Honest comparison · reviewed 2026-08-04
Duress vs My Safety Buddy.
Two different answers to lone worker safety, compared feature by feature - including where My Safety Buddy is genuinely the better choice. Compiled from public vendor materials; product names and trade marks belong to their owners.
Feature comparison
| Duress | My Safety Buddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Head office / primary regions | Australia · AU, NZ, UK | Australia · Australia only |
| Hardware devices | Falcon (body-worn camera), Phoenix (Bluetooth button), Eagle (4G LTE device) | App-first; optional Bluetooth duress button add-on (IP66, coin-sized) |
| Smartphone safety app | Yes - Duress App | Yes - core product, with shake or silent duress, man-down and welfare checks |
| Body-worn camera with live streaming | Yes - Falcon | No body-worn camera; the app streams video and audio during an alarm |
| 24/7 professional monitoring | Yes - accredited 24/7 monitoring centre, included as standard | Plan choice: DIY monitoring to your own contacts, or the MSB 24/7 monitoring service |
| Monitoring accreditation | ASIAL A1-graded (AU); ISO 27001:2022 certified | States a "Grade A1" 24/7 monitoring service; no ISO certification named publicly |
| Indoor positioning | Yes - BLE beacons (Eagle) | Not advertised |
| Gas detection | No | Not advertised |
| Live location update rate during an alert | Every 5 seconds | Not published |
| Live video and audio to the responder | Yes - the app streams audio and Falcon streams live video | Yes - video and audio streamed during an alarm |
| Buy online without a sales call | Yes - configure and check out | Free 30-day trial; pricing quote-led at review time, minimum three users |
Compiled from each vendor's public websites and documentation. "-" and "not advertised" mean the capability was not claimed in the vendor's public materials at review time; offerings change, so verify current capabilities directly. My Safety Buddy Pty Ltd (ABN 19 242 821 511) is Australian-owned and independently operated. Details compiled from their public website and App Store listing on 4 August 2026.Spotted an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full four-vendor comparison here.
Which one is right for you?
When My Safety Buddy is the right answer
The most accessible option in the Australian market, and a genuinely capable app for the money. The feature list is broader than the price suggests: shake-to-activate and silent duress, man-down on no movement, five-second check-ins, scheduled welfare checks, journey monitoring for driver fatigue, and live video and audio streamed during an alarm, which is unusual for an app-first product. It is Australian-owned with data hosted in Australia and Australian operators, which is a real answer for buyers with data-sovereignty requirements. A 30-day free trial and a three-user minimum make it one of the few products in the category a small team can simply try. For an Australian team of a handful of people whose risk is mostly "someone did not check in", it is a proportionate and sensible choice.
When Duress is the right answer
Choose Duress when the alarm has to reach a trained operator every time, and when the worker cannot reach a phone. With My Safety Buddy, professional monitoring is one of two plan choices, with the alternative routing alarms to your own nominated contacts by voice, SMS and email; with Duress, accredited 24/7 monitoring is included on every plan, ASIAL A1-graded in Australia and NSI Gold in the UK, with a published 7-second median operator pickup. The hardware differs in kind rather than degree: an optional Bluetooth button against a range built for the job, including a discreet card, a 4G wearable with BLE beacon indoor positioning for large buildings, and a body-worn camera that streams to the operator. Duress also covers New Zealand and the UK, and publishes its prices rather than quoting them.