RedAlert vs Emergency Networking: Built for Fire, Not Bolted On
A side-by-side look at a fire records platform built over thirty years, and a reporting platform that became one piece of a larger public safety suite.
- Fire is the whole business. Alpine has built fire department software since 1994. Emergency Networking was founded in 2017 and acquired by Tyler Technologies in July 2025, and its team is now part of Tyler's Public Safety Division.
- Built around your department. Add custom fields, custom forms, and custom workflows to any record in the system, and every field flows straight into your reporting. When you need something more involved, like a custom report, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you.
- Alerting, mapping, and the rig, with any CAD. With the Responder App, members get alerted, respond, and report on the call without leaving RedAlert, crews plot hydrants and draw incident perimeters from their own phones, and RedAlert MDT puts your preplans on the apparatus tablet. All of it works with whatever CAD your dispatch center runs. Tyler presents its Crew Mobile tools alongside its own Enterprise CAD.
- Attendance you can actually defend. The RedAlert Kiosk is station-mounted biometric check-in with call-triggered time windows, built for LOSAP, stipend, and pay-per-call programs.
- White-glove onboarding. A dedicated, Rochester-based project lead manages your rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team until you are live.
- Support from Rochester, New York. Real people you can call and email, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.
Choose RedAlert if...
- You are a fire department first, and want software built that way from the ground up
- You want custom fields, forms, and workflows built around how your department actually operates
- You want alerting, en-route mapping, the apparatus tablet, and records from one platform
- You need verifiable attendance for a LOSAP, pay-per-call, stipend, or points program
- You want crews plotting hydrants and updating preplans in the Responder App
- You want a dedicated project lead who migrates your data, configures your system, and meets with your team weekly until you are live
- You want to call a U.S.-based support team and reach someone who knows your system
Consider Emergency Networking if...
- You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records
- Your agency already runs Tyler Technologies for dispatch or law enforcement records and wants one public safety vendor
- Your state provides Emergency Networking for NERIS reporting, and filing reports is all you need the software to do
NERIS Compliant
Listed on FSRI's own integration partners page.
Since 1994
Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders.
Onshore Support
Rochester, NY. Same building as engineering.
Configured to You
Custom fields, forms, and reports on any record.
Side by Side Comparison
Built Around Your Department
| Category | RedAlert | Emergency Networking | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Fields & Workflows | Table-driven SQL architecture. Departments add dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system (incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance) and set up workflows around how they operate, with Alpine's team building anything more involved. | Publicly markets a forms data collection tool that lets users build their own workflows and validations, and add or remove data collection fields. | If your department tracks it, it can be a field, on any record in the system. Your team adjusts fields and forms as your needs change, and Alpine's team in Rochester builds the bigger pieces with you. |
| Custom Forms | The forms your members fill out are built to your department: truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, personnel records, and more, with your own fields. | Publicly markets a forms tool for building department-specific data collection. | Your members fill out forms your department designed, not a generic template, and every field they complete is available for reporting. |
| Reporting & Analytics | Hundreds of built-in reports across every module, plus custom reports built by Alpine's engineering team. Every custom field and form feeds reporting, which is how custom payroll, ISO, OSHA, and point-program reports get built. | Publicly markets advanced analytics. | When the report you need does not exist, Alpine's engineering team builds it. Thirty years of department requests are why most of what you need is already there. |
Operations
| Category | RedAlert | Emergency Networking | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incident Reporting & NERIS | NERIS Compliant. Incident templates, one-click narrative generation, custom plus-one codes, and a validator that catches errors before submission. Reports can be started from the apparatus tablet, a phone, or a desk. | Tyler's acquisition announcement describes Emergency Networking as one of the first fire records reporting solutions to meet and submit to NERIS requirements. | NERIS compliance is the baseline. RedAlert reports start before anyone sits down: from the rig on scene, from a phone, or at a desk, with templates for the calls you run every week and a narrative that generates in one click. |
| Pre-Incident Planning & Mapping | Preplans, properties, hazmat, dispatch warnings, site plans, and contacts can be created and edited in the Responder App on a phone or tablet, as well as in Desktop. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest onto the map from the field, with day, night, and satellite views and custom layers per user. Parent and child property relationships for malls, campuses, and complex sites. | Publicly lists inspections and hydrants among its modules. Tyler's broader Fire & EMS suite markets routing, advanced mapping, and automatic vehicle location within its dispatch and response tools. | The crew walking the building updates the preplan in the Responder App while standing in it, and that same record reaches every responder through RedAlert's own apps. |
| Field Mapping & Incident Shapes | Members draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map in the Responder App: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to a NERIS incident, styled by color and opacity, and set to expire at a date and time. Responding units and responding personnel appear on the same map. | Tyler markets Esri-powered mapping within its Dispatch and Response tools. Drawing incident shapes from a member's phone does not appear in its public materials. | Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and every member looking at the map sees it. Shapes expire on their own, so last week's closure is not cluttering this week's map. |
| Hydrants & Water Supply | Crews view, plot, inspect, and flow test hydrants in the Responder App on a phone or tablet. Enter the full three-outlet flow test and a one-tap calculation returns available flow at 0, 10, and 20 psi, then writes the results back to the hydrant record, including its NFPA class. Out-of-service hydrants show darkened on the responder's map, and primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrants attach to each preplan. Import from CSV, GIS, and shapefiles. | Publicly lists hydrants among its modules. | The flow test happens at the hydrant, on a phone, and the math is done for you. An out-of-service hydrant goes dark on the responder's map automatically, and every preplan that depended on it is flagged. |
| Fire Prevention & Inspections | iPad inspections with your own occupancy types, permit types, and violation code sets. Permits generated from inspections with automatic renewal letters. Investigations case management with court-ready reports. | Publicly lists inspections among its modules. | Inspection findings reach responding crews through RedAlert's own Responder App and MDT, so a hazard written up on Tuesday is on screen at the next call to that address. |
| Training & Certifications | Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk. | Publicly lists training among its modules. | Drill attendance comes from verified check-in instead of a sign-in sheet, and training hours feed your point or stipend program automatically. |
| Assets, Inventory & Maintenance | Four record types with their own fields: general inventory, SCBA testing, hose testing, and apparatus. Location tracking down to the compartment and shelf. QR and barcode scanning from any phone or tablet. Work orders with parts, labor, and vendor cost. | Publicly lists inventory among its modules. | Truck checks happen in the bay by scanning a QR code with any phone. A failed check opens a work order that tracks the part, the labor, and the vendor cost through to completion. |
| Attendance, LOSAP & Award Programs | The RedAlert Kiosk: station-mounted biometric check-in by fingerprint, key fob, or ID card, with photo verification and CAD-triggered time windows that lock automatically. Point, stipend, and pay-per-call programs configured to your plan document. Attendance can also be recorded in Desktop or Mobile without the Kiosk. | Tyler's public safety materials list LOSAP tracking and reporting among its fire capabilities. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in its public materials. | Tracking points and verifying attendance are different things. RedAlert's Kiosk requires the member's own fingerprint or credential, at the station, inside a window the call defined, with a photo. If your program distributes public money, that is the record that holds up. |
Personnel and Scheduling
| Category | RedAlert | Emergency Networking | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel & Roster | One member record driving alerting, station check-in, app access, training, certifications, and response history. Permissions configured to your command structure down to the field level. | Public materials describe a platform that shares data across its modules, including exposures tracking. | Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, check-ins, app access, and training file, with no separate roster to keep in sync with another app. |
| Scheduling | Any repeating rotation, time codes and accrual banks built to your definitions, custom payroll reports formatted for your payroll system, and duty crew shifts measured against actual Kiosk clock-in. | Tyler's public safety materials list activity reporting and scheduling among its fire capabilities. | Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, built around your own time codes, and volunteer duty shifts are measured against when members actually walked in. |
| Mobile Access | Native applications: RedAlert Mobile for field work, RedAlert Responder for alerting, and RedAlert MDT for the apparatus tablet. The full Desktop map runs in the Responder App, so members plot and edit properties, hydrants, points of interest, and incident shapes from their own phones. iOS and Android. | The Tyler Fire & EMS app, formerly Emergency Networking, publicly offers mobile inspections, prevention, property information, and incident response support. | RedAlert's apps cover the whole call, alerting and en-route response included, and connect to whatever CAD your dispatch center runs. |
Technology and Integrations
| Category | RedAlert | Emergency Networking | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAD Interface | One interface that pre-fills the incident report with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments, and simultaneously feeds the alerting app, the apparatus tablet, the station display, and the Kiosk attendance window. Available as a module. | Tyler markets its own Enterprise CAD dispatch system, with its Crew Mobile tools presented alongside it. | RedAlert connects to whatever CAD your dispatch center already runs. One dispatch feed fills in the report, drives the Responder App, the MDT, and the Station Board, and opens the Kiosk for attendance on that exact call. |
| Alerting & Response | RedAlert Responder: dispatch alerts to every member's phone, one-tap response status, GPS routing, and your own mapping. Responding units and personnel appear on the map with each member's photo and status. Includes Retone, letting a member on scene upgrade a call to a working fire or stand the department down. | Tyler markets the Crew Mobile App, with real-time alerts and secure messaging, within its Dispatch and Response tools alongside Tyler Enterprise CAD. | With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert, with whatever CAD your dispatch center runs: get alerted, respond, and report on the call. Retone lets the first member on scene upgrade an automatic alarm or stand the department down, and push it to everyone still en route. |
| En-Route Data (MDT) | RedAlert MDT: the live CAD feed, your hydrants and FDCs, and full preplans with hazards and utility shut-offs on every apparatus tablet. Crews can start the NERIS report from the same screen while still on scene. | Tyler markets Crew Mobile for fire crews, with pre-incident plans, Esri mapping, and automatic vehicle location, within its Dispatch and Response tools alongside Tyler Enterprise CAD. | RedAlert MDT takes the live feed from whatever CAD your dispatch center runs and puts your preplans and hydrants on the apparatus tablet, from the same platform that holds your records. |
| Station Displays | RedAlert Station Board turns any TV into a live command board during a call, and shows duty crew, out-of-service rigs, tasks due, and top responders between calls. | No station display product appears in Emergency Networking's public materials. | Between calls, the firehouse screen shows duty crew, out-of-service apparatus, tasks due, and top responders year to date, so it earns its place on the wall all day. |
Buyer Experience
| Category | RedAlert | Emergency Networking | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Focus | Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders. | Founded in 2017 and serving more than 500 clients, Emergency Networking was acquired by Tyler Technologies in July 2025. Tyler's announcement says its staff joined Tyler's Public Safety Division and describes Tyler's suite as spanning law enforcement to first responders to EMS agencies. | For Alpine, fire is the whole business, not one division of a public safety suite. The depth shows in the parts nobody demos: point program rules, ISO-ready flow tests, and what happens when a truck check fails. |
| Pricing Model | Priced per module. Departments buy the modules they will use and skip the ones they will not. Quotes provided directly. | Offered as part of Tyler Technologies' public safety portfolio, with modules spanning fire records, ePCR, inspections, and community paramedicine. | A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the fire modules it uses and skips the rest. |
| Contract Terms | Annual contracts. | Contract terms are not published publicly. | RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with Tyler, request the initial term, renewal terms, and any annual escalator in writing. |
| Procurement Path | Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency requires one. Most departments buy directly. | Available through Tyler Technologies, including statewide arrangements such as the Delaware NERIS transition agreement Tyler announced. | Buy directly, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency's process requires one. |
| Implementation & Onboarding | 90 to 120 days typical, with a dedicated, Rochester-based project lead who manages the rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team through go-live. | Implementation details are not published publicly. | One person in Rochester owns your rollout from kickoff to go-live, meets with your team every week, and brings your data over complete, including NFIRS history. White-glove from start to finish. |
| Best Fit Agency Size | Any size, with particular depth for volunteer and combination departments. | Tyler's announcement describes clients including fire and EMS agencies, ambulance and transport agencies, and state fire marshals and commissioners. | Volunteer and combination departments are where RedAlert specializes: attendance programs, duty crews, and departments running without dedicated administrative staff. |
| Support Experience | U.S.-based support team in Rochester, New York. Phone and email, real people, in the same building as the engineers who build the software. | A Pennsylvania state FAQ describes support through email and an in-app ticketing system. Emergency Networking's staff are now part of Tyler's Public Safety Division. | Call Alpine and you reach Rochester, New York: real people, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software. |
Built Around Your Department
Custom Fields & Workflows
RedAlert
Table-driven SQL architecture. Departments add dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system (incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance) and set up workflows around how they operate, with Alpine's team building anything more involved.
Emergency Networking
Publicly markets a forms data collection tool that lets users build their own workflows and validations, and add or remove data collection fields.
What This Means
If your department tracks it, it can be a field, on any record in the system. Your team adjusts fields and forms as your needs change, and Alpine's team in Rochester builds the bigger pieces with you.
Custom Forms
RedAlert
The forms your members fill out are built to your department: truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, personnel records, and more, with your own fields.
Emergency Networking
Publicly markets a forms tool for building department-specific data collection.
What This Means
Your members fill out forms your department designed, not a generic template, and every field they complete is available for reporting.
Reporting & Analytics
RedAlert
Hundreds of built-in reports across every module, plus custom reports built by Alpine's engineering team. Every custom field and form feeds reporting, which is how custom payroll, ISO, OSHA, and point-program reports get built.
Emergency Networking
Publicly markets advanced analytics.
What This Means
When the report you need does not exist, Alpine's engineering team builds it. Thirty years of department requests are why most of what you need is already there.
Operations
Incident Reporting & NERIS
RedAlert
NERIS Compliant. Incident templates, one-click narrative generation, custom plus-one codes, and a validator that catches errors before submission. Reports can be started from the apparatus tablet, a phone, or a desk.
Emergency Networking
Tyler's acquisition announcement describes Emergency Networking as one of the first fire records reporting solutions to meet and submit to NERIS requirements.
What This Means
NERIS compliance is the baseline. RedAlert reports start before anyone sits down: from the rig on scene, from a phone, or at a desk, with templates for the calls you run every week and a narrative that generates in one click.
Pre-Incident Planning & Mapping
RedAlert
Preplans, properties, hazmat, dispatch warnings, site plans, and contacts can be created and edited in the Responder App on a phone or tablet, as well as in Desktop. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest onto the map from the field, with day, night, and satellite views and custom layers per user. Parent and child property relationships for malls, campuses, and complex sites.
Emergency Networking
Publicly lists inspections and hydrants among its modules. Tyler's broader Fire & EMS suite markets routing, advanced mapping, and automatic vehicle location within its dispatch and response tools.
What This Means
The crew walking the building updates the preplan in the Responder App while standing in it, and that same record reaches every responder through RedAlert's own apps.
Field Mapping & Incident Shapes
RedAlert
Members draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map in the Responder App: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to a NERIS incident, styled by color and opacity, and set to expire at a date and time. Responding units and responding personnel appear on the same map.
Emergency Networking
Tyler markets Esri-powered mapping within its Dispatch and Response tools. Drawing incident shapes from a member's phone does not appear in its public materials.
What This Means
Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and every member looking at the map sees it. Shapes expire on their own, so last week's closure is not cluttering this week's map.
Hydrants & Water Supply
RedAlert
Crews view, plot, inspect, and flow test hydrants in the Responder App on a phone or tablet. Enter the full three-outlet flow test and a one-tap calculation returns available flow at 0, 10, and 20 psi, then writes the results back to the hydrant record, including its NFPA class. Out-of-service hydrants show darkened on the responder's map, and primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrants attach to each preplan. Import from CSV, GIS, and shapefiles.
Emergency Networking
Publicly lists hydrants among its modules.
What This Means
The flow test happens at the hydrant, on a phone, and the math is done for you. An out-of-service hydrant goes dark on the responder's map automatically, and every preplan that depended on it is flagged.
Fire Prevention & Inspections
RedAlert
iPad inspections with your own occupancy types, permit types, and violation code sets. Permits generated from inspections with automatic renewal letters. Investigations case management with court-ready reports.
Emergency Networking
Publicly lists inspections among its modules.
What This Means
Inspection findings reach responding crews through RedAlert's own Responder App and MDT, so a hazard written up on Tuesday is on screen at the next call to that address.
Training & Certifications
RedAlert
Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk.
Emergency Networking
Publicly lists training among its modules.
What This Means
Drill attendance comes from verified check-in instead of a sign-in sheet, and training hours feed your point or stipend program automatically.
Assets, Inventory & Maintenance
RedAlert
Four record types with their own fields: general inventory, SCBA testing, hose testing, and apparatus. Location tracking down to the compartment and shelf. QR and barcode scanning from any phone or tablet. Work orders with parts, labor, and vendor cost.
Emergency Networking
Publicly lists inventory among its modules.
What This Means
Truck checks happen in the bay by scanning a QR code with any phone. A failed check opens a work order that tracks the part, the labor, and the vendor cost through to completion.
Attendance, LOSAP & Award Programs
RedAlert
The RedAlert Kiosk: station-mounted biometric check-in by fingerprint, key fob, or ID card, with photo verification and CAD-triggered time windows that lock automatically. Point, stipend, and pay-per-call programs configured to your plan document. Attendance can also be recorded in Desktop or Mobile without the Kiosk.
Emergency Networking
Tyler's public safety materials list LOSAP tracking and reporting among its fire capabilities. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in its public materials.
What This Means
Tracking points and verifying attendance are different things. RedAlert's Kiosk requires the member's own fingerprint or credential, at the station, inside a window the call defined, with a photo. If your program distributes public money, that is the record that holds up.
Personnel and Scheduling
Personnel & Roster
RedAlert
One member record driving alerting, station check-in, app access, training, certifications, and response history. Permissions configured to your command structure down to the field level.
Emergency Networking
Public materials describe a platform that shares data across its modules, including exposures tracking.
What This Means
Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, check-ins, app access, and training file, with no separate roster to keep in sync with another app.
Scheduling
RedAlert
Any repeating rotation, time codes and accrual banks built to your definitions, custom payroll reports formatted for your payroll system, and duty crew shifts measured against actual Kiosk clock-in.
Emergency Networking
Tyler's public safety materials list activity reporting and scheduling among its fire capabilities.
What This Means
Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, built around your own time codes, and volunteer duty shifts are measured against when members actually walked in.
Mobile Access
RedAlert
Native applications: RedAlert Mobile for field work, RedAlert Responder for alerting, and RedAlert MDT for the apparatus tablet. The full Desktop map runs in the Responder App, so members plot and edit properties, hydrants, points of interest, and incident shapes from their own phones. iOS and Android.
Emergency Networking
The Tyler Fire & EMS app, formerly Emergency Networking, publicly offers mobile inspections, prevention, property information, and incident response support.
What This Means
RedAlert's apps cover the whole call, alerting and en-route response included, and connect to whatever CAD your dispatch center runs.
Technology and Integrations
CAD Interface
RedAlert
One interface that pre-fills the incident report with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments, and simultaneously feeds the alerting app, the apparatus tablet, the station display, and the Kiosk attendance window. Available as a module.
Emergency Networking
Tyler markets its own Enterprise CAD dispatch system, with its Crew Mobile tools presented alongside it.
What This Means
RedAlert connects to whatever CAD your dispatch center already runs. One dispatch feed fills in the report, drives the Responder App, the MDT, and the Station Board, and opens the Kiosk for attendance on that exact call.
Alerting & Response
RedAlert
RedAlert Responder: dispatch alerts to every member's phone, one-tap response status, GPS routing, and your own mapping. Responding units and personnel appear on the map with each member's photo and status. Includes Retone, letting a member on scene upgrade a call to a working fire or stand the department down.
Emergency Networking
Tyler markets the Crew Mobile App, with real-time alerts and secure messaging, within its Dispatch and Response tools alongside Tyler Enterprise CAD.
What This Means
With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert, with whatever CAD your dispatch center runs: get alerted, respond, and report on the call. Retone lets the first member on scene upgrade an automatic alarm or stand the department down, and push it to everyone still en route.
En-Route Data (MDT)
RedAlert
RedAlert MDT: the live CAD feed, your hydrants and FDCs, and full preplans with hazards and utility shut-offs on every apparatus tablet. Crews can start the NERIS report from the same screen while still on scene.
Emergency Networking
Tyler markets Crew Mobile for fire crews, with pre-incident plans, Esri mapping, and automatic vehicle location, within its Dispatch and Response tools alongside Tyler Enterprise CAD.
What This Means
RedAlert MDT takes the live feed from whatever CAD your dispatch center runs and puts your preplans and hydrants on the apparatus tablet, from the same platform that holds your records.
Station Displays
RedAlert
RedAlert Station Board turns any TV into a live command board during a call, and shows duty crew, out-of-service rigs, tasks due, and top responders between calls.
Emergency Networking
No station display product appears in Emergency Networking's public materials.
What This Means
Between calls, the firehouse screen shows duty crew, out-of-service apparatus, tasks due, and top responders year to date, so it earns its place on the wall all day.
Buyer Experience
Fire Focus
RedAlert
Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders.
Emergency Networking
Founded in 2017 and serving more than 500 clients, Emergency Networking was acquired by Tyler Technologies in July 2025. Tyler's announcement says its staff joined Tyler's Public Safety Division and describes Tyler's suite as spanning law enforcement to first responders to EMS agencies.
What This Means
For Alpine, fire is the whole business, not one division of a public safety suite. The depth shows in the parts nobody demos: point program rules, ISO-ready flow tests, and what happens when a truck check fails.
Pricing Model
RedAlert
Priced per module. Departments buy the modules they will use and skip the ones they will not. Quotes provided directly.
Emergency Networking
Offered as part of Tyler Technologies' public safety portfolio, with modules spanning fire records, ePCR, inspections, and community paramedicine.
What This Means
A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the fire modules it uses and skips the rest.
Contract Terms
RedAlert
Annual contracts.
Emergency Networking
Contract terms are not published publicly.
What This Means
RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with Tyler, request the initial term, renewal terms, and any annual escalator in writing.
Procurement Path
RedAlert
Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency requires one. Most departments buy directly.
Emergency Networking
Available through Tyler Technologies, including statewide arrangements such as the Delaware NERIS transition agreement Tyler announced.
What This Means
Buy directly, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency's process requires one.
Implementation & Onboarding
RedAlert
90 to 120 days typical, with a dedicated, Rochester-based project lead who manages the rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team through go-live.
Emergency Networking
Implementation details are not published publicly.
What This Means
One person in Rochester owns your rollout from kickoff to go-live, meets with your team every week, and brings your data over complete, including NFIRS history. White-glove from start to finish.
Best Fit Agency Size
RedAlert
Any size, with particular depth for volunteer and combination departments.
Emergency Networking
Tyler's announcement describes clients including fire and EMS agencies, ambulance and transport agencies, and state fire marshals and commissioners.
What This Means
Volunteer and combination departments are where RedAlert specializes: attendance programs, duty crews, and departments running without dedicated administrative staff.
Support Experience
RedAlert
U.S.-based support team in Rochester, New York. Phone and email, real people, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.
Emergency Networking
A Pennsylvania state FAQ describes support through email and an in-app ticketing system. Emergency Networking's staff are now part of Tyler's Public Safety Division.
What This Means
Call Alpine and you reach Rochester, New York: real people, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.
This comparison is based on publicly available information including vendor websites, public documentation, state agency publications, and press releases listed in the sources section below. Features, pricing, and packaging may change. We encourage buyers to verify current capabilities directly with each vendor before making a purchasing decision.
See It in Action
- Get alerted, respond, and report on the call, all in RedAlert
- Hydrants, preplans, and incident perimeters plotted in the Responder App in the field
- Custom fields and forms built for your department, not a template
Where RedAlert Stands Out
Fire Is the Whole Business
Alpine Software has built software for the fire service since 1994. Not public safety broadly, not a fire module inside a law enforcement suite. Fire departments, for three decades.
It shows in the parts of the product nobody demos: how a LOSAP program is configured, how a hydrant flow test prints for ISO, what happens to a truck check when it fails. Those details exist because fire departments asked for them over thirty years, and because there was never another division competing for the roadmap.
Built Around Your Department
RedAlert was built to be changed. Your department adds dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system: incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance. Build the forms your members fill out and the workflows your department actually follows, and adjust them as your needs change. When something is more involved, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you, during implementation and after.
Every one of those fields flows straight into reporting. That is how departments get payroll reports built around their own time codes, ISO documentation formatted the way their reviewer wants it, point calculations for a LOSAP plan nobody else runs, and their own data points captured on every call report.
Your occupancy types. Your permit workflows. Your violation codes. Your point program rules. Your payroll time codes. Departments differ more than software vendors like to admit, and a system that bends to you is worth more than one you work around.
The Whole Call, in RedAlert
With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert: get alerted, respond, and report on the call, without switching systems or vendors. Dispatch drops the call and every member's phone lights up with the address, call type, and details. Members tap responding, command sees who is coming and from where, and turn-by-turn routing puts them on scene.
Retone lets the first member on scene change the call for everyone else. An automatic alarm that turns out to be a working fire gets upgraded to an all-hands alert. A false alarm stands the department down so nobody else drives to a call that does not exist.
Your Map, in Your Hand
The full RedAlert map runs in the Responder App on members' phones and tablets, with day, night, and satellite views and the custom layers each member chooses. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest from the field, update preplans, hazmat, and site plans while standing in the building, and run a full hydrant flow test at the hydrant, with available flow calculated in one tap.
On scene, members draw what everyone else needs to see: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to the NERIS incident and set to expire on their own. Responding units and personnel appear on the same map, and an out-of-service hydrant shows dark so nobody hooks up to it.
The Building on the Tablet Before Arrival
RedAlert MDT puts the live CAD feed on every apparatus tablet, not just the command vehicle, alongside your own mapping layers and full preplan data: hazards, utility shut-offs, site plans, and occupancy information.
The seconds between dispatch and arrival are when most of the decisions get made. A crew that has seen the building on a mounted screen during the drive steps off the truck already knowing where the water is and what is inside.
Attendance You Can Defend
The RedAlert Kiosk is a station-mounted touchscreen where members check in by fingerprint, key fob, or building ID card. It opens on a CAD trigger when the call comes in, locks automatically after a window your department sets, and photographs every check-in.
If your department distributes LOSAP points, stipends, or per-call pay, that attendance record is an accounting document. The difference between attendance that is reported and attendance that is proven is the difference between a number your board accepts and a number your board can defend.
One Dispatch Connection, Every Screen
The RedAlert CAD interface pre-fills the incident report with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments. The same feed drives the Responder App on members' phones, MDT on the apparatus tablet, and the Station Board on the firehouse wall, and it opens the Kiosk for attendance on that exact call.
One connection to your dispatch center, every screen and every record kept in step.
White-Glove Onboarding, From Rochester
Every RedAlert implementation gets a dedicated project lead based in Rochester, New York. They manage the rollout, migrate your data from your prior system with nothing lost, configure RedAlert to how your department operates, and run weekly meetings with your team until you are live, typically in 90 to 120 days.
Switching records systems is the part departments dread most. Having one person who knows your department, your data, and your timeline, sitting down the hall from the engineers who build RedAlert, turns a migration from a project you manage into one that is managed for you.
Onshore Support in Rochester, New York
When you call Alpine, you reach Rochester. Real people, in the United States, in the same building as the engineers who build RedAlert.
Support quality is usually the first thing to slip as software changes hands and gets folded into larger organizations. The distance between the person answering your call and the person who can fix your problem is what determines whether it gets fixed.
How RedAlert Fits Into Your Software Stack
RedAlert is an all-in-one fire department software platform combining fire RMS, incident reporting and NERIS, alerting and mobile response, pre-incident planning and mapping, hydrants, and attendance and award programs in one database. Many departments comparing RedAlert and Emergency Networking are deciding between a reporting platform that now sits inside a broader public safety suite, and a fire-first platform where alerting, en-route data, and records come from one product.
The call your crew runs is alerted through the Responder App, mapped on the apparatus tablet, shown on the station wall, and recorded as the incident report and the attendance behind your point program, all from the same CAD interface and the same member record.
Built for the NERIS Transition
NERIS replaced NFIRS as the national fire incident reporting standard in January 2026, and RedAlert is NERIS Compliant, with Alpine listed on FSRI's own integration partners page.
NERIS compliance is now the baseline, not the differentiator. The question that matters is how much work the reporting actually takes, and what the rest of the platform does for your department once the report is filed. Incident templates for the calls you run constantly, one-click narrative generation, custom plus-one codes for whatever your county or state wants tracked, and validation that catches errors before submission. And with RedAlert MDT, the report can be started on the apparatus tablet while the crew is still on scene.
If your department fell behind during the transition, we convert your NFIRS records rather than making you re-enter them.
When Emergency Networking May Be the Right Choice
No single platform is right for every department. Emergency Networking serves a real segment of the emergency services. Here are scenarios where it may be the stronger fit:
- You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records.
Emergency Networking publicly markets ePCR and community paramedicine alongside fire reporting. RedAlert is a fire records system and does not provide NEMSIS-compliant patient care reporting. Departments that document basic patient information as part of a BLS response can capture it through custom fields on the incident record.
- Your agency already runs Tyler Technologies for dispatch or law enforcement records.
Tyler describes its suite as spanning law enforcement, first responders, and EMS agencies. If your county or municipality has standardized on Tyler and wants one public safety vendor across departments, that consolidation may outweigh fire-specific depth.
- Your state provides Emergency Networking for NERIS reporting, and that is all you need.
Some states, including Pennsylvania, provide a state reporting system built on Emergency Networking. If filing your state and federal reports is the only job you need software to do, a state-provided system covers it.
If these scenarios describe your department, evaluate both platforms on their merits. If they do not, RedAlert is likely the more practical choice.
Pricing and Contracts: A Different Philosophy
RedAlert
- Priced per module, so you buy only what you will use
- Volunteer and combination departments can start small and add later
- Everything you add shares the same database and member records
- Alerting, en-route data, and records in one platform
- A dedicated, Rochester-based project lead for every implementation
- Annual contracts
- Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if required
Emergency Networking
- Part of Tyler Technologies' public safety portfolio
- Modules spanning fire records, ePCR, inspections, and community paramedicine
- Offered through statewide arrangements in some states, including Pennsylvania and Delaware
- Contract terms are not published publicly
What this means for buyers
- With RedAlert, every line on your quote is a module you can decline. A department that will never run inspections does not pay for inspections.
- Alerting, mapping, and the apparatus tablet are part of the platform, so there is no second product or second vendor to add for them.
- A state-provided reporting system covers what the state needs. It does not run your department's attendance, truck checks, alerting, or point program.
Disclaimer: Pricing, fees, and contract terms change over time and vary by vendor, agency size, module selection, and negotiation. The information above reflects publicly available sources and should not be treated as current or universal pricing. Always confirm current pricing and contract terms directly with each vendor during your evaluation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is RedAlert cheaper than Emergency Networking?
It depends on what your department needs, and that is the point. RedAlert is priced per module, so a fire department can buy incident reporting, alerting, and attendance tracking without paying for tools it will not use. And because alerting, mapping, and the apparatus tablet are part of RedAlert, there is no second product to budget for to cover them.
Does RedAlert support NERIS?
Yes. RedAlert is NERIS Compliant and Alpine is listed on FSRI's integration partners page. NERIS templates, validation, and submission are part of the platform rather than a separately priced module, and reports can be started from the apparatus tablet while the crew is still on scene.
Can RedAlert be customized to our department's forms and workflows?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons departments choose us. RedAlert was built to be changed: your department adds dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system, builds the forms your members fill out (truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, and personnel records), and sets up workflows around how you operate. Every field flows into reporting, and when you need something more involved, like a custom report, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you.
What happened to Emergency Networking?
Tyler Technologies acquired Emergency Networking in July 2025. Tyler's announcement says Emergency Networking's management and staff joined Tyler's Public Safety Division, and describes the deal as strengthening Tyler's public safety suite ahead of the January 2026 NERIS deadline.
Does Emergency Networking have a mobile alerting app or an MDT?
Tyler markets Crew Mobile and the Crew Mobile App for fire crews within its Dispatch and Response tools, which it presents alongside its own Enterprise CAD dispatch system. The Tyler Fire & EMS app, formerly Emergency Networking, focuses on inspections, prevention, property information, and incident response support. RedAlert's Responder App and MDT are part of the same platform as your records and connect to whatever CAD your dispatch center runs.
What does RedAlert give my crew on the way to a call?
In the Responder App, every member sees the call details, routing, and your own mapping with hydrants and preplans. On the apparatus tablet, RedAlert MDT shows the live CAD feed alongside full preplan data: hazards, utility shut-offs, site plans, and occupancy information. Out-of-service hydrants are darkened on both, and responding units and personnel appear on the same map, along with any perimeter or road closure drawn by members already on scene.
Can our crews plot hydrants and update preplans from a phone?
Yes. The full RedAlert map runs in the RedAlert Responder App, so members can plot and edit properties, hydrants, and points of interest from the field, update preplans, hazmat, dispatch warnings, and site plans, and run a complete hydrant flow test with available flow calculated in one tap. Members can also draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map, such as a fire perimeter or a road closure, and tie them to the NERIS incident. Every action is controlled by permissions you set.
How does RedAlert handle LOSAP and pay-per-call tracking?
Attendance can be recorded by an officer in RedAlert Desktop or RedAlert Mobile, or captured at the RedAlert Kiosk, where members check in by fingerprint or key fob inside a time window tied to the actual call. Point caps, category maximums, eligibility rules, and weighting are configured to your plan document. If your program distributes public money, the question that matters is how attendance is verified, not just how it is recorded.
What is Retone?
Retone lets a member change the status of an active call from the Responder App and push that update to everyone. Arrive at an automatic alarm and find a working fire, and every member's phone gets an all-hands alert. Arrive and find a false alarm, and the department stands down so nobody else responds to nothing.
Does RedAlert do ePCR or patient care reporting?
RedAlert does not provide NEMSIS-compliant patient care reporting. It is a fire records management system, and departments that record basic patient information as part of a BLS response can capture it through custom fields on the incident record. Emergency Networking publicly markets ePCR alongside fire reporting. If your agency needs NEMSIS-compliant EMS documentation in the same system, that is a genuine point in its favor.
Our state provides Emergency Networking for free. Why would we pay for RedAlert?
A state-provided system is built to get your reports to the state and federal databases, and for some departments that is enough. It does not run your alerting, your en-route mapping, your truck checks, your attendance, or your LOSAP or stipend program. RedAlert files your NERIS reports and does all of that from the same record, so the call your crew ran becomes the incident report, the attendance behind your point program, and the response history behind your next grant application.
How long does implementation take, and who runs it?
RedAlert implementations typically run 90 to 120 days. Every one gets a dedicated project lead based in Rochester who manages the rollout, migrates your data from your prior system with nothing lost, configures the system to your department, and runs weekly meetings with your team until you go live. The migration is done by our team, not handed to your officers as a project.
Can we migrate from Emergency Networking?
Yes. Alpine's onshore team migrates records from your prior vendor as part of every implementation, including historical incident data. Your officers do not retype anything.
What does support look like with Alpine?
Alpine's support team is in Rochester, New York, in the same building as the engineers who build RedAlert. Phone and email, onshore, real people you can reach directly. When something needs fixing, the person you call can walk down the hall to the engineer who can fix it.
We are a volunteer department. Is RedAlert built for us?
Volunteer and combination departments are where Alpine specializes. The attendance and award program tools, the modular pricing, and the support model exist because volunteer departments needed them. RedAlert also serves career departments, but the depth in point tracking, duty crew hours, and station-level attendance comes from the volunteer side of the service.
Sources Reviewed
This comparison uses official vendor pages, public documentation, and state agency publications. Product features, packaging, and pricing may change, so confirm current details with each vendor.
- Tyler Technologies Acquires Emergency Networking, Business Wire, July 28 2025
- Tyler Buys Emergency Networking as NERIS Deadline Looms, GovTech
- Tyler Technologies Fire & EMS
- Tyler Technologies, Dispatch and Response for Fire Departments
- Tyler Fire & EMS app, Apple App Store
- Tyler Technologies, Public Safety Solutions brochure
- Pennsylvania Office of the State Fire Commissioner, FAQs for New Incident Reporting System, July 2025
- Emergency Networking company description, LinkedIn and public company profiles
- Fire Safety Research Institute NERIS integration partners
- Alpine Software product and platform documentation
Fire Software Built In, Not Bolted On
RedAlert gives your department alerting, en-route mapping, records, and attendance in one platform, built by people who have done one thing since 1994, onboarded and supported by a team you can actually call.