How Honeywell compares to Kisi:

Honeywell Access Control Features and Pricing

Company Overview

Honeywell is a massive corporation that produces hundreds of different products, including access control hardware. It’s a major company for a reason, and businesses and consumers have been trusting its offerings for years. It is one of the most popular access control solutions providers in the country. Like many other access control manufacturers on this list, Honeywell is active in the most common physical security markets, including airports, banking, education, commercial offices, finance, gaming, government, health care and industrial facilities.

Honeywell has a leg up when it comes to access control because of its long, international history as a global provider of security products. The panel-based system and generic door controllers make it compatible with scores of security products and accessories on the market. This makes the system versatile in the office environment, but decreases system security due to the piecemeal approach

Honeywell Hardware

Honeywell manufactures the following hardware and software, which can be used on their own or as part of a larger system:

• Control panels
• PIN keypads
• Expansion modules and accessories
• 5800 wireless products
• Communications devices
• Sounding devices
• Life safety
• Sensors
• Card readers and printers
• Visitor management systems

Major Features

As a business-grade access control system, Honeywell offers most of the standard functions customers should expect, including monitoring alarms and events in real-time, special response messages per account or per alarm, locking and unlocking doors, and adding and removing holidays. There can be up to 99 priority levels of alarms and events, and users can control and respond to these with actions like acknowledging and clearing them. There is also the option to add live video and recorded video, plus manual override, shunt and bypass zones, live floor plan views and card audit trails. In other words, Honeywell is powerful.

Door panels are installed locally and require Honeywell’s WIN-PAK access control system to manage credentials and generate reports. Honeywell offers readers that can authenticate keypad credentials, barcodes, key cards, and biometric fingerprints. Like all panel-based systems, readers must be wired back to the panel to function. Honeywell access control panels can control up to 32 doors in the facility.

Because of Honeywell’s expansive security offering, the system pairs nicely with alarms, fire safety, video surveillance systems, and much more. The system is flexible and scalable, and comes from a trusted name in the industry. The downfall lies in the fact that support for the product is non-existent and relies on the knowledge of local vendors and their experience. Additionally, Honeywell does not offer a mobile app for unlocking doors through mobile credentials.

Advantages of Honeywell

• Visitor management systems: A solid VMS is very important for busy businesses, and Honeywell can provide that technology for its customers, allowing them to keep track of everyone who enters their facilities.
• Powerful functionality: Users can do pretty much anything they could expect from a great access control system, provided that they have all of the proper products with which to do it.
• Ubiquity: Local contractors and installers often use Honeywell products as their default because they work well and often fit all of a client’s needs without being too pricey or hard to understand.

Disadvantages of Honeywell

• No mobile app: Disappointingly, there is no way to control Honeywell hardware through a mobile phone, limiting accessibility where other security solutions might excel. This will also become more glaring as technology continues to evolve in coming years.
• Major corporation: Like other access control providers that are part of multinational corporations, Honeywell is unable to provide the level of service that a smaller company could offer due to its sheer size.
• No direct sales: Again, like other big providers, Honeywell does sell its products directly. Instead, the company sells its wares through third-party contractors and installers, which can add a layer of expenses that are hard to predict.