The Five Best Visitor Management Systems in 2025

From start-of-day to close-of-play, your reception area bustles with guests. Managing this traffic can quickly become chaotic. Relying on outdated methods like paper logbooks leads to slow check-ins, illegible records, and security vulnerabilities. It’s hard to know who’s in the building at any given moment, or to track past visits for compliance.

The old methods just aren’t efficient and create security gaps, leaving your important visitors with a less-than-professional first impression.

That's where a modern visitor management system comes in. These sophisticated digital platforms transform your front-desk operations, ensuring seamless guest experiences and enhancing security protocols.

This guide will walk you through visitor management systems, why they matter, and how they work. We'll explore the different types and look at the best solutions out there to help you find the right one for your needs. Then, it’s over to you to decide.

What is a visitor management system?

A visitor management system is a digital solution that automates and manages the process of welcoming, signing in, tracking, and signing out guests in a building.

It replaces manual processes (e.g., handwritten sign-in sheets) with a secure, efficient, and professional digital experience.

What to look for in a visitor management system

To choose the right visitor management system, you’ll need to consider multiple areas. Compare each system’s benefits to your list of must-have features. Here are the key criteria to bear in mind:

• Ease of use: The system should be intuitive for both visitors and staff. An automated check-in process for guests and an easy-to-manage dashboard for your reception team keep things moving smoothly.
• Scalability: As your business grows, so should your system. Look for a solution that can handle increased visitor volume, additional locations, and evolving security needs without starting from scratch.
• Integrations: An effective system doesn't operate in a silo. It should integrate seamlessly with your existing access control systems, HR directories, calendars, and emergency notification platforms.
• Data privacy: Visitor management systems collect personal information, so robust data privacy features and regulatory compliance are vital. Check that the system offers secure data storage, as well as clear consent and retention policies.
• Support: Excellent customer support will always be helpful. That can include setup assistance and training, as well as ongoing technical support.
• Deployment model: There are three deployment types to choose from, depending on your needs and goals.
  • On-premise systems are installed and managed on your local servers. They offer maximum control and customization, ideal for organizations with specific regulatory needs or robust IT infrastructure.
  • Cloud-based systems are hosted and managed by the vendor and are accessible via the internet. They offer flexibility, scalability, automatic updates, and lower upfront costs, making them popular for agility.
  • Hybrid solutions combine elements of both, often keeping core data on-premise for compliance while leveraging cloud benefits.

The five best visitor management systems of 2025

Now that we know some of the key features of visitor management platforms, let’s compare five of the leading providers in 2025:

1. acre Security

Acre Security offers comprehensive, integrated visitor management solutions for seamless guest experiences and robust physical security. It consists of a unified platform that connects visitor management with broader access control and other physical security systems for a holistic, layered approach.

• Ideal use case: Mid-to-large organizations prioritizing integrated physical security, streamlined operations, and centralized management of both visitors and long-term access holders across single or multiple locations. It is particularly well-suited for businesses needing scalable, reliable solutions.
• Pros: Strong integration capabilities with existing security infrastructure, focus on a unified security ecosystem, highly scalable for various business sizes, robust reporting and compliance features, backed by dedicated security expertise.
• Cons: As a comprehensive security platform, it might offer more features than a small business with minimal security needs might benefit from.

2. Envoy

Envoy is a popular cloud-based visitor management system known for its intuitive interface and strong focus on user experience. It offers features for visitor sign-in, host notifications, and package delivery management, aiming to create a welcoming and efficient front-desk environment.

• Ideal use case: Modern offices, tech companies, and businesses that prioritize design, ease of use, and a frictionless visitor experience. It's well-suited to organizations looking to streamline reception where extensive physical security integrations aren’t a primary focus.
• Pros: Excellent user interface, quick setup, good host notification features, and offers workplace management modules beyond just visitors.
• Cons: Deeper integrations with complex physical access control systems might require specific add-ons or custom work. It might not be the best choice for highly regulated environments.

3. Eptura Visitor (formerly Proxyclick)

Eptura Visitor provides a robust and highly customizable visitor management platform, geared towards larger enterprises with complex security and compliance needs. It offers advanced features for multi-site management, detailed visitor screening, and extensive reporting.

• Ideal use case: Large corporations, multinational organizations, and businesses in regulated industries (like finance or pharmaceuticals) that require comprehensive compliance features, detailed audit trails, and the ability to manage complex visitor workflows across numerous locations.
• Pros: High degree of customization, strong compliance features, excellent for multi-location management, detailed reporting and auditing, integrates with many enterprise systems.
• Cons: Can have a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features, may be more costly for smaller businesses due to its enterprise focus.

4. SwipedOn

SwipedOn is a user-friendly and highly rated visitor management system that focuses on simplicity and efficiency. It offers core functionalities like visitor sign-in, employee sign-in, and contractor management, making it easy to track everyone on site.

• Ideal use case: Small to medium-sized businesses, schools, and offices looking for an easy-to-use, cloud-based solution that covers essential visitor management needs without overwhelming complexity. It's often praised for its affordability.
• Pros: Very intuitive and easy to set up, good value for money, reliable core features, and includes employee sign-in.
• Cons: May lack some of the advanced security integrations or highly specialized customization options needed by large enterprises or high-security facilities.

5. Greetly

Greetly is a customizable virtual receptionist and visitor management system that aims to provide a touchless, efficient, and branded check-in experience. It offers a wide range of customization options for branding and workflows.

• Ideal use case: Offices, co-working spaces, and businesses that want to provide a modern, professional, and unassisted check-in experience. It's popular for its flexibility in branding and visitor types.
• Pros: High customizability for branding and workflows, strong focus on virtual receptionist capabilities, excellent for contactless check-in, supports various visitor types.
• Cons: While strong on user experience, it may not offer the same depth of physical security integration or compliance features as dedicated enterprise-grade physical security platforms.

Feature comparison: what sets these tools apart

How to choose the right visitor management system for your needs

Picking a product off the shelf won’t give you the system you truly need. Instead, you should start with a thorough and strategic evaluation of your needs.

Assess feature requirements

Begin by listing the essential features your business needs, covering features like:

• Robust ID verification
• Digital document signing (e.g., for NDAs)
• Integration with existing access control systems
• Remote accessibility

How you prioritize these will be based on your security and operational goals, as well as any budget constraints.

Consider scalability

How many visitors do you anticipate daily or monthly? Do you have multiple locations or plans for future expansion?

It's crucial to choose a system that can handle your current and projected visitor traffic without performance issues or major overhauls.

Evaluate ease of use

A system should be intuitive for every guest, making their check-in quick and pleasant. Simultaneously, it must be simple for your front-desk and security staff to manage daily operations, reducing training time and fostering high adoption rates.

Integrations with existing tools

Visitor management is most effective when it’s part of a larger ecosystem. Whatever system you choose, it’ll be beneficial if it connects with your building's physical access control, HR, and calendar systems.

Compliance and data privacy

If you’re about to collect personal data from hundreds of people each day, you need to know your legal duties relating to its storage and processing (regional and industry-specific). Your system must support these standards, offering features like secure data encryption, consent gathering, and data retention policies.

Why acre visitor management is a top choice in 2025

Acre Security stands out as a leading visitor management system in 2025 for its seamless, secure, and integrated solution.

What sets acre apart is our unified ecosystem. Instead of just managing visitors in isolation, acre's visitor management platform works together with access control and physical security systems for unrivalled protection. Security becomes streamlined and scalable, whether you have one front desk or dozens of locations to manage. 

An intuitive and professional guest experience, with quick and easy check-ins and tools for screening, notification, and real-time tracking – we can handle it all for you.

Then, it’s also a great financial decision. See the potential savings for yourself by using our visitor management ROI calculator.

Much more than a logbook

Choosing the right visitor management system isn’t only about keeping records; it's about safeguarding, operational efficiency, and creating a great guest experience.

The best systems offer a powerful blend of security features, seamless integrations, and user-friendly design. If you make the right choice, you can transform your front desk from being a bottleneck to a beacon of safety, security, and warm welcomes.

Contact us for a no-obligation chat about your security needs.