Gun Detection Vendor Comparison
ZeroEyes Cost Versus Actuate Gun Detection Price
Signed contract prices, subscription tiers and who checks the alert before police are called.
ZeroEyes sells gun detection with its own analysts confirming every alert, and signed school contracts put it at about $168 to $592 per camera per year. Actuate sells gun detection as one of several per-camera software tiers through security integrators and monitoring centers, and publishes no price at all. You are comparing a service with people in it against software someone else has to watch.
What each quote is built from
ZeroEyes
Actuate
$168 to $592ZeroEyes per camera per year, signed public contracts
Not publishedActuate, quoted by your integrator
Is ZeroEyes more expensive than Actuate?
On the software line, probably yes, because a ZeroEyes subscription pays for a staffed 24/7 operations center that reviews every flagged frame, and an Actuate subscription does not. On the total bill, not necessarily. If you buy Actuate and need a person to confirm alerts at night, that person comes from a central monitoring station or your own team, and you pay for them separately.
So the honest comparison is never ZeroEyes against the Actuate license. It is ZeroEyes against the Actuate license plus whatever verification you add on top. A school district with no one watching screens usually ends up closer in cost than the two quotes first suggest. A business that already pays a monitoring center for intrusion alarms may find Actuate the cheaper path, because the people who check the alert are already on contract.
Neither vendor publishes a rate card. ZeroEyes numbers are visible only because public school districts have signed and disclosed them; the ZeroEyes pricing guide works through every contract we found. Actuate names its tiers but attaches no dollar figure, which the Actuate weapons detection price guide covers in detail.
ZeroEyes and Actuate Side by Side
ZeroEyes entries come from zeroeyes.com and its certifications page. Actuate entries come from actuate.ai, including its pricing page, read in October 2026. Contract prices come from public school district records. Where a vendor says nothing, we say so instead of guessing.
| Question a buyer asks | ZeroEyes | Actuate | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published price | None. Signed public contracts show about $168 to $592 per camera per year | None. Four tiers named, no dollar figure, quoted through an integrator | ZeroEyes, only because contracts are public |
| How the price is built | Per camera per year, driven by camera count and contract term, often with a setup fee | Per camera subscription in Lite, Classic, Pro or Premium, plus optional add-ons per camera | Actuate on flexibility |
| Who confirms an alert | ZeroEyes analysts in a 24/7 operations center, before dispatch | Your own team, or a central monitoring station that resells Actuate | ZeroEyes if you have no one watching |
| What it detects | Visible firearms, plus knives and intruders on its current product pages | Visible firearms, intruders, loitering, crowds, fire and smoke, plus camera health monitoring | Actuate on breadth |
| Stated accuracy | Claims zero false-positive dispatches to first responders, its own figure | Claims 99% accuracy when a gun is brandished for five seconds, its own figure | Not comparable, different tests |
| Cameras and video systems | Existing IP cameras; lists Axis, Verkada, Genetec, Milestone, Hanwha Vision and Avigilon | Existing cameras and VMS, including Genetec and Milestone; Hanwha Vision is a listed partner | Tie |
| How you buy | Direct and through cooperative contracts such as Omnia Partners, TIPS and Carahsoft | Through your security integrator or monitoring provider | ZeroEyes for public agencies |
| SAFETY Act | Full DHS SAFETY Act Designation | None advertised | ZeroEyes |
| Typical buyer | K-12 districts, colleges, government, houses of worship | Businesses and sites already paying a monitoring center, plus integrator-led projects | Depends on who watches alerts |
How much does ZeroEyes cost compared with Actuate?
ZeroEyes lands between about $168 and $592 per camera per year in signed public contracts, falling as the camera count rises. Actuate publishes no figure, so the comparison you can make before a quote is structural: what each price includes, and what you still have to buy on top of it.
The ZeroEyes record is unusually clear for this category. A 38-camera district paid $22,500 a year plus a $5,000 setup fee, about $592 per camera. A 116-camera district on a five-year term paid about $330. Districts at 650 to 800 cameras paid about $168. Term length moves the number as much as volume: one Illinois district was quoted about $115,000 a year on a year-to-year basis and about $75,600 a year on five years. If you are deciding between a one-year and a multi-year signature, record the full commitment as the recurring expense it is, because finance will ask why the annual number changed.
Actuate tells you the shape of its bill instead of the size. You pay per camera, for one tier per camera, with no price stacking, and you can mix tiers across a site. Dynamic Slicing, Dewarping, Camera Health Monitoring and Secure VPN are separate subscriptions added per camera only where needed. Costs fall as coverage expands. What Actuate does not include is a person reviewing the alert; that comes from your monitoring partner, priced on their contract.
| Option | Cost per camera per year | What the price includes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZeroEyes, 38 cameras, 1 year | About $592, plus $5,000 setup | Gun detection with analyst verification | Signed district contract |
| ZeroEyes, 116 cameras, 5 years | About $330, setup waived | Same service, longer term | Signed district contract |
| ZeroEyes, 650 to 800 cameras | About $168 | Same service at volume | Signed district contracts |
| Actuate, any tier | Not published | Detection software per camera; monitoring and verification priced separately by your partner | Integrator quote only |
| Surveillant, Elite, 20 cameras | About $449 billed yearly ($8,988 a year), about $899 billed monthly | Weapon, intrusion and loitering alerts plus cloud video, no vendor verification | Our published pricing |
ZeroEyes figures are from public school district records as reported through 2026. They are not a ZeroEyes rate card, and your quote will differ with camera count, term and setup. No Actuate figure appears because Actuate publishes none.
The line most Actuate quotes leave out
A gun alert is only worth something if a person sees it within seconds and decides whether to call 911. ZeroEyes builds that person into the subscription. With Actuate, the alert lands in your video management system or at a monitoring center, and the cost of that review sits on another invoice.
Ask your integrator three questions before you compare totals. First, who looks at a gun alert at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, and is that on contract today. Second, what does adding weapon alerts to your existing monitoring agreement cost per camera or per site. Third, which tier does a gun detection camera need, and whether the quote mixes cheaper tiers on cameras that only watch for intruders. Put those answers next to the ZeroEyes number and the gap usually narrows.
The other side of that trade is breadth. An Actuate camera can watch for intruders after hours, loitering at a loading dock and smoke in a warehouse, all on the same subscription family. ZeroEyes is built to do one thing with people behind it. If guns are a low-probability, high-consequence risk on a site where intrusion is the daily problem, paying for breadth can be the better use of the budget. The Actuate gun detection alternative page compares that breadth against platforms that also record and search your video.
Which one should you buy?
Decide by who will look at the alert, then by price.
Pick ZeroEyes if
You are a school district, college, house of worship or public agency, no one watches screens full time, you want a trained analyst to confirm a gun before police roll, and counsel or your insurer asks about the SAFETY Act. Buy on a multi-year term if you can; it is the cleanest discount in the category.
Pick Actuate if
You already pay a central monitoring station, intrusion and loitering are your daily problem and guns are a rare one, your integrator sells Actuate, and you want to set the tier camera by camera rather than buy one service for every feed.
Pick neither if
You run one to twenty cameras per site, a manager checks alerts on a phone, and you want a price you can read today without an integrator. Surveillant adds weapon, intrusion and loitering alerts plus cloud recording to existing cameras from $49 to $75 per camera per month. It has no verification center and no SAFETY Act designation, so it does not replace ZeroEyes in a school.
ZeroEyes and Actuate Buyer Questions
How much does ZeroEyes cost per camera?
ZeroEyes publishes no price. Signed public school contracts run from about $592 per camera per year at 38 cameras down to about $168 per camera per year at 650 to 800 cameras. A five-year term cut one Illinois district's annual quote from about $115,000 to about $75,600, and setup fees of $5,000 to $15,000 appear in some contracts.
How much does Actuate gun detection cost?
Actuate does not publish pricing. It sells a per-camera subscription in four tiers, Lite, Classic, Pro and Premium, with optional per-camera add-ons, and every quote comes through a security integrator. Alert verification is not part of the subscription; if you want a person to confirm each alert, your monitoring provider prices that separately.
What is the difference between ZeroEyes and Actuate?
Both detect visible guns on cameras you already own. ZeroEyes adds its own 24/7 analysts who confirm every detection before dispatch and holds a DHS SAFETY Act Designation. Actuate is detection software sold through integrators and monitoring centers, covering intruders, loitering, crowds and fire as well as guns, with verification handled by whoever monitors your site.
Does Actuate verify gun alerts with humans?
Not with its own staff. Actuate routes detections to your video management system, your security team or a central monitoring station that resells it, and that station supplies the human check. ZeroEyes is the opposite model: its own analysts review every flagged frame before an alert reaches your staff or 911.
Is Actuate SAFETY Act designated?
Actuate does not advertise a SAFETY Act designation. ZeroEyes holds a full designation from the US Department of Homeland Security, and Omnilert holds one too. For school districts and venues whose counsel or insurer asks about liability protection after a covered attack, that difference can decide the shortlist before price does.
Do ZeroEyes and Actuate work with existing cameras?
Yes, both are software on the IP cameras you already have, with no new camera to buy. ZeroEyes lists Axis, Verkada, Genetec, Milestone, Hanwha Vision and Avigilon. Actuate works through existing VMS platforms such as Genetec and Milestone and lists Hanwha Vision as a partner. Camera angle and resolution limit both equally.
Can either one detect a concealed gun?
No. Both are camera-based and see only a gun that is visible in frame. A weapon under a jacket or in a bag needs a screening product such as a walk-through scanner. Any vendor that implies camera AI sees concealed weapons is overselling, and that limit applies to us too.
What is a cheaper alternative to ZeroEyes and Actuate?
For a business with a few sites and no monitoring contract, a cloud analytics platform with a published price is cheaper to start. Surveillant runs on existing RTSP and ONVIF cameras from $49 to $75 per camera per month with weapon, intrusion and loitering alerts and cloud recording. It has no human verification center and no SAFETY Act designation.
Test Weapon Alerts on Your Own Cameras
Connect a camera and see weapon, intrusion and loitering alerts on your own footage. $49 to $75 per camera per month, published, no integrator quote.