Alternatives to Securus, JPay and GettingOut
By The NearestKin Team, Family support and prison communications
If you are searching for an alternative to Securus, JPay, GettingOut or CorrLinks, you already know what they cost. You have an account, you have topped it up more times than you meant to, and you are looking for the version of this that does not keep taking money.
The honest answer has two halves, and the first one is not what anyone wants to hear.
You usually cannot choose the provider — the facility does
This is the part every vendor page leaves out. Phone and messaging inside a jail or prison run on a contract between the facility or the corrections department and one company. The people held there did not pick it. Neither did you.
So "switching from Securus to GettingOut" is usually not a choice that exists. If the facility is contracted to one of them, that is the system your calls and messages go through, and shopping around does not change it.
It is worth knowing this before you spend another evening comparing websites. The comparison that matters is not between the providers — it is between the routes you actually have.
- Phone calls — through whichever provider holds the facility contract
- Electronic messages — same, where the facility offers them at all
- Physical mail — the route no contract controls
- Video visits and in-person visits — facility rules, facility schedule
What you genuinely can change
Three things are actually in your hands, and they matter more than which logo is on the login page.
The first is how much of your contact goes through the metered route. Every minute on a facility phone line is billed. A message that is not billed by the minute is not competing with that call — it is replacing the part of the call that did not need to be a call.
The second is whether you are paying a per-minute rate for things that do not need one. Telling someone the appointment moved, that the test result was fine, that you are thinking about them — none of that needs a live line held open.
The third is whether you are paying twice. Families routinely end up with credit stranded across three or four accounts, topped up in a hurry and never spent. Check what you already have before you add more.
Where NearestKin sits, plainly
We are not a replacement for the facility phone system and we do not pretend to be — nobody can be, because that contract is not ours to win. What we do is the other half: you write a message from your account, we deliver it by phone in your own words, and a reply comes back to you. Messages cost Free to send and to receive. Calls, when you want one, are 7.5¢ a minute.
Your account is free. The Voice Connection Hub on the inside is $14.95 a month, and that is the whole of it — no per-message charge, no connection fee, no minimum you have to keep topped up.
If that is not right for your situation, the guides here still are. They are written to be useful whether or not you ever open an account with us.
Before you switch anything, do this
Whatever you decide, these four checks take ten minutes and are the ones that actually save money.
- Log into every provider account you have and write down the balance sitting in each one.
- Check whether your state has capped calling rates recently — several have, and providers do not always announce it loudly.
- Ask the person you are calling what their facility actually offers. Rules vary between facilities run by the same department.
- Move the news, the reassurance and the everyday things off the metered line. Keep the call for the conversation that needs to be live.
At a glance
| Route | Who decides it | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|
| Facility phone line | The facility or corrections department, by contract | Live conversation. Billed by the minute, whoever holds the contract. |
| Facility electronic messaging | The same contract, where the facility offers it at all | Short written notes. Availability and pricing vary by facility. |
| Physical mail | Nobody — no contract controls it | Anything you want to say at length. Slow, and it carries a return address. |
| NearestKin | You | Everyday news and reassurance delivered by phone in your words, without holding a metered line open. |
Common questions
- Is there a cheaper alternative to Securus?
- Not usually for the facility phone line itself — that runs on a contract the facility signed, and it is not something a family can switch. What you can change is how much of your contact has to go through a per-minute line at all, which is where the real saving is.
- Can I choose a different provider than the one my facility uses?
- For calls and facility messaging, no. The provider is set by a contract between the company and the facility or corrections department. Physical mail is the one route no contract controls, and services like ours work alongside the facility system rather than replacing it.
- What is the difference between JPay, GettingOut, CorrLinks and Securus?
- They are different companies holding different facility contracts, offering broadly similar things: calls, electronic messages, money transfer, and sometimes video. Which one you deal with is decided by where the person you are contacting is held, not by which you would prefer.
- Do I still need my existing account if I use NearestKin?
- Probably, at least for live calls, because that line belongs to the facility contract. We are designed to sit alongside it and take the weight off the metered minutes, not to ask you to close anything down before you are ready.
Last reviewed .
The NearestKin Team · Family support and prison communications
We build the service families use to stay in touch with someone inside, and we write these guides from what people tell us they actually needed to know. Where something varies by state or by facility, we say so instead of guessing on your behalf.