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WelcoYour alerts, by text.

A WIN-911 alternative for Canadian plants that only need texts

Welco is a WIN-911 alternative for crews that only need the alarm as a text, with no notifier license to renew. The operator on call reads the point, the value and the alarm state in one text. Your HMI emails the alarm and Welco forwards it to the right cellphone, anywhere in Canada or the US. Keep WIN-911 if your plant runs on voice callouts or its app.

Text my operators the alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

  • No notifier license to renew
  • Nothing installed beside the HMI
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • WIN-911
  • GE iFIX
  • Pump & lift stations

Setup guide for

  • VTScada

Published:

A WIN-911 notification chain: the SCADA tag "Lift Station 2 Wet Well High Level" on data source SCADA02 goes to 9.1 ft, WIN-911 raises it in the Collection System alarm group and its Email channel sends the notification. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: Lift Station 2 wet well HIGH LEVEL, 9.1 ft, unacked at 3:26 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a WIN-911 setup and a Welco setup are built side by side.
  • WIN-911 is a full industrial notifier: voice, text, email, Teams, a mobile app and in-plant announcements.
  • A US reseller lists its subscription from about US$3,300 for a 3-year term (October 2026).
  • Welco only sends texts, from the alarm emails your HMI already sends. No license, no per-user fees.
  • Small municipal water systems and lift-station crews that just need a text are the best fit for Welco.

WIN-911 or Welco: which one fits your plant

The top row is where Welco wins. The bottom row is where WIN-911 has been built for plant alarms since 1993 and is worth keeping.

  • Pick Welco when a text is the whole job

    Think of a small town's water system on the Prairies, a lift-station crew or a rural treatment plant run by three operators. The HMI already emails alarms, and nobody wants another license.

  • Pick Welco to keep the SCADA node untouched

    Welco reads nothing but the outgoing alarm mail. There is no connector to install, no port to open and nothing to patch on the HMI.

  • Pick Welco to add people freely

    Adding the relief operator or the public works superintendent costs no seat fee. A new operator joins from an invite and confirms with YES.

  • Keep WIN-911 if someone must hear a voice call

    WIN-911 can reach an operator by voice. Welco cannot call anyone, and landlines can't get texts.

  • Keep WIN-911 for Teams, speakers or its app

    WIN-911 posts to Microsoft Teams, plays in-plant announcements and offers an operator app. Welco texts land in the phone's normal messages.

  • Keep WIN-911 if alarms must move down a list

    Welco routes by time of day, but it won't pass an unanswered alarm to the next operator. WIN-911 also reads tags straight from AVEVA, GE Vernova, Inductive Automation and Rockwell.

Plant alarm texts before and after the switch

Texts through a full notifier

  • A subscription to renew every few years, even though the crew only reads texts.
  • Notifier software to install, patch and keep connected beside the HMI.
  • Callout lists to edit in a second program each time the crew changes.

Texts through Welco

  • The alarm email the HMI already sends does the work, with no license behind it.
  • Nothing new runs on the SCADA side. Welco only receives mail, so the control network stays closed.
  • Nights go to the standby operator and days reach the whole crew, by time-of-day routing.

WIN-911 vs Welco at a glance

WIN-911 facts come from SmartSights and a US reseller listing, read in October 2026; prices change, so check the source. All prices are in US dollars (USD). Customers in Canada pay in US dollars too. Other tools are in all alarm notification comparisons.

Price

WIN-911
Subscription from about US$3,300 for a 3-year term (Basic, Pro or Ultimate), as listed by a reseller
Welco
No per-user fees, no hardware, no setup fee. See Welco pricing

How alarms get in

WIN-911
Direct connectors to AVEVA, GE Vernova, Inductive Automation and Rockwell
Welco
Any alarm email from your HMI, SCADA, PLC gateway or WIN-911 itself

How people are told

WIN-911
Voice, text, email, Microsoft Teams, a mobile app and in-plant announcements
Welco
Text messages to cellphones

Who gets it

WIN-911
Callout lists you build in WIN-911
Welco
Operators who joined, by alarm type and time of day

What you install

WIN-911
Licensed software and its connectors
Welco
Nothing: you change one email address

Where it texts

WIN-911
Not published
Welco
Mobile numbers in Canada, the US, the UK and the Netherlands today

Sources: SmartSights: WIN-911 notifications (read Oct 5, 2026); Motion: WIN-911 subscription license listing (read Oct 5, 2026)

A filter alarm, from email to text

A WIN-911 style alarm email carries the point name, its state and whether anyone has acknowledged it. Welco keeps those three parts and drops the rest.

Alert email from alarms@wtp.example.ca, subject “ALARM: Filter 2 Effluent Turbidity HIGH”. Welco trims it to one text of 102 characters: “Welco: [WTP] Filter 2 turbidity HIGH 0.38 NTU, active and unacked at 2:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [WTP] Filter 2 turbidity HIGH 0.38 NTU, active and unacked at 2:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters2291021 credit

Animation: the alert email "ALARM: Filter 2 Effluent Turbidity HIGH" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [WTP] Filter 2 turbidity HIGH 0.38 NTU, active and unacked at 2:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

A trimming rule keeps the text to one message. See short alert texts for how that works.

Try it on one alarm before your next renewal

Verify your municipality or utility, invite one operator and send one alarm email to Welco.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text my operators the alarmsBook a demo

Three ways Canadian plants run Welco with or without WIN-911

Our SCADA alarm notification pages walk through each HMI's email settings, menu by menu.

SCADA systems that can email Welco directly

Each tile opens the setup for that system, with a masked alarm before and after.

Switch your plant's alarm texts in 15 minutes

You don't have to turn WIN-911 off to start. Run both until you trust the texts.

  1. Find the alarm email setting in your HMI

    Look for the SMTP settings (the way systems send email) and the alarm email list. Note the address the alarms are sent from.

  2. Create your Welco account

    Sign up and verify your municipality, utility or plant with its Canadian business number. Welco gives you the address your alarms will go to.

  3. Approve the HMI as a sender

    Add the HMI's sending address to your approved senders. Mail from an unapproved address never becomes a text.

  4. Invite your operators

    Each operator opens your invite, enters their own cellphone number and replies YES to one text. No alarm reaches them before that.

  5. Put your Welco address on the alarm list

    Add it beside the existing recipients and trigger a test alarm, such as a high level setpoint on a spare tag. Check the text, then decide what to retire.

Frequently asked questions

Can WIN-911 send its alarms to Welco by email?

Yes. WIN-911 can email alarms, so you can add your Welco address as one of its email contacts. Approve WIN-911's sending address in Welco first. Your operators then get a short text for each alarm, while WIN-911 keeps doing voice callouts.

How does Welco's cost compare with a WIN-911 subscription for a Canadian plant?

A US reseller lists WIN-911 subscriptions from about US$3,300 for a 3-year term, as of October 2026. Welco has no license, no per-user fees, no hardware and no setup fee, and its plans are priced in US dollars for Canadian customers too. Long alarm emails use more credits, so a trim rule keeps costs steady. The Welco pricing page lists the plans, and a 7-day trial with 15 credits lets you text real alarms first.

Can an operator acknowledge a SCADA alarm by replying to a Welco text?

No. A reply comes back to you by email, which is handy for notes like on my way. It doesn't acknowledge or clear the alarm in your SCADA system. If you need phone acknowledgments, a SCADA notifier like WIN-911 is built for that.

What if a power blip trips 40 points at once?

Welco's alarm flood control caps the burst, so the standby phone gets a few texts instead of dozens. Duplicate protection means the same alert reaches each phone once. If a text fails, a delivery report says why in plain English.

What happens to Welco alarm texts if a remote site loses internet?

Nothing is sent until the alarm email can leave the plant. Welco starts working when the email arrives, so an internet outage at the site stops texts. If a rural station often loses its connection, keep a voice dialer or cellular device as a backup for the most serious alarms. Our Sensaphone comparison covers that kind of device.

Do we have to remove WIN-911 to try Welco?

No. Add your Welco address next to the people already on the alarm email list and run both for a week or two. Use test mode to check a setup without sending real texts. Remove WIN-911 only when the texts prove themselves.

Get plant alarms as texts without another license

Point your HMI's alarm email at Welco and the on-call operator gets the text.

Text my operators the alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing