument for a ninety-day construction phase. Book the window you actually need. Emergency and short-notice coverage covers same-week staffing.
Your sites span multiple regions
Per Mar's footprint stops at the edge of the Midwest, and a national firm will quote you a master agreement with the overhead that implies. A marketplace covers multiple markets without one national contract. Our breakdown of national versus on-demand guard pricing walks through the cost difference.
You need armed coverage
Licensing scrutiny matters more here. Confirm the armed registration and firearms permit are current for the specific officer assigned, not just for the company. On Calvis those credentials are visible in the dashboard before the shift starts.
The throughline: get the rate before the sales call, verify the license through the state regulator, match the contract length to the actual job, and separate the guarding decision from the hardware decision unless bundling is genuinely earning its premium. For a broader view of the field, see the best security companies hub.
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