Honest comparison
WhosOnLocation is the lightest, most generic option here and owns emergency muster and mature presence tracking, while Site Control is the UK-CDM-first build for construction sites with document generation, induction gating, CSCS and RFIs.
WhosOnLocation (MRI OnLocation) is a generic workplace visitor-management and presence tool that excels at touchless sign-in and emergency muster, but it is not construction-specific. The Site Book Site Control is built for UK sites: it generates RAMS/CPP/COSHH, gates inductions until acknowledged, tracks CSCS and runs RFIs. Choose WhosOnLocation for offices and campuses; choose Site Control for CDM compliance on live construction sites.
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Pricing and feature claims are taken from MRI Software's public OnLocation product, pricing and help-centre pages, fetched 2026-06-06; figures may change — confirm on the vendor site.
Pricing, fit, and feature coverage side by side.
| Feature | The Site Book Site Control | WhosOnLocation (MRI OnLocation) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From £675/site per month plus £5,000 one-off setup; volume tiers and annual prepay | Published from USD $60/location/month (annual ~$634/yr); tiered by yearly sign-in volume up to a Large tier of ~$304/month (~$3,180/yr, roughly £2,500), with a custom POA tier above that. |
| Team size | Per active site with unlimited workers (~75+ typical); multiple contractor companies per site | Single reception desk through to multi-site facilities teams managing many locations. |
| Best for | Principal contractors and builders running live sites with subcontractors who need UK CDM documents generated plus on-site contractor access, attendance, RFIs and audit-ready evidence in one per-site tool. | Workplaces, offices, campuses and multi-occupier buildings that need touchless visitor and contractor sign-in plus reliable emergency muster — not construction-specific CDM compliance. |
| Not ideal for | No biometric turnstiles or physical access control, so it cannot secure a Tier-1 perimeter the way MSite/Biosite can. | Generic workplace VMS, not construction-specific: no RAMS/CPP/COSHH generation, no CSCS card scheme, no block-until-complete CDM induction gating, and no RFIs. |
| RAMS / CPP / COSHH generation | Generates UK RAMS, CPP, COSHH and method statements from the project brief — unique in this category. | |
| Permits to work | ||
| Site inductions | Digital induction blocks check-in until acknowledged. | Supports contractor agreements and trigger-based documents/messages at sign-in, but not a true block-until-acknowledged CDM induction gate. |
| Worker cert tracking | CSCS upload, internal review and expiry notifications. | Can capture contractor compliance documents and expiries, but no CSCS-specific card scheme or UK competency model. |
| Right to work | CSCS credential review; not a formal right-to-work share-code check. | |
| Contractor self-onboarding | Contractor self-join via the entrance QR with CSCS upload and approval. | Contractors can pre-register and complete agreements ahead of arrival via the contractor portal. |
| QR / mobile sign-in | Permanent entrance QR for guest sign-in/out and contractor self-join. | Touchless QR/mobile sign-in supported without mandatory hardware; kiosk and OnScan scanner are optional add-ons. |
| GPS clock-in | ||
| Biometric access | ||
| Physical access control | Does not provide turnstiles itself but integrates with access-control/door hardware to trigger entry on sign-in. | |
| Site attendance | Check-in/out, history and a live people-on-site view. | Tracks on-site presence with sign-in/out timestamps and reporting, though framed as presence rather than payroll T&A hours. |
| CIS payroll | ||
| Live people-on-site | Live people-on-site dashboard plus dedicated emergency evacuation/muster roll-call is a core strength. | |
| Multi-company isolation | Each contractor company sees only its own workforce — test-verified. | Supports multiple locations and contractor companies, but is built for a single managing organisation, not contractor-company self-service data isolation. |
| RFIs | Create, attach, comment, answer and close — unique in this category. | |
| Document-review evidence | Version-specific read/acknowledge audit chain. | Captures acceptance of contractor agreements and policy documents at sign-in, but not version-specific document-review acknowledgement chains. |
| Toolbox talks | ||
| Site inspections | ||
| Incident log | Has alerting and emergency tooling; no dedicated construction incident/accident log out of the box. | |
| Plant / asset management | ||
| Workforce scheduling | ||
| Multi-site dashboard & exports | Attendance CSV, monthly H&S CSV/PDF and project audit-log exports. | Strong multi-location dashboards and presence/visitor reporting with exports across all sites. |
| Mobile app | iOS and Android contractor app. | Mobile apps for employees, hosts and evacuation roll-call, plus mobile contractor sign-in. |
| Offline mode | Offline/evacuation continuity features exist for muster scenarios, but full offline operation is not the headline mode. |
At-a-glance fit per product - pulled from the same data that drives the snapshot table.
Pick the option that matches how your team actually works.
WhosOnLocation is the better fit — its presence tracking and emergency muster are mature and it deploys without hardware. Site Control's construction-specific compliance would be largely unused here.
Site Control wins: it generates RAMS/CPP/COSHH, gates inductions until acknowledged, tracks CSCS expiry, isolates contractor-company data and runs RFIs — none of which WhosOnLocation does. Be honest that Site Control has no biometrics, turnstiles, CIS payroll, GPS geofence or plant register.
Site Control fits better — unlimited workers per site and a full CDM pack beat per-location sign-in tiers; WhosOnLocation suits you only if you mainly need generic visitor logging and muster.
Strengths, weaknesses, fit, and the sources every claim came from.
The Site Book Ltd
From £675/site per month plus £5,000 one-off setup; volume tiers and annual prepay
MRI Software
Published from USD $60/location/month (annual ~$634/yr); tiered by yearly sign-in volume up to a Large tier of ~$304/month (~$3,180/yr, roughly £2,500), with a custom POA tier above that.
Site Control
Book a walkthrough
Per-site contractor access for principal contractors — talk to us about your live sites.
See it in action
Watch a walkthrough
See how Site Control runs QR sign-in, CSCS, induction gating, attendance and RFIs on a live site.
Every TheSiteBook feature
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Short, straight answers - the same questions real builders ask.
No. WhosOnLocation, now MRI OnLocation, is a generic workplace visitor and presence management system used across offices, campuses and multi-occupier buildings. It handles touchless sign-in, contractor agreements and emergency muster very well, but it does not generate UK RAMS, CPP or COSHH documents, track CSCS cards, or gate site inductions. Site Control is purpose-built for UK construction and CDM compliance instead.
WhosOnLocation publishes per-location pricing from about $60 a month, rising through volume tiers to roughly $304 a month (around £2,500 a year) before a custom quote tier. Site Control is £5,000 one-off setup plus £675 per active site each month, with volume discounts. The per-location floor buys sign-in and muster; Site Control's price buys a full UK compliance platform including document generation, induction gating and RFIs.
Not specifically. WhosOnLocation can capture contractor compliance documents and expiry dates and can scan ID through its optional OnScan add-on, but it has no CSCS card scheme or UK competency model. Site Control treats CSCS and credential tracking with expiry alerts as a core feature, and blocks check-in until the worker has completed the required induction, which a generic visitor-management tool is not designed to enforce.
Emergency evacuation and muster is WhosOnLocation's standout strength, alongside very mature, widely deployed presence tracking and strong multi-location reporting. It is also the lightest, most generic tool to roll out across non-construction sites, with transparent published pricing. Site Control deliberately focuses on construction and does not try to match a dedicated VMS on generic office visitor flows or campus-wide muster across mixed building types.
For a construction site, yes: Site Control provides a permanent entrance QR, guest sign-in and out, contractor self-join, live people-on-site and audit-grade exports. For a corporate office estate with reception desks, mixed visitor types and campus-wide evacuation, a dedicated VMS like WhosOnLocation may suit better. Site Control is honest about its scope — it is a CDM compliance and site-access platform, not a general office VMS.
Site Control provides multi-contractor-company data isolation, verified by tests, so each contractor company sees only its own workers, documents and records. WhosOnLocation supports multiple locations and contractor companies but is designed around a single managing organisation rather than contractor-company self-service isolation. If you run a site with many subcontractors who each need their own private view, Site Control's isolation model is the closer match to that requirement.
Pricing and feature claims are taken from MRI Software's public OnLocation product, pricing and help-centre pages, fetched 2026-06-06; figures may change — confirm on the vendor site.
Every pricing, feature, and fit claim in this comparison is pulled from public vendor documentation and cross-checked against independent sources. The “source basis” footer on each product card lists the exact URLs and the date we fetched them. We revisit this page at least every 90 days - last reviewed on .