Does an access-control installer need a licence in Houston?

Yes. Texas requires companies that install or maintain electronic access control devices to hold a licence from the Texas Department of Public Safety Private Security Program, with technicians registered to that company. Ask for the company licence number and check it before work starts.

Can GateStride help during a hurricane evacuation?

It helps with accountability: you can see per site who is still inside and who has left as you close offices ahead of a storm. It does not replace your evacuation plan or the building’s life-safety systems.

Our landlord controls the lobby. Can we still use GateStride on our suite?

Yes. GateStride works on the system that controls your own suite doors. Lobby and garage access stays with the building.

Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Houston?

No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.

Does GateStride have an office in Houston?

No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the greater Houston area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.

Will it lower what we pay each month?

It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.

Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?

Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

Locations / Houston, TX

Office access control in Houston — keep the system you have, stop overpaying to run it.

From Galleria and Westchase towers to Energy Corridor campuses and suburban office parks in Sugar Land and The Woodlands, most Houston offices already have card access on the doors. What they rarely have is a way to stop paying per person to run it, or to know who is still in the building when a storm or an alarm empties it. GateStride adds both on top of the system you already own: phones instead of badges, and a live record of who has left.

Request a Houston demo Work out your savings

How Houston offices actually use access control

Houston is not one central business district but a ring of them. Downtown, Uptown/Galleria, Greenway Plaza, Westchase, the Energy Corridor along I-10 and the Texas Medical Center each have their own stock of multi-tenant towers and mid-rise buildings, and many small and mid-size companies lease a floor or a suite inside them. Beyond the loop, office parks in Sugar Land, Katy, The Woodlands and along Beltway 8 house engineering firms, clinics, insurance and professional-services offices.

For a tenant company that usually means two layers of access: the landlord's building system at the lobby and garage, and a suite-level system the tenant installed or inherited from the previous occupant. It is the suite layer that the tenant pays for, administers and has to explain when something goes wrong — and it is often an older Kantech, Honeywell or similar system that works perfectly well but still runs on cards.

Several sites, one office manager. Many Houston firms run a head office plus field or clinic locations across a metro that takes an hour to cross. GateStride manages every door and site from one place, with a per-site list of who is inside.
Steady hiring and turnover. Energy, healthcare and professional services hire in waves. Every joiner needs a credential and every leaver needs one revoked; with phones there is nothing to print and nothing to collect on the last day.
Heat, rain and full hands. Walking from a garage in summer with a laptop bag and coffee is not the moment to dig for a badge. Walk-up phone unlock opens the suite door as people arrive.

Where Houston offices overpay for access control

Access control in a typical Houston suite is rarely one big bill. It is a set of small, recurring costs that grow with headcount, which is why offices keep paying them for years without a second look.

Per-person fees

Cardholder, user or mobile-credential charges that rise with every hire, even though no door changed.

Badges that walk out

Lost, broken and never-returned cards and fobs, each one a purchase and a gap until it is disabled.

Office-manager hours

Issuing badges on day one, chasing them on the last day, and letting people in who forgot theirs.

The replacement quote

New readers, controllers, wiring and subscriptions proposed for a system that still works.

GateStride connects to the system you already own as a single integration user and manages your people itself, so staff who move to phone access stop adding per-person credential costs on the underlying system, and nobody needs a badge printed. Put your own numbers into the savings calculator to see what that is worth for your office, and check your vendor’s licence terms with your integrator.

Knowing who is still inside, in Houston

Houston plans for evacuations in a way few cities do. Harris County uses ZIP-code based storm-surge evacuation zones — Coastal, A, B and C — and asks residents and businesses to leave in stages as a hurricane approaches. When a company sends people home early or closes a site ahead of a storm, the question “has everyone left?” has a real answer only if exits are recorded.

The same applies to the everyday case: a fire alarm in a 30-storey tower, where tenants on every floor head for the stairs and wardens try to count their people at the assembly point.

Most card systems log people coming in, not going out, because exits release freely. GateStride records who left from the phone they carry, without a swipe, and turns a fire drill into a one-tap roll call. How exit tracking works.

Exit tracking supports accountability. It is not a substitute for free egress, your evacuation plan or your certified fire and life-safety systems.

Rules that apply to Houston offices

Before anyone touches a door, three things are worth knowing. This is general information, not legal or life-safety advice; confirm specifics with the agencies below and your own counsel.

Checking your installer is licensed in Texas

In Texas, companies that install or maintain electronic access control devices must be licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Regulatory Services Division, Private Security Program, under Chapter 1702 of the Texas Occupations Code. The statute defines an “electronic access control device company” and requires that licence, and individual technicians must be registered with a licensed company. Fire alarm work is licensed separately by the State Fire Marshal’s Office at the Texas Department of Insurance. Before you hire anyone to work on your doors, ask for their DPS company licence number and look it up.

Source: Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1702

Who enforces door and egress rules in Houston

In the City of Houston, the Houston Permitting Center (Houston Public Works) administers the building code and the Houston Fire Marshal’s Office enforces the fire code. City Council adopted the 2021 International Building, Existing Building and Fire Codes with local amendments, effective January 1, 2024. Electrified locks and egress doors are covered by those codes as amended locally, so check with the city — or the relevant suburban city — before changing how a door releases. GateStride does not change door release.

Source: ICC: Houston adopts the 2021 International Codes

Privacy and biometric law in Texas

Texas has a biometric privacy statute: the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, Business and Commerce Code Section 503.001. Before capturing a fingerprint, retina or iris scan, voiceprint or hand or face geometry for a commercial purpose, a business must give notice and get consent, protect the data with reasonable care and destroy it within a set time after the purpose ends. The Texas Attorney General enforces it, with civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation. Phone-based unlock without biometrics does not capture biometric identifiers.

Source: Texas Business and Commerce Code, Section 503.001

GateStride’s default uses device credentials and non-biometric person detection, so no biometric data is collected. Facial recognition is optional, off by default, and offered only where it is legally compliant and you choose to enable it.

Works with the systems Houston integrators install

You keep your vendor and your integrator. GateStride overlays Kantech EntraPass, Honeywell, LenelS2 OnGuard, Software House C•CURE, HID and Brivo by reading their events and calling their own unlock. See the integrations, the architecture, or how an upgrade compares with ripping everything out for a cloud platform. Houston integrators commonly support platforms such as LenelS2, Software House, Genetec, Brivo, HID and Honeywell; if your office runs one of them, GateStride sits on top.

For Houston security integrators

Houston has a deep bench of commercial security integrators, from long-established local firms to regional offices of national companies. If you service access control for offices in the metro, GateStride gives you something to sell into the sites you already maintain: an upgrade with no rip-out and no re-certification, resale margin per site, and a customer who stays yours. We list partners in our directory by city and by the systems they install.

Houston’s security community meets through ASIS International Houston Chapter · Texas Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (TBFAA).

See the partner program

Questions from Houston offices

Does an access-control installer need a licence in Houston?: Yes. Texas requires companies that install or maintain electronic access control devices to hold a licence from the Texas Department of Public Safety Private Security Program, with technicians registered to that company. Ask for the company licence number and check it before work starts.
Can GateStride help during a hurricane evacuation?: It helps with accountability: you can see per site who is still inside and who has left as you close offices ahead of a storm. It does not replace your evacuation plan or the building’s life-safety systems.
Our landlord controls the lobby. Can we still use GateStride on our suite?: Yes. GateStride works on the system that controls your own suite doors. Lobby and garage access stays with the building.
Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Houston?: No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.
Does GateStride have an office in Houston?: No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the greater Houston area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.
Will it lower what we pay each month?: It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.
Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?: Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

See it on your Houston doors

A short demo on the access control you already have — no rip-and-replace.

Request a demo Work out your savings

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Trademarks belong to their respective owners; GateStride is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any access-control manufacturer.