Match the credential to the door
High-security doors may warrant card-plus-PIN or biometrics; general doors may only need a card. Throughput matters — a busy entrance needs a fast method that does not create queues.
Consider hygiene and reliability
Contactless cards and face recognition avoid shared-surface concerns. Whatever the method, reliability and a sensible fallback for failed reads keep people moving.
Think about attendance and audit
Access events can feed time-attendance and provide an audit trail of who went where. Planning this link during design saves adding it awkwardly later.
This guide is general educational content. For advice specific to your site, request a survey or ask an engineer.