What does the Alert Labs subscription fee buy?
The subscription is the most misunderstood part of commercial leak detection pricing, usually because buyers assume it only pays for a SIM card. It does not. Here is what it actually buys.
Is the fee just for the cellular connection?
No. Connectivity is included, but it is not the product. The clearest proof: sensors like the Floodie flood sensor & water leak detector and Humie humidity & temperature sensor connect through a Sensor Relay communication hub rather than carrying their own cellular link. They still carry a subscription, because their data still flows through the platform which is where the value lives.
What exactly is included?
Access to the AlertAQ™ water intelligence platform, which means:
- Minute-by-minute analysis that learns each building's normal water pattern and flags what deviates from it.
- Alerts routed by person, schedule, and property, by text, email, and in-app, with an automatic phone call for flood alerts.
- Portfolio dashboards and reports you can put in front of ownership, a board, or an insurer.
- Software and firmware updates that keep improving detection on hardware you already own.
- Automatic device health checks, so an uncommunicating sensor is caught in an ordinary week rather than during a flood or leak event.
- A support team, with live chat staffed seven days a week, plus help articles.
- The AlertAQ™ Platform API, so alerts and analysis can flow into the systems you already use rather than only into our dashboard. Available on some subscriptions, so ask when you request a quote.
Full breakdown: Do I need a subscription?
Why does every sensor carry a subscription?
Because every sensor generates its own data stream, its own alert rules, and its own automatic health checks. That platform work exists for each device whether or not the device has a SIM. Deployment can start small: many customers begin with a few high-risk locations and expand once the first catch pays for it.
What does the platform actually catch?
The 2026 State of Water Management Report, built from 480,000+ alerts across 14,000+ buildings on the platform, found that roughly 1 in 4 monitored buildings had at least one flood event in 2025, that 56% of floods happen after hours, and that 3.4 billion gallons of water waste were identified in a single year. The subscription is what turns sensor readings into those catches.
Here is what that looks like in one portfolio: an apartment REIT managing more than 300 multi-family buildings installed Alert Labs sensors across its portfolio and identified $43,000 a year in savings, with payback in eight months. That value came from the analytics, not the hardware. Read the full case study.
What does it cost?
The subscription typically runs a small fraction of a building's yearly water bill, and one prevented flood or one caught running toilet usually covers it. For the buildings where the fee question comes up most, like schools and multi-family properties, the practical test is simple: compare the fee to one prevented flood or one caught running toilet. Pricing depends on building count, sensor mix, and support level, so the honest answer is a quote. See how much a commercial water leak detection system costs, or ask what is included and how pricing works as buildings are added. A vendor confident in its pricing will answer in plain language.