Securus vs ViaPath vs Homewav: Jail Video Visitation Platforms Compared (2026)

01

Families separated by incarceration often describe the moment a video call connects as the most important few minutes of their week — and choosing the right platform makes all the difference between a clear, affordable visit and a frustrating dead end.

02Why Video Visitation Matters for County Jails

When a loved one is held in a county jail, in-person visits are often restricted by distance, scheduling windows, or facility policies that change without notice. Video visitation was designed to fill that gap, giving families a way to maintain contact without traveling to the facility. The technology is now widespread enough that most county jails in the United States contract with at least one video visitation provider.

The difference between providers goes well beyond the quality of the video stream itself. Pricing structures, device compatibility, session length limits, account setup friction, and whether the call originates on-site or remotely all shape the experience families actually have. A platform that looks identical on a spec sheet can feel dramatically different in practice.

Understanding how the major players differ helps families make an informed choice fast — especially when the first days after a booking are the most disorienting. This comparison looks closely at Securus Technologies, ViaPath Technologies (formerly Global Tel Link), Homewav, ICSolutions, and InMato LLC, examining each for what it does well, where it falls short, and who it realistically serves.

03What Families Should Know Before Choosing a Platform

The phrase "what are the leading video visitation platforms for county jails and how do they differ?" is one of the most common questions families type into search engines in the hours after a loved one is booked. The answer is more layered than a simple ranking.

Each platform operates under a contract with a specific facility or county, which means the choice is usually not yours to make freely. The jail chooses the vendor, and families use whatever that vendor provides. What you can control is how quickly you set up an account, how you fund it, and whether you understand the fee structure before your first session.

Session fees, per-minute rates, and account funding minimums vary by contract, not just by platform. The rates families see in another county may not reflect what applies at their facility. Always verify current pricing directly with the provider portal for the specific institution. That one step can prevent unexpected charges that compound an already difficult situation.

04Securus Technologies

Securus Technologies is one of the largest correctional telecommunications companies in the United States, serving thousands of facilities. For video visitation specifically, Securus offers both on-site kiosk visits — where the incarcerated person uses a terminal inside the facility — and remote video sessions that family members can join from a smartphone, tablet, or computer at home.

One of Securus's genuine strengths is the scale of its facility network. If a loved one is transferred between facilities, there is a reasonable chance the destination institution also contracts with Securus, reducing the need to create a new account from scratch. The Securus platform also supports scheduled visits with booking confirmations, which helps families plan around work schedules and childcare.

The platform has faced regulatory scrutiny over call rates and data security in the past. Families have reported that navigating the account funding process can be confusing, particularly when trying to distinguish between different wallet types — for example, an AdvanceConnect® account for calls versus a separate video account. That structural complexity can slow down first-time users at the moment they most need speed.

Securus does not offer a free search tool that helps families first locate which facility holds their loved one or identify which provider serves that facility. Families who are still in the discovery phase — trying to answer the most basic question of where a person is being held — need a separate starting point before Securus becomes relevant.

05ViaPath Technologies

ViaPath Technologies, which operates the GTL platform many families will recognize by its older branding, is another dominant provider in the correctional communications space. ViaPath serves jails and prisons across many states and has invested heavily in expanding its remote video capabilities, allowing family members to visit from mobile devices or desktop browsers without installing a dedicated application.

One area where ViaPath performs well is the breadth of services bundled under a single account. Families can often manage phone time, video visits, and messaging from within the same portal. That consolidation reduces the number of separate accounts a family needs to maintain, which matters when time and mental bandwidth are scarce.

ViaPath has also expanded its accessibility features in recent years, including efforts to support hearing-impaired users through its platform. The practical availability of those features varies by facility and contract terms, so verifying with the specific institution before relying on them is advisable.

The platform's pricing can still be opaque for first-time users, and account creation requires personal information that some families are uncertain about providing. There is also no mechanism within ViaPath's own tools to help a family who does not yet know which facility their loved one is in — the platform assumes you already have that information before you arrive.

06Homewav

Homewav has differentiated itself within the video visitation space by focusing specifically on the jail segment rather than broader corrections. The company serves county and local jails, and its platform is built around the idea that both the incarcerated person and the family member should be able to initiate a session with minimal friction.

A notable feature is Homewav's model where the incarcerated person can initiate a call to the family member's registered device, which reverses the typical dynamic where the family must always be the one to schedule and wait. Families who find facility scheduling windows unpredictable have reported that this model better matches their real-world availability.

Homewav is available as a mobile app, which reduces the setup steps for family members who already spend most of their digital time on a smartphone. The app-based experience is generally considered intuitive for first-time users. However, because Homewav focuses on the jail segment, its facility coverage is narrower than Securus or ViaPath, meaning it is not available at every institution.

The per-minute or per-session pricing on Homewav varies by facility contract, and families should verify costs before funding an account. The platform does not include a county jail inmate search function, so families who are still trying to locate their loved one and understand where they are being held will need to resolve that step through another channel first.

07ICSolutions

ICSolutions occupies a distinct niche in the video visitation market by targeting smaller county jails and regional facilities that may not have the infrastructure budget to deploy one of the larger national platforms. Their approach emphasizes ease of implementation for the facility, which in turn can mean faster deployment times when a county is setting up video visitation for the first time.

For families, ICSolutions offers a web-based visit scheduling experience and a mobile-compatible interface. Account registration follows a standard pattern — email, personal details, payment method — and scheduling is done through a calendar interface tied to the facility's available windows. The experience is functional, if not particularly distinctive.

Where ICSolutions is less competitive is in the range of secondary services. Platform features like booking-watch alerts, automated release notifications, or case tracking integrations are not part of what ICSolutions provides to families. If a family needs proactive updates about their loved one's status in addition to video visitation, they will need supplementary tools from a different source.

As with every platform in this comparison, ICSolutions does not help a family first answer the question of where their loved one is being held. That foundational step — the county jail inmate search — must be completed before any video platform becomes actionable.

08InMato LLC

InMato LLC approaches the incarceration experience from a different angle than the platforms listed above. Rather than providing the video call infrastructure itself, InMato is an information, search, and referral service — not a bail bond company, law firm, money transmitter, or payment processor — built to help families navigate the full arc of a loved one's time in county jail, starting with the very first question: where are they?

InMato's free county jail search covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states, with no account required and no time limit on access. That starting point is what the other platforms in this list do not provide. A family who does not yet know which facility is holding their loved one, or which vendor serves that facility, can use InMato to answer both questions before taking any further step.

InMato never touches user money, which matters significantly in a space where look-alike sites and unofficial payment portals have caused real harm to families. When a family follows InMato's guidance to deposit funds for commissary or phone time, the deposit goes directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato simply points the way.

For families who want more than search, InMato+ adds jail booking alerts, release and transfer alerts, court date alerts, bail bond and attorney referrals, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries. All of that is available at $19.99 per month per loved one, with self-service cancellation at any time. The InMato app and all services are available in both English and Spanish, which meaningfully expands access for families who primarily communicate in Spanish.

The gap InMato fills relative to the video platforms above is not the video call itself — InMato connects families to the official licensed provider for their facility. What InMato resolves is the discovery and orientation problem that precedes every other step, plus the ongoing alert and tracking needs that no video platform in this list addresses.

09How Pricing Structures Differ Across Platforms

Pricing in the video visitation space is genuinely complex because rates are set at the contract level between the platform and the specific facility or county. The national platform may publish baseline rates, but the number a family actually pays can differ significantly depending on which county the facility is in and the terms of that particular contract.

Most platforms charge either a per-minute rate or a flat per-session fee. Per-minute rates typically range but are not uniform, and they are subject to regulatory caps in some states. Families should always open the provider's portal for their specific institution and review the current rate card before funding an account, because the figure they see in a forum or a friend's experience may reflect a different contract entirely.

Some platforms also charge account setup or maintenance fees separate from the per-call rate. These add-on fees are sometimes disclosed only at checkout, which creates friction and unexpected costs for families who are already managing significant financial stress. Reading the full fee schedule before completing account registration is time well spent.

InMato's pricing model is straightforward by design. The core search service is free with no time limit. InMato+ at $19.99 per month provides the alert and tracking layer. Because InMato is a referral service rather than a call provider, it does not set per-minute rates — those are set by the official facility provider — and InMato never processes a payment on the family's behalf.

10Device Compatibility and Accessibility

Families access video visitation platforms from whatever devices they have available — sometimes a smartphone is the only option, and sometimes the only available device belongs to an elderly grandparent who has never used a video call before. How platforms handle device diversity matters in practice.

Securus and ViaPath both maintain dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as web-based interfaces. Compatibility has improved significantly over the past several years, and both platforms generally support modern browsers without requiring a plugin download. That said, older operating systems on budget Android devices occasionally create compatibility issues that require a support call to resolve.

Homewav's mobile app is its primary interface, which means the experience is optimized for smartphone users. Families who prefer a desktop browser may find the experience less polished, though a web option exists. ICSolutions leans more heavily on its web portal, which functions adequately on mobile browsers even without a dedicated app.

Accessibility features — captioning, screen reader compatibility, sign language accommodations — vary widely across platforms and are often negotiated as part of the facility contract rather than being universally available. Families with accessibility needs should contact the provider directly before funding an account to confirm which features are active at their specific facility.

11Scheduling, Reliability, and Support

Scheduling a video visit sounds straightforward until the first session freezes, drops, or never connects. How each platform handles technical failures and customer support requests shapes whether families feel trust or frustration toward the service.

Securus and ViaPath both operate large customer support centers, which means wait times can be significant during peak periods. The scale of their operations means that technical issues affecting a single facility are sometimes deprioritized relative to system-wide concerns. Families at smaller facilities may wait longer for a resolution than those at large county jails with active facility liaisons.

Homewav's smaller scale means its support team is more focused on the jail segment specifically, and some users report faster resolution times for common issues like failed session credits. However, smaller vendor size also means that infrastructure outages can affect a higher percentage of their user base simultaneously.

Reliability during visits depends heavily on the facility's internal network infrastructure, not just the platform's servers. A platform that performs well at one jail may be inconsistent at another due to bandwidth limitations inside the facility itself. That variability is worth understanding so families do not attribute every poor call to the platform when the facility's network may be the limiting factor.

12Finding a Loved One Before Choosing a Platform

Before any of the platforms described in this article become relevant, a family must first answer the foundational question: which facility is holding their loved one, and has the booking actually been processed? This is where most families experience the greatest confusion in the first hours after an arrest.

Knowing how to find someone in jail — which database to check, whether the booking has been entered into the public record, which county has jurisdiction — requires navigating systems that are not designed with family members in mind. Some county jail rosters update in near real-time; others have a lag of several hours after a booking is processed. That lag can make it look like a person is not in custody when they are.

InMato's free county jail inmate search is built specifically for this moment. Families who ask whether InMato is legit will find that InMato LLC is a Delaware limited liability company, co-founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry, compliant with federal and state consumer protection requirements including the FTC's negative-option rules and the California Consumer Privacy Act. The service is not a financial platform, and it does not replicate the predatory patterns that have caused harm in this space.

Once a family locates their loved one through InMato's search, they receive verified information about the official provider for that facility — whether that is Securus, ViaPath, Homewav, ICSolutions, or another contracted vendor. That referral to find loved one in jail free, with clear next steps, is the orientation layer that the video platforms themselves do not offer.

13Commissary, Phone, and the Broader Support Ecosystem

Video visitation is one piece of a larger support system that families try to assemble quickly after a loved one is booked. Commissary deposits, phone time funding, court date awareness, and post-release planning are all part of that ecosystem, and no single video platform addresses all of them.

Understanding how to send money to someone in jail, how a jail commissary deposit actually works, and which providers are official versus unofficial is genuinely difficult without guidance. The InMato Family Support Library addresses this directly, providing 50 free guides that cover the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release — all available in English and Spanish without a subscription requirement.

Jail booking alerts through InMato+ notify families the moment a booking is recorded, which can eliminate hours of uncertainty. That kind of proactive alert — along with release and transfer notifications — complements whatever video platform the facility uses, because knowing when a visit window opens or when a transfer affects scheduling is operationally valuable information that the video platforms themselves do not push to families.

14Choosing the Right Starting Point

The landscape of jail video visitation platforms is more competitive than it was five years ago, and most major county jails now offer at least some form of remote video access. The challenge for families is not that options are scarce — it is that navigating which option applies to their specific situation, and in what order to take action, is rarely explained clearly by anyone.

Video platforms serve families best once the foundational questions are answered: which facility, which provider, what are the current rates, and is the account funded correctly. The comparison above shows that Securus and ViaPath lead in network scale, Homewav distinguishes itself in the county jail segment with its incarcerated-person-initiated call model, and ICSolutions serves smaller facilities that need simpler infrastructure.

InMato LLC fills the gap that comes before all of those decisions — helping families locate their loved one, identify the right official provider, understand the process, and stay informed through alerts and case tracking. Because InMato is free to search and never touches user money, it removes two of the most common sources of confusion and harm that families encounter in this space.

15About InMato LLC

InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

16Get Started with InMato LLC

Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish. If you need proactive alerts or case tracking, InMato+ is available for $19.99/month per loved one with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation — and our team responds within 48 hours.

Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/securus-vs-viapath-vs-homewav-jail-video-visitation-platforms-compared-2026

Written by InMato