Compare
What matches, what differs, and where Incident IQ is still ahead. For the switch itself, read Beacon as an Incident IQ alternative.
| At a glance | Beacon | Incident IQ |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Public. $1 per student per year for districts, every module included. Free for one school. | Quote-based; prices are not published |
| Packaging | Tickets, devices, facilities, HR requests, knowledge base, automations, SSO, API, reporting, AI: one plan | Modular: a platform plus ticketing base, with assets, facilities, and other modules sold separately |
| Requesters | Unlimited on every plan | Unlimited |
| Agents | Unlimited on District | Per your quote |
| AI in the ticket lifecycle | Triage, suggested replies, article drafts, deflection, natural-language reports; a person always decides | Limited in public materials |
| Single sign-on | Google, Microsoft Entra ID, Clever, ClassLink, any OIDC provider | Yes |
| Roster and SIS sync | PowerSchool: staff and students with school, grade level, homeroom and classes, nightly. People from Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra. Students from ClassLink or a OneRoster export, with school, grade and student ID. Clever for sign-in; no guardians | Yes: Clever, ClassLink, and SIS integrations |
| Mobile | Responsive web on any phone; iOS app with barcode scanning and offline queue (in testing on TestFlight) | Mobile app with scanning |
| Time to go live | An afternoon, self-serve | Vendor-led onboarding |
| Trying it | Free 90-day district pilot, no card; free Starter plan forever | Through sales |
| Migration | Free. Self-serve import of Incident IQ CSV exports; run both systems side by side | Per your quote |
| Contract | Annual for districts, with a 3-year price lock; monthly or annual for everyone else; cancel any time | Per your quote |
| Your data | Full JSON and CSV export on every plan, any time | Ask them |
| Hosting | Beacon's cloud with database-enforced tenant isolation, or your own servers | Vendor cloud |
Incident IQ details are general statements from its public materials as of September 2026. It does not publish prices, so this page makes no claims about what it would charge you. Incident IQ is a trademark of its owner; Beacon is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.
Pricing
$1.00 per student per year for the first 5,000 students, $0.85 to 20,000, $0.70 above that, with a $900 minimum. Every module, unlimited agents, and migration included, locked for three years, no onboarding fee, nothing to negotiate.
AI triage
Each request arrives with a suggested category, priority, team, likely duplicates, and a matching article. Technicians confirm, edit, or ignore.
AI is included on every paid plan with a fair-use allowance. Administrators can turn each feature off. How Beacon handles AI and your data.
Migration
Users, Assets, and Tickets from Incident IQ CSV exports, with history, timestamps, and ticket numbers.
Incident IQ stays read-only for lookups. A final delta import creates only new tickets.
Beacon is free until your current Incident IQ term ends, up to 12 months, so there is no double-paying.
Contracts and support
| Beacon | Incident IQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Term | District: annual, price locked for three years. Pro: monthly or annual. Enterprise: by agreement. | Per your quote |
| Renewal | Automatic, with a reminder 90 days before an annual term renews and 30 days before any charge, stating the exact amount. Cancel before renewal at no cost. | Per your quote |
| Cancellation | Any time, in Settings or by one email. No fees. Data export available for 90 days afterward. | Per your quote |
| Purchasing | Purchase orders accepted; annual invoice in advance; W-9 on request. | Per your quote |
| Support | Email, answered within one business day. Priority support with a named success manager above 5,000 students. No sales calls required to buy, try, or leave. | Per your contract |
| Evaluation | Watch a 60-second video, then start a free 90-day pilot yourself. | Through sales |
Fair is fair
Beacon syncs staff and students nightly from PowerSchool, with their school, grade level, student number, homeroom and classes, and people from Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra. Students sync from ClassLink or any OneRoster export with their school, grade level and student ID. Clever is a sign-in provider, and guardians are not synced.
Incident IQ can pull device records from management consoles. Beacon reads Chromebooks from Google Admin and devices from Intune and Mosyle Manager nightly, read-only, and imports Jamf and SCCM devices from CSV for now.
Incident IQ has years of district references. Beacon is new, so the pilot is free and the price is public.
Decide for yourself
No card, no sales call, no auto-conversion. On day 90 you sign at the published price or export your data.