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When you own a home you’re proud of, you want to keep it safe. Whether it’s protecting your home against criminals, floods, or fires, a home security system can help you protect your home no matter where you are. You can keep an eye on it when you’re on vacation, and help keep your family safe every night when you go to bed. How do you find the best home security system? We’re here to help.
We’ve tested over 60 home security systems to help you figure out which one will best fit your home and budget. After researching and testing that many systems, we can confidently recommend the three best options for homeowners and tell you how to choose among them. Let’s get started!
System | ADT | Vivint | Frontpoint |
---|---|---|---|
Ranking | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Rating | 9.2/10 | 9.1/10 | 8.7/10 |
Contract length | 36 months | Monthly or yearly | Monthly or yearly |
Installation type | Professional | Professional | DIY |
Professional monitoring cost | Starting at $45.99 per month | Starting at $39.99 per month | Starting at $49.99 per month |
Equipment cost | Packages starting at $599 | Packages starting at $449 | Packages starting at $79 |
Smart platform integrations | Alexa and Google Home | Alexa and Google Home | Alexa and Google Home |
Review | ADT review | Vivint review | Frontpoint review |
With its iconic blue yard signs you can see across the nation, ADT’s reputation really does precede it. The company leads the industry with top-tier equipment and monitoring, leveraging its 150 years of experience. Even though ADT isn’t exactly cheap, you’ll get one of the highest-quality security systems available. We tested the system extensively in our home, and we found it’s a safe bet for homeowners.
There isn’t a single piece of equipment in ADT’s lineup that we can point to as the best in the industry, but the consistent quality across all its products makes it the best overall. The company also offers enough products for a comprehensive approach to home security. Its leak, heat, smoke, and carbon monoxide sensors let its professionals monitor your home for more than criminals and escalate as needed for your safety.
After ADT partnered with Google, its cameras got an upgrade. We used to complain about the blurry 720p resolution on ADT’s video doorbell, but now that it sells Google Nest cameras, every security camera features industry-standard 1080p resolution. (If you want a higher resolution than 1080p, check out our list of the best 4K security camera systems.) Some of the company’s devices even offer a unique AI-powered facial recognition feature you just won’t find with most other brands.
The only thing we really miss about the old ADT cameras is the outdoor camera’s ability to operate in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Most security cameras work only in temperatures as low as -4 degrees. For a closer look at ADT’s cameras, read our ADT home security cameras guide.
Pro Tip: You can still get those old ADT cameras if you need extra-low-temperature capabilities. Just call the company and they should be able to include one in your package. Keep in mind that they no longer manufacture the cameras, though, so they could run out at any time.
We haven’t seen a system that offers better professional monitoring than ADT. Between its nine monitoring centers — compared with the average of three or four with other brands — and running all monitoring in-house, ADT brings reliability to a new level. It does, however, come at a cost. A starting price point of $45.99 per month also makes ADT one of the most expensive options for a monitored home security system. That’s why we never recommend it to renters.
If you own your home, money doesn’t grow on trees. You can bring down the cost a bit with one of ADT’s Self-Setup packages, which start at $24.99 per month. This new ADT offering cannot be financed though. And the lower-cost packages come with an additional fee if you have any security cameras by requiring a Nest Aware subscription that will run you another $8 per month.
FYI: Not sure which plan is right for you? Go through our comprehensive pricing guide for ADT, which goes over all your options.
Even though ADT costs can add up, remember that you’re paying for 150 years of experience keeping homes secure.
ADT locks its most powerful automation features behind its midtier Smart Home packages. Even without ADT’s automation capabilities, you can still connect it to a variety of smart-home devices, including:
We used the Kwikset integration to ensure all of our doors were locked anytime our security system was armed. You can also do that with any ADT smart door lock option. Integrating with Google Home let us just shout, “Arm the security system,” as we ran out the door. During our test, we also paired it with our Alexa devices to test the integration. It worked, but it wasn’t as smooth as with Google Home.
What do you get with ADT’s automation capabilities? All these integrations become a lot more powerful. You can set schedules for any of your smart-home devices and set actions for specific triggers. What we really loved, though, was the geofencing feature. Basically, ADT connects to your phone’s location data to automate your house based on the location of your phone.
When we walk out into our backyard, for instance, the lights automatically turn on and then turn back off when we walk inside. Pretty neat. Most useful, though, is that our ADT system automatically disarms as we approach the front door. Those are just two examples of how we use geofencing to automate our house.
Pro Tip: Check out our guide to ADT’s home-automation compatibility and integrations for more ideas on how to transform your house into a smart home.
We definitely liked ADT’s home-automation capabilities, but it doesn’t integrate with rental platforms like Airbnb, which is a drawback if you want to rent out your home for a bit of extra income.
>> Read More: Smart Lock Buying Guide 2024
Monitoring Options | Professional only |
---|---|
Installation | Professional or DIY |
Smart Platform Integration | Alexa and Google Home |
Equipment Cost | Starting at $600 |
Monthly Monitoring Cost | Starting at $45.99 per month |
Contract Length | Start at 36 months |
If you have more ambitions as a homeowner than only installing a security system, Vivint could be a good choice. Vivint sells a whole lot more than home-security products, including some offerings, like solar panel installations, that may surprise you. That means you can fully retrofit your entire home with smart products, solar power, and a state-of-the-art security system.
FYI: In our hands-on testing of Vivint, we found it’s the smartest home security system available for homeowners.
Just like ADT, Vivint’s products aren’t cheap. Instead of providing a lot of budget options, Vivint targets homeowners who want the latest technology — and its equipment shows it. It offers a slightly more affordable starter package than ADT, but it’s pretty bare bones, with just a couple of sensors, an LCD touch-screen base station, and a mobile app.
It’s a nice option to start with the bare-bones package you can add to later, but pretty much every home needs more than just a couple of sensors for adequate home security. Sensors alone are not going to make the premium you pay for Vivint products worth the cost, so we recommend at least the Premium Package, which is the package we bought when testing Vivint. It comes with a video doorbell, a security camera, Vivint’s smart hub, and sensors.
Even though Vivint’s security cameras feature the standard 1080p resolution, they stand out due to their wide FoV and 4K image sensors. The Google Nest doorbell cams that ADT sells, for comparison, have only a 145-degree FoV, whereas Vivint’s have a 180-degree FoV. Those two qualities make for security cameras that can capture everything while still providing great video quality and effective people detection.
We liked the video doorbell so much that we tested and wrote a complete review of Vivint’s doorbell camera by itself. The security cameras are where you really start to see the difference in quality that makes the premium you pay for a Vivint system well worth the cost.
FYI: Your Vivint technician will install your smart-home products along with your security system if you buy them all at once. That makes it super easy to bring smart-home technology to your home.
Vivint monitoring is a bit less expensive than ADT, but it’s still pretty high. Just like ADT, you still get monitoring services run completely in-house. Compared to ADT, though, Vivint doesn’t have quite as many monitoring centers or 150 years of experience. One thing that gives Vivint an edge over ADT is that its sales sometimes include discounted monitoring. Here’s a quick overview of Vivint’s monitoring options and pricing:
Monitoring plan | Smart home services | Smart security service |
---|---|---|
Regular monthly fee | $39.99 | $39.99 |
Monthly fee with a sale | $14.99 to $19.99 | $29.99 |
Cellular backup | $1.48 | $1.48 |
Video service per camera | $4.99 | $4.99 |
Car Guard | $9.99, plus $4.99 per additional device | $9.99, plus $4.99 per additional device |
You can find a full breakdown of Vivint’s monitoring plans in our Vivint home security system cost and pricing guide.
We can’t say enough good things about Vivint’s home-automation capabilities. For all the basic automation we could set up with ADT, we could also do it with Vivint using the IFTTT standard. It lets us set the same triggers and events as ADT using geofencing with our phones to automatically turn on our lights as we move around our home.
Vivint takes things a step further, though, with lurker detection in its cameras. Using AI technology, Vivint cameras can identify someone prowling around outside your home. When it detects a lurker, the system automatically engages your Vivint smart door locks, turns on any nearby outdoor lights, and sounds your camera’s built-in alarm.
We love the feature, because it took our home security up a notch — especially since most burglars choose a different house if they spot any type of alarm.1 What do you think they’ll do if a spotlight shines on their face and they hear the doors automatically lock and a siren start blaring? Most bad guys will move along.
FYI: Our home wasn’t targeted by burglars while testing Vivint, but we found in our break-in simulations that these active deterrents are extremely effective. Note that most other brands don’t offer these features.
Monitoring Options | Professional only |
---|---|
Installation | Professional only |
Smart Platform Integration | Alexa and Google Home |
Equipment Cost | Depends on system |
Monthly Monitoring Cost | Starting at $29.99 per month |
Contract Length | Starting at 42 months |
Instead of focusing on automating your home or trying to beat every other company’s monitoring, Frontpoint gives you quality products for a reasonable price and great customer service. It markets itself to people who prefer easy-to-use technology with plenty of smart-home features. If you value quality customer service and technology that simply works, Frontpoint delivers.
Frontpoint’s equipment didn’t wow us. Its build quality is solid and most of its products’ specs meet industry standards, but it doesn’t have any stand-out equipment like Vivint’s doorbell camera or the patented motion detector in the Ring Alarm security system we tested. We also compared Frontpoint and Ring Alarm to find out which provider offers better security for your home.
I even have a couple of component gripes, like every video doorbell featuring only 720p resolution. The lack of clarity became a problem when we were testing the system. I do, however, appreciate that it works in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. It also has a 165-degree FoV. That’s better than the Google Nest video doorbell, but not as impressive as Vivint’s 180-degree FoV. The indoor and outdoor cameras also suffered from a narrow FoV, but they at least had 1080p resolution.
All the other components worked really well, with a solid build quality. The only real issue with Frontpoint’s equipment is the narrow FoVs on its indoor and outdoor cameras, as well as the low resolution on its video doorbell. Otherwise, we liked the system through and through.
Did You Know? A lot more than resolution goes into the quality of a camera. You can have two cameras that both shoot in 1080p resolution that look worlds apart in terms of quality. The image sensor, field of view, bit rate, and frames per second all impact the quality of a video. Read our guide on how to assess a security camera’s video quality for a full rundown.
Even though Frontpoint doesn’t excel in any of its equipment offerings, its monitoring pricing structure lets you build out a fully capable security system for a reasonable price. You can buy all the sensors and cameras you want and still pay only $49.99 per month for monitoring. That’s one of the reasons we like Frontpoint for homeowners instead of renters with smaller spaces. With ADT and Vivint, you need to be careful with how many cameras you add, because they raise your monthly monitoring costs.
In that $49.99-per-month monitoring cost, you also get:
Frontpoint ends up being a lot more cost-effective than ADT or Vivint for homeowners who want a complete security system. Learn more about Frontpoint’s unique pricing structure in our guide to Frontpoint’s costs and pricing.
Frontpoint can integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but the integrations are not very powerful or smooth. We needed to call support to get help integrating our system with Google Assistant. Turns out, we needed to download an Alarm.com action before connecting Frontpoint to Google Assistant for some reason. Even once we got them connected, we couldn’t automate any devices like we could with ADT and Vivint. The integrations gave us only voice control over our security system.
That isn’t an issue with DIY systems overall either. SimpliSafe integrates really well with both Google Home and Amazon Alexa while enabling automation through IFTTT.
FYI: Thinking about SimpliSafe instead? Check out our <a href=”/compare/simplisafe-vs-frontpoint/”>comparison between Frontpoint and SimpliSafe’s home security systems</a>.
Where Frontpoint impresses is with its cameras’ trip-wire alerts and its in-app “rules.” For instance, we set up a scenario in which our Frontpoint system automatically armed at 9 p.m. and locked the smart lock on our front door.
Monitoring Options | Professional only |
---|---|
Installation | DIY |
Smart Platform Integration | Alexa and Google Home |
Equipment Cost | From $219.99 |
Monthly Monitoring Cost | $50 |
Contract Length | 1-36 months |
One way you may be able to offset the cost of your home security system is through discounts from your homeowners insurance provider. Some providers offer discounts because a security system lowers the risk of you making an insurance claim.
How much you can save depends on your provider and your policy. We’ve seen discounts anywhere from 2 percent to 15 percent. Typically you’ll get a discount only for comprehensive coverage plans that include the possessions in your home. Providers also usually require an actively monitored security system to offer a discount.
Getting a home security system is a great first step to securing your home, but there are a few best practices you can follow to make the most of your system.
A home is the most expensive thing most people will ever buy, so it makes sense to be concerned about the installation process damaging your home. We’ve all heard horror stories of a simple repair turning into a major problem because of a bad contractor. Unfortunately, that can happen with security system installations too.
Even though bad installers exist, the chances of it happening are next to none. A professional technician installs about three new systems every day. That’s about 750 systems per year. If technicians were damaging a significant amount of homes, it would be a massive story you’d definitely hear about. Most DIY systems now use the same type of adhesive strips as command strips, making it really easy to install yourself without any risk of damaging your home.
>> Check Out: Best Professionally Installed Home Security Systems
We do a lot more than research when we test systems. It may start with researching the top security systems to find which products we want to test, but then our process turns personal. We order each system to understand the full customer experience, from discovering the company to using the system in our day-to-day life.
Once we order a few of the best systems in a given category, we schedule our professional installation (if the provider offers it) and get ready to use the new system. That gives us a feel for how far in advance you need to schedule installation.
With our system installed, we start testing. First we go through every component and make sure it works. By simulating different package-theft and break-in scenarios, we test that all the motion sensors and entryway sensors work. We then check the camera quality, and we really start understanding the system as a whole. We keep using the system for as much as a few months until we feel that it’s fully integrated into our daily routine.
When you own your home, everything becomes your responsibility. There isn’t a maintenance crew ready to fix anything that breaks or regularly scheduled replacements of fire alarm batteries. You also can’t rely on a landlord to provide a safe space for you to live.
A security system can help protect your home with alarms and smart-home integrations to help you stay on top of your home maintenance. It also may get you a discount on your homeowners insurance to offset the cost.
Which provider is right for you? After testing over 60 home security systems, we recommend ADT for reliability, Vivint for smart-home automation, or Frontpoint for DIY installation, customer service, and simplicity.
ADT is easily the most popular home security system in America. With 150 years of experience, ADT is a household name. You’ve probably even seen the company’s blue-and-white yard signs in your neighborhood.
No, most modern security systems feature battery and cellular backup for the entire system. When the power goes out, the battery backup kicks in to power the system and the cellular backup connects your system to your provider’s monitoring center. The backup systems keep your security fully functional even during power outages without requiring a generator.
There are options for DIY home security systems. Frontpoint is one of the top options for homeowners. Unfortunately, ADT and Vivint require professional installation. Check out our list of the best DIY home security systems for more recommendations.
Frontpoint is a great budget option. Its systems are fully scalable, so you can get the basics initially and then build out your system over time as your budget allows. As you build your system, you keep the same monthly monitoring fee too. SimpliSafe is another great option for homeowners on a budget. SimpliSafe is our No. 1 pick overall, so read our SimpliSafe review to see why it ranks so high.
We really like ADT’s professional monitoring. It’s very reliable, with nine fully redundant monitoring centers. All of its monitoring is run in-house, which keeps it in control of the monitoring quality for a more consistent experience.
UNC Charlotte. (2013, May 15). Through The Eyes Of A Burglar – Study Provides Insights On Habits And Motivations.
https://inside.charlotte.edu/news-features/2013-05-15/through-eyes-burglar-study-provides-insights-habits-and-motivations