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EntryWatch vs MRI Software OnLocation
OnLocation is an established people-presence platform from MRI Software, running in 53 countries. EntryWatch is a newer, more modern visitor system that covers the same reception job for a smaller price and a shorter setup. Everything in their column is quoted from MRI’s own pages.
| EntryWatch | MRI OnLocation | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free until 2027 for founding customers. After that, plans bundle locations instead of billing per site. | Published from NZ$79 per location, per month, so cost rises with each site you add. |
| Trying it | Create an organisation and run a real kiosk in minutes. No card, no call. | 14-day free trial, no credit card required; demos are booked with a sales team. |
| Sign-in on the visitor’s own phone | Scan the rotating QR and the phone becomes theirs: fields autofill, details are remembered for next time, and the home screen shows their visit with one-tap sign-out. | Visitors “scan a QR code and sign in from their smartphone’s browser”. |
| Kiosk hardware | Any tablet or desktop browser; an iPad and Android app when a network badge printer is on site. | “Not limited by hardware” — a kiosk on any desktop or tablet. |
| Badges | Designed in the app, printed to network or USB Brother printers, or to a browser PDF where there is no printer. | Prints “customizable, branded badge passes for visitors”. |
| Telling the host | Email, SMS, Microsoft Teams and Slack, with host groups so someone always answers. | Arrival notification “by push, SMS, and/or email”. |
| Inductions & agreements | Documents, forms and requirements that gate sign-in and stay recorded against the person between visits. | Custom workflows for health screening, safety videos and waivers; contractor induction management. |
| Evacuation | Live roll call on any device, from the same list the kiosk writes to. | Manual roll calls, self-verify, mustering and evacuation reports. |
| Changing how sign-in works | A visual flow editor and kiosk themes you edit yourself, with a live preview of every screen. | Custom workflows and multi-language kiosks; configuration is part of the product setup. |
| Who it is built for | One reception, or a few sites, wanting sign-in sorted this week. | A broad workplace platform — 53 countries and 1.9M employees on MRI’s numbers. |
Where EntryWatch does more than MRI OnLocation
- Free until 2027 for founding customers, and plans bundle locations rather than billing each site separately.
- A visitor who scans the QR keeps their own phone: fields autofill, their details are remembered for the next visit, and one tap signs them out on the way past.
- Host alerts reach people where they already are — Microsoft Teams and Slack as well as email and SMS — and host groups mean someone always answers.
- Safety cover watches whether enough qualified people are actually on site, so a shift is never left without a first aider or fire warden.
- Sign-in is yours to change: a visual flow editor and kiosk themes with a live preview of every screen, no professional-services engagement.
Everything in the MRI OnLocation column is quoted or summarised from mrisoftware.com — OnLocation product and visitor management pages (NZ), read 20 August 2026. Products change — tell us if anything here is out of date and we will correct it.
Want to see EntryWatch for yourself?
Founding customers get everything free until 2027.