What licence does a Florida access-control installer need?

A state alarm system contractor licence under Chapter 489, Part II, issued through DBPR’s Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board: Class I if the work includes fire alarms, Class II otherwise. The certified scope expressly covers electric-lock wiring. Check the licence number on DBPR’s search before hiring.

How does GateStride help when we close for a hurricane?

It shows, per site, who is still inside and who has left, from the phones people carry, so you can confirm offices are empty before a storm and see who has returned afterwards. It does not replace your hurricane plan, county evacuation orders or your building’s life-safety systems.

Our Brickell office is in a mixed-use tower. Will GateStride affect the residents’ or hotel’s access?

No. GateStride works on the access system that controls your own suite doors. The building’s lobby, garage, elevators and residential or hotel access remain with building management and are not touched or connected to your account.

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

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 Miami?

No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve Miami-Dade and South Florida 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 / Miami, FL

Office access control in Miami — phone unlock and a real head count, on the system you already pay for.

From the bank and consulate towers of Brickell and the downtown core to Coral Gables, Doral, the offices around Miami International Airport and the low-rise buildings of Miami Beach, Miami companies mostly have card access already. What they lack is a cheaper way to run it and a way to know who has gone home when a hurricane is coming. GateStride adds both on top of the existing system: staff open the door with their phones, and every exit is recorded.

Request a Miami demo Work out your savings

Miami high-rise office and residential towers by the water

How Miami offices are laid out

Brickell is Miami’s financial district, a dense run of high-rise office towers, hotels and apartment buildings that hosts most of South Florida’s foreign consulates and many international banking operations. Next to it, downtown Miami adds government, legal and corporate offices. Coral Gables, with its own city government and its long-established corporate and professional offices, is a second centre, while Doral and the area around the airport hold the trade, logistics and distribution businesses that connect Miami to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Many small and mid-size firms here lease a suite in a tower where the landlord controls the lobby, garage and elevators; others take a floor in a mixed-use building with apartments or a hotel above, or a whole low-rise building in Doral or near the airport. The tenant usually owns and pays for the suite-level access system. That is where GateStride goes to work, leaving the building’s own security in the landlord’s hands.

Hurricane season. From early summer into autumn, a forecast can close offices for days. Being able to confirm remotely that a site is empty, and later see who has come back, matters more here than in most cities.
International teams and visitors. Banking, trade and professional firms in Miami host colleagues, clients and contractors from abroad. Phone credentials can be issued for a set period and revoked remotely, with no visitor badge left in a pocket on the flight home.
Garage to tower in the heat. The walk from a garage to the elevator in August, in a sudden downpour, is no time to search for a fob. Walk-up phone unlock opens the suite door as people reach it.

Where Miami offices overpay for access control

Most Miami offices are not paying one large bill for access control but a stream of small ones, from per-user fees to replacement fobs to the time spent issuing them, and the stream grows with every hire.

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 Miami

Miami offices plan around hurricanes. When a storm is forecast, companies close sites, send people home to prepare, and often stay closed until roads and power are back. The question that matters in those hours is simple: has everyone left each building? With exits recorded from people’s phones, an office manager can check a who-is-inside list per site instead of calling round.

Fire safety is checked every year here: the City of Miami Fire-Rescue carries out annual life-safety inspections of existing businesses, so egress is examined regularly. What an inspection cannot do is count heads after a real alarm in a Brickell high-rise. A live record of who has gone out helps floor wardens finish that count.

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 Miami 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 Florida

Florida licenses alarm contractors under Chapter 489, Part II of the Florida Statutes, through the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). There are two classes: Alarm System Contractor I, covering all alarm systems including fire, and Alarm System Contractor II, covering all except fire. The statute’s scope for a certified alarm system contractor expressly includes low-voltage wiring up to 98 volts RMS for data, proprietary video “or electric locks”, which takes in access-control work. Look up the contractor’s certification on the DBPR licence search before work starts.

Source: Florida Statutes, Section 489.505

Who enforces door and egress rules in Miami

In the City of Miami, the Building Department issues building permits through its iBuild system, and the Fire-Rescue Fire Prevention Bureau handles construction plan review, Certificate of Use and fire safety permit inspections, and annual life-safety inspections of existing businesses. Statewide, the Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023), based on the 2021 International Building Code, and the 8th Edition Florida Fire Prevention Code both took effect on December 31, 2023. Other Miami-Dade municipalities, such as Coral Gables or Doral, have their own building departments. Check before changing how a door releases; GateStride does not change door release.

Source: City of Miami: permits and construction

Privacy and biometric law in Florida

Florida has no dedicated biometric privacy statute. The Florida Digital Bill of Rights, in effect since July 1, 2024, does cover biometric data, but it applies only to very large companies: those with more than $1 billion in revenue that also meet tests tied to advertising revenue, smart speakers or app stores. That means it rarely reaches building owners, tenants or integrators. GateStride’s default phone unlock does not collect biometric data.

Source: Davis Wright Tremaine: Florida Digital Bill of Rights

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 Miami 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. South Florida integrators commonly work with platforms such as Kantech EntraPass, LenelS2, Software House, Genetec, Honeywell WIN-PAK, Gallagher, Brivo and HID; if your office runs one of them, GateStride sits on top.

For Miami security integrators

South Florida integrators look after access control in towers from Brickell to Coral Gables and in warehouses and offices around the airport. GateStride lets you offer those customers phone unlock and exit tracking on the panels already on the wall, with no rip-out and no re-certification. You earn resale margin per site, keep the client, and give them something they care about every hurricane season. ASIS also has a South Florida chapter that meets across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Miami’s security community meets through Electronic Security Association of Florida (ESA-FL).

See the partner program

Questions from Miami offices

What licence does a Florida access-control installer need?: A state alarm system contractor licence under Chapter 489, Part II, issued through DBPR’s Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board: Class I if the work includes fire alarms, Class II otherwise. The certified scope expressly covers electric-lock wiring. Check the licence number on DBPR’s search before hiring.
How does GateStride help when we close for a hurricane?: It shows, per site, who is still inside and who has left, from the phones people carry, so you can confirm offices are empty before a storm and see who has returned afterwards. It does not replace your hurricane plan, county evacuation orders or your building’s life-safety systems.
Our Brickell office is in a mixed-use tower. Will GateStride affect the residents’ or hotel’s access?: No. GateStride works on the access system that controls your own suite doors. The building’s lobby, garage, elevators and residential or hotel access remain with building management and are not touched or connected to your account.
Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in Miami?: 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 Miami?: No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve Miami-Dade and South Florida 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 Miami 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.