The short answer
Prosegur is a Spanish security multinational operating in more than 30 countries with roughly 170,000 employees worldwide. It is one of the few genuinely global security firms, and in Latin America and parts of Europe it is a market leader. In the United States, however, Prosegur is a comparatively recent and comparatively small entrant: it launched Prosegur USA in 2019 by acquiring four American companies at once, and its U.S. guarding business is a fraction of the scale of Allied Universal, Securitas, or GardaWorld.
Calvis is a fundamentally different thing. It is a marketplace that connects buyers with independently licensed local security agencies. Calvis does not employ guards and is not the security provider. It vets agencies, publishes each one's flat hourly rate up front, and lets you compare qualified local options side by side without signing an annual contract.
The honest short version: if you have sites in Spain, Chile, Brazil, or Argentina, or you need armored cash-in-transit, aviation screening, or an integrated alarm-plus-monitoring program across borders, Prosegur is a serious and often superior choice. If you need guard coverage at one or several U.S. locations, want to see the rate before a sales conversation, and do not want a multi-year agreement, a marketplace is the faster path.
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What Prosegur actually is
It is easy to mislabel Prosegur as "another Allied Universal." It is not. Prosegur is structured around several distinct business lines, and manned guarding is only one of them.
Cash. Prosegur is one of the largest cash-logistics operators in the world, running armored transport, cash centers, ATM servicing, and cash-management outsourcing. In FY2025 the Cash division alone reported roughly €1.99 billion in sales. This is a specialized, capital-intensive business that most contract guarding firms do not touch, and it is genuinely a Prosegur strength.
Security. The manned guarding and integrated-security segment reported roughly €2.6 billion in FY2025 sales globally. This is the business line most comparable to a traditional guard company, and it increasingly blends officers with cameras, access control, and remote monitoring rather than selling bodies on posts alone.
Alarms. A fast-growing residential and small-business monitored-alarm business that crossed one million connections in 2025.
Cybersecurity and AVOS. Managed security operations and added-value outsourcing services, sold largely to enterprise and financial-sector clients.
Total company sales were roughly €4.93 billion in FY2025. That is a real multinational, but note how the revenue is distributed: Prosegur is a diversified security-services group, not primarily a U.S. guard staffing company.
The U.S. picture specifically
Prosegur USA launched in 2019 on the back of four acquisitions covering remote monitoring, aviation security, retail loss prevention, manned guarding, and cybersecurity. The largest and best known of those was Command Security Corporation, in a deal that closed in February 2019. Command Security's Aviation Safeguards division brought a substantial airport-services book with it, which is why Prosegur's U.S. identity is noticeably aviation-weighted compared to its identity abroad.
Prosegur organizes U.S. operations into six geographic regions and markets guarding, mobile patrol, systems integration, and remote monitoring across roughly twenty verticals including aviation, banking, data centers, healthcare, logistics, and retail.
The practical consequence for a U.S. buyer: coverage depth is uneven by metro. In cities where Prosegur inherited a real operating branch, it can staff well. In cities where it did not, you may be buying a national brand with a thin local bench, and the bench is what determines whether your 2 a.m. call-out gets filled.
Where Prosegur is clearly the better choice
Comparison posts that never concede a point are not useful. Here is where a marketplace is the wrong tool and Prosegur is right.
Multi-country programs. If you have facilities in Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, or Colombia alongside U.S. sites, very few vendors can carry one relationship across all of them. Prosegur can. A U.S. marketplace cannot.
Cash-in-transit and cash management. If you need armored pickup, a cash center, or ATM replenishment, this is not a guarding problem and a guard marketplace does not solve it. Prosegur is a top-tier operator here.
Aviation security. Airport pre-board screening, wheelchair services, cabin cleaning, and secure ground handling are heavily regulated niches with certification requirements most local agencies do not hold. Prosegur's Aviation Safeguards lineage makes it a legitimate specialist.
Integrated systems plus officers under one contract. If you want cameras, access control, an alarm connection, a remote monitoring center, and officers procured together and managed as one program, an integrator-guard hybrid is a coherent purchase. Prosegur is built for that.
Enterprise procurement requirements. Large organizations often have vendor requirements that a single multinational satisfies more easily than a set of local agencies: one master services agreement, one consolidated invoice, one insurance certificate, one point of escalation.
If your situation is on that list, stop reading comparison posts and go get a Prosegur quote.
Where buyers run into friction
The common complaints about Prosegur in the U.S. are not unique to Prosegur. They are structural to enterprise contract security, and they show up across every large firm in this category.
Pricing is quoted, never published. There is no rate card. Two buyers in the same city with comparable unarmed posts can land at materially different bill rates depending on contract size, term length, and how the negotiation went. We will not publish a Prosegur hourly figure because there is no verifiable one to publish. The model is quote-based and negotiated per contract.
Enterprise contract terms. Expect annual or multi-year agreements, auto-renewal clauses, notice periods, and minimum hour commitments. This is fine when your need is permanent. It is a poor fit for a three-month construction phase or a seasonal retail surge.
Pre-sale versus post-sale responsiveness. A recurring theme in published customer reviews is that responsiveness before signing is noticeably better than responsiveness after, including slow handling of service issues and cancellation requests. Buyers should treat this as a reason to negotiate hard on service-level and exit terms up front, not as a reason to disqualify the vendor.
Branch-level variance. Employee and customer reviews for Prosegur's U.S. operations skew heavily toward "depends on the location." Some branches get consistently positive marks for supervision and follow-through; others draw complaints about scheduling, payroll accuracy, and management turnover. Because guard quality tracks branch quality, ask specifically about the branch that will staff your site rather than the company overall.
Smaller U.S. guarding bench. Prosegur's global scale does not translate one-for-one into local U.S. staffing depth. Ask directly how many officers the servicing branch employs within a reasonable radius of your site and what the fill rate has been for the past ninety days.
How the Calvis marketplace works differently
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. Guards are employed and licensed by those agencies, and each agency's license is attributed to it through its state regulator.
You compare several agencies, not negotiate with one. Instead of running a sales cycle per vendor, you see multiple vetted local options for the same post at once and pick on rate, credentials, and availability.
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 contract required to start. A single shift, a weekend, an event, or ongoing recurring coverage are all bookable without a term commitment.
Vetting happens before the guard arrives. Agency licenses and individual guard registrations are verified against state databases as a condition of being on the marketplace. Guard credentials and GPS-verified patrol records are visible in your dashboard.
The trade-off is equally clear. Calvis covers U.S. metros, not 30 countries. It places officers; it does not run armored trucks or airport screening checkpoints. If your requirement is international, cash logistics, or aviation, Calvis is the wrong tool and we will say so.
Compare vetted local agencies →
Head-to-head comparison
| Factor | Prosegur | Calvis marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Global security services group (guarding, cash, alarms, cyber) | Marketplace connecting buyers with licensed local agencies |
| Geographic reach | 30+ countries; strongest in Latin America and Europe | U.S. metros |
| U.S. guarding depth | Regional, uneven by metro; built via 2019 acquisitions | Local agency network per metro |
| Pricing visibility | Quote-based, negotiated per contract; not published | Flat hourly rates shown before booking |
| Contract commitment | Typically annual or multi-year with auto-renewal | None required to start |
| Vendor selection | One vendor, one negotiation | Multiple vetted agencies compared side by side |
| Speed to coverage | Sales cycle, then account-managed onboarding | Fast; multiple agencies respond |
| Cash-in-transit / armored | Core strength, top-tier operator | Not offered |
| Aviation security | Specialist capability via Aviation Safeguards | Not offered |
| Systems integration and alarms | Full stack, sold as one program | Guarding only; agencies vary |
| Credential visibility | On request | Guard credentials and GPS patrol record in dashboard |
| Best fit | Multi-country programs, cash logistics, aviation, integrated systems | U.S. single-site and multi-site guarding, events, projects, short-notice coverage |
The way to read that table: Prosegur optimizes for breadth of security capability under one global vendor. The marketplace optimizes for choice, price transparency, and speed within U.S. guarding. Those are different products, and the right answer follows from the job rather than from which company is larger.
Choosing between them
If your program crosses borders. Compare Prosegur against Securitas and G4S-era Allied Universal on international coverage, and press each on which countries are owned operations versus franchise or partner arrangements. That distinction matters more than headline country counts.
If you need cash, aviation, or integrated systems. Prosegur, full stop. Verify the specific certifications for your use case and ask which U.S. branch delivers them.
If you need U.S. guard coverage at one site or several in a region. You are likely paying for multinational overhead you will not use. Compare vetted local agencies on rate and responsiveness instead. Our guide on how to vet a security guard company covers the license, insurance, and turnover checks that matter most.
If your need is an event, a project, or seasonal. A multi-year agreement is the wrong instrument for a ninety-day requirement. Book the coverage window you actually need.
If you are weighing contract security against hiring your own officers. That is a separate decision with different economics; in-house versus contract security walks through it.
If you are still building a shortlist. Prosegur is one of several nationals worth a call. See the best security companies hub for how vetted options are surfaced, and Calvis vs Securitas for the closest like-for-like enterprise comparison.
Whichever direction you go, three habits protect you: get the hourly bill rate in writing before the sales process advances, confirm the agency license directly with the state regulator rather than accepting a certificate at face value, and match the contract term to the actual job instead of to the vendor's default.
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