Home Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Smartrise VS Alpha Elevator Controller

First neither is my first or second choice lol. But If I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Alpha every time.

The biggest reason is simple: when you call Alpha, someone actually answers the phone. Their technical support has been excellent in my experience. They provide after-hours support through cell phone contacts, which is invaluable when you're dealing with a shutdown or a customer who needs answers immediately. Their app is easy to use, and whenever I've requested documentation—whether it's parameter lists, software information, or troubleshooting guidance—they've been willing to provide it without making me jump through hoops.

As for Smartrise, our experience has been the exact opposite. The support has been so consistently poor that we've completely removed Smartrise from every proposal we submit. We no longer purchase controllers from them, and their technical support is the primary reason why.

Time and time again, we've waited hours for callbacks that never come. One example that stands out was a controller with ghost hall calls that had been occurring since the day it was installed. I had a new customer standing right next to me while I sat in the machine room explaining that the software appeared to be glitched. We waited over five hours for a callback from Smartrise that never happened.

The following morning, I started calling at 7:00 AM EST, meaning I was likely one of the first callers in the queue. Even then, it still took three and a half hours before I received a callback. Once I finally got someone on the phone and explained the situation, they became reluctant to assist because I was no longer standing in front of the controller. After pushing back, they eventually told me which parameter was causing the issue—only to admit that it was a common problem they had seen before. If it's a known issue, why did it take multiple days and several hours of waiting to get a straightforward answer?

Email support isn't much better. Most responses are along the lines of, "I'll send someone an email and get back to you." Unfortunately, the follow-through rarely happens. Requests often disappear into a black hole, and you're left chasing answers yourself.

My biggest frustration with Smartrise is the complete lack of accountability and transparency. When you call for support, they can't tell you how many people are ahead of you, where you are in the queue, or how long the wait will be. You're simply expected to sit and wait indefinitely. In an industry where downtime costs money and damages customer relationships, that's unacceptable.

At this point, whenever I have to call Smartrise for support, I intentionally make sure the building owner or customer is standing right next to me. I note the time of the call and ask how many people are ahead of me and how long the callback will take. The answer is almost always the same: they don't know. Watching a customer see that firsthand paints a much clearer picture than anything I could ever tell them. It helps them understand exactly why we've removed Smartrise controllers from our proposals and why often the bill is extreamly high as we are on site waiting for hours.
At the end of the day, a controller is only as good as the support behind it and I would take a MCE or ESI before I got an Alpha but I will take ANYTHING over a SMARTRISE.

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Don't forget about VCI (VA controls).

Why all of a sudden decided to compare these two?!!

A current project where the customer insisted on using Smartrise got me thinking. I had told them the exact same thing before, so we called both companies together. Seeing the difference in tech support availability firsthand really proved my point effectively to the customer.

I actually like the smartrise but you cant get over the poor tech support.



VCI great for a Hydro !

Strange you’re comparing the two now, all of a sudden and out the blue. We are primarily EC Pixel, and I’m hoping vantage keeps it going, I heard rumors it’ll be dead in the next few years, but I hope not. But we also buy Smartrise, not a lot but maybe 20-30%. And I can say I’ve never waited more than 2 hours (and that’s usually at lunch time) usually I get a call back within the hour. I enjoy smartrise text option for support as well we’ve even made appointments with them, so yeah. Kind of crazy to compare two companies in response time when one has 1000x more units in servic, even then like I said, Smartrise response time for us isn’t terrible at all. Do what’s best for your company, but stop making it obvious your either work for Alpha or just don’t know what you’re doing. I hope it’s the latter because if it’s not, then terrible look man.

Smartrise uses a tiered system for their tech support. If you only buy one or two a year, they call you back whenever. So if you were a good installer for them and dropped off, they know you're going elsewhere and put you at the bottom of the list.

They claim they dont do this anymore but I know its BS.

I THINK the same thing, about that tech support. MCE calls back, so does ECI. Smartrise is bad about the call back. On the traction issues, the text option doesnt work. The hydro, they do respond pretty quickly on text

I’ve heard this too. We’ve never experienced this being that we believe in keeping relationships going with all vendors. You never know when you’ll need a favor. But I see your point in how this could be frustrating.

Timing was good today, reached out to Smartrise via text on a Traction issue, and sure enough they responded with a solution all within an hour.

Alpha and Smartrise are so similar that as a service mechanic l never have issues working on either. Only time I have to call tech support is for confirming suspicions of a bad board. On the modernization side I never had the oppurtunity to install an Alpha, but I've heard good things. For me tech support sucks no matter what company I'm calling. EC, GAL, VAC, Smartrise etc. are all the same. Sometimes they call back quickly, sometimes its hours, sometimes not at all. I'm personally more concerned with access to prints, and manuals rather than readily available tech support.