How is Command Cloud Priced?

You’ve been tasked with looking into GUARDIAN RFID’s Command Cloud. Perhaps you discovered it through an online source or by talking with one of our team members at a trade show. No matter how you found us –whether you work in a jail, prison, or juvenile detention facility - you’re likely wondering about a few basic things: 

1. How is Command Cloud priced? 

2. What exactly do I get for this overall fee? 

3. Are there any other fees I should be aware of?

4. What else should I be asking that I haven’t thought of yet?

Pricing can vary depending on your facility’s unique needs, objectives, layout, and management style, such as direct or indirect supervision. Because of these factors, this blog won’t go into specific price points, but we will explain the general framework behind how Command Cloud pricing is calculated. 

The purpose of this blog is to provide transparency and clarity around how we structure our pricing, the value it delivers, and to answer common questions related to pricing. 

What is Command Cloud’s Pricing Based On?

Command Cloud is priced based on two factors: 

1. Your facility’s average daily population

2. The edition of Command Cloud you choose

We base our pricing on your average daily population or your daily inmate count as it provides the most accurate and fair metric for understanding your current needs – not what you might need if you were running at full capacity. 

Between 2006 and 2009, GUARDIAN RFID pricing was based on rated bed capacity, which is a decidedly different metric than the average daily population. This approach didn’t work well for either party. For price-sensitive customers, the price was often higher because the licensing was tied to how many inmates you could hold, rather than how many you have in the moment.

So, we pivoted to average daily population as the primary metric for determining price. This change has proven to work well for our Warrior community. 

Command Cloud has tiers of pricing based on your average daily population. It’s simple: the more inmates you have daily, the higher your licensing tier. The fewer inmates you have, the lower your pricing tier. We use this tiered approach because larger jails and prisons often have more demands such as Cloud storage, bandwidth, and server processing power - while smaller jails consume these resources on a smaller scale.  

As a long-time SaaS (Software as a Service) vendor, we know that this pricing pivot was necessary to democratize our platform, making it more accessible and affordable for everyone. 

The second factor in Command Cloud pricing is which edition you choose. In the Command Cloud era, there are five editions:

• Defender Edition

• Standard Edition

• Professional Edition

• Enterprise Edition 

• Juvenile Justice Edition

Each edition of our software offers a unique set of features and capabilities, designed to meet the needs of users with varying levels of sophistication and complexity. For example, if you’re running a 25-bed jail, Defender Edition, our most affordable edition, would be optimal. It’s priced to fit the budget of smaller facilities while offering the core features we know are essential for their operations. 

On the other hand, if you’re running a state Department of Corrections (DOC) with multiple facilities and need to deploy in a multi-facility environment, Professional Edition or Enterprise Edition may be a better fit. These editions offer more advanced features, such as Single Sign-On (SSO) with a vanity URL to support the needs of these larger agencies.

Structuring Command Cloud pricing based on your daily count across five distinct editions gives you the most choice to make an informed buying decision based on your specific needs and budget.

What Are You Getting with the Licensing Fee?

Let’s talk about the key features and capabilities you’re getting as part of your Command Cloud licensing fee, which is the annual fee we call the “System Renewal Fee.” 

For nearly 20 years, GUARDIAN RFID’s pricing has been based on the concept of an unlimited user, concurrent usage agency license. Why? Because, frankly, no one likes being nickel and dimed. Who wants to constantly ask to quote an additional “seat” or a pack of five user licenses? And with staff turnover, managing individual “seat” licenses can quickly become an absolute nightmare – at least we could imagine it being that way. 

To minimize friction and overhead, it doesn’t impact us whether you add one, 100, or 1,000 licenses under your Command Cloud licensing fee. You have total control. You can create user groups, assign privileges or user rights to those groups, and add team members to one or more of those user groups, all with total autonomy. 

Additionally, you have unlimited data storage. We don’t charge based on storage tiers because we don’t want you to subconsciously limit your use of Command Cloud. For example, the last thing staff should have to worry about is how much storage is remaining, limiting your team’s usage of features like capturing digital evidence with Mobile Command XR. Whether you capture and store 50 gigabytes or a petabyte of data, feel free to use as much as needed. 

GUARDIAN RFID invests heavily in cybersecurity every year. We maintain strict policies and security controls as part of our SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, implementing multiple layers of security and monitoring services that help protect your application and data. You don’t pay extra for these capabilities; they’re innate in building and maintaining trust every day. 

As a part of that commitment, we provide full transparency on the performance and uptime of every Command Cloud service. You can see this data in real time at https://status.commandcloud.com/. 

One of the core reasons GUARDIAN RFID retains 99.94% of our entire user community each year is due to our technical support. Think about why you may love going to places like Chick-fil-A – reliable service, consistently good quality, and a pleasant experience every time. It’s the same reason you trust Amazon’s next-day delivery: great companies deliver great products and services consistently over time. 

The formula is simple, but its execution requires talented and reliable people and a disciplined mindset. That’s our tech support team. 

I would like to take a minute to commend GUARDIAN RFID for its customer service and support. Absolutely stellar. Out of all my vendors, you lead the pack by far. I’ve never been left hanging on anything and always get a rapid response to any question.

Lt. Assistant Jail Administrator, Chad Cupp

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan

Our JailOps team is more than just an extension of our tech support team – it’s a vital part of your success. Not only can they help troubleshoot many issues, but they also serve as senior advisors. They actively monitor your data and system usage, identifying potential anomalies or opportunities for improvement that you may not recognize. Additionally, they coordinate complimentary remote training to refresh your knowledge and education around Command Cloud.

GUARDIAN RFID maintains a strict protocol: our JailOps team are former customers, four of whom are former jail administrators. This gives them a rare combination of subject matter expertise and product knowledge. 

All these services, along with many more, are included in your Command Cloud fee. 

Are There Any Other Fees to be Aware Of?

There are a few fees that you should know and expect - some we can control but others we can’t. One outside of our control, for example, is your JMS interface fee.

Your jail management system (JMS) vendor may charge an initial fee for integrating with Command Cloud, along with an ongoing maintenance fee to support the interface. These are normal and expected practices, but GUARDIAN RFID doesn’t have any control over them. 

We highly recommend that your facility’s IT team (if you have one) uses the REST API integration layer of Command Cloud. This will allow you to build interfaces by calling our API,  and you can easily build the interface in one afternoon. If you don’t have an IT team, we suggest asking your JMS vendor to use our REST API. This will maximize your time to value by trimming the time to build the interface and speeding up your overall deployment process. 

Interface pricing can vary widely—some costs are reasonable, while others can be excessively high. We firmly believe that any JMS vendor charging inflated fees for system interfaces is essentially holding your agency hostage, limiting your ability to make decisions that are in your best interest. In our view, JMS vendors who quote unreasonably high prices for interfaces are engaging in unethical and outdated practices.

Wi-Fi and Video Camera Installation 

GUARDIAN RFID does not sell, install, or support Wi-Fi networks or video cameras for VisionOps, the facial recognition system of Command Cloud. However, we are happy to provide general guidance. Our team can also coordinate a site visit to walk through the facility with your networking vendor to discuss the optimal placement of your access points or video cameras. 

What Else Should You Ask That You Might Not Have Thought About?

A few considerations that don’t come up often, but for the sake of being as thorough as possible, we want to cover all the bases and answer any potential questions that could arise in these situations:

1. Lost SPARTAN: If your team loses a SPARTAN and it can’t be found (e.g., the battery is dead and our mobile device management software can’t ping it), it’s your responsibility to ensure that every SPARTAN is accounted, per our agreement. With that said, accidents can happen. But for the sake of full disclosure – the replacement of the device is typically at your expense.

2. Damaged SPARTAN: If a SPARTAN is damaged during an altercation with an inmate and was used in self-defense, first, we hope that the officer is okay. Second, we’d ask for more details about the incident, including sharing any security footage. If this can be verified as an act of self-defense, we’ll cover the cost of the replacement. 

3. SPARTAN Dropped and Damaged: If a SPARTAN is damaged after it fell from the upper tier, our policy treats all damage - whether accidental or malicious - the same. In general, we would likely require you to pay the replacement fee as stated in our agreement. 

Command Cloud’s pricing model is intended to maximize value, fairness, and optionality. By pricing based on the average daily count across five editions of our software, you can choose what you need at a price that meets your budget without paying for capabilities you don’t need. 

Hopefully, you realize there’s far more than meets the eye when you look at just the price. With nearly two decades of experience – with Warriors in nearly every corner of the U.S. – we are confident that you can trust the decision to choose Command Cloud, the first officer experience platform.