Community
Single city, town, or small district
$1,188/year
- Public community Lifelines page
- SMS status updates from authorized reporters
- GetAlert public page integration
- Monthly SMS allowance + metered overage
County
Full county operations, multiple agencies
$1,788/year
- Everything in Community
- County-wide board: cities, VFDs, co-ops, ISDs as participants
- Larger reporter roster + SMS allowance
- Roadmap features land here first
Regional
COGs, districts, multi-county rollouts
from $2,400/year · volume pricing per county
- Everything in County, per member county
- Regional roll-up view across counties
- Volume discounts for multi-county adoption
Pilot communities lock in founding-member pricing below these rates. Tier details may be refined with pilot feedback. Existing members keep their terms.
The month you need more is not the month to punish you
Flat-rate "unlimited" plans price in the disaster you might have. We don't. Your tier includes an SMS allowance sized for normal months: burn bans, road closures, drills. When the wildfire comes and your usage spikes, messages keep flowing and the overage is metered per message at transparent rates, billed after the fact. No mid-emergency cutoffs. No forced upgrades. No surprise "platform fee."
Worst-case math, up front
A county of 3,300 running a week-long activation with heavy SMS traffic typically adds tens of dollars, not thousands, to that month's bill. We'll show you the per-message rate and a worked example before you sign anything.
No RFP. No sealed bids. One agenda item.
RuralEOC costs $1,188–$2,400 a year, legitimately under every Texas purchasing threshold, by design.
Under the competitive-bidding line
Texas counties must competitively bid purchases over $100,000 (Local Government Code §262.023, threshold raised from $50,000 by SB 1173, effective September 1, 2025; municipal purchasing under Chapter 252 follows the same figure). At RuralEOC's price, procurement is a commissioners court agenda item and a purchase order, not a six-month RFP cycle.
Budget season note: summer 2026
Texas county budgets for FY 2027 are adopted by September 30. A $99/month line item can still make it in, and we'll hand your auditor or budget officer the exact line-item language. Ask us for it.
Federal dollars already flow for exactly this
EMPG
The Emergency Management Performance Grant is the primary federal pass-through that funds rural EM programs, including the tools they operate with. Many counties already receive it through TDEM.
FEMA EOC Grant Program
FEMA's Emergency Operations Center Grant Program funds improvements to EOC capability, and a virtual EOC for a county that has no physical one is the kind of improvement it exists for.
The questions your auditor will ask
Do we need an RFP or sealed bids to buy RuralEOC?
No. At $1,188–$2,400 per year, RuralEOC is far below the $100,000 competitive-bidding threshold for Texas counties (Local Government Code §262.023, as raised by SB 1173, effective September 1, 2025). For most counties it's a single commissioners court agenda item.
What happens if we send more SMS messages than our plan includes?
Each tier includes a monthly SMS allowance sized for normal operations. During a major event you'll exceed it. That's what it's for. Overage is metered per message at transparent rates and billed after the fact. Your service never cuts off mid-emergency, and you're never forced into a higher tier.
Is there a contract or a setup fee?
No setup fee and no multi-year lock-in. Pay monthly or annually; cancel anytime. Onboarding is about an hour and we do it with you.
Can grant money pay for RuralEOC?
Often, yes. The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) is the primary federal pass-through funding rural EM programs already use, and FEMA's EOC Grant Program funds EOC capability improvements. We'll help you write the line item.
Is RuralEOC a finished product?
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. RuralEOC is in an open pilot: the community Lifelines page and SMS updates are live with pilot communities, and the rest of the platform is being built with them. Pilot communities lock in founding-member pricing. See how it works for what's live today versus on the roadmap.
Put it in front of your commissioners court
Join the pilot, and we'll send you the one-page summary and budget line-item language that make the agenda item easy.