We like mobile-first unlock. Does that require readers?

Reader systems put the credential on your phone but still need hardware on every door to read it. If the door in question is a building entrance with a telephone-entry panel, the panel is already the reader: it dials a number, and an app answering that call gives you mobile-first entry without any new equipment.

Is a software approach appropriate for a security-sensitive office?

For interior doors with badge requirements, compliance rules, or anti-passback needs, reader-based access control is the right tool. The software approach fits the shared street entrance and buildings where the requirement is controlled, logged entry rather than per-badge identity at every door.

What does switching cost look like between these approaches?

Reader platforms couple hardware and subscription, so switching later means replacing equipment. Entry software attaches to the building's existing panel, so trying it costs a directory change and leaving it costs the same, which makes it the low-commitment way to fix an entrance.

Blog / Openpath (Avigilon Alta) Alternatives Without Hardware Installation

Openpath (Avigilon Alta) Alternatives Without Hardware Installation

By Ty · 2026-07-06

Openpath, now sold as Avigilon Alta, made its name on mobile-first access control: wave your phone, the door opens, IT manages everything from a dashboard. It is genuinely slick, and it is still a hardware platform. Every controlled door needs a reader and controller, installed by a certified dealer, on a subscription, with the kind of price tag that makes sense for a corporate headquarters and less sense for a small office floor behind a shared building entrance.

The searches for alternatives usually come from that second group: teams whose actual chokepoint is the street-level buzzer of a building they do not own.

How to fix it

Option	Pros	Cons
Openpath / Avigilon Alta	Mobile credentials, strong dashboard, enterprise integrations	Reader and controller per door, dealer install, subscription
Kisi or Brivo	Same access-control class, competitive bids	Same per-door hardware economics
Front desk or office manager answers the buzzer	No cost	A person is interrupted for every client, courier, and candidate
Landlord upgrades the building entrance	No cost to you	Not your decision, and rarely on the landlord’s schedule
Lowkey	Auto buzz-in, passcodes, scheduled office hours, entry history, no hardware	Quick one-time setup with your building

Badged interior doors are a real requirement in some offices; price the reader platforms for those. For the shared entrance, the building’s telephone-entry panel already dials a phone number, and pointing your suite’s entry at a smarter number fixes reception’s least favorite job without touching a door you do not control.

Where Lowkey helps

Lowkey gives your suite’s buzzer entry a virtual number and handles the street door like software should: clients and couriers buzz themselves in with 4-digit passcodes or during scheduled auto buzz-in hours, staff phones all ring when a human touch is needed, and every entry is logged. It works with any buzzer that dials out to a phone number, which covers most buildings, and teams with multiple offices or buildings manage them all from one account, with nothing installed and no dealer involved.