Savings calculator / 2-door office
What access control really costs a 2-door office — and how to cut it.
For companies of roughly 5 to 25 people in leased office space. Where the money goes, what a replacement would cost for 2 doors, and what you keep by upgrading the system you already own instead.
What a 2-door office looks like
A two-door office is usually a single suite: the front door from the corridor or lobby, and one internal door that matters — a server or network closet, a records room, or a stockroom. The building owner looks after the street entrance and lifts; you look after your own suite.
At this size there is rarely a dedicated facilities person. The owner, an office manager or whoever sits nearest the door hands out badges, and the system was often inherited from the previous tenant or installed years ago by the landlord’s integrator.
The replacement quote, in numbers
Kisi’s published 2026 cost breakdown gives per-door ranges for a new system. Multiplied out for 2 doors:
Source: Kisi, breakdown of access control system installation costs ($600–$1,500 reader and hardware, $500–$1,500 installation with working locks, $600–$1,600 door licence per year, per door). Your quote may differ; these figures exclude new locks, wiring and per-user fees.
Where a 2-door office overpays today
Badges for a small team still add up
Every hire needs a card, every leaver should hand one back, and a small team feels each lost badge because there is no spare stock and no one whose job it is.
A replacement quote that dwarfs the problem
When the old system starts to feel dated, the proposal is often a new platform for two doors — new readers, a new controller, new subscriptions — to get phone unlock.
The “who is still here?” question
The last person out at night has no way to know whether a colleague is still in the back office, and a fire drill is a head count by memory.
What an upgrade changes
GateStride overlays the access control you already have. It adds a small node at each door, reads your system’s events and calls its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are — so there is no replacement project and no new per-door platform licence.
- Phones instead of badges. Staff open doors with a phone, watch or tablet; nothing to print or hand back.
- No per-user growth. GateStride connects as one integration user and manages your people itself, so hiring stops adding per-user credential fees on the underlying system. Check your vendor’s licence terms with your integrator.
- Know who left. Exits are recorded from the phone people carry, without a swipe, so the last person out and the fire warden both know who is still inside. How exit tracking works.
Some systems charge per user, others per door. See who charges what, then put your own invoice figures into the calculator for 2 doors.
Before you accept a replacement quote
A replacement proposal is often the first number an office sees, and it is easy to accept it as the only route. Five questions to ask the integrator or vendor before you sign:
- What exactly is failing? Ask which components are unsupported, unreliable or out of parts. If the honest answer is “nothing, it just looks dated”, an upgrade may give you what you want.
- What will I pay every year after the install? Get per-door licences, per-user or per-credential fees, cloud subscriptions and support contracts in writing, for at least three years.
- Do the locks and wiring stay? Replacing locks, strikes and cabling is where installation cost climbs. Find out whether the quote assumes your existing door hardware.
- What happens to egress and fire release? Any change to how a door releases may need sign-off from your local fire or building authority. An overlay that leaves the release path alone avoids that question.
- Can you add phone access to what we have? Many integrators can — and if they install the system you already own, they can install GateStride on it too.
Then compare the replacement route with the upgrade route over three years, using the same assumptions. The calculator lays both side by side.
Questions about 2-door offices
- Is GateStride worth it for just two doors?
- It depends on what you pay today. If you are being quoted a replacement to get phone unlock, or you pay per-user or per-badge costs, the saving can be meaningful even at two doors. If you pay nothing per user and nobody loses badges, the case rests on phone unlock and knowing who left rather than on cost.
- Do we need new wiring for two doors?
- No. GateStride adds a small node at each door and reads your existing system. Your readers, locks and request-to-exit stay as they are.
- Where do these replacement figures come from?
- They multiply Kisi’s published 2026 per-door ranges — $600 to $1,500 for a reader and hardware, $500 to $1,500 for installation with working locks, and $600 to $1,600 a year for a basic door licence — by the number of doors. Your own quote may differ.
- Does GateStride change our locks or fire release?
- No. Locks, request-to-exit, fire release and certifications stay on your existing system. GateStride reads its events and calls its own unlock.
Other office sizes: 4-door office · 8-door office · custom
Check the numbers on your own doors
Tell us which access control you run and how many doors you have. We will show you what changes.