RedAlert vs First Due: Built Around Volunteer and Combination Departments
A side-by-side look at a fast-growing end-to-end platform, and a fire records system built over thirty years for the departments that run on volunteers, onboarded and supported by a team in Rochester you can actually call.
- 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.
- Attendance you can actually defend. The RedAlert Kiosk verifies attendance at the station by fingerprint or key fob, inside a time window tied to the call. First Due publicly markets LOSAP participation tracking, and no station-mounted check-in hardware appears in its public materials.
- 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.
- Specialists in volunteer and combination departments. LOSAP, stipend, and pay-per-call programs, duty crews, and departments without dedicated administrative staff are where Alpine has spent thirty years.
- The whole call in RedAlert, plus Retone. With the Responder App, members get alerted, respond, and report on the call without leaving RedAlert. Retone lets the first member on scene upgrade or stand down the call for everyone still en route.
- A station display that is part of the platform. RedAlert Station Board runs on any TV in the firehouse. First Due's station dashboards are publicly described through an integration with First Arriving.
Choose RedAlert if...
- You run a volunteer or combination department and want software built for how you actually operate
- You want custom fields, forms, and workflows built around how your department actually operates
- You need attendance for a LOSAP, pay-per-call, stipend, or points program that is verified, not just recorded
- You want alerting, en-route mapping, the station display, and records from one platform and one vendor
- You want to buy only the modules your department will use
- 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 First Due if...
- You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records
- You are a large career or metro department standardizing on one enterprise platform across fire, EMS, and prevention
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 | First Due | 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 configurable workflows, checks, and alert tiles within its platform. | 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 configurable checks and documentation across its modules. | 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 out-of-the-box reports, ad hoc reporting, and a data warehouse. | 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. |
Buyer Experience
| Category | RedAlert | First Due | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company Longevity | Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders. | Describes itself as the fastest-growing end-to-end software solution for Fire & EMS. | Three decades of fire department software. 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. | Marketed as an end-to-end platform spanning fire, EMS, prevention, scheduling, and mobile response, described by First Due as the last piece of software an agency needs to buy. | A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the modules it uses and skips the rest, rather than a platform built to replace every system a metro department runs. |
| Contract Terms | Annual contracts. | Contract terms are not published publicly. | RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with First Due, 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. | Procurement details are not published on First Due's product pages. | 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 timelines and scope 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. | Featured customers on First Due's site include large career departments such as the New Orleans Fire Department. | 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. | Public materials describe implementation and ongoing customer support as a focus. | Call Alpine and you reach Rochester, New York: real people, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software. |
Operations
| Category | RedAlert | First Due | What This Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Publicly markets volunteer and LOSAP participation tracking within its training module, plus a payroll summary for agencies that track points. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in First Due's public materials. | Tracking participation and verifying it 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. |
| 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. | Publicly markets NERIS incident reporting. | 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 markets pre-plan mapping with drawing tools, attachments, Esri ArcGIS layers, and configurable alert tiles shown to crews at dispatch. | The crew walking the building updates the preplan in the Responder App while standing in it, and hazards documented on inspection travel with the address to every responder. |
| 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. | Publicly markets mapping and drawing tools within pre-incident planning. | Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and tie it to the incident. 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 markets a hydrants module covering service and testing, response integration, and data management. | 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 markets fire prevention with inspections, permitting, and invoicing, plus fire investigations. | Your occupancy types, permit workflows, and violation codes are configured to your department, and inspection findings reach responding crews through the Responder App and MDT. |
| Training & Certifications | Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk. | Publicly markets training and learning management with field drill documentation, certification tracking, and ISO training hours. | Drill attendance comes from verified check-in at the station instead of a roster entered afterward, 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 markets asset checks, fleet, equipment, and inventory management, with work orders. | 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. |
Personnel and Scheduling
| Category | RedAlert | First Due | 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. | Publicly markets scheduling and personnel management, including an employee center. | Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, Kiosk check-ins, app access, and training file. |
| 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. | Publicly markets shift management, call shift management, time-off requests, and trades. | Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, 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. | Publicly markets native iOS and Android Mobile Responder Apps. | In the Responder App, crews run a full hydrant flow test at the hydrant, draw incident shapes tied to the NERIS record, and plot what the department did not have on the map yesterday. |
Technology and Integrations
| Category | RedAlert | First Due | 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. | Publicly describes itself as CAD agnostic, populating live incident data from dispatch. | 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. | Publicly markets a Mobile Responder App with dispatch notifications, status updates, turn-by-turn routing, responder chat, and live apparatus tracking. | With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert: 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. | Publicly markets pre-plan alert tiles displayed on apparatus-mounted computers, tablets, and phones as soon as an incident is dispatched. | The crew sees the building before arrival, and when the call winds down and they are waiting on a tow, the NERIS report starts on the same tablet. |
| 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. | Station dashboards with real-time alerting, scheduling, and assets are publicly described through an integration with First Arriving. | The Station Board is part of RedAlert, so the firehouse screen runs on the same data, the same vendor, and the same support line as everything else. |
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.
First Due
Publicly markets configurable workflows, checks, and alert tiles within its platform.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets configurable checks and documentation across its modules.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets out-of-the-box reports, ad hoc reporting, and a data warehouse.
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.
Buyer Experience
Company Longevity
RedAlert
Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders.
First Due
Describes itself as the fastest-growing end-to-end software solution for Fire & EMS.
What This Means
Three decades of fire department software. 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.
First Due
Marketed as an end-to-end platform spanning fire, EMS, prevention, scheduling, and mobile response, described by First Due as the last piece of software an agency needs to buy.
What This Means
A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the modules it uses and skips the rest, rather than a platform built to replace every system a metro department runs.
Contract Terms
RedAlert
Annual contracts.
First Due
Contract terms are not published publicly.
What This Means
RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with First Due, 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.
First Due
Procurement details are not published on First Due's product pages.
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.
First Due
Implementation timelines and scope 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.
First Due
Featured customers on First Due's site include large career departments such as the New Orleans Fire Department.
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.
First Due
Public materials describe implementation and ongoing customer support as a focus.
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.
Operations
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.
First Due
Publicly markets volunteer and LOSAP participation tracking within its training module, plus a payroll summary for agencies that track points. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in First Due's public materials.
What This Means
Tracking participation and verifying it 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.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets NERIS incident reporting.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets pre-plan mapping with drawing tools, attachments, Esri ArcGIS layers, and configurable alert tiles shown to crews at dispatch.
What This Means
The crew walking the building updates the preplan in the Responder App while standing in it, and hazards documented on inspection travel with the address to every responder.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets mapping and drawing tools within pre-incident planning.
What This Means
Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and tie it to the incident. 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.
First Due
Publicly markets a hydrants module covering service and testing, response integration, and data management.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets fire prevention with inspections, permitting, and invoicing, plus fire investigations.
What This Means
Your occupancy types, permit workflows, and violation codes are configured to your department, and inspection findings reach responding crews through the Responder App and MDT.
Training & Certifications
RedAlert
Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk.
First Due
Publicly markets training and learning management with field drill documentation, certification tracking, and ISO training hours.
What This Means
Drill attendance comes from verified check-in at the station instead of a roster entered afterward, 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.
First Due
Publicly markets asset checks, fleet, equipment, and inventory management, with work orders.
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.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets scheduling and personnel management, including an employee center.
What This Means
Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, Kiosk check-ins, app access, and training file.
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.
First Due
Publicly markets shift management, call shift management, time-off requests, and trades.
What This Means
Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, 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.
First Due
Publicly markets native iOS and Android Mobile Responder Apps.
What This Means
In the Responder App, crews run a full hydrant flow test at the hydrant, draw incident shapes tied to the NERIS record, and plot what the department did not have on the map yesterday.
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.
First Due
Publicly describes itself as CAD agnostic, populating live incident data from dispatch.
What This Means
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.
First Due
Publicly markets a Mobile Responder App with dispatch notifications, status updates, turn-by-turn routing, responder chat, and live apparatus tracking.
What This Means
With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert: 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.
First Due
Publicly markets pre-plan alert tiles displayed on apparatus-mounted computers, tablets, and phones as soon as an incident is dispatched.
What This Means
The crew sees the building before arrival, and when the call winds down and they are waiting on a tow, the NERIS report starts on the same tablet.
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.
First Due
Station dashboards with real-time alerting, scheduling, and assets are publicly described through an integration with First Arriving.
What This Means
The Station Board is part of RedAlert, so the firehouse screen runs on the same data, the same vendor, and the same support line as everything else.
This comparison is based on publicly available information including vendor websites, public documentation, and partner publications 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
- Verified attendance at the station, tied to the call
- Get alerted, respond, and report on the call, all in RedAlert
- Custom fields and forms built for your department, not a template
Where RedAlert Stands Out
Built for Volunteer and Combination Departments
Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994, and most of the departments running RedAlert are volunteer or combination. That shapes everything: point programs configured to your plan document, duty crew shifts tracked against actual clock-in, attendance that holds up when a member disputes their total, and a system that works for a department where the person running it is also the person riding the engine.
Platforms built for growth across every agency size have to design for the largest customers first. RedAlert has spent thirty years designing for the departments that run on volunteers.
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.
The distance between the person answering your call and the person who can fix your problem is what determines whether it gets fixed. At Alpine, that distance is a hallway.
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.
Tracking participation and verifying it are different things. If your department distributes LOSAP points, stipends, or per-call pay, that attendance record is an accounting document, and 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.
Custom Reports as Standard Practice
Our rule for thirty years has been simple: if more than one department asked for the same report, we made it standard in the system. What is left over, we build.
That is why the report library is deep, and why "we will build it" is a normal answer here rather than an escalation. When your auditor, your board, your LOSAP administrator, or your grant application wants something specific, the answer should not be a feature request ticket.
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.
A Station Display That Is Part of the Platform
RedAlert Station Board turns any TV in the firehouse into a live command board when a call drops: the incident, the map, apparatus status, and who is responding. Between calls it shows duty crew, out-of-service rigs, tasks due, and top responders year to date.
Because it reads directly from RedAlert, there is no integration to maintain and no second vendor to call when the screen goes blank. The same records, the same support line, the same team in Rochester.
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, and an out-of-service hydrant shows dark so nobody hooks up to it.
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.
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 First Due are deciding between an end-to-end platform designed to scale across every agency size, and a platform built specifically around volunteer and combination departments and shaped to how each one actually works.
The call your crew runs is alerted through the Responder App, mapped on the apparatus tablet, shown on the station wall, verified at the Kiosk, 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. 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 First Due May Be the Right Choice
No single platform is right for every department. First Due has built a broad, well-regarded platform that serves a real segment of the fire service. Here are scenarios where First Due may be the stronger fit:
- You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records.
First Due publicly markets ePCR as part of its platform. 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.
- You are a large career or metro department standardizing on one enterprise platform.
If your strategic goal is one platform across fire, EMS, prevention, and every operational function at metro scale, First Due's end-to-end positioning is built for that. RedAlert specializes in volunteer and combination departments and does not try to be everything to every agency.
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, the station display, and attendance in one platform
- A dedicated, Rochester-based project lead for every implementation
- Annual contracts
- Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if required
First Due
- Marketed as an end-to-end platform for Fire & EMS
- Spans incidents, ePCR, prevention, scheduling, assets, and mobile response
- Station dashboards publicly described through an integration with First Arriving
- 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.
- A platform designed to be the last software a metro department buys is efficient for an agency that uses all of it. A volunteer or combination department often needs a narrower set of tools, done deeper.
- The Station Board, the Kiosk, and the Responder App are all part of RedAlert, so there is no partner integration to maintain for the firehouse screen.
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 First Due?
It depends on what your department needs, and that is the point. RedAlert is priced per module, so a volunteer or combination department can buy incident reporting, alerting, and attendance tracking without paying for a platform designed to replace every system a metro department runs.
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.
Which is better for a volunteer department, RedAlert or First Due?
It depends on what your department needs most, but volunteer and combination departments are where Alpine specializes. RedAlert verifies attendance at the station with the Kiosk, configures your LOSAP, stipend, or pay-per-call rules to your plan document, measures duty crew shifts against actual clock-in, and lets your department build its own fields, forms, and workflows, with custom reports built by Alpine's team when you need them. A dedicated project lead in Rochester runs your implementation, and you buy only the modules you will use.
Does First Due track LOSAP?
Yes. First Due publicly markets volunteer and LOSAP participation tracking within its training module, with a payroll summary for agencies that track points. The difference is verification. The RedAlert Kiosk requires each member's own fingerprint or credential at a station-mounted device, inside a time window tied to the actual call, with a photo of every check-in. If your program distributes public money, the question that matters is how attendance is verified, not just how it is recorded.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 have a station display?
Yes. RedAlert Station Board turns any TV in the firehouse into a live command board during a call and shows duty crew, out-of-service apparatus, tasks due, and top responders between calls. It reads directly from RedAlert, so there is no separate integration or vendor involved. First Due's station dashboards are publicly described through an integration with First Arriving.
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. First Due publicly markets ePCR as part of its platform. If your agency needs NEMSIS-compliant EMS documentation in the same system, that is a genuine point in its favor.
Can we migrate from First Due?
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.
Sources Reviewed
This comparison uses official vendor pages, public documentation, and partner publications. Product features, packaging, and pricing may change, so confirm current details with each vendor.
- First Due homepage
- First Due Fire platform overview
- First Due Mobile Responder
- First Due, Can Fire Department Scheduling Software Handle LOSAP?
- First Due Pre-Incident Planning product page
- First Due Training & Learning Management product page
- First Arriving support article on the First Due integration
- Fire Safety Research Institute NERIS integration partners
- Alpine Software product and platform documentation
Built for the Departments That Run on Volunteers
RedAlert gives your department verified attendance, alerting, mapping, and records in one platform, built around how your department works, onboarded and supported by a team you can actually call.