Are Salto and Kisi both NDAA Section 889 compliant?

Yes. Salto is Spanish (headquartered in Oiartzun, Spain) and not on the FCC Covered List. Kisi is US-headquartered in New York, NY. Both are approved for US federal-touching deployments. Section 889 specifically targets named Chinese vendors (Hikvision, Dahua, Hytera, Huawei, ZTE), not these two.

Can I run Salto and Kisi at the same building?

Yes, and this mixed-architecture pattern is common: Kisi at primary entries (storefront, parking, main office doors) where wire exists or is being run, plus Salto at interior doors (executive suites, conference rooms, multi-tenant residences) where wireless retrofit is the practical option. The tradeoff is two admin platforms, which many operators accept for the architectural fit on each door type.

Are Salto wireless locks reliable on battery power?

Yes, with normal maintenance. Salto wireless locks run on standard AA batteries with typical 2-year life. The Salto KS dashboard surfaces battery status so operations can swap proactively. The tradeoff is battery management overhead versus the cost of pulling wire to interior doors.

Which has better mobile credential UX?

Kisi tends to lead at primary entries. Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, mobile pass via the Kisi app, and BLE unlock are mature and well-deployed. Salto KS Mobile is solid and improving, with Apple Wallet support expanding. Where mobile UX at primary entries is the primary procurement criterion, Kisi has the edge today.

Is Salto cheaper than Kisi over 5 years?

Depends on door type and building condition. For interior-door-heavy retrofits where wire-pull cost is significant, Salto usually wins on 5-year TCO because install labor savings exceed the higher per-lock hardware cost. For new construction or wired primary entries, Kisi usually wins because hardware is cheaper and wire is going in anyway. Model both quotes against your specific door inventory and building condition.

What if I am not sure which fits my building?

Book the free consultation. Walk through your door inventory (interior vs primary entry), building condition (retrofit vs new construction), population, and identity provider stack. You leave with a written read on whether Salto, Kisi, or a mixed-architecture deployment fits, plus a 5-year cost bracket for each path. Tec-Tel installs both. Call 855-577-0400 or book online.

Compare · Cloud access control

Salto vs Kisi.

Wireless battery-powered locks against cloud-managed wired access. Both are NDAA compliant, and they rarely compete for the same door. The right pick depends on your door inventory and the condition of the building.

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NDAA-compliant
Platform-agnostic
1,000+ deployments over 15 years

Pick Salto when you need access control across interior doors in an existing building without pulling wire to every door (wireless battery-powered electronic locks plus the KS or Space cloud platform). Pick Kisi when you want a mobile-first cloud access platform for wired primary entries with strong identity provider integration and a modern admin experience. Both are cloud-managed and both are commonly deployed together in mixed-architecture buildings.

§01 At a glance

The head-to-head that matters.

Find the row that matches your biggest constraint. Capability claims are sourced to each vendor's published product documentation.

Criterion	Salto	Kisi
Lock architecture	Wireless battery-powered electronic locks. Salto XS4, Neo, and XS4 Mini fit standard door prep without running new wire. Power and credential happen at the lock itself.	Wired electrified locks plus a cloud-managed controller. Kisi Reader Pro and Kisi Controller manage strikes, mags, and electrified panic devices via standard wired infrastructure.
Best fit by door type	Interior doors in existing buildings. Office suites, hotel guest rooms, university dorm rooms, multi-tenant resident doors. Anywhere pulling wire is cost-prohibitive or impossible.	Primary entries, glass storefront doors, parking gates, and wired commercial access points. Anywhere wire is already in place or being run for a new build.
Cloud platform	Salto KS (cloud-managed) or Salto Space (on-prem with cloud option). KS is mobile-first and modern. Space targets larger enterprise deployments with deeper admin features.	Kisi cloud platform only. No on-prem option. Modern web and mobile admin. Designed for cloud-native operations.
Mobile credentials	Bluetooth and NFC-based mobile credentials via the Salto KS Mobile app. Apple Wallet support has been expanding. Standard physical cards, fobs, and PIN also supported.	Strong mobile credential experience. Apple Wallet and Google Wallet support, mobile pass via Kisi app, NFC and BLE-based unlock. Designed mobile-first from the start.
NDAA Section 889	Compliant. Salto is Spanish, headquartered in Oiartzun. Section 889 covers specific Chinese telecommunications vendors. Salto is not on the FCC Covered List.	Compliant. Kisi is US-headquartered in New York, NY.
Identity provider integration	Salto KS integrates with major IdPs (Okta, Azure AD) via SCIM. Space has broader enterprise IdP options. Mature SSO and provisioning story.	Mature integration with Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and other IdPs. SCIM-based provisioning. SSO via SAML. Designed for IT-led identity practices.
Pricing model	Hardware-heavy on the door side (each lock is a complete piece of hardware) plus per-door cloud subscription for KS. Wireless lock unit costs more than a wired electrified strike but saves the wire-pull labor.	Wired hardware (reader, controller, electrified lock) plus per-door cloud subscription. Hardware cost is lower per door than wireless locks, but install labor is higher because of wire-pull.
Typical deployment shape	20 to 500 doors in an existing building or campus, dominated by interior doors that are hard to wire. Hotels, dorms, multi-tenant office, executive suites.	5 to 100 doors per site at primary entries and commercial access points. SMB office, mixed-use buildings, retail, and any deployment where wired infrastructure exists.

§02 Where Salto wins

Pick Salto when these matter most.

Existing buildings with many interior doors

Salto's wireless battery-powered locks are the only practical answer for interior doors in existing buildings where pulling wire to every door is cost-prohibitive or physically impossible. Wired access cannot reach those doors economically.

Hotel, dorm, and multi-tenant deployments

Salto's hospitality lineup is one of the most-deployed in the category, purpose-built for check-in, key card issuance, and expiration across guest rooms, suites, and back-of-house. The same wireless architecture solves the door-density problem in student housing and reaches every resident unit door in mixed-use buildings without per-unit wire. Kisi is not designed for these verticals.

Retrofit without IT-led wire pull

When adding access control to an existing building and the budget cannot absorb running wire to dozens of interior doors, Salto's wireless architecture eliminates the wire-pull line. Hardware costs more per door, but install labor is dramatically lower, so 5-year TCO usually favors Salto for retrofit.

Mixed-architecture sites

Many buildings need wired access at primary entries and wireless at interior doors. Salto supports both through KS or Space: wireless interior locks plus wired controllers for primary entries, deployed on one platform across the whole building.

§02 Where Kisi wins

Pick Kisi when these matter most.

Wired primary entries with modern admin UX

Kisi is at its best at primary entries, glass storefront doors, and parking gates where wired electrified locks already exist or are being run. The admin experience is one of the cleanest in the category, designed for IT-led shops.

Mobile-first by design

Kisi was built mobile-first from day one. Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, BLE unlock, and the Kisi app are tuned for end-user simplicity. Where mobile UX at primary entries is the primary criterion, Kisi tends to lead.

Strong identity provider integration

Mature integration with Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and other major IdPs via SCIM and SAML. For organizations with strong IT identity practices, Kisi cuts manual admin overhead substantially.

SMB office fit and cloud-native operations

Kisi's natural buyer is the SMB or mid-market office with 5 to 50 doors, IT-led, on a cloud-native footing. It's also the right architecture for greenfield builds where wire is going in anyway and doors need wired electrified locks (mag locks, electrified panic devices). No on-prem controllers required.

§03 Architecture

Wireless retrofit vs cloud-managed wired access.

Salto and Kisi rarely compete for the same doors. Salto's strength is wireless battery-powered locks for doors that cannot economically be wired: hotels, dorms, executive suites, multi-tenant resident doors. Hardware costs more per door, but install labor is dramatically lower because no wire runs to the lock.

Kisi's strength is cloud-managed wired access at primary entries and commercial access points: storefront doors, parking gates, primary office entries. Hardware costs less per door, but install labor is higher because wire is part of the install. Kisi pairs that with one of the cleanest mobile credential experiences in the category and mature IdP integration. Many buildings benefit from both, and Tec-Tel frequently deploys Kisi at primary entries plus Salto at interior doors in office and hospitality buildings.

→ Salto: wireless battery-powered locks for retrofit and interior doors. Strong hospitality and dorm vertical fit.
→ Kisi: cloud-managed wired access at primary entries. Strong mobile credential UX and IdP integration.
→ Mixed-architecture pattern: Kisi at primary entries plus Salto at interior doors is common in office and hospitality.

§04 Pricing reality

Hardware cost and install labor offset each other.

Salto wireless locks cost more per door than a wired electrified strike or mag lock plus reader. A Salto XS4 Neo lock is a complete electronic lockset; a Kisi controller plus reader plus electrified hardware is a multi-component install. On hardware alone, Kisi typically wins by a meaningful margin per door at primary entries.

Install labor flips the math. Pulling wire to interior doors in an existing building can cost more than the lock itself, especially in finished spaces (ceiling tiles to remove, drywall to patch, conduit to run). Salto eliminates that line for wireless doors. So the all-in 5-year TCO depends on door type and building condition: retrofit-heavy interior-door deployments usually favor Salto, new construction or wired primary entries usually favor Kisi. Get both quotes for your specific door inventory and condition.

→ Salto: higher hardware cost per door, lower install labor on retrofit.
→ Kisi: lower hardware cost per door, higher install labor for wire pull.
→ 5-year TCO depends on door type and building condition more than per-door subscription rates.
→ Mixed-architecture deployments are common because each platform wins on different door types.

Questions buyers ask us

FAQ

Are Salto and Kisi both NDAA Section 889 compliant?: Yes. Salto is Spanish (headquartered in Oiartzun, Spain) and not on the FCC Covered List. Kisi is US-headquartered in New York, NY. Both are approved for US federal-touching deployments. Section 889 specifically targets named Chinese vendors (Hikvision, Dahua, Hytera, Huawei, ZTE), not these two.
Can I run Salto and Kisi at the same building?: Yes, and this mixed-architecture pattern is common: Kisi at primary entries (storefront, parking, main office doors) where wire exists or is being run, plus Salto at interior doors (executive suites, conference rooms, multi-tenant residences) where wireless retrofit is the practical option. The tradeoff is two admin platforms, which many operators accept for the architectural fit on each door type.
Are Salto wireless locks reliable on battery power?: Yes, with normal maintenance. Salto wireless locks run on standard AA batteries with typical 2-year life. The Salto KS dashboard surfaces battery status so operations can swap proactively. The tradeoff is battery management overhead versus the cost of pulling wire to interior doors.
Which has better mobile credential UX?: Kisi tends to lead at primary entries. Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, mobile pass via the Kisi app, and BLE unlock are mature and well-deployed. Salto KS Mobile is solid and improving, with Apple Wallet support expanding. Where mobile UX at primary entries is the primary procurement criterion, Kisi has the edge today.
Is Salto cheaper than Kisi over 5 years?: Depends on door type and building condition. For interior-door-heavy retrofits where wire-pull cost is significant, Salto usually wins on 5-year TCO because install labor savings exceed the higher per-lock hardware cost. For new construction or wired primary entries, Kisi usually wins because hardware is cheaper and wire is going in anyway. Model both quotes against your specific door inventory and building condition.
What if I am not sure which fits my building?: Book the free consultation. Walk through your door inventory (interior vs primary entry), building condition (retrofit vs new construction), population, and identity provider stack. You leave with a written read on whether Salto, Kisi, or a mixed-architecture deployment fits, plus a 5-year cost bracket for each path. Tec-Tel installs both. Call 855-577-0400 or book online.

Get a straight comparison

One call picks the right access architecture for your building.

Tec-Tel installs both Salto and Kisi, often together: Kisi at primary entries, Salto at interior doors. Bring your door inventory and the condition of the building. We'll walk the mixed-architecture options and the five-year costs. Call 855-577-0400 or book online.

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