--- title: Fingerprint Door Entry for Small Business description: "What UniFi's fingerprint readers cost, what else a door needs, and why we still keep a card or phone as the main credential on Ontario exterior doors." date: 2026-10-20 updated: 2026-10-22 category: security tags: [UniFi, Access, Door Access, Security] url: "https://relaypoint.ca/blog/fingerprint-door-entry-small-business" author: RelayPoint Technologies --- Fingerprint entry comes up a few times a year, almost always after someone has replaced the same lost fob for the third time. Ubiquiti now sells two fingerprint readers in the UniFi Access line, so it is a reasonable thing for a shop, clinic or office to ask about. Here is what they do, what a door actually costs once you add everything up, and the one place we would not rely on a fingerprint. ## The two readers Both sit at $229 on Ubiquiti's Canadian store as of this week. The Access G3 Reader Fingerprint is the one for new work. It runs on PoE, draws about 5 W, and comes with a wall or gang-box mount. The Retrofit Reader Fingerprint is for a building that already has door readers and wiring in the walls. It runs on 12 V and talks over RS-485 using OSDP, so it drops onto existing cabling. The specs are otherwise close to identical. Each holds up to 300 fingerprints on a capacitive sensor. Each also reads NFC cards and fobs, accepts a PIN, and does phone unlock through Apple or Google Wallet. Both are rated IP55 and good from -30 to 50°C. Our price on either reader starts at $255, and labour is $150 an hour. Every job is quoted in writing before any work begins. ## A reader on its own does nothing This is where most budgets go sideways. A working door needs a console running UniFi Access, an access hub, the reader, a lock that suits the door, and a PoE switch to feed it all. The hub is the part that does the real work: it switches power to the lock and handles the exit side. A Door Hub starts at $320 from us and wants PoE++, which is worth checking against your switch before you order anything. Our guide to [PoE budgets](/blog/poe-budgets-explained) covers how to work that out. If it is a single door and you want to keep it simple, Access Ultra has the hub built in and starts at $195. One planning detail catches people out. Readers and hubs talk to each other over Layer 2 Ethernet, which means they have to sit on the same network and cannot talk across a VLAN. That is fine, but it has to be decided before the cable goes in, not after. We treat it the same way we treat [camera VLANs](/blog/camera-vlan-why). ## Where a fingerprint is a good idea Interior doors. Stockrooms, server closets, a parts cage, a file room, the staff door between the shop floor and the office. Warm, dry, and used by a small group of people who are already inside the building. The real benefit is that there is nothing to hand over. A fob can be lent to a friend or left in a glovebox. A fingerprint cannot, and it does not need an app on a personal phone, which matters more than you would think with seasonal staff. ## Where we would not rely on it An exterior door in February. The reader itself is fine in the cold. The spec sheet says -30°C and we believe it. The problem is the other end: a capacitive sensor needs contact with skin, and in a Norfolk County winter you are dealing with gloves, wet hands from the snow, and the cracked, dry fingertips that half of us get by January. Trades and farm staff have worn-down prints year round. So on any outside door we set the card, fob or phone as the primary credential and treat the fingerprint as a convenience for the people it works well for. Nobody gets locked out in a parking lot at 6 a.m. because a sensor could not find a ridge. The 300-fingerprint cap is worth a thought too. Plenty for an office. Tight for a gym or a building with high turnover. ## If the building already has wiring Worth checking before anyone quotes you for new cable. The UniFi Retrofit Hub is built to reuse existing Wiegand wiring and supports two doors, so an older office or a leased unit with legacy readers can often be brought onto UniFi Access by swapping the termination and the reader faces. No opening walls, no new conduit, and a noticeably smaller bill. If there is nothing in the wall, a Cat6 drop to the reader location starts at $195 and we usually run it at the same time as anything else the room needs. Our [office network setup](/services/connect/office-network-setup) page covers how we scope that. ## What we recommend For most small businesses: mixed credentials. Cards or fobs for everyone, phone unlock for the people who want it, fingerprint on the interior doors where it earns its keep. One hub per door, sized to the lock, with the egress hardware chosen to suit the building's requirements rather than whatever is cheapest on the shelf. And decide on the lock before the reader. Fail-safe and fail-secure behave differently in a power cut, and that choice drives the wiring, not the other way round. We install and support UniFi Access across [Norfolk, Oxford, Brant and Haldimand](/areas), plus Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville. Close to home there is no visit minimum. On the Hamilton to Oakville side, visits start at a $595 minimum that the day's work counts toward. If you are weighing this up against staying with keys, [access control versus keys](/blog/access-control-vs-keys) is the shorter read. When you are ready for numbers on your own doors, have a look at [access control systems](/services/protect/access-control-systems) or [get in touch](/contact) and we will walk the doors with you before quoting anything. ## Sources - [UniFi Access G3 Reader Fingerprint tech specs](https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/door-access/ua-g3-fingerprint) - [UniFi Retrofit Reader Fingerprint tech specs](https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/door-access/ua-retrofit-reader-fingerprint) - [Getting Started with UniFi Access](https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/17452334269975-Getting-Started-with-UniFi-Access) - [Introducing Retrofit Hub](https://blog.ui.com/article/introducing-retrofit-hub) - [Ubiquiti Store Canada, door access readers](https://ca.store.ui.com/ca/en/category/door-access-readers)