AI Weapons Detection
Omnilert Alternatives and Omnilert Competitors Compared
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.
Works with any ONVIF or RTSP camera. Weapon alerts plus intrusion, loitering, vehicles, plates, and plain-English search.
- What it is
- Full analytics platform
- Weapon detection
- One alert among many
- Mass notification
- No, Omnilert wins here
- Cameras
- Your existing ONVIF/RTSP
- Pricing
- $49 to $75 per camera
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.
What is the best Omnilert alternative?
ZeroEyes is the closest Omnilert alternative if you want camera gun detection verified by a vendor operations center around the clock. Actuate fits buyers who already work with a security integrator, Evolv fits entrances that need walk-through screening for concealed weapons, and Surveillant fits teams that want weapon alerts plus wider analytics on their own cameras at a published price.
None of the dedicated gun detection vendors publishes a per-camera rate card, so the table uses each vendor's own published figures where they exist and signed public contracts where they do not. If ZeroEyes is the other name on your shortlist, our Omnilert vs ZeroEyes comparison goes deeper on the two monitored services.
| Vendor | What it is | Published or public price | Better pick when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omnilert | Visual gun detection on existing cameras, human verification, then lockdown and mass notification. DHS SAFETY Act Designation | Gun Detect Appliance $1,500 (up to 55 streams at 1080p); Omnilert says a small complete install runs under $10,000; stream license quoted | Detection must trigger lockdown and notification from one vendor |
| ZeroEyes | Visible firearm detection with a 24/7 operations center that verifies before dispatch. DHS SAFETY Act Designation | No rate card. Signed public school contracts about $168 to $592 per camera per year | You want a monitored service and have no security operations center |
| Actuate | Weapon, intruder and loitering detection on existing cameras, sold in Lite, Classic, Pro and Premium tiers | No dollar figure published; bought through a security integrator | Your integrator or monitoring center already carries it |
| Scylla | Dedicated AI weapon detection with an on-site edge appliance | No rate card, custom quote | You want detection processed on site |
| Evolv Express | Walk-through screening lanes for concealed weapons, not camera software | One public school district pricing sheet: $78,810 for a single indoor lane to $153,290 for a dual outdoor unit over four years | The threat is a hidden weapon at a controlled entrance |
| Surveillant | AI video analytics on your ONVIF and RTSP cameras: visible weapons plus intrusion, loitering, vehicles, plates and plain-English search. Alerts by email, Slack or webhook; no monitoring center | $49 to $75 per camera per month, published; about half that billed yearly | You want broad analytics you run yourself and a price you can budget today |
Figures for ZeroEyes pricing and Evolv pricing come from the public contracts and pricing sheets cited on those guides. Omnilert figures come from Omnilert's own pages. Camera gun detection of any brand sees a firearm only once it is visible; for concealed carry at a door, screening lanes are a different purchase.
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 | $49 to $75 per camera per month, published, recorded example to watch |
| 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.
Because those two are the only vendors in the category holding a SAFETY Act Designation, they usually end up on the same shortlist. If you are choosing between them rather than looking for a way around both, read Omnilert vs ZeroEyes, which compares the two head to head on verification model, published accuracy, and what each one actually discloses about false alarms.
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
Starter at $49 for one camera, Plus, Pro and Elite at about $75 per camera per month, and a recorded example analysis to watch before you buy. Model the whole deployment before you contact anyone.
How It Goes
Evaluating Us Against an Omnilert Quote
Watch a recorded example
Start by watching the recorded example analysis. Pick the hardest camera you own: the dim parking lot, the long approach, the backlit entrance. That is the camera that will tell you the truth.
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.
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.
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 $75 per camera per month works out to about $448 per camera per year billed yearly, 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
Common Questions About an Omnilert Alternative
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 $49 to $75 per camera per month with a recorded example analysis to watch, 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.
Who are the main Omnilert competitors?
The main Omnilert competitors in camera gun detection are ZeroEyes, Actuate and Scylla, and Ambient.ai and Volt AI include weapon detection inside wider platforms. Evolv competes for the same school and venue budgets with walk-through screening rather than cameras. Surveillant sits beside them as general video analytics with weapon alerts at a published price.
Which Omnilert alternative publishes its price?
Among camera gun detection vendors, Omnilert publishes only its $1,500 appliance and a small-install estimate, and ZeroEyes, Actuate and Scylla publish no rate card. Surveillant publishes $49 to $75 per camera per month. For ZeroEyes, signed public school contracts show about $168 to $592 per camera per year.
Explore More
Related Guides and Solutions
Omnilert Gun Detection Review
What its credentials actually certify.
Omnilert Pricing
The quote, line by line.
AI Weapons Detection
Weapon alerts inside a full platform.
ZeroEyes Alternative
The other SAFETY Act vendor, compared.
Best Gun Detection Software
Every approach compared.
Gun Detection System Cost
Per-camera rates from signed contracts.
Price on the Page
Test It on Your Worst Camera
Weapon, person, vehicle, intrusion, and license plate detection on the ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already own, at a published $49 to $75 per camera per month. Start with one camera on Starter and see real detections without a single sales call.
Works with the IP cameras you already own. Cancel anytime.