Which is the best security company? Criteria, not lists

“Best” only means something against a specific need. So start from the site, not from the companies: what you are protecting, from what, during which hours, and what has to happen when something goes wrong.

• The risk: write down what you are worried about and where. The risk assessment guide shows the method.
• Hours and posts: how many posts, which hours — see how many guards you need.
• Type of guarding: static guarding or patrols, a guard or systems.

With this on paper, every company is judged against the same page — and “best” becomes something you can check.

• Operating licence: under Law 2518/1997 it cannot be transferred, is valid for five years and is renewed only if the conditions still hold (art. 2 §3). The company carries «ιδιωτική επιχείρηση παροχής υπηρεσιών ασφαλείας» (private security services company) in its name and its licence number on its documents (art. 4 §1α, as amended by art. 159 of Law 5187/2025). How to check: security company licence check.
• Each guard’s work licence: personal, category A or B (art. 3). Every month the company reports its staff to the police with each person’s licence number (art. 4) — ask for the numbers for your site.
• Lawful pay for the hours: with a 40-hour full-time week (Labour Code art. 189), a 24/7 post is 168 hours, so at least 4.2 full-time positions. An offer that cannot show how it pays those hours lawfully is rejected — see how to check guards are paid legally and when a very low quote is rejected.

Price does not make a company better. It only serves to reject those that cannot cover lawful pay, supervision and insurance; among the rest, you choose on the criteria in the next section.

• Supervision: who checks the post, how often, and how you see it — see the supervisor’s role.
• Evidence and reporting: patrols per checkpoint, shift reports, an incident log — evidence, not promises and the weekly client report.
• Stable people: who will guard your site, who replaces them, how they are trained — see evaluating guards.
• Written post orders: what the guard does and does not do, approved by you — post orders.
• Contract: posts, hours, replacement time, reports, liability, termination — guarding contract terms and liability insurance, which Law 2518/1997 does not require, so it belongs in the contract.

OVIT gives clients this evidence in the Guardly platform: patrols, incidents and reports in the same live picture as the operations team. That does not automatically make it the best choice for you; it lets you check.

• Who notifies you, by what channel, and who answers the operations desk at night?
• What does the incident report contain: time, description, actions, who handled it — see incident report.
• What does the guard do in the first minutes — see the first 10 minutes of a crisis.
• What changed after the incident: post orders, patrol route, equipment — see from incident to decision.

Ask about one of their own mistakes too. A company that says it has never made one is either not telling you the truth or did not record it. More in how a security company earns your trust.

• Who wrote it? A media outlet, a directory, a company in the sector? If no author is shown, treat the list as advertising.
• What did it measure? If it states no criteria or method, the order is an opinion. If it measures size, it tells you how big a company is, not how well your site will be guarded.
• Did anyone pay? Ask whether a place on the list or in the directory can be bought, and whether the publisher is connected to any of the companies.
• Reviews: read what they describe, not just the stars. A review of event security says little about night guarding on a construction site.

A list does not check licences, does not see shift reports and does not know your site. You check those yourself, with the rule-out and selection criteria.

1. Describe the site, the risk, the posts and the hours on one page.
2. Check the operating licence and the work licences; rule out any company that does not show them.
3. Ask every company the same questions before signing.
4. Read each offer in hours and posts; reject any that does not cover the hours lawfully.
5. Ask for a sample shift report and incident report, and speak to one reference client.
6. Put performance indicators in the contract and audit your provider in the first months.

The full process is in how to choose a security company. If you want to apply the same criteria to OVIT, ask for a proposal and put every question above to us.