The Receptionist for iPad Alternative: 5 Real Options

The Receptionist’s own pricing page now runs under the header “The Receptionist for iPad, now Sign In App,” above three tiers at $630, $1,260, and $1,890 per site per year, according to The Receptionist’s published pricing page. Its homepage puts it plainly: The Receptionist and Sign In App have joined forces.

Most The Receptionist for iPad alternative lists still ranking today were written before that. They rank the two as rivals. They aren’t rivals anymore, and if Sign In App is already on your shortlist, you’ve been comparing one vendor to itself.

So the real question changed. It’s no longer “which of these two,” it’s “does a per-site annual workplace platform match what my front desk actually needs?” Below is what the current price card says, what it means for a renewal, and five products that are still independent. InstaCheckin publishes this and makes one of the five. Every competitor number is linked to the vendor’s own page.

Feature and pricing claims about other vendors are based on publicly available product information as of July 2026. Vendor pricing, packaging, and feature sets change; verify directly with each vendor before purchasing. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. InstaCheckin is not affiliated with any vendor named here.

What the price card actually says

Straight from The Receptionist’s pricing page:

Credit where it’s due: badge printing is in the entry tier, and the same page says you can connect unlimited iPads at a single site. Two entrances in one building costs you one subscription. That’s more generous than most of the field.

Four details matter more than the headline number, and all four come off that same page. Each location with a different zip or postal code needs its own site subscription. Subscriptions auto-renew, with email notice 90 days and again 75 days before the renewal date. Discounts aren’t available unless you’re buying 10 or more sites. And SMS is listed as “contact for bundled price” at Core — unlimited SMS arrives at Enhanced, which is $1,260 per site per year.

That last one catches people. If host notifications by text are the reason you’re buying visitor software at all, the tier you actually need may not be the tier you were quoted.

One oddity worth flagging: the pricing page still routes behavioral health practices to a separate The Receptionist trial signup. If that’s your setting, this comparison isn’t the one you want. InstaCheckin is built for office and workplace receptions, and we don’t pitch it into clinical environments.

The Receptionist for iPad alternatives that stand on their own

1. InstaCheckin — one or two desks, iPad already on the counter

An iPad-first visitor management system licensed per location, with up to five kiosks at that location. Visitors sign in on a branded kiosk, the app captures a photo, prints a badge through a Brother QL label printer, collects an NDA or safety waiver signature inside the sign-in flow, and notifies the host by email and SMS. Both channels, in the base product. The cloud log is searchable by location, host, date range, or visitor name and exports to CSV or PDF. Hosts can pre-register expected visitors so those guests skip data entry at the kiosk. Current rates are on the pricing page.

What it doesn’t do: Android or Windows tablets, ID scanning, Slack or Teams notifications, desk booking, or calendar sync. Narrow on purpose. If you need three of those five, buy a platform instead.

2. Envoy — when the kiosk is one piece of a bigger rollout

Envoy’s Standard visitor plan is $109 per location per month, billed annually, on Envoy’s published pricing page, with badge printing and legal documents included at that tier and a free plan below it. Deepest integration ecosystem in the category and the most-searched brand. It’s the right call when desk booking, rooms, and deliveries are all in scope. Our Envoy alternative post works through the overbuy question in more detail.

3. Greetly — small offices and shared workspaces

Greetly’s plans page lists Essential at $99 and Pro at $159, billed yearly. It runs on iPad and Android, which is the deciding factor if your front desk isn’t standardised on Apple hardware. Co-working operators show up in its customer base more than they do in most of this list.

4. Lobbytrack — the genuinely free tier

Lobbytrack’s published pricing shows a free Starter plan capped at 100 visitors per month, Basic at $50 per location per month, Professional at $100, and an Ultimate tier by quote. Free plans in this category usually strip out badge printing. This one doesn’t. Read the cap honestly though — 100 visitors a month is about five a working day, and a real lobby clears that by mid-month.

5. Verkada Guest — only if you already own the cameras

Verkada’s published ordering guide lists the Workplace license that includes Guest at $3,600 MSRP for one year, with a $1,500 K-12 version. That buys visitor check-in wired directly into cloud cameras and door access. Sensible if Verkada hardware is already on your walls. Expensive if it isn’t, as we covered in the Verkada Guest alternative breakdown.

Side by side

Entry tiers rarely contain everything you need. Compare the tier that holds your must-have features, not the cheapest row.

Decide it with four questions

Skip the 40-row feature matrix. Answer these instead.

1. What hardware runs at the desk? iPad-only products drop off the list the second your standard is Android or Windows. This filter eliminates more options than price does, and it’s the one you can’t renegotiate later.
2. How many zip codes? Per-site annual billing and per-location monthly billing diverge fast past two buildings. Do the multiplication before the demo. The visitor management system cost breakdown has the arithmetic laid out.
3. Will you use the extra modules? Desk booking, time and attendance, ID scanning, evacuation reporting. Two or more in genuine use makes a platform a fair purchase. None in use means you’re funding a roadmap you’ll never open.
4. What’s the actual complaint? In practice it’s three things: the paper logbook looks dated, the last visitor’s name and company are readable by the next one, and someone has to walk down the hall to fetch a host. A sign-in kiosk fixes all three. Nothing else on this page is required to fix them.

Worth knowing before you switch: your renewal notice arrives 90 days out per that same pricing FAQ, so a decision made in the last fortnight of a term is a decision made under pressure. Diary it early.

If NDAs or safety waivers are part of your sign-in flow, note that electronic-record and e-signature law varies by jurisdiction. This post describes product features, not legal advice — verify enforceability of kiosk-signed documents with counsel.

For neighbouring reading: the Sign In App alternative comparison covers the same portfolio from the other brand’s side, the SwipedOn alternative post covers a third product now inside it, and the best visitor management software roundup ranks the wider field. If your rollout involves locking the iPad down properly, start with iPad kiosk mode and the office visitor management system page.

FAQ

Is The Receptionist for iPad the same as Sign In App now?

Effectively, yes. The Receptionist’s homepage states that The Receptionist and Sign In App have joined forces, and its pricing page sits under the header “The Receptionist for iPad, now Sign In App” with the identical $630, $1,260, and $1,890 tiers. The original app and login still work. You’re evaluating one vendor, not two.

How much does The Receptionist for iPad cost?

Core is $630 per site per year, Enhanced $1,260, and Pro $1,890, with an Executive tier by quote, per The Receptionist’s pricing page. Badge printing is included in Core. ID scanning, the pre-visit registration portal, and unlimited SMS start at Enhanced.

Do I need a separate subscription for each office?

If the offices sit in different zip or postal codes, yes. The FAQ on The Receptionist’s pricing page says each location with a different postcode requires its own site subscription, while additional iPads at a single site cost nothing extra. Two entrances in one building is one subscription. Two buildings is two.

What’s the cheapest The Receptionist for iPad alternative?

Lobbytrack’s free Starter plan, capped at 100 visitors a month per Lobbytrack’s published pricing, then Basic at $50 per location per month on that same page. That ceiling is roughly five visitors per working day, so check your actual lobby volume before treating free as your budget.

Will I lose my visitor history if I switch?

Not if you export first. Most visitor management systems let you download the visit log as CSV and bulk-import an employee directory from Excel. NDAs and custom agreement documents almost always need re-uploading by hand. Run the old and new systems in parallel for a week rather than cutting over cold.

Run one at your own desk this week

Vendor comparisons end fastest when a real visitor signs in on a real iPad. Start a free trial, pair the iPad app, and have branded sign-in, photo capture, badge printing, NDA capture, and email plus SMS host notifications working before your next guest arrives. If it turns out you needed ID scanning and desk booking after all, you’ll know that from a week of use instead of guessing from a pricing table.