dormakaba: Features, Pricing, Integrations & AI Visibility

dormakaba makes RFID and mobile locks for multihousing and sells Community, its access-management software, to run them. The Saflok and Ilco names belong to the same company. It is a lock maker with a platform, the same shape as Salto and Zentra in our multifamily access control guide, and the research notes place it in market-rate, student, military, and senior housing. The facts panel below is rendered from our vendor database with a source URL and verification date on each entry.

Who it fits and who it does not

dormakaba lists institutional multifamily and student housing. The buyer is an operator specifying locks for a new build or a full replacement across a community, who wants the lock and the software from one maker and expects to keep the hardware for a decade. Student housing fits for the turnover reason, a card-based system that reissues every August. The institutional multifamily page covers the first buyer and the student housing page the second.

It does not list small multifamily, single-family rental, or commercial facilities. An owner with a quadplex is a RemoteLock conversation. An operator whose problem is the lobby intercom or the vehicle gate needs a second vendor for that door.

Pricing

Pricing is not published. Ask for the per-door lock figure by model, the Community software figure per unit or per site, and the minimum. Ask what a replacement RFID card costs and whether mobile credentials carry a per-resident fee. Ask whether the contract is month-to-month or annual and whether the locks keep running on their last schedule if the software lapses.

Integrations

The database records no PMS integrations for dormakaba. The research notes record its PMS connectivity as web services only, with no named platform. Ask what that means in practice: whether an integrator or your own IT team builds the connection, what it exposes, whether anyone has built it against Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, AppFolio, Rent Manager, ResMan, Buildium, or MRI, and who maintains it when either side updates. Ask what syncs, in which direction, and whether it is real time or scheduled. If the answer is that the site team keys residents into Community by hand, ask how long that takes at turn. The Yardi integrations page shows which vendors in the category connect to Yardi directly.

Limitations and questions to ask

Ask about the card. RFID is the credential, so ask what a lost card costs, whether a lost one can be killed from the office, and how the mobile credential works for a resident who wants a phone instead. Ask how a resident without a smartphone gets in. A card answers it, and Washington’s ESSB 5937 requires a non-app key on request from January 2027 either way.

Ask about batteries, the top operational complaint in the category, and the expected life on the lock models quoted. Ask how the locks talk to Community, whether they need a network at the door or update when a card touches the reader, and what still works during an outage. Ask who owns setup and support, dormakaba or an integrator, and what the lead time is on a replacement lock.

Ask for a reference at your building type. The research notes list four segments for this vendor, and a senior-housing reference tells you little about a 1,200-bed student property in August.

Alternatives

Salto is the closest like-for-like, an enterprise lock maker with its own software and the same student-housing listing. Zentra is Allegion’s software for Schlage locks with wallet keys. DOOR is the proprietary lock-plus-software platform, and the DOOR alternatives page places dormakaba among the full category. SmartRent is the hub platform for an operator who wants unit locks, thermostats, and tours on one contract.

AI visibility

The 2026-09 export of the AI Shortlist Index records zero runs for multifamily access control, so dormakaba’s row has no mention rate, position score, or consistency figure yet. The live summary above and dormakaba’s row in the Index fill in with the first full edition. What shapes that result is on our page on AI visibility for proptech companies.