Your Account
An OpenAlarm account is the container for everything else: your locations, alarms, contacts, policies, and keys all live under it.
Signing Up
Section titled “Signing Up”Sign up at console.openalarm.io with your email and a password. A 6-digit code lands in your inbox to verify the address, and the first-run steps ask for two things that are required, not optional:
- Your name - it is how your contacts know who added them and whose alarm is calling.
- Your first location, with its address - the people you alert see which location triggered, and the address tells them exactly where to go.
That’s the whole gate. Everything else can wait.
Signing In
Section titled “Signing In”Password sign-ins are verified with a 6-digit code - by email, or from your authenticator app once you enable one. Better: add a passkey under Account → Security and skip passwords entirely - one tap with Face ID, Touch ID, or your security key signs you in, phishing-proof, no code to type.
The Account Pages
Section titled “The Account Pages”- Profile - your name, email, and mobile number. Changing your email or adding a number is verified with a 6-digit code (email or text) before it takes effect.
- Security - password changes, passkeys, and the authenticator app option, which replaces emailed sign-in codes with codes from your app.
- Settings - appearance, session timeout, and your timezone (used to time your alerts).
- Billing - your plan and invoices, handled through Stripe.
Plans, Downgrades, and Lapsed Payments
Section titled “Plans, Downgrades, and Lapsed Payments”Free and Pro include the same features and limits - 25 alarms and 25 panic buttons at any of ten locations, 100 contacts, 50 policies with escalation and repeats, and 25 API keys. Two things differ: how contacts are reached (Free alerts by email; Pro adds SMS and voice calls) and incidents a month (5 on Free, 250 on Pro, 25 during the trial), resetting on the 1st. Upgrading applies immediately and charges the prorated difference; switching to a cheaper interval takes effect when the current term ends.
The 14-day trial. Every new account starts on Pro for fourteen days, with no card. A reminder email arrives 24 hours before it ends, and another when it ends. When it ends the account continues on Free the same way a downgrade does: SMS and voice calls stop, and alerts go out by email.
Downgrading to Free. You keep Pro until the end of what you paid for; the remainder is not refunded. When the term ends, SMS and voice calls are disabled for all contacts and alerts go out by email. Everything else keeps working exactly as it did: every alarm, panic button, location, policy and contact. Phone numbers stay on file and SMS and voice selections stay on your policies, so everything is exactly as it was when you subscribe again. On the incident timeline, a text or call that Free did not send shows as skipped with a crown and the reason. Subscribe again and SMS and voice come straight back.
A lapsed card. If a renewal payment fails, the account runs on Free the same way until the card goes through. Update the card from Billing and SMS and voice are back.
Nothing is deleted in either state, and incident history is never touched. Lifetime accounts have no downgrade path.
One Account, Every Property
Section titled “One Account, Every Property”You do not need an account per place. Locations partition everything - the cabin, the rental, the parents’ place - each with its own alarms, address, and dashboard view. See Locations.