[adontz]

Cost will be lower with your own design because you'll integrate other components on the same board. It needs power, probably battery backup too. It needs to control some coil of electromagnetic lock. Access control is more than just flashing LEDs.

It has IDE because ESP32 has IDE.

[mmackh]

“Built out of internal necessity” - I didn’t write this for no reason. Here is a little more background: https://inoads.com/articles/2021-07-01-keyRead-Announcement