ZKTeco
The fingerprint clock on many office walls is a ZKTeco, from China. Newer SpeedFace and ProFace X units read faces and palms without contact; inBio controls doors; ZKBio Time and ZKBio CVSecurity are the software.
- Headquarters
- China
- Positioning
- EntryMid-market
- Official website
- www.zkteco.com
Who it suits
Factories, mines and construction sites with hundreds of workers whose dusty or cement-covered hands make face scanning the practical choice.
Overview
Who ZKTeco is
ZKTeco is headquartered in Dongguan, China, and has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2022. The fingerprint time clock on the wall of many offices is a ZKTeco. The company makes time clocks, door controllers, card readers, electric locks and turnstiles. In the United States the group sells its enterprise range under a separate brand, Armatura.
The product lines you will meet
- SpeedFace: touchless face and palm terminals. The V5L reads face, palm and fingerprint; newer models such as the SpeedFace-V3L and M6 can connect to the cloud.
- ProFace X: a higher-end face terminal for busy doors and outdoor positions.
- inBio: one-, two- and four-door controllers that take card readers and biometric terminals.
- ZKBio Time: time-and-attendance software that turns punches into working hours, available on-premises or as ZKBio Time Cloud.
- ZKBio CVSecurity: the integrated platform that manages doors, attendance, lifts, visitors, parking and cameras in one place.
How the pieces fit
A terminal stores face or fingerprint templates and verifies people on the device itself, so staff can still clock in when the network drops. On a door, the terminal passes its result to an inBio controller, which decides whether to release the lock. The software is where HR sets shifts, assigns door rights and pulls reports.
Who it suits
ZKTeco suits organizations that need to clock in hundreds of workers or control many doors on a modest budget. In factories, mines and on construction sites, face terminals work far better than fingerprint readers because workers' hands are covered in dust, oil or cement. For server rooms or cash rooms that need high assurance, look at encrypted cards and a higher tier of hardware.
Strengths
- Low cost per door and per time clock, so you can cover every factory gate and every worker camp instead of just the main entrance.
- SpeedFace terminals read faces and palms without contact, which works for workers whose hands are dirty or whose fingerprints are worn from heavy work.
- ZKBio Time exports to Excel or payroll systems and handles shifts, overtime and multiple sites.
- Terminals, controllers, locks and turnstiles all come from one maker, so you are not coordinating several brands.
Things to know before choosing
- In 2024 security researchers disclosed 24 vulnerabilities in some ZKTeco biometric terminals, including authentication bypass and command execution. Keep firmware current, put terminals on their own VLAN and never expose them to the internet.
- Terminals hold employees' face and fingerprint templates. Decide who can open the software, delete records of staff who leave, and tell employees what is stored.
- Models and firmware change quickly and some manuals exist only in English or Chinese. Check that the terminal you order is supported by the software version you run.
- The cheap 125 kHz cards often bundled with terminals are easy to clone. For important doors use encrypted cards, or face plus card.
Using it in Laos
ZKTeco is one of the most common time-clock brands in Laos, and technicians and spares are easy to find through Thai distributors and shops in Vientiane.
What we see on sites:
- Sunlight: a face terminal facing the morning or evening sun recognises people slowly or wrongly. Mount it under a roof and avoid bright light behind the person.
- Dust and rain: at mines and construction sites, choose models with a water and dust rating or fit a protective housing.
- Brownouts: electric locks and controllers need battery backup. Decide in advance whether each door fails open or locked when power drops; people's safety comes first.
- Internet: at provincial branches with unreliable links, terminals store punches locally and upload them when the connection returns.
Sectors that fit: factories, mines, construction, schools, hotels and restaurant chains with several branches.
Compared with alternatives
Suprema from South Korea offers higher-grade biometric sensors and a more detailed management platform, which fits doors where accuracy and audit matter more. HID Global fits when you want to move from 125 kHz cards to encrypted or phone-based credentials. Hikvision also makes face terminals and door control that plug into HikCentral, a sensible choice if your cameras are already Hikvision.
Product lines
- SpeedFace
- ProFace X
- inBio
- ZKBio CVSecurity
- ZKBio Time
Solutions that use this brand
Access ControlOpen doors with a card, face, fingerprint or phone. Decide who goes through which door and when, and see every entry.
Time AttendanceClock in by face, fingerprint or phone at every branch and site, with shift and overtime reports that go straight into payroll.
Server Room Build-outServer rooms built for the Lao climate: racks, N+1 cooling, online UPS, earthing, gas suppression, access control and alerting…FAQ
How many people can a ZKTeco face terminal hold?
It varies widely by model, from a few hundred faces on small units to several thousand on larger ones. For a camp of 1,000 or more workers, check face capacity and log capacity in that model's datasheet, and spread people across several terminals so queues stay short at shift change.
Should we use ZKBio Time in the cloud or on-premises?
With many provincial branches and no server of your own, the cloud version is easier. If policy says face data and payroll records must stay in-house, install it on an internal server and back up the database regularly.
Can ZKTeco terminals work with another brand of access control?
Many models can send a Wiegand signal to another brand's controller, but people and face enrolment then live in two separate systems. If you want one place to manage everything, use inBio with ZKBio CVSecurity throughout, or keep the whole system on one brand.
All brand names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Mention does not imply official partnership unless explicitly stated. Products are sourced through legitimate distribution channels.
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