AI Weapons Detection

Omnilert Alternative AI Gun Detection Software With Published Per-Camera Pricing

Omnilert pairs visual gun detection with the mass notification and lockdown tooling it built its business on, sold by quote. Surveillant is a broader AI video analytics platform where visible-weapon detection is one alert type among many, running on the ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already own at a rate published on the page. Compared honestly below, including where Omnilert wins.

Last updated July 2026

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Works with any ONVIF or RTSP camera. Weapon alerts plus intrusion, loitering, vehicles, plates, and plain-English search.

At a glance

What it is: Full analytics platform
Weapon detection: One alert among many
Mass notification: No, Omnilert wins here
Cameras: Your existing ONVIF/RTSP
Pricing: $39 to $42 per camera

In short

Omnilert and Surveillant solve overlapping but different problems. Omnilert Gun Detect is a firearm detector wired into an emergency response platform: its AI watches existing cameras for a visible gun, a human at your security operations center or one of Omnilert's Five Diamond monitoring centers confirms it, and the confirmation triggers lockdowns, mass notification, and dispatch. It holds full DHS SAFETY Act Designation, granted March 27, 2025. Surveillant is a general AI video analytics platform: visible-weapon detection sits alongside intrusion, loitering, crowding, vehicle and license plate events, and plain-English search across all your footage, as cloud software with published pricing and no monitoring center. If detection plus emergency notification from one vendor is the requirement, Omnilert is built for that. If you want broad analytics on the cameras you own with a price you can budget today, Surveillant is the alternative.

Why Buyers Compare

Why Teams Look for an Omnilert Alternative

These are the four reasons that come up in evaluations. None of them mean Omnilert is a bad product. They mean the shape of the product does not match the shape of some buyers' problems.

The quote process is the first step

Omnilert does not publish a per-camera rate. Its software is licensed per video stream per year and monitoring is a separate subscription, so the only way to learn your number is to sit through the sales cycle. Teams comparing three vendors on a deadline want a rate they can put in a budget line this week.

You need more than firearms

Gun Detect is a firearm detector. If your incident log is mostly after-hours intrusion, loitering at a dock, tailgating at a door, vehicles in a restricted lot, and hours lost to scrubbing footage, a single-purpose detector leaves most of that untouched and you end up buying a second platform anyway.

You already own the response layer

Omnilert began as a mass notification company, and that heritage is a large part of what you pay for. An organization that already runs a 24/7 operations center with its own dispatch trees and notification tooling is buying a second copy of something it has.

You want to test before you commit

Detection quality depends on your camera angles, resolution, lighting, and distances, not on a demo reel. Buyers increasingly want to point a system at their own worst camera and look at the results before signing anything. That is hard to do inside an enterprise quote process.

Side by Side

Omnilert vs Surveillant

Sourced from Omnilert's own product pages and announcements, July 2026. Where Omnilert is stronger, the table says so.

Dimension	Omnilert	Surveillant
Core product	Visual gun detection wired into an emergency response and mass notification platform	General AI video analytics platform. Weapon detection is one alert type
Detection scope	Visible handguns and long guns near a body. No facial recognition	Visible weapons, people, vehicles, license plates, intrusion, loitering, crowding, plus natural-language search
Published accuracy	None. Publishes speed instead: gun identified in "fractions of a second"	None, for the same reason. A single percentage from a controlled test does not predict your cameras
Human verification	Your SOC, or a Five Diamond monitoring center as a paid subscription. Omnilert wins	None. Alerts go to your team and your workflow
Mass notification and lockdown	Built in, and it is the company's original product. Omnilert wins	Alerts and integrations only. No public address, signage, or lockdown control
DHS SAFETY Act	Full Designation since March 27, 2025, on the Approved Technologies List. Omnilert wins	Not designated
Cameras	Most existing IP cameras, no replacement needed	Any ONVIF or RTSP camera, no replacement needed
Hardware	Optional $1,500 Gun Detect Appliance, up to 55 streams at 1080p, or folded into stream licensing	None. Cloud software only, no appliance to buy or maintain
Pricing	Per video stream per year, quoted. No public rate	$39 to $42 per camera per month, published, free plan for one camera
Time to first detection	Sales cycle, then deployment and integration	Connect a camera and start today

Three rows in that table go to Omnilert, and they are not small ones. SAFETY Act Designation is a genuine procurement advantage in public-sector and K-12 deals where liability language gets read line by line, and only Omnilert and ZeroEyes hold it in this category. A staffed monitoring center means someone confirms the image whether or not your team is awake. Mass notification means the detection actually reaches people. If those three are your requirements, buy Omnilert and do not let a cheaper subscription talk you out of it. Our full Omnilert gun detection review goes deeper on what each of those credentials certifies.

What You Get

One Platform Instead of a Single-Purpose Detector

The argument for a broad platform is simple: most security teams have more than one problem, and stacking a standalone detector on top of a separate analytics system means two consoles, two contracts, and two bills.

Visible weapon alerts

The same core capability: the model flags a firearm held in the open, and the alert reaches your team with the clip attached.

Intrusion and loitering

Perimeter breaches after hours, someone lingering at a dock or an ATM vestibule, line crossing into a restricted zone. The events that fill most incident logs.

Vehicles and license plates

Plate reads, vehicle type and color, and alerts on a vehicle sitting where it should not be. Useful across yards, lots, and gated sites.

Plain-English footage search

Ask for a red pickup at the north gate on Tuesday evening and get the clips. This is where most of the hours actually go after an incident.

Cameras you already own

Any ONVIF or RTSP camera. No fleet replacement, no appliance to rack, no proprietary hardware refresh cycle to budget for.

A price on the page

Plus at $42 per camera per month, Pro at $39, and a free plan for one camera. Model the whole deployment before you contact anyone.

How It Goes

Evaluating Us Against an Omnilert Quote

01

Connect one camera free

Start on the free plan with a single camera. Pick the hardest one you own: the dim parking lot, the long approach, the backlit entrance. That is the camera that will tell you the truth.

02

Watch a week of real events

Let it run against your actual traffic and look at what it flags and what it misses. A week of your own footage is worth more than any accuracy percentage in a slide deck.

03

Add the rest of the estate

Scale to the full camera list at the published per-camera rate. No appliance to install, no fleet swap, no per-site professional services line.

04

Route alerts where you work

Send events to the people and systems that already handle incidents. If you separately need public address and lockdown control, keep that vendor. The two layers coexist.

One number to carry into the comparison: per-camera pricing in this category drops steeply with volume. Signed public gun-detection contracts run from roughly $592 per camera per year at 38 cameras down to about $168 per camera per year at 650 to 800 cameras. Our $39 per camera per month works out to about $468 per camera per year, so at large volumes a dedicated gun-detection contract can undercut us on the weapon line alone. What you get for the difference is everything else the platform does. The gun detection system cost breakdown holds the contract data, and Omnilert pricing walks the quote structure.

Questions Buyers Ask

Omnilert Alternative: Common Questions

What is the best Omnilert alternative?

It depends on the requirement. If you need a monitored gun-detection service with human verification, the closest peers are ZeroEyes and Actuate. If you want weapon alerts inside a broader analytics platform you run yourself, Surveillant fits: it detects visible firearms alongside intrusion, loitering, vehicles, plates, and search, on existing cameras, at a published per-camera rate.

How much does Omnilert cost compared to Surveillant?

Omnilert publishes no per-camera rate. It licenses software per video stream per year, sells an optional $1,500 appliance covering up to 55 streams at 1080p, and prices monitoring separately. Surveillant publishes $39 to $42 per camera per month with a free plan for one camera, so you can model the full deployment cost before contacting anyone.

Does Surveillant have SAFETY Act designation like Omnilert?

No. Omnilert received full DHS SAFETY Act Designation for its AI gun detection on March 27, 2025 and appears on the Approved Technologies List. Surveillant does not carry that designation. If SAFETY Act status is a stated procurement requirement, Omnilert meets it and we do not, and no amount of feature comparison changes that.

Does Surveillant include mass notification and lockdown?

No. Omnilert began as a mass notification company and its response layer covers SMS, public address, digital signage, and lockdown triggers. Surveillant raises alerts and integrates with the systems you already use, but it does not control doors or run public address. Many teams run analytics and notification as two separate layers, which works fine.

Can Surveillant detect concealed weapons?

No, and neither can Omnilert. Camera-based AI identifies a firearm only once it is visible. A gun inside a bag, waistband, or coat produces no visual signature, so no visible-light system detects it. That limit is shared across the whole category. Concealed detection requires physical screening at an entrance.

Do I need to replace my cameras to switch?

No. Surveillant runs on any ONVIF or RTSP camera, which covers the large majority of commercial IP cameras in service. Point a stream at the platform and detection starts. There is no appliance to rack, no proprietary camera to buy, and nothing to rip out if you decide it is not for you.

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Test It on Your Worst Camera, Free

Weapon, person, vehicle, intrusion, and license plate detection on the ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already own, at a published $39 to $42 per camera per month. Start with one camera free and see real detections before you take a single sales call.

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Works with the IP cameras you already own. No credit card required to start.