The salesperson quoted you £8 per guard per month. You did the maths. You thought you knew what it would cost. Then the invoice arrived.
Welcome to enterprise software pricing — where the headline number is just the beginning.
This isn’t cynicism. It’s a pattern so consistent across the major security management platforms that it’s essentially a business model. Understanding it before you sign can save you thousands. Understanding it after… well, that’s what exit clauses are for.
The Per-Guard Rate Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling
Most enterprise security platforms lead with a per-guard monthly rate. It sounds reasonable. For 30 guards at £8/month, that’s £240/month, £2,880/year. Manageable.
But the per-guard rate is almost never the actual per-guard rate. Watch for:
Minimum User Thresholds
Many platforms have minimum contract sizes — often 50 or 100 licences. If you have 30 guards, you still pay for 50. You’re not being charged for what you use. You’re being charged for the tier they want you on.
Admin and Supervisor Licences Charged Separately
The per-guard rate often only covers operational users. Your supervisors, managers, and office staff who need system access? They’re frequently on a separate, higher licence tier. A company with 30 guards might have 8 admin users — and those 8 might cost more than the 30.
Module Gating
Need GPS tracking? That’s a module. Want the client portal? Another module. Advanced reporting? You’ll need to upgrade. The advertised price gets you the basic tier — the features you actually need are behind paywalls.
The Onboarding Bill
Before you can use the platform, you need to set it up. And with enterprise software, “setting it up” is rarely something you do yourself over a weekend.
Expect to see:
- Implementation fees: £1,000–£5,000 to have the vendor configure the system for your organisation
- Data migration costs: Getting your existing guard records, client data, and schedules into the new system
- Training fees: Onboarding your team, often charged per session or per user
- Integration costs: Connecting to your payroll, accounting, or HR systems — frequently quoted as custom work
It is entirely common for a company to pay more in onboarding costs than they’ll pay in their first year of licensing. You haven’t used the software for a single day, and you’re already deeply in the red.
The Contract Trap
Enterprise security software almost always comes with annual contracts — often with 12–24 month minimum terms and 60–90 day cancellation notice requirements.
This matters for two reasons:
First, you have no leverage. Once you’re locked in, the vendor has little incentive to fix problems quickly or respond to your feature requests. You’re already paying. Your complaints get noted, not prioritised.
Second, if the software isn’t working for you — if it’s too complex, if it’s missing the UK compliance features you need, if your team simply won’t adopt it — you can’t leave without penalty. You’re paying for a system that isn’t serving you for the rest of the contract term.
The Price Escalation Clause
Read the contract carefully — specifically the renewal terms. Many enterprise agreements include automatic price increases at renewal: CPI-linked increases, or simply discretionary rate changes with 30 days’ notice. The £8/guard you signed up for might be £10 two years later. And since you’re mid-contract when you find out, there’s nothing you can do about it.
The Support Tier Surprise
Email support with a 48-hour SLA is often the default. If you want faster response times, phone support, or a dedicated account manager, that’s a premium support tier — extra cost, sometimes significant.
For security companies operating 24/7, a 48-hour support window for a critical system issue isn’t just inconvenient. It’s a business risk.
What Transparent Pricing Actually Looks Like
TacDesk was built with a deliberate rejection of every one of these practices.
Our pricing starts from £49/month, with a bespoke quote tailored to your team size. No setup fees. No implementation charges. No module unlocking. No minimum user thresholds. No annual contracts. And a lifetime price lock — the rate you start on is the rate you keep, regardless of what happens to our pricing for new customers.
We don’t have a bloated sales team that needs to hit quarterly targets. We don’t have investors demanding we extract maximum revenue from every contract. We have a product we’re proud of, customers we want to keep, and a pricing model built on the radical idea that fair is good business.
GPS tracking, NFC patrols, incident reporting, client portals, Xero integration, fleet management — all included. No surprises on the invoice. Ever.
If you’re currently with an enterprise platform, take an hour this week and read your contract. Find the renewal clause. Find the notice period. Find the price escalation terms. Then calculate what you’ve actually paid in total — setup, licensing, modules, support.